Tinnitus - One of Our Specialities
One of our areas of specialisation is the diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus, a condition causing the perceived sensation of ringing, buzzing or humming in the ears. Because tinnitus and stress are inter-connected, we will look at your lifestyle and stress levels.
We will also discuss your general wellbeing, and look at important contributing factors like nutrition, sleep and work-life balance. Our approach to treating tinnitus can greatly reduce, or in some cases, stop symptoms altogether. We work with many musicians who are tinnitus sufferers, as well as individuals involved in motorsport, heavy industry and the rail industry. It’s a misperception that there’s no treatment for tinnitus. This is not true. At The Well Being BY CUBEX, we have the skills and experience to help our clientele improve their quality of life considerably.
Ear hygiene is extremely important and we have the skills, expertise and equipment to help our patients through almost any challenge. In order to treat patients who are suffering from hearing impairment, we must first ensure that the ear canal is clean, clear and unobstructed. In some cases, once the ear canal has been cleaned, hearing is restored to a more normal level. In other cases, clean ears give us the baseline from which to move forward with further treatment.
Tinnitus Care
So what is tinnitus? Most of us have left that loud music concert and had a ringing in our ears. This is a temporary form of tinnitus and although annoying for a short while, it generally subsides after a few hours.
Now imagine that ringing, or a buzzing, or humming, constantly in your ears, always? At best annoying and at worst, debilitating, and affecting every facet of life. Rather than being an actual sound in the sufferer's ears, tinnitus is a perception of sound, caused by the nervous system of the ears and the brain. If you have tinnitus you may feel like you are alone in your suffering where, in fact, 15% of the world's population are affected by some level of tinnitus and in the case of people with hearing loss, that number rises to around 70%.
Many sufferers are told that tinnitus cannot be treated and that they just have to live with it. As well as being extremely unhelpful, statements like this are simply untrue. The constant perception of sounds in an individual’s ear can at best be extremely distracting and distressing and at worst, really reduce their quality of life. At The Well Being BY CUBEX, we completely understand how tinnitus can impact your life. We also have the skills, knowledge, and experience to develop individual care packages to help alleviate symptoms. Our brains are amazing. They can actually detect and filter out unwanted background noises. When they can’t, and tinnitus symptoms are affecting your life, that’s where we come in.
Anybody can suffer from tinnitus, at any stage of life, and it’s far more common than most of us realise. Some sufferers are musicians or involved in the music industry. Others come from the motorsport world, public transport or heavy industry where dangerously high levels of noise are experienced for long periods of time. It’s important to understand that tinnitus is not always a direct result of exposure to continuous noise. For some, it comes on suddenly while for others it is just something one gradually becomes aware of, over time. It could just be mildly annoying or, at worst, distressing. No matter what the sufferers' background and experience of tinnitus, the consultation, investigation and treatment process follows a similar path. Our clinic has, over the years, become known for our experience and success in helping people living with tinnitus.
How can we help? At your first consultation we will start by assessing your general hearing health, as well as a few other, equally important factors. Tinnitus, hearing health and stress are all linked. Tinnitus is self-perceived, so we explore your perceived stress, distress and the severity of how your tinnitus feels to you. We also explore the impact that tinnitus might be having on your cognitive, emotional and mental wellbeing. We will spend time with you to understand how tinnitus might be affecting your daily life - and your quality of life. The process will also help you to understand your tinnitus, which in itself, in many cases, brings a sense of relief. Step two is to work with you to develop a personalised treatment plan, and find ways of reducing the impact tinnitus is having on your life, your emotional and general wellbeing. Elements of our CALM Programme may be recommended as part of your individual management strategy. We will work with you for as long as it takes to implement your treatment plan into your daily life over a period of time.
If you think you are suffering from tinnitus, please contact us. Taking that first step is often a huge relief. We might be able to reassure you that your experience of tinnitus is mild and manageable, and if the impact of tinnitus on your life is severe, we will take a multi-pronged approach to reducing your discomfort and stress.