MESA — If you hear ringing, buzzing or even cicada-like sounds that nobody else can hear, Valley hearing specialists say you don’t have to just live with it.
Sound Relief Tinnitus & Hearing Center, with clinics in Mesa and Scottsdale, has rolled out new technology that uses frequency to target and manage tinnitus, FOX 10 Phoenix reported. Patients wear headphones and press a space bar each time they hear a tone as the clinic tests 67 different frequencies to map the auditory system and find patterns.
“Anything that you’re really experiencing internally, but you’re not hearing it in your environment could be considered tinnitus,” said Dr. Madison Brown of Sound Relief. “Some people have musical sounds in their ears. Cicadas is a really common one that we hear.”
More than 50 million Americans experience tinnitus, according to the American Tinnitus Association.
Brown said clinicians also ask about stress and sleep. “Those are things that are giving us clues into how people might be experiencing tinnitus and what might be causing that,” she said.
Tinnitus can come from a loud noise, years of earbuds turned up too high, or simple wear and tear. “Even if you were going to concerts in the 80s, yes, it’s been a long time, but over time the hair cells that are rooted in our ear organs get worn down,” Brown said.
“You get stuck in this tunnel of, ‘I just have to live with this.’ And that can become very hard psychologically to manage,” she said, adding that treatment aims to tap into the brain’s neuroplasticity. Anyone with persistent ringing should talk with a doctor or audiologist.
Sources: FOX 10 Phoenix. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Chuck Kardous / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
