subject: Beneficial Information About Natural Remedies For Tinnitus [print this page] Devices that mask tinnitus with their own sounds are known as tinnitus maskers or white noise generators. Small electronic devices, tinnitus maskers are built into the kind of hearing aids that are positioned behind the ear (post-auricular). As a matter of fact, most tinnitus are made to greatly resemble hearing aids.
Generally, external sounds are easier to tolerate than ear ringing, so the masking sounds thereby distract the patient from the tinnitus. Tinnitus is worst when everything else is silent, and that is when patients need the maskers the most to be able to sleep. It could be a noise generator beside the bed, or it could be a CD player or MP3 device.
Before investing in such a device, it is recommended visiting an ear clinic or other medical institution so that an attempt is made to identify the frequency (pitch) of the tinnitus. The medical institution will then recommended a tinnitus masker which produces a noise matching this frequency as closely as possible. A patient could hold off making a purchase and instead rent a masker to determine if he really needs it.
Soothing sounds of the synthetic or natural kinds, such as rainfall, ocean surf, white, pink or brown noise, etc., are produced by the tinnitus masker to help the hearing system acclimatize to the tinnitus and aid them in relaxing as the malady sounds merge with the background. There are advanced devices that combine the synthetic with the natural sounds that can catch up to the unique frequencies of a patient's tinnitus suffering.
Tinnitus maskers only try to make the sounds produced by tinnitus less noticeable, they do not in any way make the condition go away or cure the underlying problem. Sure, several of these devices actually do help greatly, but even then you don't want to keep hurting your ears by exposure to noise. Therefore it is best to use these devices intermittently or at set times during the day or night.
