Also a tinnitus sufferer here although I just went though a someone experimental and expensive treatment which was pretty successful depending on how you gauge success.
As far as listening to music, I find piano music brings it out the most.. I listen to a decent amount of chamber music and that can also induce the tinnitus
im copying and pasting my experience of the Lenire treatment I had that I wrote about on another forum:
I just went through the Lenire treatment… and have had a pretty positive experience.
I think I was one of the first ppl in New York to get it.
My story below:
I started to experience troubling and constant tinnitus in one morning in January of 2022.
I woke up one morning with a loud mid-high tone squeeling away in my brain. That was exactly 2 weeks after my Covid booster. Not saying they are related but it’s just a data point.
I saw multiple audiologists and a couple ENT’s and everyone said essentially the same thing … learn to live with it.
My whole 2022 was pretty rough. Psychologically the tinnitus took a toll.
But, I started to habituate and, while it didn’t necessarily go down or even decrease that much in volume, it started to be less troublesome.
I ended up going to NYU audiologists after my less than great experiences with the previous docs.
I was told that I do have some mild but significant hearing loss in my left ear only (4k- 6k) and that that was what was causing the tinnitus.
*Note- I don’t perceive the hearing loss in my everyday life and they aren’t advising me to hear a hearing aid at this point. I don’t have problems with listening to music as far as channel balance goes.…The audiologists were concerned about the asymmetrical hearing loss. Apparently one-sided hearing loss is actually quite rare and they usually see it from soldiers or military who shoot rifles.
It can also be a sign of “acoustic neuroma”, a type of brain tumor that puts pressure on the cranial nerves which can cause one sided hearing loss. They then sent me to an Otologist.
I had to do 2 brain scan MRI's and, thankfully, everything looked kosher.
But, I was still really troubled by the ringing… even if it was better than it was.
Around that time I signed up for notifications from Lenire before they were FDA approved and I was on their email list keeping me informed of their treatments and when they would be going live.
Then about 6 months ago I got an email from telling me they’ve been fda approved and asking if I wanted to be connected to an audiologist who can prescribe treatment with Lenire. I said yes and within a few weeks I was at a new doc office in NYC discussing all things Lenire.
Insurance doesn’t cover it . It was about $3800 out of pocket.
My wife and I decided to make it happen because it’s been quite the ride since this all began. We were prepared for it not to work.
You can’t really sell it when you’re done with the treatment.
At the end of the day, I believe it did work.
The tinnitus is not 100% gone… but it’s so reduced , so receded , that I think about it so much less. In other words, it’s not impacting my life in a negative way.
Yes , I still have spikes on occasion and it’s there if I really tune in and listen for it.
But , that’s ok for me. I would say my symptoms have reduced by 75%.
It’s not a miracle cure, but then again it kind of is. It’s brain retraining to ignore to the electrical tones being generated in your auditory system.
I did it for 12 weeks … an hour a day.
Half and hour in the morning, half an hour in the evening.
It’s a audio track of very strange tones sort of set to a “musical” soundtrack and, at the same time , a little electrical device in the mouth that sends a mild electrical impulse into the tongue. The idea is BIMODAL STIMULATION of the trigeminal nerve.
Happy to answer any questions for anyone who is interested.
Overall , I am very happy I did it and feel super grateful that the treatment was made available.
It’s important to remember that it’s a tool, not a silver bullet .