What is Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT)?

Tinnitus is a highly impactful hearing disorder in which the ears produce noise without outside stimulus. Most people are familiar with temporary tinnitus, which can be described simply as ringing in the ears. While some people deal with tinnitus if they are stressed, haven’t had enough sleep, or perhaps just went to a super loud rock or EDM concert, other people deal with chronic tinnitus all the time.

In fact, while 50 million Americans deal with tinnitus of some kind, over two million of those people deal with chronic and constant, debilitating tinnitus. 

For that reason, medical experts have spent their careers trying to find out how to cure tinnitus for those who struggle with it and suffer from it the most. 

Advances in research related to tinnitus has brought along the creation and implementation of Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, otherwise known as TRT. If you suffer for tinnitus and are curious about whether or not Tinnitus Retraining Therapy can help you, then you have absolutely come to the right place! 

What is TRT

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is a process in which patients suffering from tinnitus learn to cope with the issues on both a conscious and subconscious level. This incredible technique has helped tons of people get the relief from stress and anxiety that they need to enjoy a better quality of life. 

It can be hard to understand how TRT works but consider this way. TRT helps the mind learn to do what it does when you can at first hear a fan that has just been turned on, but then you realize that your mind has basically started to ignore the sound later on. TRT requires the patient suffering from tinnitus to work closely with trained hearing professionals. Ultimately, the goal is to help teach the brain how to ignore the ringing sound related to tinnitus. 

How does TRT work?

When it comes to Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, there are three specific therapeutic steps that patients go through. Those include the following:

• Extensive collection of information about the patient (that’s you). This includes learning about the patient’s history with tinnitus as well as an array of daily living habits that might contribute to the tinnitus.
• Use of devices that are worn behind the ear in order to generate broadband noises to divert the patient’s attention away from their tinnitus. 
• Psychological therapy that helps to teach the patient to ignore the tinnitus noise. Overall, this combines a number of deep relaxation exercises and overall stress management. The main objective of this step is to eliminate the patient’s anxiety and stress so that the tinnitus is no longer seen as a danger in the brain, which ultimately always the brain to divert concentration away from the tinnitus noise. 

The final goal of TRT is complete habituation of the noise. While it can be a hard and difficult process to achieve, it can be a life-changing process that dramatically improves the lives of those dealing with tinnitus.