The AudioNotch Tinnitus Treatment Blog

The Mayo Clinic is considered a good resource for patients who want to acquire a basic understanding of their illness and also to seek clinical diagnosis and treatment for whatever symptoms they’re experiencing. Lots of people seeking to reduce the volume of their tinnitus will likely look for resources like the mayo clinic web site.

The Mayo Clinic patient education web site is, unfortunately, an example of how little the regular medical establishment has to offer people who are suffering from tinnitus. Check out some of the generic advice they have to give people:

To treat your tinnitus, your doctor will first try to identify any underlying, treatable condition that may be associated with your symptoms. If tinnitus is due to a health condition, your doctor may be able to take steps that could reduce the noise. Examples include:

• Earwax removal. Removing impacted earwax can decrease tinnitus symptoms.
• Treating a blood vessel condition. Underlying vascular conditions may require medication, surgery or another treatment to address the problem.
• Changing your medication. If a medication you’re taking appears to be the cause of tinnitus, your doctor may recommend stopping or reducing the drug, or switching to a different medication.

The overwhelming majority of tinnitus that causes people to seek treatment is in fact caused by hearing loss – so this advice really isn’t that helpful for most people. In fact, the minority of cases are caused by secondary conditions like high blood pressure or earwax buildup.

The treatments that the mayo clinic site talks about are similarly archaic.

On the other hand – I might be a little bit too hard on them. The fact is that the evidence base just isn’t there for a lot of new tinnitus treatments being trialled (like rTMS, for example, or basically every single “natural” tinnitus product “cure” that exists).

If you want a good overview of tinnitus treatment options, check out this article I wrote for DJ Tech Tools (ignore the fact that it’s on a DJ web site – DJ’s are just a population more affected by tinnitus due to occupational exposure).