Birmingham Tinnitus Care and Auditory Therapies 

Hello, and welcome to Birmingham Tinnitus Care and Auditory Therapies (part of Central England Hearing Care).

My name is Angela Levick and I am independent audiologist with over 24 years experience in the NHS and private practice. I have trained in several different therapies which can be helpful for managing tinnitus and auditory processing problems, including Cognitive behavioural Therapy for Tinnitus,  Coaching and Fractal Tone Therapy, Hearing Aids.

I am based in Birmingham and work from EYE opticians, based in Barnt Green and Five Ways. I also work from The Lakeside Centre in Kings Norton and Central England Holistic Therapy Centre in Kings Heath, Birmingham.

Home visits are available in certain areas.

As an independent supplier of hearing aids I can offer hearing aids at internet prices but with a local village shop service.

I work with the following hearing aid manufacurers;

WIDEX   STARKEY   PHONAK

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For a FREE consultation and demonstration of

The Zen Fractal Tone Program

CALL 

0121 475 1865

or

07888 708 143

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How Can Hearing Aids Help me with my Tinnitus?


Hearing aids may help you with your Tinnitus but in some cases may not provide relief.

Hearing aids would only be recommended if you also have a hearing loss.

A hearing loss will cause you to be deprived of outside sounds and this may make your tinnitus more noticable. Hearing aids, by providing more sound stimulation, reduce the contrast between the tinnitus and quiet environment (due to the hearing loss) which can, in some cases help to make the tinnitus less noticeable.

By wearing properly fitted, good quality hearing aids you will have a greater chance of hearing speech and everyday sounds easier. These amplified sounds can cause an increase in the neural activity in the brain and may interfere with the detection of Tinnitus so that the tinnitus may not be as prominent any more.

In the shorter term, amplification of environmental sounds and speech can provide a 'partial masking effect' of the Tinnitus giving some relief. In the longer term, for some people, hearing aid use may help reduce their overall tinnitus awareness. For others, there may not be any reduction in perception of loudness of their tinnitus but their negative emotional reaction may still be decreased.

This is still a good outcome.

One of the commonly accepted theories regarding the causes of perception of tinnitus is that a lack of input of quiet sounds to the auditory system (due to hearing loss) can cause the central auditory system to increase it's gain to accommodate for this loss. Hearing aids replace those quieter levels of sound so the hearing system does not need to increase it's gain and the tinnitus can become quieter.

Sometimes, tinnitus is blamed for the 'perception' of not hearing speech clearly, adding to the negative feelings experienced towards tinnitus. This is often a 'misperception' as the real cause of the difficulty may be caused by an actual hearing loss rather than the tinnitus itself. Tinnitus may also disrupt your ability to concentrate on conversation.

The presence of tinnitus can negatively affect your ability to concentrate, giving the impression that it is affecting your ability to hear speech. Concentration can be negatively effected. Difficulty hearing speech, due to a hearing loss, compounded by the difficulties experienced due to tinnitus can take up a lot of your attention and increase fatigue.

Hearing aids can increase speech perception relieving frustration, fatigue and isolation.

Hearing aids may help to reduce fatigue and stress associated with hearing loss and communication difficulties. When you are hearing with greater ease, you can more confidently get on with your life and so less attention will be being paid to your hearing loss and tinnitus difficulties.



Sound Therapy for Tinnitus


Tinnitus is often reported to be more intrusive in a quiet environment, for example, when reading in the quiet or trying to fall asleep in a quiet room at night.

Sound Therapy, reduces the difference between your tinnitus and the quiet environment, helping to make your tinnitus less intrusive.



White Noise CD's / Table Top Instruments


Various sounds have been found to be helpful for the purpose of Tinnitus Masking Therapy. Sounds such as, White Noise, Waves of the Sea, Wind Noise, Fan noise, Music (that you enjoy), Pink Noise, Nature sounds and Rain fall.

These sound can be delivered in the form of CD's, Table top devices or wearable tinnitus masker's (white noise generators).