Talk:Tinnitus masker

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 January 2019 and 1 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Liettejk.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:20, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

new section
This is very vague
 * Your comment is unsigned a well as uninformative; what would you like to see? (You may of course add the text yourself, and since this is a medical article more or less, adhere to WP:MEDRS and WP:MEDMOS).Sbalfour (talk) 22:03, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

habituation (section) speculative and unproven
This section could have been directly borrowed or copied from the specious article on Tinnitus retraining therapy. Tinnitus masking based on the demonstrated phenomenon of residual inhibition (Spalding, 1903) is a validated underpinning of the use of sound maskers to cover up tinnitus. The habituation stuff is pseudoscience, and doesn't have a place here. I propose (re)moving it and merging any usable content into the Tinnitis retraining article.Sbalfour (talk) 19:56, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Cut and move article section to here for disposition (merge with Tinnitus retraining therapy?:

Habituation
It is widely believed that continued use of tinnitus masking can inhibit a neurological process known as habituation. This is a physical process which involves neuronal remapping in the auditory cortex of the brain leading to desensitisation of tinnitus. Generally it is ill advised to fully mask the tinnitus instead the masker or noise generating device should be set just below the level of the tinnitus to promote habituation.

The promotion of habituation is the key clinical outcome of tinnitus retraining therapy which uses a combination of sound therapy and counselling.

The use of sound in a clinical setting using specialist equipment can be used to completely mask tinnitus in 95% of tinnitus patients. However, it has been argued that it is counter-productive to completely mask tinnitus as this may prevent habituation. A more effective approach may be to provide sound masking at a level just below the perceived intensity of the tinnitus signal.