Abstract
Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT), which is adaptation therapy for tinnitus based on the neurophysiological model proposed by Jastreboff, consists of directive counseling and acoustic therapy with a sound generator (SG). The recommended treatment for patients with tinnitus associated with moderate to severe hearing loss is to provide TRT and to introduce noise from the outside to assist the patients in adapting to tinnitus, thus reducing the annoying buzzing sensation in the ear. It was considered that TRT with an SG-equipped hearing aid, which provides not only noise from the outside through the hearing aid, but also therapeutic sounds generated by the SG, may be more effective in improving tinnitus symptoms. Of 183 patients (102 males and 81 females) who presented at our outpatient clinic for the treatment of tinnitus and hearing loss during the five-year period from April 2004 to March 2009 and received TRT, two patients improvement in tinnitus after TRT with an SG-equipped hearing aid.
