Abstract
In tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) for patients with moderate to severe hearing loss, it is considered more appropriate to use other forms of acoustic therapy, including hearing aids, rather than tinnitus control instruments (TCI). The proposed use of hearing aids includes adjustment of the device settings to allow a low level of background input, switching off of the noise suppressor, and turning the directional function to non-directional input, thereby setting the program to allow ambient noise. This study reports the investigation of a patient who received TRT with hearing aids, involving the switching of programs. The patient was a 62-year-old female with severe hearing loss of sudden onset on the right side. The affected ear had been fitted with a hearing aid, and the gain setting on the hearing aid was adjusted to low-level amplification to allow background noise. The program was updated so that the following settings could be chosen as appropriate: when loud tinnitus is experienced; Program OFF (turn OFF noise suppression and turn OFF directional function), for clearer hearing, such as listening to a conversation; Program ON (turn ON noise suppression and turn ON directional function). The results indicated that patients with moderate to severe hearing loss showed a tendency to often select the Program OFF, which allowed noise input, in the early stage of the device use when tinnitus was strongly evident, and to often select the Program ON, which allowed better hearing of conversations, after the subject had become more accustomed to the tinnitus.
