This application is the result of a passion shared and pooled professional experience in a team of three individuals: a specialist in ear, nose, throat and audiology, an information technology engineer and a patient suffering from tinnitus. The first stage in this app is diagnosis. You will be guided through the steps. First is diagnosis: your tinnitus will be measured and classified, following this is treatment, during which Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (T.R.T.) will be applied.
STAGE 1: DIAGNOSIS
•Evaluation of hearing: this measures your hearing level. The result, combined with your age, will enable us to evaluate whether your tinnitus is suitable for treatment. On completion of the tests the app will give you a medical report and an Audiometric Chart measuring your tinnitus.
•VAS (Visual Analogue Scale) Test: this is a visual test that will help you to gauge immediately to what degree you are aware of your tinnitus.
•Questionnaire: this is a series of questions with a choice of answers to provide a more precise picture of how you perceive your tinnitus. On completion, the app will provide a medical report that interprets the score you reach.
•Measuring your Tinnitus: you will be guided through a selection of sounds of different frequencies and loudness. This will help you to pinpoint the exact characteristics of your tinnitus. The app will use these characteristics automatically in the Tinnitus Suppression Test that follows and during the Sound Enhancement Treatment phase.
•Suppressione Test: this must be completed after the tinnitus measurement stage. It measures the time in seconds elapsing before you hear your tinnitus once again, after listening for one minute to a sound similar (in frequency and loudness) to your tinnitus.
TREATMENT STAGE
This comes after the Diagnosis stage. During this stage “Tinnitus Retraining Therapy”, founded on a “neurophysiological model” is applied. It aims to create a habitual reaction in the body’s limbic system and the autonomous nervous system, in order to eliminate the distress and anxiety caused by tinnitus and the “perception habit”. In this way the tinnitus signal will be intercepted before it reaches the cerebral cortex. This habit is formed in the following way:
• Counseling: an learning path with psychological support
• Sound enhancement: this has the aim of training the brain to ignore the tinnitus and then filter it out as it does with other unimportant signals.
APP FUNCTIONS
The app provides the following instruments:
•A desk: where you will find updated post-its to guide you through the Diagnosis and Therapy Stage by reminding you of the diagnostic examinations and the sound enhancement sessions to be completed according to a pre-set plan.
•A Diary: where, as well as consulting the calendar of diagnostic examinations and sound enhancement sessions to be carried out, you will also be able to see the results of the tests and monitor your progress.
•Counseling: with information sheets that help you understand more about Tinnitis.
•Listening for Relaxation: where, any time you choose, regardless of the sound enhancement sessions, you can select background sound to relax by.