If you've been living with a constant ringing, buzzing, or hissing in your ears, you know how draining it can be. Here's something most people don't realize: tinnitus is far more treatable than many doctors let on, and an audiologist is often the best place to start.
What Tinnitus Actually Is
Tinnitus is sound that your auditory system creates on its own. No one else hears it, and it's not coming from the room around you. It might sound like ringing, buzzing, clicking, hissing, or a low hum. It can be constant or come and go. For some people it's a minor annoyance. For others it disrupts sleep, focus, and daily life in a serious way.
It's also more common than most people expect, with roughly 1 in 10 American adults experiencing it. About 90% of tinnitus cases occur alongside some degree of hearing loss.
Why Tinnitus and Hearing Loss Are Connected
That connection isn't a coincidence. When your ears are no longer picking up the full range of sounds around you due to noise exposure, aging, or other causes, your brain starts filling in the gaps. The tinnitus you hear is often your brain generating its own signal to compensate.
That matters, because it shapes how treatment works.
How Hearing Aids Help
For people who have both tinnitus and hearing loss, hearing aids are often the single most effective option. When you restore the environmental sounds your brain was missing, there's less of a gap to fill. Your tinnitus doesn't disappear completely, but it stops being the loudest thing you're aware of; this often happens within the first few days of consistent use.
We work with leading manufacturers including Phonak, Oticon, ReSound, Widex, Signia, and Starkey. Many of today's models come with built-in tinnitus features, such as sound therapy programs and masking tones, so you don't need a separate gadget. One tool performs two jobs.
Sound Maskers for People Without Significant Hearing Loss
Not everyone with tinnitus has measurable hearing loss. If that's your situation, a masker may be the right fit instead.
Maskers are small devices, worn like hearing aids, that play a gentle, low-level sound designed to draw your attention away from the tinnitus. They don't eliminate the noise, but they make it easier to ignore. This can be especially useful at night, when silence makes tinnitus feel louder and more intrusive. Whether a masker, hearing aids, or a combination is right for you depends on what we find during your evaluation.
What We Offer at Desert Valley Audiology & Balance
At Desert Valley Audiology & Balance, we provide comprehensive audiological evaluations and evidence-based management options for tinnitus, including hearing technology and sound therapy solutions designed to reduce the impact of tinnitus on daily life.
Because tinnitus affects everyone differently, treatment recommendations vary from person to person. While we do not currently offer Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) in our clinic, TRT is a well-established approach that combines counseling and sound therapy and may be appropriate for some individuals.
Our goal is to help you find the treatment path that best fits your needs. If your evaluation indicates that a different approach or referral to a tinnitus specialist would be beneficial, we'll discuss those options with you and help guide you to the appropriate resources.
What Your First Appointment Looks Like
Every patient starts with a comprehensive hearing evaluation. Before recommending anything, we need to understand your full hearing profile, including which frequencies are affected, how significant any hearing loss is, and what may be contributing to your symptoms.
From there, we put together a plan based on what we actually find. There's no one-size-fits-all approach here because tinnitus is different for everyone. You might leave with hearing aids that include built-in sound therapy, a masker device, or a referral to a specialist based on what genuinely fits your situation.
The evaluation itself is thorough but straightforward. You'll sit in a sound booth, respond to tones and speech, and walk out with a clear picture of your hearing health and a plan that makes sense for you.
Ready to Do Something About It?
You don't have to just live with this. Tinnitus can almost always be managed to some degree, and many patients find real, lasting relief once they've had a proper evaluation and the right support in place. The constant ringing doesn't have to be the background noise of your life.
Desert Valley Audiology & Balance has four locations serving Henderson, Downtown Las Vegas, Northwest Las Vegas, and Southwest Las Vegas.
Call us at 702-605-9133 to schedule your tinnitus evaluation. It's one phone call, and for a lot of our patients, it's the one that finally changes things.
