Tinnitus masking is a technique used to replace the annoying sound associated with tinnitus with a more pleasant sound, like a flow of water, white, pink or brown noise to name only a few. As the brain is capable of unconsciously eliminating external, constant frequency and level sounds (as opposed to the internal tinnitus sound), using a masker can completely eliminate the condition.

A note of caution: while masking can be an excellent way to cope with tinnitus, it is important to consult your physician before choosing this approach; in certain cases, tinnitus is a symptom of a more severe underlying condition (ear infection or tumor for example). Treating the underlying disorder will likely also make the ear sounds disappear.

Do It Yourself Approach

The simplest way towards masking tinitus (but also a trial and error method) is to see whether the running shower or the kitchen faucet at full power make the sound disappear. If so, one can record this sound and play it on his/hers CD/MP3 player whenever needed. The downside of this approach is that it does not function for many persons due to limited range of sounds that can be produced naturally in a household and to the poor recording quality of most consumer devices.

Another approach is to use inter-station FM radio noise as the sound for masking. It is a simple procedure that involves tuning the radio to a frequency where there is no broadcast (only a hissing sound) which in certain cases masks tinnitus. Care should be taken as one may reach the wrong conclusion that his/hers tinnitus is not mask-able due to the usage of a low power radio receiver which is not able to reproduce high frequencies at high levels. Therefore, a reasonably high-fidelity stereo system is preferred when using this technique.

Professional Audio Recording

Commercial products under the form of audio CDs or digital audio files have a higher rate of success due to high quality sound and because the sounds are engineered to mask the most common tinnitus sound frequencies. The price for commercial tinnitus masking audio ranges from $27 to $57. This approach has the best cost/effect ratio and is recommended instead of the trial-and-error do it yourself methods.

Tinnitus Instrument

Because more than 50% suffering from tinnitus also present a certain degree of hearing loss, a hearing device and a tinnitus masker and combined in a single small package that can be worn at all times behind the ear. This device has the ability to enhance external sounds and also emit a (configurable) tinnitus masking sound. An audiologist can recommend a tinnitus instrument based on the tinnitus type and frequency and degree of hearing loss.