Do you know the high pitched sound you hear when a TV is on but muted? Imagine you heard that noise constantly... and really loudly. That is tinnitus: chronic ringing in the ears. Currently, 12 million Americans suffer enough from their tinnitus to require medical attention, and 2 million patients report being unable to function "normally" day-to-day. Tinnitus can even be so extreme that it drives some sufferers to suicide.
There is currently no cure for tinnitus. Though there are ways to diagnose, monitor, cope, and potentially inhibit tinnitus sounds for tinnitus sufferers, primary care physicians rarely have the training or equipment to deal with tinnitus patients, and specialists are hard to come by. With this lack of viable medical options, two camps have sprung up: online pill pushers and high-end devices manufacturers (in the $5k range). This is where we come in. YourTinnitus.com offers an option to help tinnitus sufferers diagnose, monitor, and learn about their tinnitus. We do nearly the same thing that the $5k devices do, except we do it online for about 1/100th of the price. After a few great months of working with the auditory neuroscientists in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behavior at McMaster University, we're proud to release YourTinnitus.com this week. With our tools, tinnitus sufferers will be able to objectively evaluate if their tinnitus worsens or improves over time, determine how similar their tinnitus is to others who have tinnitus, and download a sound file of their tinnitus that they can let friends, family, and doctors listen to to prove they're not crazy. Over the next few months, we'll be working on even more tools to evaluate, diagnose, and potentially mask tinnitus sounds for tinnitus sufferers.