Tinnitus masker closely matched to the pitch and spectrum of the tinnitus, and as loud or somewhat louder than the perceived loudness of the tinnitus. The trigger sound is applied to the ear or ears with tinnitus and typically lasts a minute or two. Not everyone can experience RI; for those who do not, tinnitus masking is likely to be ineffective. Two qualities of a tinnitus masker need to be taken into account: how effective the masking is, and how intrusive or distracting the generated sound itself is. The masking sound may have various temporal, spectral and amplitudinal characteristics. In some cases,
Tinnitus retraining therapy with tinnitus have a comorbid psychological injury or illness (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, stress, dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint, etc.) that can exacerbate the tinnitus. It has been proposed that tinnitus is caused by mechanisms that generate abnormal neural activity, specifically one mechanism called discordant damage (dysfunction) of outer and inner hair cells of the cochlea. The psychological basis for TRT stems from the fact that the brain exhibits a high level of plasticity. In turn, this allows it to adjust to any sensory signals as long as they do not lead to negative effects.