Tinnitus background noise to one that can be heard even over loud external sounds. The specific type of tinnitus called pulsatile tinnitus is characterized by hearing the sounds of one's own pulse or muscle contractions, which is typically a result of sounds that have been created by the movement of muscles near to one's ear, or the sounds are related to blood flow of the neck or face. Due to variations in study designs, data on the course of tinnitus showed few consistent results. Generally the prevalence increased with age in adults, whereas the ratings of annoyance decreased with duration. Persistent
Tinnitus masker tinnitus sounds and background sound. More advanced software based tinnitus maskers can use a combination of natural and synthetic sounds or a filtered noise generator tailored to mask the specific frequencies at which the tinnitus signal is experienced. Some sufferers require masking at all times. These people may employ wearable hearing aids which amplify ambient sound, generate low level wide band sounds such as white noise, or combination devices that mix both functions into one device. A standard hearing aid may be used for tinnitus masking; the tuning and amplification characteristics are different than when one is used in compensation