Tinnitus examination by an ENT to diagnose treatable conditions like middle ear infection, acoustic neuroma, concussion, otosclerosis, etc. Evaluation of tinnitus will include a hearing test (audiogram), measurement of acoustic parameters of the tinnitus like pitch and loudness, and psychological assessment of comorbid conditions like depression, anxiety, and stress that are associated with severity of the tinnitus. The accepted definition of chronic tinnitus, as compared to normal ear noise experience, is five minutes of ear noise occurring at least twice a week. However, people with chronic tinnitus often experience the noise more frequently than this and can experience it continuously or
Tinnitus retraining therapy large proportion of dropouts; reported 'success' ratios may not take these subjects into account. There are few available studies, but most show that tinnitus naturally declines over time (years) in a large proportion of subjects surveyed, without any treatment. The annoyance of tinnitus also tends to decline over time. In at least some, tinnitus spontaneously disappears. A Cochrane review found only one sufficiently rigorous study of TRT and noted that while the study suggested benefit in the treatment of tinnitus, the study quality was not good enough to draw firm conclusions. A separate Cochrane review of sound therapy (though they