Have you tried the Phonak app for people with tinnitus? Well in this video, I’m gonna talk
about how it can help you. Coming up!
Hi, I'm Dr. Derek - audiologist, audio engineer, and musician with Pro Fit Hearing.com bringing
you the best insight in today's latest hearing aids, headphones, and audio technology to
improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing, always consult with your local
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you enjoy this video.
Today, I’m talking about the Phonak Tinnitus Balance app. It can be used with headphones
or with bluetooth compatible hearing aids. This free app is available for Apple and
Android devices.
First if you have tinnitus, consult with your physician and audiologist to rule out any
medical cause or hearing loss. Tinnitus is a sound that only you hear. It’s not occurring
in your environment. It might be noticeable only occasionally or be a constant sound that
you hear. It’s often described as a high-pitched buzz or ringing in the ears.
The Phonak Tinnitus Balance app does not cure tinnitus. It should be used as part of a tinnitus
management program with your hearing healthcare provider. It provides different types of sound
to help manage your emotional reaction to tinnitus. The sound types include: soothing,
background, and interesting sounds.
A soothing sound is a sound that helps you relax.
A background sound reduces the
contrast between quiet and tinnitus.
And an interesting sound shifts
your attention away from the tinnitus. This app uses what is known as
progressive tinnitus management.
You can use these sounds anytime your tinnitus is bothersome but make sure to listen at a
safe listening level. Tinnitus masking sounds should be used at a safe audible level that
takes your mind off the tinnitus, but loud sounds should be avoided since they can cause
hearing loss.
Okay so let's take a look at the app.
If you're a first time user of the app, I
would recommend that you read the
introduction.
It talks about some of the points I've
mentioned in this video.
But I'm going to go ahead and click on
"use app".
The first thing I see once I go to the
app is I have the
ability to select sound types. So I have
the soothing, background, and interesting
sound categories. If I click on soothing,
it gives me the option of adding sounds
to this sound
category. So I just click on the plus
icon at the right top.
It gives me the option to select either
from the app library
or from my music library. So if I have
songs that I want to listen to I can
select music library and go ahead and
save the song into the soothing category.
Or I can just choose app library. So I'm
going to look at that for now.
If I look at the app library, I can see
there's 12 different
sounds that I can choose from. So you
want to take a listen to these kind of
sounds and see
do any of these sounds help you feel
relaxed?
I would say the sailing sound is
soothing to me. So if I click on
right in the middle, it'll add the
sailing sound to the
category. Then I'll press the plus icon
again and hit select app library.
Also I find blackbirds to be kind of
soothing,
and I'll add another one.
Probably the cicadas I find to be kind
of soothing as well.
So once I have a couple sounds, I can go
click back
and then I can see already that it
has three sounds
listed under the soothing category. I
have zero sounds for background and
interesting, so I'll go ahead and click
on background.
I hit the plus sign again, select from
app library, and some background sounds
I would say for me is rain. That's a nice
background sound. I'll add another one
and then probably the ocean.
And then if I go back I see now it says
two sounds are saved for background.
And then I want to go to interesting
sounds, hit the plus sign again,
app library, and I've listened to some of
these sounds already. I think the station
sound is pretty interesting because it
has -
it's like a soundscape. So you hear
people walking around.
You hear different noises. It's a very
reverberant,
very echoey kind of sound. I think it's
kind of interesting to listen to.
Interesting also could be something like
an audiobook, so if you want to add an
audio book from your music library
it could go under the interesting
category. But, if I go back
you can see now that it has all the
different types of sounds.
And it has a number of sounds in each
category.
If i'm listening to these sounds, I can
rate them. So if I go ahead and click on
sailing,
it has well you can see right here most
of these
sounds are about two minutes long. So I
can have it set to repeat,
no repeat, or even have a list repeat. So
list repeat means the three sounds that
you selected for soothing in this case,
it would repeat those sounds in a loop.
Or if I want to just have one sound, I
can use single repeat
or no repeat. You can also put an auto
shut off, so if you are using this to get
to sleep at night you can have it shut
off after a certain time.
So as I listen to the sound, I can think
about the sound and about my tinnitus
and determine whether or not it takes my
mind off the tinnitus and it helps me
relax.
So I can rate it saying well it's not
really helpful at all
all the way up to extremely helpful. So
you can rate the sounds one by one
as you listen to them to see which one
has been most effective
in managing your tinnitus. So I'm just
going to say here
that from 1 to 5 stars
sailing was the most effective in helping
me manage my tinnitus.
This was a sound that I found to be the
most soothing.
You can also see in the upper right hand
corner it has "now playing" so you can
just click on that to go to whatever
sound is playing.
I'm going to pause it for a second. Also
in the top
left hand corner there's a little gear
icon,
and it will give you the usage
statistics.
So if I take a look at the right hand
tab, it says "situations".
So for the situations tab, I want to
think about the situations where my
tinnitus is most
bothersome. So for a lot of people
getting to sleep at night - it can be a
very difficult situation because their
tinnitus
is very loud and bothersome. So you can
see I added sleeping as a situation,
and I'm using background sound. So if I
wanted to use something other than
background sounds, I could use maybe a
soothing sound.
And when I select it, it automatically
shows the sounds that I find to be
soothing.
But I would say most people probably
want to listen to background sounds when
they're trying to sleep,
because the purpose of a background
sound is to reduce the contrast between
your tinnitus and the quiet
and take our mind off the tinnitus. If I
go back, I can also add
however many situations I want.
So when I'm working at the computer,
maybe I want to listen to again a
background kind of sound.
You're probably not going to want to
listen to interesting sounds, because
remember with an interesting sound
the whole point is to divert your
attention away from tinnitus. It kind of
grabs your attention,
and you're thinking about that sound. So
again a good example of an interesting
sound is like an audio book.
So you want to think about the
situations when your tinnitus is most
bothersome,
and then use this Phonak Tinnitus
Balance app to organize the types of
sound that are most effective in taking
your mind off the tinnitus.
Remember to always consult with your
physician and audiologist if you have
tinnitus.
They can give you appropriate customized
treatment and
care for your needs.
If you have any
questions about this app please leave it
in the comments below.
I hope you'll find this app helpful.
So for today's question, have you tried the Phonak tinnitus balance app? What do you think
of it? Let's connect in the comments.
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Remember Pro Fit Hearing brings you the best insight today's latest hearing aids, headphones,
and audio technology to improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing, always
consult with your local physician or audiologist.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.