I Talked to Several Audiologists — Not One Had Good Advice

As a young man, Walt Tarpley worked for a decade in environments producing around 104dB of noise — well above the threshold for noise-induced hearing damage. Add some gunfire exposure and childhood ear infections, and the auditory groundwork was laid. Walt didn't think much about it until his 50th birthday arrived with an uninvited gift: a constant ringing in his ears that simply would not stop.

Sleep deteriorated. Fatigue mounted. His mild hearing loss made everything harder. And the audiologists he consulted — several of them — offered nothing useful.

I talked to several audiologists. Not one of them had any good advice for me. They told me I could spend tens of thousands of dollars and still get no results. It wasn't a good situation.

Walt turned to the internet, where he found what he describes as endless snake oil — supplements promising cures, devices promising miracles. He nearly resigned himself to living with it permanently. Then, through a referral, he found audiologist Sarah Smith AuD in Colorado, who offered something different: Neuromonics, combined with treatment for his hearing loss.

Treating the Whole Picture

Walt's case illustrates a clinically important point that Dr. Smith understood from the start: tinnitus and hearing loss frequently coexist, and treating only one while ignoring the other produces incomplete results. She worked with Walt twice a week for six months — first addressing his hearing loss with hearing aids, then adding Neuromonics for the tinnitus.

The secret to my success is that I used Neuromonics as recommended and dealt with my hearing loss as well. Many people have both hearing loss and tinnitus, so you really have to deal with all the components.

The transformation was real. Walt went from what he describes as an emotional wreck — overwhelmed by runaway anxiety about the tinnitus — to someone able to lead a normal life again.

My Brain Gets Reset and I'm Good to Go

There are days, weeks, sometimes even a month that I hardly even notice I have tinnitus. When symptoms return and are annoying enough, Walt uses Neuromonics for a short period. Currently, Walt needs Neuromonics only 4–6 hours per month versus, initially, using it 3–4 hours or more per day.

Walt's phrase — my brain gets reset — is a remarkably accurate lay description of what the neurophysiological model predicts: that consistent acoustic stimulation retrains the neural pathways that amplify and sustain the tinnitus response. The treatment doesn't eliminate the underlying auditory change. It changes how the brain responds to it.