Tackling Tinnitus in Private Practice

By Jason Leyendecker

This article is a part of the July/August 2021, Volume 33, Number 4, Audiology Today issue.

Starting a tinnitus clinic or incorporating tinnitus management into your busy practice can be a challenging task that keeps audiologists from moving forward with helping an underserved population within the scope of practice of audiology. After practicing tinnitus management for 10 years, we have discovered how to create a successful tinnitus clinic. This article is designed to give insight on how to make the process easier.  

Start with Why

When asked to write this article, the question that immediately arose is why? Why would someone want to work with patients who have tinnitus? Author and speaker Simon Sinek professes, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” (2013). 

My “why” is to increase access to care and to use best practices. There are not enough qualified tinnitus professionals in the country, which means patients may be consulting unqualified people, or even worse, they are not consulting a professional at all. Our clinic was developed to serve this patient need. 

According to the National Health and Nutritional Examinations Survey completed in 2011–2012, close to 20 million people experience tinnitus regularly and approximately two million people struggle with severe or debilitating tinnitus. 

The tinnitus patient is like no other, as they have a unique feeling toward a sound that no one else can hear. As audiologists, we are best equipped to treat these patients. They have most likely explored all methods to make the sound go away and no “magic pill” has helped them. 

Working with a patient with tinnitus takes a strong will, the ability to be patient and knowledgeable, and the ability to emotionally support someone going through confusion, anxiety, and, sometimes, pain. When implementing tinnitus care into your practice, be sure to remember your “why.”