Mind Alive Blog
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
We often get questions regarding using Audio-Visual Entrainment (AVE) for treating tinnitus. Sometimes AVE works great and sometimes not. Being that I ran the TMJ research lab at the University of Alberta for several years, here is what I have learned about tinnitus:
There are several causes of tinnitus. Some are stress related and involve either pinching of the tympanic and auricular nerves and arteries caused by jaw-tension and a damaged temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ), causing a ringing sound. The other can involve the levator-palati muscles in the back of the throat that vent the eustachian tubes. When they go into spasm, pressure builds up in the eustachian tube, also causing ringing.
These causes of tinnitus are easily resolved with stress reduction techniques such as AVE, breath-work and biofeedback or by removing the stressor such as getting a new job or getting through the divorce or death of a loved-one, etc. When a person relaxes, the jaw muscles also relax, allowing the mandible to move forward. This takes pressure off of the nerves and arteries, which reside just behind the condoyle (ball) of the mandible. Tinnitus can also be resolved with a dental splint that anteriorizes the mandible (pulls it forward).
Other causes of tinnitus can involve cochlear damage, auditory nerve damage and even brain damage. These forms of tinnitus will require an ear, nose & throat specialist and may not be treatable.
I did find a German AVE study using our DAVID Pal at 2 Hz for treating tinnitus. The study did not mention the type of tinnitus they were treating, but given that most tinnitus is caused from stress, I assume that this is the type that they were treating and why using the DAVID AVE device was successful.
- dancing in the dendrites!
Dave Siever
Mind Alive Inc.
by Dave Siever - March 28, 2012