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New UNCG clinic helps sufferers cope with ringing in the ears
Congressman Coble to attend tinnitus clinic dedication April 8
UNC-Greensboro

GREENSBORO — To Frank Flory the noise is like a swarm of honeybees buzzing inside his head.

It’s so loud it keeps him awake most nights and prevents him from his normally active lifestyle.

Like more than 50 million Americans, Flory suffers from tinnitus, a condition that causes continuous ringing in the ears.

Once it began it bothered me profusely, especially at night,” said Flory, who lives in Statesville. “Some nights it was so bad I would wake up in a cold sweat. I would get out of bed, shower and go sit on the porch until I was exhausted. I often wondered how I could live the rest of my life like this.”

Tinnitus sufferers, like Flory, can now seek help from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Thanks to congressional funding of $181,000 from the Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), UNCG has established the Tinnitus Clinic, the first of its kind in the state. The clinic is only one of the ways UNCG reaches out to help community members who have specific needs and improves the human environment through well-equipped facilities and expert faculty. The clinic will be housed within the UNCG Speech and Hearing Center, located on the third floor of the Ferguson Building.

A clinic dedication and open house will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, April 8. Congressman Howard Coble, who helped to secure funding for the clinic, will tour the facility and meet with students.

“Congressman Coble has supported the clinic from the beginning,” said Dr. Denise Tucker, an assistant professor of audiology in the UNCG Communication Sciences and Disorders Department. “With his help, we received the funds to purchase new scientific equipment for testing and treatment of patients suffering from tinnitus. We were also able to renovate some space in the existing UNCG Speech and Hearing Center.”

According to Tucker, principal investigator of the project, the clinic provides information, support, counseling and evaluation to tinnitus sufferers across the state and surrounding states. Currently, there are a limited number of tinnitus centers in the United States with three primary facilities in Portland, Baltimore and Atlanta.

The new UNCG clinic is not only the first of its kind in North Carolina, it’s also the first to offer students training in the area of Tinnitus Management and the first to provide a new treatment called Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT).

Flory, a recent retiree, knows all too well the importance of the UNCG clinic and learning to live with tinnitus. With no help or information from his own doctor, Flory lived for almost a year with the constant ringing in his ears that caused him great distress and put him on the edge of depression.

Flory’s story is common to Tucker and the audiology students who work with the clinic’s patients. With the expansion of the elderly population and an increase in noise exposure among youth, the incidence of tinnitus, which often occurs in the presence of hearing loss, is expected to rise. For 10 million Americans the condition is so severe, that it adversely affects their emotional, social and physical well being. Although there is no known cause or cure for tinnitus, treatments like TRT helps sufferers live with the condition, said Tucker, who received TRT certification at Emory University.

"Tinnitus patients initially come to our clinic very frustrated and frightened," Tucker said. "Since there is no medical cure for tinnitus yet, often the only recommendations they get from their physicians is 'Learn to live with it.' We try to help these patients by providing them with critical information on what makes tinnitus symptoms worse, such as stress and anxiety. We also provide support and access to different types of hearing devices to help give them some sense of control and relief from their tinnitus symptoms.”

Since seeking help from the clinic almost nine months ago, Flory received small ear devices called custom masking instruments, which are about the size of hearing aids. These maskers produce a pleasant white noise that helps to reduce the patient’s perception of tinnitus. Flory says he saw an improvement within six months and is more optimistic about life and living with tinnitus.

“The maskers have helped to eliminate much of the problem, medically and emotionally,” Flory said. “I have a lot of respect and admiration for the work of Dr. Tucker and the students. They’ve been great and have helped me to live a much better life. They’ve given me more than comfort to live with this condition, they’ve given me a new outlook on life.”

For more information about tinnitus or to schedule an appointment, call the clinic at (336) 334-5939.

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