If you have tinnitus, you have probably noticed it is worst in a quiet room. Last thing at night, or in a silent office, the sound has nothing to compete with. Sound therapy works on exactly that problem. It is one of the oldest and best established parts of tinnitus care, and it is usually the first thing we set up for a new patient.
This is a guide to what sound therapy is, how it is delivered, and what a structured program involves.
Understanding Tinnitus Sound Therapy
Sound therapy means deliberately adding sound to your environment so that your tinnitus stands out less. That is the whole idea. Rather than trying to remove the tinnitus signal, which no treatment can currently do, sound therapy changes the contrast between the tinnitus and everything around it.
The sound might be broadband noise, filtered noise shaped to your hearing, nature sounds, or music designed for the purpose. What matters is that it is comfortable, that you can live with it for long stretches, and that it is set at a level that softens the tinnitus without masking it completely.
It is recommended as part of tinnitus management by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, by the American Tinnitus Association, and by NICE in the UK.
What Sound Therapy Can and Cannot Do
Being straight about this matters, because unrealistic expectations are one of the main reasons people abandon a program that would have helped them.
Sound therapy does not cure tinnitus. There is no cure for tinnitus, and any product claiming otherwise is worth treating with suspicion. What sound therapy does is change how much room the tinnitus takes up in your day: how quickly you notice it, how long your attention stays on it, and how much it interferes with sleep and concentration.
That shift tends to be gradual. Most people notice something in the first few weeks, and the useful changes accumulate over a couple of months of consistent use. It works considerably better alongside structured support than it does on its own, which is the reasoning behind the program described below.
The Main Ways Sound Therapy Is Delivered
Hearing aids with sound generators: If you have hearing loss alongside tinnitus, this is often the single most effective step. Hearing aids restore the everyday sound your ears have stopped delivering, and most modern devices also include a built-in sound generator we can configure for you.
Tabletop and bedside devices: Dedicated sound machines are useful for sleep, which is where tinnitus causes the most trouble for the most people. A simple device by the bed is often the fastest improvement a patient notices.
Wearable sound generators: Small devices worn like hearing aids, for patients whose hearing does not warrant amplification but who benefit from sound enrichment through the day.
App-based programs: A phone can deliver therapeutic sound anywhere, and a well-designed program adds structure around it: a defined course, guided sessions, and progress tracking. This is the part of sound therapy that has changed most in the last few years, and it is what we use with most of our tinnitus patients.
The Oto Program at Inman Audiology
Oto is a smartphone app for adults with tinnitus, and it is part of the care plan for most of the adults we see. It is not something you find in an app store and start on your own. We recommend it after a tinnitus evaluation, set it up with you here in the clinic, and review how you are getting on at follow-up.
Initial evaluation and setup: We start with a full tinnitus evaluation so we understand your hearing, the character of your tinnitus, and how much it is affecting your daily life. We use a validated questionnaire so there is a number to measure against later rather than an impression. If Oto is a good fit, we set it up before you leave and answer your questions while you are still in the chair.
Daily sessions: The program runs over eight weeks. Each day takes around ten minutes, built around therapeutic sound with guided exercises alongside it. You can do a session at home, in the car, or in bed before sleep. Because it is structured, you always know what comes next, and there is a tinnitus coach available in the app between sessions.
Follow-up and progress reviews: We check in partway through and again at the end, and we repeat the same questionnaire we used at your evaluation so we can compare against your own baseline. If something is not working, we change the plan.
Oto is for adults aged 18 and over. You can read more about Oto’s sound therapy program on their website.
How Oto Works Alongside Lenire and Hearing Aids
These are not alternatives, and you will not be asked to choose between them.
Oto is part of the tinnitus care plan we build for you, and it runs alongside whatever else that plan includes. If hearing loss is part of the picture, hearing aids are usually the foundation, and Oto adds the daily routine and the support between appointments. Most of our patients who use Lenire use Oto as well, because the two do different jobs: Lenire is a device-based intervention delivered in longer daily sessions over twelve weeks, while Oto is the short daily program that keeps things moving in between visits.
Oto is also used on its own, for patients who are not candidates for a device on assessment, or who would simply rather not use one.
What the Research Shows
Oto’s daily sessions use therapeutic sound, with CBT-based techniques alongside. That approach is recommended for tinnitus management by NICE, by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and by Cochrane.
Oto has been studied in a randomized controlled trial at Flinders University, published in 2025. Ninety-six adults were randomized either to use Oto or to a wait-list control group. At six months, the group using Oto showed a statistically significant improvement on the Tinnitus Functional Index, a validated measure of how much tinnitus is affecting daily life, with a 9-point reduction and an effect size of 0.62.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does sound therapy take to work?
Most people notice some change within the first few weeks, and the more useful shifts build over a couple of months of consistent use. Consistency matters more than duration: ten minutes most days does more than an hour once a week.
Can I just use a free white noise app?
You can, and for sleep alone it may be enough. What a free noise app does not give you is a structured course, sound matched to your hearing and your tinnitus, a way to track whether anything is actually changing, or an audiologist reviewing your progress. That structure is the part that tends to make the difference.
Do I need hearing aids as well?
It depends on your hearing. If your evaluation shows hearing loss, addressing it is usually the most effective single step, and sound therapy works better on top of it. If your hearing is normal, sound therapy is used on its own.
Will sound therapy make my tinnitus louder?
It should not, and it is set up to avoid that. The sound is kept at a comfortable level rather than a loud one, and part of the reason we configure it in the clinic is to get that level right. If anything feels uncomfortable, stop and tell us so we can adjust it.
Is sound therapy suitable for everyone with tinnitus?
Most adults with ongoing tinnitus can use it. It is not the right first step if your tinnitus began suddenly, is only in one ear, or pulses in time with your heartbeat. Those need investigating before anything else, which is one of the reasons a proper evaluation matters.
Finding Relief With Professional Care
Tinnitus care goes wrong most often when it is left to trial and error: a white noise app here, a supplement there, nothing measured and nothing reviewed. A proper evaluation tells us what is driving your tinnitus, whether your hearing is involved, and how much the tinnitus is actually affecting you. Everything else follows from that.
Schedule a Tinnitus Consultation in Troy, MI
If tinnitus is affecting your sleep, your concentration, or your mood, a tinnitus evaluation is the place to start. Contact Inman Audiology to book an appointment. We will go through what we find with you and agree a plan together, and if Oto is part of it we will set you up before you leave.