Including Tinnitus Therapy in Your Practice

Audiologist Sharon Christopherson discusses how taking a TPA course has impacted her practice.

By Rich Magda

Posted on: August 15, 2011

View Comments (0)Print ArticleEmail Article

Facebook reddit Newsvine Del.icio.us Digg

Yahoo! Buzz LinkedIn StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Mixx

http://events.advanceweb.com/Attendee/Default.aspx

In 37 years as an audiologist, Sharon Christopherson, MA, has seen countless patients with tinnitus. But it wasn't until recently, in her seventh year as a private-practice owner and after taking a course offered by the Tinnitus Practitioners Association (TPA), that she started treating them specifically for the condition.

Christopherson decided to take the course and expand her practice, Christopherson and Clark Hearing Center in Cincinnati, OH, because she wanted to help patients who were being advised elsewhere that they'd have to learn to live with the phantom noises in their ears.

"While some people can overcome the ringing, buzzing and almost constant noise in their ears, others cannot and need help and/or therapy," she says. "There have been some excellent strides made in this area, and there is no need for people to suffer from tinnitus when things can be done to overcome it. We will assist them in their quest for relief."

Christopherson completed the TPA's associate-level tinnitus course in early June. The two-day course was offered at the Westin Detroit Metropolitan Airport, at a cost of $1,000, which included a one-year TPA membership and a one-year American Tinnitus Association membership, as well as course materials and meals. According to Natan Bauman, EdD, MS Eng., FAAA, founder of the TPA, "We are providing the tools and support for audiologists to be able to treat tinnitus cases. We provide a certification document representing that they have successfully completed our course and that they are members of the TPA organization."

Christopherson says she enjoyed the experience, and that the instruction from tinnitus experts that included Dr. Bauman and Merideth Eldridge, MA, FAAA, helped improve her practical knowledge and skills, thereby boosting her confidence in offering comprehensive audiological services.

"The big take-away point for me was that tinnitus affects about 50 million Americans," she says. "Most of them, maybe 32 million, are aware of it and don't care that much. Another 12-14 million are bothered by it but can live with it and the remaining two million or so I would consider distraught in that tinnitus controls their lives. Now that I'm a certified tinnitus practitioner, my hope is to take the people in that bothered-by-it category and get them to the point where they aren't bothered by it."

To help patients get to this point, Christopherson begins with a detailed evaluation and a comprehensive battery of hearing tests using basic audiolmetric tools such as audiometers, tympanometers and speech-mapping equipment. Based on the results of these tests, she can categorize the severity of tinnitus and suggest a plan for treatment. In some cases, she says, the problem may be treated by the use of hearing aids, or it may require sound therapy or counseling. She stresses that there are many approaches to dealing with tinnitus, and that the most important point, in many cases, is that there can be relief.

Also Online!

As an investment, Christopherson is seeing immediate positive returns on her tinnitus certification. Her practice has received inquiries from prospective patients as far away as Kansas City, 600 miles west. From a professional standpoint, she feels more confident in dealing with all of her patients, because many of them experience some degree of tinnitus.

"I just feel like I have more information to offer," she says. "I can determine if they are really bothered by it or if they have it and don't care that much. In the course of my regular treatment, I can bring it up and see if they want to talk about it. If they do, we can have that conversation, and then I can explain the process of testing and treating it. So far, most of them have not felt terribly troubled, but it makes them feel good to talk to someone who isn't going to say, 'Oh, live with it.'"

To spread the word about the addition of tinnitus therapy to her practice, Christopherson plans to touch on the topic during her community outreach sessions on hearing loss and in meetings with local physicians, much like she does during in-office consultations. She's also planning to update her practice's website with a section on tinnitus.

"Now that I am certified and on a path of continuing tinnitus education, I would like to become a resource in my community, much like I am for hearing loss and hearing aids," Christopherson concludes. "I'm dedicated to improving the lives of those affected by hearing impairments of any kind. Tinnitus is just one of many conditions which can be treated."

Rich Magda is senior associate editor at ADVANCE and can be reached at rmagda@advanceweb.com.

Email: *

Email, first name, comment and security code are required fields; all other fields are optional. With the exception of email, any information you provide will be displayed with your comment.

First *

Last

Name:

	Title	Field	Facility
Work:

City

State

Location:

Comments: *

To prevent comment spam, please type the code you see below into the code field before submitting your comment. If you cannot read the numbers in the below image, reload the page to generate a new one.

	Enter the security code below: *