If your tinnitus is loudest when the room goes quiet, sound is usually the first thing that helps. Sound therapy uses carefully chosen audio to give your hearing system something else to work on, so the ringing is not the only thing in the room.
Atlantic Hearing Care now includes a structured sound therapy program called Oto as part of tinnitus care. It runs on your own phone, it is set up here after your tinnitus evaluation, and it gives you something to follow on the days between appointments.
What Tinnitus Sound Therapy Is
Sound therapy is the use of external sound to change how much of your attention tinnitus takes. That can be as simple as a fan at night, or as structured as a program that changes what you listen to over several weeks.
The everyday version is easy to find. Free apps, white noise machines and videos all do a version of it, and for some people that is enough.
What they do not do is change over time, adjust to how you are actually getting on, or come with anyone reviewing your progress. A structured program does, and that is the difference between playing sound at your tinnitus and following a plan.
Why Sound Helps When Tinnitus Is at Its Loudest
Tinnitus is generated inside the hearing system, so there is nothing to switch off. What can change is how much room it takes up.
Quiet makes that harder. In a silent bedroom your tinnitus is the loudest thing available, which is why so many patients tell us that nights are the worst part of it. Adding sound gives your hearing system a second thing to attend to, and most people find their tinnitus is less noticeable when it is not competing with silence.
That is also why sound is usually where tinnitus care starts, before anything more involved.
The Oto Program at Atlantic Hearing Care
Oto is a smartphone app that delivers an eight-week tinnitus program. It is not something you download and work out on your own. We recommend it after your tinnitus evaluation, set it up with you here in the clinic, and review how you are getting on at your follow-up appointments.
Oto is for adults aged 18 and over.
What the Eight Weeks Involve
Your Evaluation and Setup
Everything starts with a tinnitus evaluation in Swampscott or Peabody. We take your history, examine your ears and test your hearing, because tinnitus and hearing loss travel together more often than not. If anything in that assessment needs a physician rather than an audiologist, we will tell you.
If Oto is a good fit, we set it up with you before you leave.
Your Daily Sessions
The daily commitment is around ten minutes. You work through short sessions in order across the eight weeks, using therapeutic sound with CBT-based techniques alongside, to work on sleep, on stress, and on the attention your tinnitus takes up during the day.
You can also use the sound library on its own whenever you want it, including overnight when your hearing aids are out.
Your Follow-Up Reviews
You complete the Tinnitus Functional Index inside the app. It is a validated questionnaire that measures how much your tinnitus is affecting daily life, and it repeats across the program, so you and your audiologist can see what has actually changed rather than relying on memory.
We go through those scores with you at your follow-up appointments and adjust the plan from there.
How Oto Works Alongside Your Hearing Aids
If you wear hearing aids, they are doing the main job during the day. They restore the sound you have been missing, and a masking program in the aids makes tinnitus less noticeable while you have them in.
Oto runs alongside that. It gives you sound you control from your own phone, including at night when your aids are out, and a routine to follow in the weeks between appointments.
For patients who do not need hearing aids, Oto is used on its own.
You will not be asked to choose between them.
Who Oto Is For
Oto tends to suit you if:
- Your tinnitus has been there for months rather than days
- It is worst at night, or when you are trying to concentrate
- You have already tried a fan, a free app or a white noise machine and want something with more structure behind it
- You would rather work on this at home than come in every week
It is not the right place to start if your tinnitus is new, in one ear only, pulsing in time with your heartbeat, or arrived alongside sudden hearing loss or dizziness. Those need looking at promptly, so book an evaluation rather than beginning a program.
What Does the Research Show?
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.
You can read more about Oto’s research at joinoto.com/research, or take a closer look at the Oto program.
Oto is not a cure for tinnitus. No such cure currently exists. It is a program for managing it.
Common Questions About Tinnitus Sound Therapy
Can I just use a free app instead?
You can, and some people do well with one. The difference is that a free app plays sound and stops there. Oto follows a set order over eight weeks, tracks your Tinnitus Functional Index scores, and is reviewed by your audiologist at your appointments.
Do I need hearing aids to use Oto?
No. Oto is used on its own by patients who do not need hearing aids. If you do wear them, the two run together rather than instead of each other.
How much time does it take each day?
Around ten minutes for the daily session. The sound library is there for as long as you want it beyond that, including overnight.
Can I get Oto without coming in?
No. Oto is only available through a clinic. We recommend it after your evaluation and set it up with you here, so it is matched to what your assessment actually showed.
What if my tinnitus changes suddenly?
Contact us. A sudden change, new tinnitus in one ear, or tinnitus that pulses with your heartbeat should be assessed promptly rather than managed at home.
Schedule a Tinnitus Evaluation in Swampscott or Peabody
Tinnitus is worth having looked at properly, whether or not you end up on a program. Our audiologists see patients at both offices, and the evaluation is the same starting point for everyone.
Call Swampscott on 781-581-1500 or Peabody on 978-717-5370, or book a tinnitus evaluation online.