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cal evaluation is to ensure that all medically treatable conditions that may affect hearing and/or tinnitus are
identified and treated before the hearing instrument and/or sound generator is used.
The sound generator instrument is a tool to generate sounds to be used with appropriate counselling and/
or in a tinnitus management programme to relieve patients suffering from tinnitus.
User instructions for the TSG module
Description of the device
The Tinnitus Sound Generator (TSG) module is a software tool that generates sounds to be used in tinnitus
management programmes to relieve suffering from tinnitus.
Explanation of how the device functions
The TSG module is a frequency and amplitude shaped white-noise generator. Noise signal level and fre-
quency characteristics can be adjusted to the specific therapeutic needs as determined by your doctor,
audiologist or hearing healthcare professional.
Your doctor, audiologist or hearing healthcare professional can modulate the generated noise with the
purpose of making it more pleasant. The noise can then resemble, for example, crashing waves on a shore.
Modulation level and speed can also be configured to your likes and needs.
If your tinnitus troubles you only in quiet environments, your doctor, audiologist or hearing healthcare pro-
fessional can set the TSG Module so that it becomes audible exclusively in such surroundings. The overall
sound level can be adjusted via an optional volume control. Your doctor, audiologist or hearing healthcare
professional will review with you the need for having such a control.
TSG volume control
The sound generator is set to a specific loudness level by the hearing healthcare professional. When switch-
ing the sound generator on, the volume will have this optimal setting. Therefore, it might not be necessary
to control the volume (loudness) manually. However, the volume control provides the ability to adjust the
volume, or amount of stimulus, to the liking of the user.
The scientific concepts that form the basis for the device
The TSG module provides sound enrichment with the aim of surrounding the tinnitus sound with a neutral
sound which is easily ignored. Sound enrichment is an important component of most approaches to tinni-
tus management, such as Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT). To assist habituation to tinnitus, tinnitus needs
to be audible. The ideal level of the TSG module, therefore, should be set so that it starts to blend with the
tinnitus, and so that you can hear both your tinnitus as well as the sound used.
In a majority of instances, the TSG Module can also be set to mask the tinnitus sound, so to provide tem-
porary relief by introducing a more pleasant and controllable sound source.
