Ear bone headphones

I work in a call centre type environment & had permanent tinnitus for over 2 years (after being semi permanent since childhood). I was wondering if anyone has any idea if ear bone headphones would be more suitable for me to reduce the aggravation that regular headphones cause.

[Ruud1boy]

The bone conduction headphones bypass your eardrum and the ossicles (the little bones behind your eardrum), but AFAIK your cochlear is still doing the work in converting the vibrations into sound - so if your T is caused by anything in your inner ear (damaged hair cells due to overexposure to loud noise for example), the bone conduction phones would likely be much the same as regular ones in terms of aggravating your tinnitus. That's my understanding anyway, but I'm no expert by any stretch.

[Hidden in reply to Ruud1boy]

Useful to be forewarned for when I get to the tinnitus clinic to better understand what they're on about.

[Wringing1212 in reply to Ruud1boy]

Well, that seems pretty expert to me.

-Thanks for being on it.

[Holden15]

I used these very briefly (less the 5 minutes) and found they made my tinnitus worse. I later found out that the driver behind my Tinnitus is cochlear, so using these types of headphones was not a good idea.

[Hidden in reply to Holden15]

That's interesting & something I'll bear in mind when I have a chitty chat with the professionals.

[Holden15 in reply to Hidden]

I no longer use any form of headphones, but recently purchased the Bose Soundwear - and has proven to be very useful. It’s worth checking out.

[Hidden in reply to Holden15]

Annoyingly for my job something to hear my callers is essential!

Personally I have BOSE QC25 noise cancelling headphones which are great.

[Ruud1boy in reply to Hidden]

Hi Col, just wondering whether you had any updates on this topic? Did you see whoever it was that you were going to see? If so, what was their response?

I also work in a call centre, but I've managed to get myself moved to a different role where I'm not on the phones anymore. There are pro's & cons - I'm not straining to hear on the phones any more, but because my ears now don't have anything to keep them busy, I find the tinnitus is more constant. You can't win!!!

I am thinking of getting a pair of these BC headphones, just for listening to background noise from tinnitus relief apps etc, so I'd be interested in whatever you've found out.

[Hidden in reply to Ruud1boy]

So my employer has managed to source a headset that works with hearing aids (flick to T) , so I'm just waiting to return to the tinnitus clinic at hospital to then get them sorted.

I did bring up whether BC ones would work/exist - nobody has heard of any, so we'll try out the option offered first & go from there.

[Hidden in reply to Ruud1boy]

Just to give you another update: I've now got the hearing aids & BOY do they amplify what I wasn't hearing in the high frequency range. It's incredibly overwhelming at first and sometimes still is, it's only been a fortnight I've had them. Audiologist said it'll take my brain a couple of months to learn what background noises to ignore, as I've not been hearing them for a long time.

As for work - I got the special headset & even before the loop is switched on they're better. It's got a larger cup to fully cover my ear, blocking out more background sound and also doesn't press on the tube bit going into my ear so there's no discomfort compared with the original headset.

Next stage is to get the loop activated on my hearing aids to see how that affects things.