Oto Tinnitus Program

Understanding Tinnitus

Tinnitus is sound you hear that has no external source. For many people it is mild. For others it disrupts sleep, makes it hard to concentrate, and becomes difficult to ignore, particularly in quiet rooms and at the end of the day.

What tends to make the difference is not the volume of the sound itself but how much attention and distress it pulls. That is what a structured program is designed to work on.

What Is Oto?

Oto is a smartphone app for adults with tinnitus, used alongside care from your audiologist. It is included in the tinnitus care plan for most of the patients we see.

The daily sessions are built around therapeutic sound, with CBT-based techniques alongside. The approach is recommended for tinnitus management by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, by NICE in the UK, 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 the program on Oto's website.

Oto is for adults aged 18 and over.

How the Oto Program Works

Initial Assessment and Setup

Oto is not something you start on your own. We recommend it after a tinnitus evaluation, once we understand your hearing, your tinnitus, and how it is affecting you. If it is a good fit, we set you up in the clinic and answer your questions before you leave.

Daily Sessions

The program runs over eight weeks. Each day takes around ten minutes: a guided audio session you can do at home, in the car, or before bed. It is structured, so you always know what comes next, and you work through it at your own pace.

You also have in-app access to a tinnitus coach between sessions.

Follow-Up and Progress Reviews

We check in with you partway through the program and again at the end. We repeat the same questionnaire we used at your evaluation so we can compare against your baseline rather than relying on memory. If something is not working, we adjust the plan.

Who Can Benefit from Oto?

Oto is part of the tinnitus care plan for most of the adults we see, whether or not they are also using Lenire.

It is particularly useful if tinnitus is affecting your sleep, your concentration, or your mood, because the daily sessions give you something structured to work through rather than waiting it out.

If you are using Lenire, Oto runs alongside it. The two are not alternatives, and most of our Lenire patients use both. If you are not a candidate for Lenire on assessment, or you would rather not use a device, Oto is used on its own.

It is less likely to be the right starting point if your tinnitus is new and sudden, in one ear only, or pulsing in time with your heartbeat. Those need investigating first, which is what your evaluation is for.

Schedule Your Tinnitus Consultation

The first step is a tinnitus evaluation so we can see the full picture and build the right plan for you. Call the clinic or book online.