The Flare Calmer does help me, actually. Not really with the tinnitus (mine is mild and it comes and goes, so far I can't tell that they help any with that) but they DO help with the sound sensitivity. Windows down in a car is intolerable for me, too, and I have trouble distinguishing speech if there is anything playing in the background (music, TV, etc.) and having multiple sound sources at once stresses me out. I have trouble making out words when watching TV, but if I turn it up loud enough to understand the words then the sounds level hurts my ears, so I have trouble hearing but am over sensitive to loud sounds, very furstrating. Sound in movie theaters is ALWAYS uncomfortably loud for me. Anyway the Flare Calmer ear inserts help with all of that, they dull the painful sounds and I can hear speech more clearly. The instruction say to wear them for 24 hours to get accustomed to them, and I really had to do that - I tried wearing them for short periods at first and I kept wanting to take them out, them seemed like ear plugs so I had the idea they were muffling sounds - but then when I took them out it was HARDER to hear and background sounds immediately become more annoying. I'm still somewhat getting used to them but they really do calm down the impact of things like open car windows, and now I can actually talk to someone while the TV is playing without being desperate to mute it or turn it off so I can hear the other person. I just saw that they have a new version that is translucent instead of dark gray so I ordered those, I was a little self conscious about looking like I was wearing hearing aids and I think the new ones will be a lot harder to see.
