The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long baffled scientists. Hearing specialists, however, do agree that tinnitus is more prevalent in people who also have hearing loss.
As you most likely know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the progression of hearing loss. And while many individuals think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some mild hearing loss can go unnoticed. Unfortunately, your risk of developing hearing loss increases with even mild cases of hearing loss.
It’s not a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can manage both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can reduce symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are pretty remarkable.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when dealing with tinnitus is normally in sync with the type of hearing loss that person encounters. For instance, somebody who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus might suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. Some people believe this parallel to be a consequence of the brain attempting to compensate for a lack of acoustic activation at that level by producing a similarly pitched tone of its own.
Tinnitus sounds can be essentially “masked” by a hearing aid which can drown out the offending sound and replace it with one that’s supposed to be heard. The good news is, there are other, more advanced solutions beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms associated with tinnitus.
Reduce symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids pick up environmental sounds and boost frequencies you can’t hear very well. Even though hearing aids have a simple concept, they help train your brain to experience certain stimulation again by amplifying noises like the rattle of a ceiling fan or the buzz of a dinner party.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and reducing stress can also be used to improve those amplification efforts and provide a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. Tinnitus sufferers usually hear tones that are consistent and regular which can sometimes be disrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. While white noise devices are available, the most prevalent fractal tones sound somewhat like wind chimes that supply a soothing sound that drowns out the ringing.
Other specialized devices attempt to blend your tinnitus in with the outside sounds you’re hearing. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be calibrated by a hearing specialist to help reduce your particular tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise system, each of these specialized devices has a common objective of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.
Though tinnitus can’t be cured, hearing aids can help decrease the severity of the symptoms and enhance quality of life, which is an attractive feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Want to talk about your tinnitus with a hearing specialist?
For more information on reducing tinnitus symptoms, take a look at our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.