It’s often not clear what’s triggering tinnitus (a ringing or buzzing in your ears). However, there is one thing experts agree on: you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also are suffering from hearing loss. Up to 90 percent of individuals who experience tinnitus also have hearing loss according to HIAA.
As you most likely know, your genetics, age, and lifestyle can all be involved in the advancement of hearing loss. Often, minor cases of hearing loss go unnoticed and hearing loss, in general, isn’t always evident. Worse, even a slight case of hearing loss raises your risk and probability of developing tinnitus.
Hearing Aids Won’t Cure Tinnitus But They Can Help
There isn’t a cure for tinnitus. However, your symptoms can be reduced and your life can be improved by wearing hearing aids to address your hearing loss and tinnitus. Sixty percent of people struggling with tinnitus, in fact, experienced relief of their symptoms, and twenty-two had substantial improvement.
A traditional hearing aid can essentially hide the ringing or buzzing associated with tinnitus by strengthening your ability to hear other sounds, which effectively drowns out the ringing. Luckily there are other, more advanced solutions beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms linked to tinnitus.
Types of Specialized Hearing Aids to Lessen Tinnitus Symptoms
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from the environment around you and boosting them to a level that allows you to hear. This simple technology is crucial in teaching your hearing to receive specific stimulation by amplifying sounds like the clattering of a ceiling fan or the rabble of a dinner party.
You can take an even more complete approach to your tinnitus management by augmenting hearing aids with other techniques, like stress reduction, sound stimulation, and counseling.
Fractal tones and irregular rhythms are even being used by some hearing aid manufacturers. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can distract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers experience.
Blending the normal sounds you hear with your tinnitus sounds is the objective of other sophisticated hearing aid options. This strategy will commonly utilize a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can adjust to guarantee correct calibration for your ear and your disorder.
All of these strategies, from white noise therapies to sound therapies, use specialized hearing aid technology to distract the attention of the user away from paying attention to tinnitus noises.
It’s true that there isn’t any cure for tinnitus, but for at least some, hearing aids help lessen symptoms and improve your quality of life.
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References
- https://www.hearingloss.org/wp-content/uploads/HLAA_HearingLoss_Facts_Statistics.pdf?pdf=FactStats
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17956798
- https://www.ata.org/managing-your-tinnitus/treatment-options/hearing-aids
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6197965