The cause of tinnitus, a continual ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long puzzled scientists. Hearing specialists, however, do agree that tinnitus is more prevalent in people who also have hearing loss.
Some of the principal factors that play a role in hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while it might seem as if the symptoms of hearing loss would be pretty obvious, when it’s still in the early phases, it often goes unnoticed. Still worse, even a mild case of hearing loss increases your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing aids can manage both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can decrease symptoms and enhance one’s quality of life. In fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are fairly remarkable.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is often in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. As an example, if somebody has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will frequently hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. Some individuals believe this parallel to be a consequence of the brain attempting to compensate for a lack of acoustic stimulation at that level by producing a similarly pitched tone of its own.
A traditional hearing aid can effectively hide the ringing or buzzing connected with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Luckily, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Lessen symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from the environment around you and amplifying them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it might be simple in design, that amplification of noise, whether it’s the din of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is crucial in teaching your brain to receive certain stimulations once more.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and minimizing stress can also be used to improve those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to decrease tinnitus symptoms by using irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. While white noise devices are available, the most prevalent fractal tones sound somewhat like wind chimes that provide a pleasant sound that drowns out the ringing.
Other specialty devices attempt to blend your tinnitus in with the environmental 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 mechanism, each of these specialized devices has a common goal 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 discuss your tinnitus with a hearing specialist?
If you’re experiencing ringing or buzzing in the ears, check out our tinnitus section for more information on ways to decrease symptoms.
