Scientists still haven’t determined the cause of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears. 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 many of us think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some mild hearing loss can go unobserved. 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
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can minimize symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are fairly remarkable.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is usually in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. For example, someone who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus may suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. 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 generating a similarly pitched tone of its own.
A traditional hearing aid can essentially hide the ringing or buzzing associated with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Here’s the good thing, there are other, more advanced options beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Lessen symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids pick up environmental sounds and amplify frequencies you can’t hear very well. Even though it may be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the din of a dinner party or the rattling of a ceiling fan, is critical in training your brain to experience particular stimulations again.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and reducing stress can also be used to enhance those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to reduce tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is overwhelmed by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones rather than simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialized 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 decrease your particular tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise system, 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 improve quality of life, which is an attractive feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
For more info on decreasing tinnitus symptoms, check out our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.