It’s often not clear what’s triggering tinnitus (a ringing or buzzing in your ears). But one thing we know for certain is that if you have hearing loss your probability of experiencing tinnitus rises. According to HLAA up to 90 percent of people who have tinnitus also have hearing loss.
As you most likely know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all be involved in the development of hearing loss. Often, minor instances of hearing loss go undetected and hearing loss, in general, isn’t always obvious. Even slight cases of hearing loss will increase your chance of tinnitus, making the situation even worse.
Hearing Aids Won’t Cure Tinnitus But They Can Help
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, your symptoms can be decreased and your life can be improved by wearing hearing aids to manage your hearing loss and tinnitus. Sixty percent of people coping with tinnitus, in fact, saw relief of their symptoms, and twenty-two had substantial improvement.
When you can suddenly hear external sounds better because hearing aids have raised the volume, your tinnitus symptoms will be drowned out. The good news is that there are other, more sophisticated solutions beyond just conventional hearing aids to manage the symptoms related to tinnitus.
Tinnitus Symptoms Will be Reduced by These Types of Specialized Hearing Aids
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from the environment around you and boosting them to a level that allows you to hear. Although it might be simple in design, that amplification of sound, be it the rabble of a dinner party or the clank of a ceiling fan, is crucial in training your brain to receive certain stimulations again.
You can take an even more complete approach to your tinnitus treatment by enhancing hearing aids with other strategies, 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 consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers experience.
Other specialized devices try to blend your tinnitus in with the natural sounds you’re hearing. This strategy will generally use a white noise signal that a hearing professional can adjust to guarantee correct calibration for your ear and your disorder.
All of these approaches, 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.
Hearing aids can improve quality of life and reduce symptoms of tinnitus even if there is no cure.
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
