The cause of tinnitus, a continual ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long perplexed scientists. However, there is one thing that all hearing professionals agree on, you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also cope with hearing loss.
As you probably know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the progression of hearing loss. And while many of us think of hearing loss as being obvious, the reality is that some minor hearing loss can go unobserved. Worse, even a slight case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help manage the symptoms
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can manage both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can minimize symptoms and enhance one’s quality of life. There are some pretty remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, as a matter of fact.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when coping with tinnitus is usually in sync with the type of hearing loss that person encounters. As an example, if someone has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will often hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. The idea is that the brain tries to compensate for the missing frequencies by producing tinnitus sounds in the same frequency range.
Tinnitus sounds can be effectively “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 options beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to decrease tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by picking up natural sounds from your environment and amplifying them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it may be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the din of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is crucial in teaching your brain to receive particular stimulations once more.
But you can enhance those amplification endeavors with a combination of other methods like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress management for a more complete approach to treatment.
Some hearing aid manufacturers endeavor to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically irregular tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is overwhelmed by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones instead of simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialty devices attempt to mix your tinnitus in with the natural sounds you’re hearing. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be fine-tuned by a hearing specialist to help lessen 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 has no cure, 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.
Want to talk about your tinnitus with a hearing professional?
If you’re struggling with ringing or buzzing in the ears, check out our tinnitus section for more information on ways to reduce symptoms.
