The cause of tinnitus, a persistent 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 development of hearing loss. And while it may seem like the symptoms of hearing loss would be fairly obvious, when it’s still in the early stages, it frequently goes undetected. Unfortunately, your risk of experiencing hearing loss increases with even mild cases of hearing loss.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help address the symptoms
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can minimize symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. There are some pretty remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, as a matter of fact.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is usually in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. For instance, a person who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus might suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. The idea is that the brain tries to compensate for the missing frequencies by generating 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. Here’s the good thing, there are other, more advanced solutions beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms associated with tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to reduce tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by picking up natural sounds from the environment around you and boosting 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 hum of a dinner party or the rattling of a ceiling fan, is critical in teaching your brain to receive particular stimulations again.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and decreasing stress can also be used to augment those amplification efforts and provide a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers endeavor to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is drowned out by pleasant, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones instead of simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Blending natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the goal of other specialized devices. This approach will typically use a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can program to ensure correct calibration for your ear and your condition.
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, each of these specialized devices has a common objective 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 alluring feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
For more information on reducing tinnitus symptoms, take a look at our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.