It’s generally unclear what’s triggering tinnitus (a buzzing or ringing in your ears). However, there is one thing experts agree on: you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also are suffering from hearing loss. Up to 90% of people who experience tinnitus also have hearing loss according to HIAA.
As you probably realize, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the advancement of hearing loss. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the reality is that some mild hearing loss can go unnoticed. Even worse, even a minor case of hearing loss increases your risk and likelihood of developing tinnitus.
Hearing Aids Won’t Cure Tinnitus But They Will Help
There isn’t a cure for tinnitus. However, your symptoms can be minimized and your life can be improved by using hearing aids to treat your hearing loss and tinnitus. Sixty percent of people dealing with tinnitus, in fact, saw relief of their symptoms, and twenty-two had substantial improvement.
A traditional hearing aid can essentially hide the buzzing or ringing caused by tinnitus by improving your ability to hear outside sounds, which basically drowns out the ringing. Luckily there are other, more sophisticated solutions beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms associated with tinnitus.
Tinnitus Symptoms Will be Decreased by These Types of Specialty Hearing Aids
Hearing aids increase the volume of environmental sounds to the point that you can hear them clearly. Although it may be simple in design, that amplification of sound, be it the hum of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is critical in teaching your brain to receive certain stimulations again.
You can take an even more comprehensive approach to your tinnitus management by augmenting hearing aids with other strategies, like stress reduction, sound stimulation, and counseling.
Some hearing aid makers even use the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. The consistent tone of tinnitus can be interrupted by the uneven tones of these inconsistent rhythms.
Other specialized devices attempt to blend your tinnitus in with the normal sounds you’re hearing. This approach will commonly utilize a white noise signal that a hearing expert can adjust to ensure proper calibration for your ear and your disorder.
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, all of these specialized devices have a common goal of distracting the user away from the buzzing or ringing of tinnitus.
It’s true that there isn’t any cure for tinnitus, but for at least some, hearing aids help lessen symptoms and improve your quality of life.
Call Today to Set Up an Appointment
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
