The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long perplexed scientists. Hearing specialists, however, do agree that tinnitus is more prevalent in people who also have hearing loss.
Some of the primary factors that play a role in hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some minor hearing loss can go undetected. Still worse, even a slight case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help treat tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved along with quality of life by using hearing aids. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are pretty remarkable.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is often in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. As an example, if someone has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will frequently hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. The idea is that the brain tries to compensate for the missing frequencies by creating tinnitus sounds in the same frequency range.
Tinnitus sounds can be essentially “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 options beyond just traditional hearing aids to manage the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to decrease tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from your environment and amplifying them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though hearing aids have a simple concept, they help teach your brain to experience particular stimulation again by boosting noises like the rattling of a ceiling fan or the buzz of a dinner party.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and decreasing stress can also be utilized to augment those amplification efforts and provide a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers endeavor to decrease tinnitus symptoms by using irregular rhythms of fractal tones. Tinnitus sufferers typically hear tones that are constant and regular which can sometimes be interrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. While white noise devices are available, the most prevalent fractal tones are similar to wind chimes that supply a pleasant sound that overwhelms the ringing.
Blending natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the objective of other specialized devices. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be fine-tuned by a hearing specialist to help lessen your specific tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, each of these specialized devices has a common aim of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.
Though tinnitus has no cure, hearing aids can help decrease the intensity of the symptoms and improve quality of life, which is an alluring feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
For more info on reducing tinnitus symptoms, take a look at our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.
