The cause of tinnitus, a constant buzzing or ringing in the ears, is often ambiguous. However, there is one thing experts agree on: you are more likely to develop tinnitus if you also suffer from hearing loss. Up to 90 percent of individuals who suffer from tinnitus also have hearing loss according to HIAA.
Your age, lifestyle, and genetics can all take part in the development of hearing loss as you probably know. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the reality is that some mild hearing loss can go unnoticed. Worse, even a slight case of hearing loss increases your risk and likelihood of developing tinnitus.
It’s Not a Cure, But Hearing Aids Can Help Manage Tinnitus
Tinnitus has no cure. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can decrease symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. Sixty percent of people dealing with tinnitus, in fact, experienced relief of their symptoms, and twenty-two had significant improvement.
A conventional hearing aid can essentially hide the buzzing or ringing associated with tinnitus by strengthening your ability to hear other sounds, which basically drowns out the ringing. The good news is that there are other, more advanced solutions beyond just traditional 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 world around you and boosting them to a level that lets you hear. This simple technology is crucial in teaching your hearing to receive certain stimulation by amplifying sounds like the rattle of a ceiling fan or the hum of a dinner party.
You can enhance those amplification efforts by the combination of other strategies, like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress reduction for a more comprehensive approach to treatment.
Some hearing aid makers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to minimize the symptoms of tinnitus. The consistent tone of tinnitus can be interrupted by the uneven tones of these inconsistent rhythms.
Blending the normal sounds you hear with your tinnitus sounds is the objective of other sophisticated hearing aid options. This approach will generally utilize a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can adjust to ensure correct calibration for your ear and your disorder.
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, all of these specialized technologies have a common objective 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 decrease symptoms and improve your quality of life.
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