It’s often not clear what’s causing tinnitus (a ringing or buzzing in your ears). However, there is one thing experts agree on: you are more likely to develop tinnitus if you also suffer from hearing loss. According to HLAA as much as 90 percent of people who are dealing with tinnitus also have hearing loss.
As you most likely know, your genetics, age, and lifestyle can all be involved in the development of hearing loss. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some mild hearing loss can go undetected. Worse, even a minor case of hearing loss raises your risk and probability of developing tinnitus.
It’s Not a Cure, But Hearing Aids Can Help Treat Tinnitus
Tinnitus has no cure. However, your symptoms can be reduced and your life can be improved by using hearing aids to manage your hearing loss and tinnitus. In fact, one study showed that as much as 60 percent of tinnitus patients experienced relief when they used hearing aids, with 22 percent showing significant relief.
A conventional hearing aid can basically hide the ringing or buzzing caused by tinnitus by strengthening your ability to hear outside sounds, which basically drowns out the ringing. And, fortunately, traditional hearing aids aren’t the only solution as more advanced treatment methods are being produced.
Types of Specialty Hearing Aids to Reduce Tinnitus Symptoms
Hearing aids boost 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 rabble of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is crucial in teaching your brain to receive certain stimulations again.
You can enhance those amplification efforts by the combination of other methods, like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress reduction for a more complete approach to treatment.
Some hearing aid makers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to minimize the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can distract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers experience.
Blending the normal sounds you hear with your tinnitus sounds is the goal of other sophisticated hearing aid options. Your condition and ear have very personal needs and this approach will use a personalized white noise that will be calibrated by your hearing professional.
All of these approaches, from white noise therapies to sound therapies, use specialized hearing aid technology to distract the attention of the user away from paying attention to tinnitus noises.
Hearing aids can improve quality of life and decrease symptoms of tinnitus even if there isn’t any cure.
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