It’s often not clear what’s triggering tinnitus (a ringing or buzzing in your ears). However, there is one thing researchers agree on: you are more likely to develop tinnitus if you also are dealing with hearing loss. Up to 90% of people who experience tinnitus also have hearing loss according to HIAA.
As you most likely realize, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all be involved in the advancement of hearing loss. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some minor hearing loss can go undetected. Worse, even a slight 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, 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 considerable improvement.
A traditional hearing aid can essentially hide the ringing or buzzing associated with tinnitus by improving your ability to hear outside sounds, which basically drowns out the ringing. Luckily there are other, more sophisticated solutions beyond just conventional hearing aids to treat the symptoms associated with tinnitus.
Types of Specialty Hearing Aids to Lessen Tinnitus Symptoms
Hearing aids boost the volume of environmental sounds to the point that you can hear them clearly. Even though it may be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the hum of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is crucial in training your brain to receive certain stimulations again.
You can augment 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 use the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can distract from the persistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear.
Other specialty devices attempt to blend your tinnitus in with the natural sounds you’re hearing. Your condition and ear have very personal needs and this technique will use a customized white noise that will be calibrated by a hearing professional.
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, all of these specialized devices have a common aim of distracting the attention away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.
It’s true that there isn’t any cure for tinnitus, but for at least some, hearing aids help reduce 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
