The cause of tinnitus, a continual ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long puzzled scientists. However, there is one thing that all hearing specialists agree on, you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also cope with 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 slight hearing loss can go unobserved. Unfortunately, your risk of developing hearing loss increases with even minor cases of hearing loss.
It’s not a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can reduce symptoms and enhance one’s quality of life. There are some rather remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, as a matter of fact.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is usually in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. For instance, a person who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus might suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. 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 effectively “masked” by a hearing aid which can drown out the offending sound and replace it with one that’s supposed to be heard. Fortunately, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Specialized hearing aids to reduce tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from your environment and boosting them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it might be simple in design, that amplification of noise, whether it’s the din of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is critical in teaching your brain to experience particular stimulations once more.
But you can enhance those amplification efforts with a blend of other techniques like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress reduction for a more comprehensive approach to treatment.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to decrease tinnitus symptoms by using irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically irregular tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. While white noise devices are available, the most common fractal tones sound somewhat like wind chimes that provide a soothing sound that drowns out the ringing.
Other specialty devices try to mix your tinnitus in with the environmental sounds you’re hearing. This approach will generally utilize a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can adjust to ensure proper calibration for your ear and your condition.
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 reduce the severity of the symptoms and enhance quality of life, which is an alluring feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Want to talk about your tinnitus with a hearing professional?
For more info on reducing tinnitus symptoms, check out our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.