The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long baffled 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 reality is that some minor hearing loss can go unobserved. Worse, even a mild case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can decrease symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are pretty remarkable.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when dealing with tinnitus is usually in sync with the type of hearing loss that person has. As an example, if someone has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will often hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. The concept is that the brain tries to compensate for the missing frequencies by generating 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. Here’s the good thing, there are other, more advanced options beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms associated with tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to decrease tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids detect environmental sounds and boost frequencies you can’t hear very well. Even though it might be simple in design, that amplification of noise, whether it’s the hum of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is essential in teaching your brain to receive particular stimulations again.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and minimizing stress can also be utilized to enhance those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to lessen the symptoms of tinnitus. Tinnitus sufferers usually hear tones that are consistent 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 drowns out 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 calibrated 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 goal of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.
Though tinnitus can’t be cured, hearing aids can help reduce 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?
If you’re struggling with ringing or buzzing in the ears, check out our tinnitus section for more information on ways to reduce symptoms.