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 principal factors that contribute to hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while it might seem as if the symptoms of hearing loss would be fairly obvious, when it’s still in the early stages, it frequently goes unnoticed. Worse, even a minor case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of developing tinnitus.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help address the symptoms
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. In fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are pretty remarkable.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is usually in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. As an example, if somebody has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will frequently hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. The idea 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 manage the symptoms associated with tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to decrease 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 hearing aids have a simple concept, they help train your brain to experience particular stimulation again by boosting noises like the rattle of a ceiling fan or the din of a dinner party.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and reducing stress can also be utilized to improve those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to reduce tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically irregular tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is drowned out by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones instead of simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Mixing natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the aim of other specialized devices. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be calibrated by a hearing specialist to help decrease your specific tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise system, each of these specialized devices has a common goal of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.
It’s true that there is no cure for tinnitus, but for at least some of the 50 million suffering from the condition, hearing aids present an alluring possibility to reduce symptoms and live a better quality of life.
Want to talk about your tinnitus with a hearing professional?
If you’re struggling with ringing or buzzing in the ears, take a look at our tinnitus section for more information on ways to reduce symptoms.