Scientists still haven’t pinpointed the cause of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears. 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.
As you most likely know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the development of hearing loss. And while it might seem as if the symptoms of hearing loss would be pretty obvious, when it’s still in the early phases, it often goes unnoticed. Unfortunately, your risk of experiencing hearing loss increases with even mild cases of hearing loss.
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 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. 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 essentially “masked” by a hearing aid which can drown out the offending sound and replace it with one that’s supposed to be heard. Luckily, tinnitus symptoms can be treated in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Reduce symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids work by gathering natural sounds from the environment around you 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 certain 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 minimizing stress can also be utilized to enhance those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is drowned out by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most common fractal tones instead of simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialized devices try to blend your tinnitus in with the outside sounds you’re hearing. This strategy will typically use a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can program to ensure correct calibration for your ear and your condition.
The common objective of these strategies is to help the user disregard tinnitus symptoms whether it’s by employing white noise systems, sound therapy, or blending.
Though tinnitus has no cure, hearing aids can help reduce the intensity of the symptoms and enhance quality of life, which is an attractive feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
If you’re experiencing ringing or buzzing in the ears, take a look at our tinnitus section for more information on ways to minimize symptoms.