The cause of tinnitus, a persistent buzzing or ringing in the ears, is generally ambiguous. However, there is one thing experts agree on: you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also are dealing with hearing loss. Up to 90 percent of individuals who experience tinnitus also have hearing loss according to HIAA.
Your age, lifestyle, and genetics can all take part in the development of hearing loss as you most likely know. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some mild hearing loss can go unnoticed. Worse, even a slight case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of developing tinnitus.
Hearing Aids Won’t Cure Tinnitus But They Can Help
Tinnitus doesn’t have a cure. However, hearing aids can help you manage both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can reduce symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. Sixty percent of people struggling with tinnitus, in fact, saw relief of their symptoms, and twenty-two had considerable improvement.
When you can suddenly hear external sounds better because hearing aids have raised the volume, your tinnitus symptoms will be drowned out. The good news is that there are other, more sophisticated solutions beyond just traditional hearing aids to manage the symptoms related to tinnitus.
Types of Specialty Hearing Aids to Reduce Tinnitus Symptoms
Hearing aids work by gathering natural sounds from the environment around you and boosting them to a level that lets you hear. This simple technology is critical in teaching your hearing to receive certain stimulation by boosting sounds like the clattering of a ceiling fan or the rabble of a dinner party.
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 manufacturers even utilize 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 experience.
Other specialty devices attempt to blend your tinnitus in with the natural sounds you’re hearing. This approach will commonly use a white noise signal that a hearing professional can adjust to guarantee correct calibration for your ear and your disorder.
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, all of these specialized devices have a common aim of distracting the user 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 decrease symptoms and improve your quality of life.
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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