Scientists still haven’t identified the cause of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears. Hearing specialists, however, do agree that tinnitus is more prevalent in people who also have hearing loss.
As you probably know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the progression 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 stages, it often goes undetected. Unfortunately, your risk of experiencing hearing loss increases with even slight cases of hearing loss.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help address the symptoms
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can minimize symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. There are some fairly remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, in fact.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when dealing with tinnitus is often in sync with the type of hearing loss that person has. For instance, somebody who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus may suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. The concept is that the brain tries to compensate for the missing frequencies by creating tinnitus sounds in the same frequency range.
A traditional hearing aid can essentially hide the ringing or buzzing associated with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. The good news is, there are other, more advanced options beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Reduce symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids work by gathering natural sounds from your environment and boosting them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it may be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the din of a dinner party or the rattling of a ceiling fan, is critical 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 augment those amplification efforts and provide a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers endeavor to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is drowned out by pleasant, wind chime-like sounds generated by the most common 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 fine-tuned by a hearing specialist to help reduce your particular tinnitus symptoms..
The common aim of these methods is to help the user ignore tinnitus symptoms whether it’s through the use of white noise mechanisms, sound therapy, or blending.
It’s true that tinnitus can’t be cured, but for at least some of the 50 million dealing with the condition, hearing aids present an attractive possibility to reduce symptoms and live a better quality of life.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
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.