The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long perplexed scientists. However, there is one thing that all hearing professionals agree on, you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also suffer from hearing loss.
As you most likely know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the progression of hearing loss. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some slight hearing loss can go undetected. Still worse, even a minor case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
It’s not a cure, but hearing aids can help treat tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved as well as quality of life by using hearing aids. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are pretty remarkable.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing one hears when coping with tinnitus is usually in sync with the type of hearing loss that person encounters. As an example, if someone has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will often hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. 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. The good news is, there are other, more advanced options beyond just traditional hearing aids to manage the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to decrease tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids detect environmental sounds and amplify frequencies you can’t hear very well. Even though hearing aids have a simple concept, they help teach your brain to experience certain stimulation again by amplifying noises like the rattle of a ceiling fan or the buzz of a dinner party.
But you can improve those amplification efforts with a mix of other methods like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress reduction for a more complete approach to treatment.
Some hearing aid manufacturers endeavor to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. Tinnitus sufferers typically hear tones that are constant and regular which can sometimes be interrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. While white noise devices are available, the most common fractal tones sound somewhat like wind chimes that supply a pleasant sound that drowns out the ringing.
Other specialty devices attempt to mix your tinnitus in with the natural sounds you’re hearing. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be fine-tuned by a hearing specialist to help reduce your specific tinnitus symptoms..
The common goal of these methods is to help the user disregard tinnitus symptoms whether it’s through the use of white noise systems, 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.
Want to talk about your tinnitus with a hearing specialist?
If you’re struggling with ringing or buzzing in the ears, take a look at our tinnitus section for more information on ways to decrease symptoms.