Around one out of every seven individuals are estimated to deal with tinnitus. That puts the overall number in the millions. That’s… a lot of people, both in actual terms and relative to the general population, and in a few countries, the amount of the population who experience tinnitus is even more alarming.
True, tinnitus isn’t always chronic. But if you’re coping with chronic tinnitus symptoms it becomes crucial to find a remedy as soon as possible. One of the most practical of such remedies is already quite common: hearing aids.
Hearing loss and tinnitus are connected but distinct conditions. It’s possible to have tinnitus with normal hearing or to have hearing loss without also getting tinnitus. But both conditions coexist frequently enough that hearing aids have become a dependable solution, managing hearing loss and ending tinnitus all at once.
How Hearing Aids Can Help Tinnitus
Hearing aids have, based on one survey, been documented to give relief of tinnitus symptoms for up to 60% of participants. For 22% of those individuals, the relief was significant. However, hearing aids aren’t manufactured specifically to treat tinnitus. The benefits appear to come by association. As such, hearing aids appear to be most effective if you have tinnitus and hearing loss.
Here’s how tinnitus symptoms can be decreased with hearing aids:
- Everything gets a little bit louder: When you have hearing loss, the volume of the outside world (or, at least, particular wavelengths of the world) can fade away and become more silent. When that happens the ringing in your ears becomes much more noticeable. Hearing loss is not affecting the ringing so it becomes the most pronounced thing you hear. A hearing aid can increase that ambient sound, helping to drown out the buzzing or ringing that was so prominent before. As you tune out your tinnitus, it becomes less of an issue.
- It becomes less difficult to engage in conversations: Contemporary hearing aids are particularly effective at identifying human speech and amplifying those sounds. This means carrying on a conversation can become much easier once you’re routinely using your devices. You will be more involved with your co-worker’s story about their kids and better able to participate with your spouse about how their day went. When you have a healthy interactive social life tinnitus can appear to disappear into the background. Sometimes, tinnitus is intensified by stress so being able to socialize can helps in this way too.
- Your brain is getting an auditory workout: When you have hearing loss, those parts of your brain charged with interpreting sounds can frequently suffer from stress, fatigue, or atrophy. Wearing a hearing aid can keep the audio centers of your brain flexible and healthy, which as a result can help reduce certain tinnitus symptoms you may be experiencing.
The Benefits of Modern Hearing Aids
Modern hearing aids are smart. They come with innovative hearing assistance algorithms and the latest technology. But the effectiveness of modern hearing aids is attained in part because each device can be refined and calibrated on a patient-by-patient basis (they can even sense the level of background noise and automatically recalibrate accordingly).
Whatever your specific hearing levels are, personalized hearing aids can effortlessly be calibrated to them. The buzzing or humming is more likely to be successfully hidden if your hearing aid is dialed in to work best for you.
The Best Way to Stop Tinnitus
This will probably depend on your level of hearing impairment. There are still treatment options for your tinnitus even if you don’t have any hearing loss. That could mean custom-created masking devices, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or medication.
But, hearing aids may be able to take care of both situations if you have tinnitus and hearing loss at the same time. Stop tinnitus from making your life difficult by managing your hearing loss with a good pair of hearing aids.