The cause of tinnitus, a continual ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long baffled scientists. However, there is one thing that all hearing specialists 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 development of hearing loss. And while it may seem as if the symptoms of hearing loss would be rather obvious, when it’s still in the early stages, it frequently 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 treat 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 pretty remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, in fact.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is often in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. As an example, if somebody has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will frequently hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. 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 effectively hide the ringing or buzzing connected with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Luckily, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Reduce symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from your environment and amplifying 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 essential in teaching your brain to receive particular stimulations again.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and decreasing stress can also be used to augment those amplification efforts and provide a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to reduce tinnitus symptoms by using irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically irregular tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is overwhelmed by soothing, wind chime-like sounds generated by the most common fractal tones instead of basic white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialty devices try to mix your tinnitus in with the environmental sounds you’re hearing. This strategy will generally use a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can adjust to ensure accurate calibration for your ear and your condition.
The common intent 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 suffering from the condition, hearing aids provide an attractive possibility to reduce symptoms and improve 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 decrease symptoms.