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.
Some of the principal factors that contribute to hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while it might seem like the symptoms of hearing loss would be pretty obvious, when it’s still in the early stages, it frequently goes undetected. Still worse, even a minor case of hearing loss increases your risk and likelihood of developing tinnitus.
It’s not a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can reduce symptoms and enhance one’s quality of life. There are some pretty remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, in fact.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when coping with tinnitus is often in sync with the type of hearing loss that person has. For instance, a person 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 effectively hide the ringing or buzzing connected with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Here’s the good thing, there are other, more advanced options beyond just traditional hearing aids to treat the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Lessen symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids work by gathering natural sounds from the environment around you and amplifying them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it might be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the hum of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is crucial in training 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 supply a more complete treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to reduce tinnitus symptoms by using irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. While white noise devices are available, the most common fractal tones are similar to wind chimes that provide a pleasant sound that overwhelms the ringing.
Blending natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the goal of other specialized devices. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be calibrated by a hearing specialist to help reduce your specific tinnitus symptoms..
The common objective of these strategies is to help the user ignore tinnitus symptoms whether it’s by employing white noise systems, sound therapy, or blending.
It’s true that there is no cure for tinnitus, 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?
For more info on reducing tinnitus symptoms, take a look at our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.