The cause of tinnitus, a continual ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long baffled scientists. Hearing specialists, however, do agree that tinnitus is more prevalent in people who also have hearing loss.
Some of the principal factors that play a role in hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while many of us think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some slight hearing loss can go undetected. Still worse, even a mild case of hearing loss increases your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help treat tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can decrease symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. In fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are pretty remarkable.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when coping with tinnitus is usually in sync with the type of hearing loss that person has. For instance, someone who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus might suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. Some individuals believe this parallel to be a result of the brain trying to compensate for a lack of acoustic activation at that level by producing a similarly pitched tone of its own.
A traditional hearing aid can essentially hide the ringing or buzzing associated with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Fortunately, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Lessen symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
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 boosting noises like the rattling of a ceiling fan or the din of a dinner party.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and reducing stress can also be used to enhance those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers endeavor to reduce tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. Tinnitus sufferers usually hear tones that are consistent and regular which can sometimes be interrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. The ringing is drowned out by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones instead of basic white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialized devices try to blend your tinnitus in with the outside sounds you’re hearing. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be calibrated by a hearing specialist to help decrease your specific tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise system, each of these specialized devices has a common goal of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.
Though tinnitus can’t be cured, hearing aids can help decrease the intensity of the symptoms and improve quality of life, which is an attractive feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
If you’re experiencing ringing or buzzing in the ears, take a look at our tinnitus section for more information on ways to reduce symptoms.
