Around one out of every seven individuals are estimated to deal with tinnitus. That puts the total number in the millions. In a few countries, the numbers are even higher and that’s pretty startling.
Sometimes tinnitus is goes away on it’s own. But if you’re coping with persistent tinnitus symptoms it becomes imperative to find a treatment as soon as you can. Fortunately, there is a remedy that has proven to be really effective: hearing aids.
Hearing loss and tinnitus are connected but distinct conditions. It’s possible to experience tinnitus with normal hearing or to have hearing loss without also developing tinnitus. But if you’re going through the two conditions together, which is relatively common, hearing aids can handle both at the same time.
How Hearing Aids Can Help Tinnitus
Hearing aids have, based on one study, been documented to give tinnitus relief to up to 60% of participants. For 22% of those individuals, the relief was significant. Despite this, hearing aids are actually designed to deal with hearing loss not specifically tinnitus. Association appears to be the main reason for this benefit. As such, hearing aids appear to be most practical if you have tinnitus and hearing loss.
Here’s how hearing aids can help stop tinnitus symptoms:
- Everything gets a little bit louder: The volume of some of the wavelengths of the world become quieter when you’re suffering from hearing loss. When that occurs the ringing in your ears becomes much more obvious. Hearing loss is not reducing the ringing so it becomes the most pronounced thing you hear. A hearing aid can enhance that ambient sound, helping to mask the ringing or buzzing that was so prominent before. Tinnitus becomes less of an issue as you pay less attention to it.
- It gets easier to engage in conversations: Increasing the volume of human speech is something contemporary hearing aids are particularly good at. So once you’re using your hearing aids on a regular basis, having conversations gets much easier. You can keep up with the story Carl is telling at happy hour or listen to what Nancy is excited about at work. The more you interact with others, the more social you are, the less you’ll detect your tinnitus. Sometimes, tinnitus is worsened by stress so being able to socialize can helps in this way too.
- Your brain is getting an auditory workout: Hearing loss has been confirmed to put stress on cognitive function. Tinnitus symptoms you may be experiencing can be reduced when the brain is in a healthy flexible condition and hearing aids can help keep it that way.
Modern Hearing Aids Come With Several Benefits
Modern hearing aids are smart. To some degree, that’s because they feature the newest technologies and hearing assistance algorithms. But it’s the ability to customize a hearing aid to the distinct user’s requirements that makes modern hearing aids so effective (sometimes, they recalibrate based on the level of background noise).
Customizing hearing aids means that the sensitivity and output signals can easily be adjusted to the specific hearing levels you may have. The humming or buzzing is more likely to be effectively obscured if your hearing aid is dialed in to work best for you.
What is The Best Way to End Tinnitus?
Your level of hearing loss will dictate what’s right for you. If you haven’t had any hearing loss, you’ll still have accessible treatment options for your tinnitus. Medication, cognitive behavioral therapy, or a custom masking device are some possible solutions.
But, if you’re one of the many people out there who happen to have both hearing loss and tinnitus, a pair of hearing aids may be able to do the old two-birds-one-stone thing. Treating your hearing loss with a good set of hearing aids can often stop tinnitus from making your life miserable.