It’s generally unclear what’s triggering tinnitus (a ringing or buzzing in your ears). But one thing we know for sure is that if you have hearing loss your chance of developing tinnitus goes up. Up to 90% of individuals who are afflicted by tinnitus also have hearing loss according to HIAA.
As you most likely realize, your genetics, age, and lifestyle can all be involved in the development of hearing loss. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the reality is that some minor hearing loss can go unnoticed. Even slight cases of hearing loss will raise your chance of tinnitus, making the situation even worse.
Hearing Aids Won’t Cure Tinnitus But They Can Help
There isn’t a cure for tinnitus. However, your symptoms can be reduced and your life can be improved by wearing hearing aids to treat your hearing loss and tinnitus. Sixty percent of people coping with tinnitus, in fact, saw relief of their symptoms, and twenty-two had considerable improvement.
A conventional hearing aid can essentially hide the buzzing or ringing associated with tinnitus by strengthening your ability to hear outside sounds, which essentially drowns out the ringing. And, fortunately, conventional hearing aids aren’t the only solution as more advanced treatment methods are being produced.
Tinnitus Symptoms Will be Reduced by These Types of Specialty Hearing Aids
Hearing aids boost the volume of environmental sounds to the point that you can hear them clearly. Although 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 teaching your brain to receive certain stimulations again.
You can take an even more comprehensive approach to your tinnitus treatment by augmenting hearing aids with other strategies, like stress reduction, sound stimulation, and counseling.
Some hearing aid manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to minimize the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can distract from the persistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers experience.
Other specialty devices attempt to blend your tinnitus in with the natural sounds you’re hearing. This strategy will commonly use a white noise signal that a hearing professional can adjust to ensure proper calibration for your ear and your condition.
All of these approaches, from white noise therapies to sound therapies, use specialized hearing aid technology to distract the attention of the user away from focusing on tinnitus noises.
Hearing aids can improve quality of life and decrease symptoms of tinnitus even if there is no cure.
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References
- https://www.hearingloss.org/wp-content/uploads/HLAA_HearingLoss_Facts_Statistics.pdf?pdf=FactStats
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17956798
- https://www.ata.org/managing-your-tinnitus/treatment-options/hearing-aids
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6197965