The cause of tinnitus, a continual ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long perplexed 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 progression 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 phases, it often goes unnoticed. 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 loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved along with quality of life by using hearing aids. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are rather 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 encounters. For instance, somebody who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus may suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. Some people believe this parallel to be a consequence of the brain trying to compensate for a lack of acoustic stimulation at that level by producing a similarly pitched tone of its own.
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.
Specialized hearing aids to reduce tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from the environment around you and boosting them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though hearing aids have a simple concept, they help train your brain to receive particular stimulation again by boosting noises like the rattling of a ceiling fan or the buzz of a dinner party.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and minimizing stress can also be utilized to enhance those amplification efforts and supply a more complete treatment approach.
Some manufacturers even use the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is drowned out by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most common fractal tones rather than simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Mixing natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the goal of other specialized devices. This strategy will typically utilize a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can adjust to ensure accurate calibration for your ear and your condition.
The common goal of these methods is to help the user disregard tinnitus symptoms whether it’s through the use of white noise mechanisms, sound therapy, or blending.
Though tinnitus has no cure, hearing aids can help reduce the intensity of the symptoms and enhance quality of life, which is an alluring feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
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.