Scientists still haven’t pinpointed the cause of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears. However, there is one thing that all hearing specialists agree on, you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also cope with hearing loss.
As you probably know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the progression of hearing loss. And while many of us think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some slight hearing loss can go undetected. Unfortunately, your risk of developing hearing loss increases with even mild cases of hearing loss.
It’s not a cure, but hearing aids can help treat tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved as well as quality of life by using hearing aids. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are pretty remarkable.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when dealing with tinnitus is typically in sync with the type of hearing loss that person has. As an example, if someone has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will frequently hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. The concept is that the brain tries to compensate for the missing frequencies by generating tinnitus sounds in the same frequency range.
Tinnitus sounds can be essentially “masked” by a hearing aid which can drown out the offending sound and replace it with one that’s supposed to be heard. The good news is, there are other, more advanced options beyond just traditional hearing aids to manage the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Reduce symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids detect environmental sounds and boost frequencies you can’t hear very well. Even though it might be simple in design, that amplification of noise, whether it’s the din of a dinner party or the rattling of a ceiling fan, is essential in teaching your brain to receive certain stimulations once more.
But you can enhance those amplification efforts with a mix of other strategies like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress management for a more extensive approach to treatment.
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. While white noise devices are available, the most common fractal tones are similar to wind chimes that provide a pleasant sound that drowns out the ringing.
Other specialty devices attempt to mix your tinnitus in with the environmental sounds you’re hearing. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be fine-tuned by a hearing specialist to help decrease your specific tinnitus symptoms..
The common aim of these methods is to help the user ignore 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 severity of the symptoms and improve quality of life, which is an alluring feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Want to talk about your tinnitus with a hearing professional?
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.
