Scientists still haven’t identified the cause of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears. Hearing specialists, however, do agree that tinnitus is more prevalent in people who also have hearing loss.
As you most likely know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all contribute to the progression of hearing loss. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some slight hearing loss can go unnoticed. Unfortunately, your risk of developing hearing loss increases with even slight cases of hearing loss.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help address the symptoms
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved as well as quality of life by using hearing aids. In fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are fairly remarkable.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when dealing with tinnitus is normally in sync with the type of hearing loss that person encounters. As an example, if someone has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will usually hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. The idea 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. 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 work by picking up natural sounds from your environment and boosting them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it may be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the hum of a dinner party or the rattling of a ceiling fan, is critical in teaching your brain to receive certain stimulations again.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and minimizing stress can also be utilized to improve those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to reduce the symptoms of tinnitus. Tinnitus sufferers usually hear tones that are consistent and regular which can sometimes be disrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. The ringing is overwhelmed by pleasant, wind chime-like sounds generated by the most prevalent fractal tones instead of simple 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 reduce your particular 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 enhance 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 struggling with ringing or buzzing in the ears, check out our tinnitus section for more information on ways to minimize symptoms.
