Scientists still haven’t determined the cause of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears. However, there is one thing that all hearing professionals 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 development of hearing loss. And while it might seem like the symptoms of hearing loss would be rather obvious, when it’s still in the early phases, it often goes undetected. Worse, even a slight case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help treat tinnitus
Tinnitus can’t be cured. 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 frequency range that a person loses hearing in is often in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. As an example, if someone has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will frequently hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. The idea is that the brain tries to compensate for the missing frequencies by creating tinnitus sounds in the same frequency range.
A traditional hearing aid can essentially hide the ringing or buzzing connected with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Here’s the good thing, there are other, more advanced solutions beyond just traditional hearing aids to manage the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to reduce tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by gathering natural sounds from your environment and boosting them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it might be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the hum of a dinner party or the rattling of a ceiling fan, is crucial in training your brain to receive particular stimulations once more.
But you can improve those amplification endeavors with a combination of other methods like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress management for a more extensive approach to treatment.
Some manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. Tinnitus sufferers typically hear tones that are constant and regular which can sometimes be disrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. While white noise devices are available, the most prevalent fractal tones are similar to wind chimes that supply a pleasant sound that drowns out the ringing.
Other specialized devices attempt to blend your tinnitus in with the natural 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 lessen your particular tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, each of these specialized devices has a common aim of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.
Though tinnitus can’t be cured, hearing aids can help reduce the intensity of the symptoms and improve 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 reduce symptoms.