Scientists still haven’t identified 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 suffer from hearing loss.
Some of the principal factors that contribute to hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while it might seem as if the symptoms of hearing loss would be rather obvious, when it’s still in the early stages, it frequently goes unnoticed. Unfortunately, your risk of developing hearing loss increases with even mild cases of hearing loss.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help treat the symptoms
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved along with quality of life by using hearing aids. There are some rather remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, in fact.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing one hears when coping with tinnitus is usually in sync with the type of hearing loss that person encounters. As an example, if somebody has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will usually hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. Some individuals believe this parallel to be a result of the brain attempting to compensate for a lack of acoustic activation at that level by producing a similarly pitched tone of its own.
A traditional hearing aid can essentially hide the ringing or buzzing associated with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Fortunately, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Reduce symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids detect environmental sounds and amplify frequencies you have trouble hearing. 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 crucial in teaching your brain to experience certain stimulations once more.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and decreasing stress can also be used to improve those amplification efforts and provide a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers endeavor to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. Tinnitus sufferers typically hear tones that are consistent and regular which can sometimes be interrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. While white noise devices are available, the most prevalent fractal tones sound somewhat like wind chimes that supply a pleasant sound that overwhelms the ringing.
Blending natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the goal of other specialized devices. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be fine-tuned by a hearing specialist to help lessen your specific tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise system, each of these specialized devices has a common objective of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.
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 specialist?
If you’re struggling with ringing or buzzing in the ears, check out our tinnitus section for more information on ways to decrease symptoms.