Scientists still haven’t determined 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.
Some of the principal factors that play a role in hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while many of us think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some minor hearing loss can go unnoticed. Still worse, even a minor case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can reduce symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. In fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are fairly remarkable.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing one hears when dealing with tinnitus is often in sync with the type of hearing loss that person has. As an example, if somebody has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will often hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. Some people believe this parallel to be a consequence 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. Luckily, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Specialized hearing aids to lessen 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, whether it’s the hum of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is crucial in teaching your brain to experience certain stimulations again.
But you can improve those amplification efforts with a mix of other techniques like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress reduction for a more complete approach to treatment.
Some manufacturers even use 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. The ringing is drowned out by pleasant, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones rather than basic white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialty devices try 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 calibrated by a hearing specialist to help decrease your particular tinnitus symptoms..
The common intent of these methods is to help the user disregard tinnitus symptoms whether it’s by employing white noise systems, sound therapy, or blending.
It’s true that tinnitus can’t be cured, but for at least some of the 50 million suffering from the condition, hearing aids present an alluring possibility to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
For more information on decreasing tinnitus symptoms, check out our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.