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.
As you most likely know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all contribute to the development of hearing loss. And while it may seem like the symptoms of hearing loss would be rather obvious, when it’s still in the early phases, it often goes unnoticed. Unfortunately, your risk of experiencing hearing loss increases with even minor cases of hearing loss.
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. There are some pretty remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, in fact.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is often in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. 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 result of the brain attempting to compensate for a lack of acoustic stimulation 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 treated in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Specialized hearing aids to reduce tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids detect environmental sounds and boost frequencies you have trouble hearing. Even though hearing aids have a simple concept, they help teach your brain to experience certain stimulation again by boosting noises like the rattling of a ceiling fan or the din of a dinner party.
But you can augment those amplification efforts with a blend of other methods like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress reduction for a more complete approach to treatment.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is overwhelmed by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones instead of simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialty devices try 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 calibrated by a hearing specialist to help decrease 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.
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 attractive possibility to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life.
Want to discuss your tinnitus with a hearing specialist?
For more info on decreasing tinnitus symptoms, check out our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.