The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long baffled scientists. Hearing specialists, however, do agree that tinnitus is more prevalent in people who also have hearing loss.
Some of the primary factors that contribute to hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while it may seem like the symptoms of hearing loss would be rather obvious, when it’s still in the early stages, it often goes unnoticed. Still worse, even a mild case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of developing tinnitus.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. 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 rather remarkable.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is usually in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. As an example, if somebody 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 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 treat the symptoms associated with tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to lessen tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from the environment around you and amplifying them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it may 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 critical in teaching your brain to experience certain stimulations again.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and minimizing stress can also be utilized to augment those amplification efforts and provide a more complete treatment approach.
Some manufacturers even use the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. Tinnitus sufferers usually hear tones that are consistent and regular which can sometimes be interrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. The ringing is drowned out by pleasant, wind chime-like sounds generated by the most prevalent fractal tones rather than basic white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialty 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 decrease your particular tinnitus symptoms..
The common objective of these approaches is to help the user disregard tinnitus symptoms whether it’s by employing white noise systems, sound therapy, or blending.
Though tinnitus can’t be cured, hearing aids can help decrease the severity of the symptoms and improve quality of life, which is an attractive feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Want to talk about your tinnitus with a hearing specialist?
For more info on reducing tinnitus symptoms, take a look at our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.
