Scientists still haven’t identified 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 progression of hearing loss. And while it may seem as if the symptoms of hearing loss would be fairly obvious, when it’s still in the early stages, it often goes undetected. Unfortunately, your risk of developing hearing loss increases with even minor cases of hearing loss.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help manage the symptoms
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing aids can manage both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can minimize symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. In fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are rather remarkable.
The pitch or frequency of the ringing a person hears when coping with tinnitus is normally in sync with the type of hearing loss that person encounters. As an example, if someone 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 trying to compensate for a lack of acoustic activation at that level by generating a similarly pitched tone of its own.
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 decrease tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids detect environmental sounds and boost frequencies you can’t hear very well. Even though hearing aids have a simple concept, they help train your brain to experience particular stimulation again by boosting noises like the rattle of a ceiling fan or the buzz of a dinner party.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and decreasing stress can also be utilized to enhance those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to lessen the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. While white noise devices are available, the most common fractal tones sound somewhat like wind chimes that supply a pleasant sound that drowns out the ringing.
Other specialized devices attempt to mix your tinnitus in with the outside sounds you’re hearing. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be calibrated by a hearing specialist to help reduce your specific tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise system, each of these specialized devices has a common goal 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 dealing with the condition, hearing aids present an alluring possibility to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
If you’re experiencing ringing or buzzing in the ears, check out our tinnitus section for more information on ways to minimize symptoms.
