The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long baffled scientists. 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 many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the reality is that some slight hearing loss can go unobserved. Unfortunately, your risk of experiencing hearing loss increases with even slight cases of hearing loss.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can manage 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 frequency range that a person loses hearing in is usually in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. As an example, if someone has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will usually 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 stimulation at that level by producing a similarly pitched tone of its own.
Tinnitus sounds can be effectively “masked” by a hearing aid which can drown out the offending sound and replace it with one that’s supposed to be heard. Luckily, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Lessen 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 critical in teaching your brain to receive certain stimulations again.
But you can improve those amplification efforts with a mix of other strategies like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress management for a more comprehensive approach to treatment.
Some hearing aid manufacturers endeavor to reduce tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. Tinnitus sufferers usually hear tones that are consistent and regular which can sometimes be disrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. The ringing is overwhelmed by pleasant, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most common fractal tones rather than simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Mixing natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the aim of other specialized devices. This approach will generally use a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can adjust to ensure proper calibration for your ear and your condition.
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 there is no cure for tinnitus, but for at least some of the 50 million dealing with the condition, hearing aids present an attractive possibility to reduce symptoms and live a better quality of life.
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 minimize symptoms.
