The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long puzzled scientists. Hearing specialists, however, do agree that tinnitus is more prevalent in people who also have hearing loss.
Some of the main factors that play a role in hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while many people think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some minor hearing loss can go undetected. 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 aids can treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can decrease symptoms and enhance one’s quality of life. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are fairly remarkable.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is often in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. For instance, somebody who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus may suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. Some people believe this parallel to be a consequence of the brain trying to compensate for a lack of acoustic activation at that level by generating 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. Here’s the good thing, there are other, more advanced options beyond just traditional hearing aids to manage the symptoms produced by tinnitus.
Specialized hearing aids to reduce tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from your environment and boosting them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though hearing aids have a simple concept, they help teach 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 methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and decreasing stress can also be utilized to enhance those amplification efforts and provide a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some manufacturers even use 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. The ringing is overwhelmed by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones instead of 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. This approach will typically 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 tinnitus can’t be cured, but for at least some of the 50 million dealing with the condition, hearing aids provide an alluring possibility to reduce symptoms and live a better quality of life.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
For more info on decreasing tinnitus symptoms, take a look at our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.
