Scientists still haven’t identified the cause of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears. However, there is one thing that all hearing specialists agree on, you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also cope with hearing loss.
As you probably know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all contribute to the development of hearing loss. And while many of us think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some mild hearing loss can go unobserved. Still worse, even a mild case of hearing loss increases your risk and likelihood of developing tinnitus.
It’s not a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved along with 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 usually in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. For instance, a person who hears high-pitched ringing from tinnitus may suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. The concept is that the brain tries to compensate for the missing frequencies by generating tinnitus sounds in the same frequency range.
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 treated in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Decrease symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids pick up 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 amplifying noises like the rattling of a ceiling fan or the din of a dinner party.
But you can augment those amplification efforts with a mix of other techniques like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress management for a more comprehensive approach to treatment.
Some manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to lessen the symptoms of tinnitus. Tinnitus sufferers typically hear tones that are constant and regular which can sometimes be disrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. The ringing is drowned out by pleasant, wind chime-like sounds generated 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 goal of other specialized devices. 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.
Though tinnitus has no cure, hearing aids can help reduce the intensity of the symptoms and improve quality of life, which is an attractive feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
If you’re struggling with ringing or buzzing in the ears, check out our tinnitus section for more information on ways to reduce symptoms.