The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long baffled scientists. However, there is one thing that all hearing specialists agree on, you are more likely to experience tinnitus if you also suffer from hearing loss.
As you probably know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the progression of hearing loss. And while many individuals think of hearing loss as being obvious, the reality is that some minor hearing loss can go undetected. Unfortunately, your risk of experiencing hearing loss increases with even mild cases of hearing loss.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help manage the symptoms
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can treat 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 dealing with tinnitus is usually in sync with the type of hearing loss that person encounters. As an example, if somebody has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will frequently hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. Some individuals 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 essentially “masked” by a hearing aid which can drown out the offending sound and replace it with one that’s supposed to be heard. Fortunately, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Reduce symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids pick up environmental sounds and amplify frequencies you can’t hear very well. Even though it might be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the hum of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is critical in teaching your brain to experience particular stimulations once more.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and minimizing stress can also be utilized to improve those amplification efforts and supply a more complete treatment approach.
Some manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically irregular tones can detract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is drowned out by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most common fractal tones instead of simple 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 calibrated by a hearing specialist to help lessen your specific tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise system, each of these specialized devices has a common objective 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.
Want to discuss your tinnitus with a hearing specialist?
If you’re struggling with ringing or buzzing in the ears, take a look at our tinnitus section for more information on ways to minimize symptoms.
