The cause of tinnitus, a continual ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long perplexed scientists. 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 most likely know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the progression of hearing loss. And while it may seem like the symptoms of hearing loss would be fairly obvious, when it’s still in the early phases, it often goes undetected. Unfortunately, your risk of developing hearing loss increases with even minor cases of hearing loss.
It’s not a cure, but hearing aids can help manage tinnitus
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved along with quality of life by using hearing aids. There are some rather remarkable similarities between tinnitus and hearing loss, as a matter of fact.
The frequency range that a person loses hearing in is often in sync with the pitch of their tinnitus symptoms. As an example, if somebody has hearing loss in the high-frequency range, they will frequently 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 stimulation at that level by generating a similarly pitched tone of its own.
A traditional hearing aid can effectively hide the ringing or buzzing associated with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Luckily, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Specialized hearing aids to reduce tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids pick up environmental sounds and boost frequencies you can’t hear very well. Even though it might be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the din of a dinner party or the rattle of a ceiling fan, is essential in training your brain to receive certain stimulations once more.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and minimizing stress can also be used to improve those amplification efforts and provide a more complete treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to decrease tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. While white noise devices are available, the most common fractal tones are similar to wind chimes that supply a pleasant sound that overwhelms the ringing.
Mixing natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the aim of other specialized devices. This approach will typically utilize a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can adjust to ensure accurate 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 improve quality of life.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
If you’re experiencing ringing or buzzing in the ears, take a look at our tinnitus section for more information on ways to reduce symptoms.