The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long puzzled 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 of us think of hearing loss as being obvious, the truth is that some mild hearing loss can go unobserved. Unfortunately, your risk of experiencing hearing loss increases with even slight cases of hearing loss.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help treat the symptoms
Tinnitus can’t be cured. However, hearing loss and tinnitus symptoms can be improved as well as quality of life by using hearing aids. There are some pretty 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.
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. Fortunately, tinnitus symptoms can be managed in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Lessen symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids pick up environmental sounds and amplify frequencies you have trouble hearing. Even though it may be simple in design, that amplification of noise, whether it’s the hum of a dinner party or the rattling of a ceiling fan, is essential in teaching your brain to experience certain stimulations once more.
But you can improve those amplification endeavors with a mix of other techniques like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress management for a more complete approach to treatment.
Some manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can detract from the consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is overwhelmed by soothing, wind chime-like sounds produced by the most prevalent fractal tones rather than simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialized devices try to mix your tinnitus in with the natural sounds you’re hearing. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be fine-tuned by a hearing specialist to help reduce your particular tinnitus symptoms..
Whether it’s through sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, 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 present an attractive 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 decrease symptoms.