The cause of tinnitus, a persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears, has long puzzled 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.
Some of the principal factors that contribute to hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while many individuals think of hearing loss as being obvious, the reality is that some minor hearing loss can go unnoticed. Still worse, even a minor case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of experiencing tinnitus.
Hearing aids can’t cure tinnitus, but they can help treat 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 enhance one’s quality of life. As a matter of fact, the similarities between hearing loss and tinnitus are rather remarkable.
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 individuals believe this parallel to be a consequence of the brain attempting 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 connected with tinnitus by replacing it with the appropriate sounds. Luckily, tinnitus symptoms can be treated in other more advanced ways than traditional hearing aids.
Specialized hearing aids to lessen tinnitus symptoms
Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from your environment and amplifying them to a level that allows you to hear. Even though it may be simple in design, that amplification of noise, be it the din of a dinner party or the rattling of a ceiling fan, is essential in training your brain to receive particular stimulations once more.
But other combinations of methods like sound stimulation, counseling, and reducing 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 decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically irregular tones can detract from the consistent and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear. The ringing is drowned out by soothing, wind chime-like sounds generated by the most prevalent fractal tones instead of simple white noise which can also be helpful in some cases.
Other specialty devices try to blend your tinnitus in with the outside sounds you’re hearing. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be calibrated by a hearing specialist to help decrease your particular tinnitus symptoms..
The common goal of these methods is to help the user ignore tinnitus symptoms whether it’s by employing white noise mechanisms, sound therapy, or blending.
It’s true that there is no cure for tinnitus, 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.
Want to discuss your tinnitus with a hearing specialist?
If you’re experiencing ringing or buzzing in the ears, check out our tinnitus section for more information on ways to decrease symptoms.