It’s often unclear what’s causing tinnitus (a ringing or buzzing in your ears). But one thing we know for certain is that if you have hearing loss your chance of experiencing tinnitus goes up. Up to 90 percent of individuals who experience tinnitus also have hearing loss according to HIAA.

Your age, lifestyle, and genetics can all play a role in the development of hearing loss as you most likely know. Frequently, minor cases of hearing loss go undetected and hearing loss, in general, isn’t always evident. Even worse, even a minor case of hearing loss increases your risk and probability of developing tinnitus.

Hearing Aids Won’t Cure Tinnitus But They Can Help

There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids will treat both hearing loss and tinnitus in ways that can decrease symptoms and improve one’s quality of life. Sixty percent of people coping with tinnitus, in fact, saw relief of their symptoms, and twenty-two had substantial improvement.

A traditional hearing aid can basically hide the buzzing or ringing caused by tinnitus by strengthening your ability to hear other sounds, which essentially drowns out the ringing. And, fortunately, traditional hearing aids aren’t the only option as more advanced treatment possibilities are being produced.

Types of Specialty Hearing Aids to Reduce Tinnitus Symptoms

Hearing aids work by collecting natural sounds from the world around you and boosting them to a level that lets you hear. Even though it might be basic in design, that amplification of noise, be it the rabble of a dinner party or the clank of a ceiling fan, is crucial in training your brain to receive certain stimulations again.

You can enhance those amplification efforts by the combination of other approaches, like counseling, sound stimulation, and stress reduction for a more complete approach to treatment.

Fractal tones and irregular rhythms are even being used by some hearing aid makers. The consistent tone of tinnitus can be interrupted by the uneven tones of these inconsistent rhythms.

Other specialty devices attempt to blend your tinnitus in with the normal sounds you’re hearing. This strategy will generally use a white noise signal that a hearing specialist can adjust to ensure proper calibration for your ear and your disorder.

Whether you use sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, all of these specialized technologies have a common goal of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.

Hearing aids can improve quality of life and decrease symptoms of tinnitus even if there is no cure.

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References

• https://www.hearingloss.org/wp-content/uploads/HLAA_HearingLoss_Facts_Statistics.pdf?pdf=FactStats
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17956798
• https://www.ata.org/managing-your-tinnitus/treatment-options/hearing-aids
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6197965