Scientists still haven’t pinpointed the cause of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears. 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 main factors that contribute to hearing loss are genetics, age, and lifestyle. And while it may seem like the symptoms of hearing loss would be fairly obvious, when it’s still in the early phases, it frequently goes undetected. Worse, even a mild case of hearing loss raises your risk and likelihood of developing tinnitus.
It isn’t a cure, but hearing aids can help treat tinnitus
There is no cure for tinnitus. However, hearing aids can manage 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 pretty 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 often hear a high-pitched ringing from tinnitus. Some people believe this parallel to be a consequence of the brain attempting to compensate for a lack of acoustic stimulation at that level by producing 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. Here’s the good thing, there are other, more advanced options beyond just traditional hearing aids to manage the symptoms associated with tinnitus.
Decrease symptoms of tinnitus with specialized hearing aids
Hearing aids detect environmental sounds and boost frequencies you have trouble hearing. Even though hearing aids have a simple concept, they help train your brain to experience certain stimulation again by boosting noises like the rattling of a ceiling fan or the buzz of a dinner party.
But other combinations of strategies like sound stimulation, counseling, and minimizing stress can also be used to augment those amplification efforts and supply a more comprehensive treatment approach.
Some hearing aid manufacturers attempt to reduce tinnitus symptoms with the use of the irregular rhythms of fractal tones. Tinnitus sufferers usually hear tones that are consistent and regular which can sometimes be interrupted by the irregular rhythms of these fractal tones. While white noise devices are available, the most common fractal tones sound somewhat like wind chimes that supply a pleasant sound that overwhelms the ringing.
Blending natural sounds from your environment with your tinnitus is the aim of other specialized devices. A white noise generator will be used in this approach, which can be fine-tuned by a hearing specialist to help lessen your specific tinnitus symptoms..
The common aim of these methods is to help the user disregard tinnitus symptoms whether it’s through the use of white noise systems, sound therapy, or blending.
Though tinnitus has no cure, hearing aids can help reduce the intensity of the symptoms and enhance quality of life, which is an alluring feature for the 50 million people who use hearing aids.
Have more questions about tinnitus?
For more information on decreasing tinnitus symptoms, check out our tinnitus section or call for a consultation.
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