Around one in seven people are estimated to deal with tinnitus. That puts the total number in the millions. In a few countries, the numbers are even higher and that’s pretty alarming.
Sometimes tinnitus is temporary. But if you’re coping with persistent tinnitus symptoms it becomes crucial to find a remedy as soon as possible. Fortunately, there is a treatment that has proven to be really effective: hearing aids.
Tinnitus and hearing loss are related but separate conditions. you can have hearing loss without tinnitus or tinnitus without hearing loss. But the two conditions coexist frequently enough that hearing aids have become a practical solution, managing hearing loss and ending tinnitus in one fell swoop.
How Hearing Aids Can Treat Tinnitus
Hearing aids have, according to one study, been documented to give tinnitus relief to up to 60% of participants. For 22% of those individuals, the relief was significant. Despite this, hearing aids are actually made to manage hearing loss not specifically tinnitus. The benefits seem to come by association. So if you have tinnitus along with hearing loss then that’s when your hearing aids will most effectively treat the tinnitus symptoms.
Here’s how hearing aids can help get rid of tinnitus symptoms:
- External sounds are boosted: The volume of certain frequencies of the world become quieter when you’re suffering from hearing loss. The ringing in your ears, then, is a lot more noticeable. Hearing loss is not reducing the ringing so it becomes the most pronounced thing you hear. A hearing aid can boost that ambient sound, helping to mask the buzzing or ringing that was so forefront before. Tinnitus becomes less of an issue as you pay less attention to it.
- Conversations become less difficult: Increasing the volume of human speech is something contemporary hearing aids are particularly good at. So once you’re wearing your hearing aids regularly, having conversations becomes much easier. You will be more engaged with your co-worker’s story about their children and better able to participate with your spouse about how their day went. The more you connect with other people, the more social you are, the less you’ll notice your tinnitus. In some cases, tinnitus is intensified by stress so being able to socialize can helps in this way too.
- Your brain is getting an auditory workout: When you experience hearing loss, those parts of your brain tasked with interpreting sounds can often suffer from fatigue, stress, or atrophy. Tinnitus symptoms you may be experiencing can be reduced when the brain is in a healthy pliable condition and hearing aids can help keep it that way.
The Advantages of Modern Hearing Aids
Smart Technology is built into modern hearing aids. They include cutting edge hearing assistance algorithms and the newest technology. But it’s the ability to personalize a hearing aid to the specific user’s requirements that makes modern hearing aids so effective (sometimes, they recalibrate based on the amount of background noise).
Customizing hearing aids means that the sensitivity and output signals can effortlessly be calibrated to the specific hearing levels you might have. The buzzing or humming is more likely to be effectively obscured if your hearing aid is dialed in to work best for you.
What is The Best Way to End Tinnitus?
This will likely depend on your degree of hearing loss. If you haven’t experienced any hearing loss, you’ll still have accessible treatments for your tinnitus. Cognitive behavioral therapy, a custom masking device, or medication are some possible solutions.
But, if you’re one of the many individuals out there who happen to suffer from both hearing impairment and tinnitus, a pair of hearing aids could be able to do the old two-birds-one-stone thing. Treating your hearing impairment with a good set of hearing aids can often stop tinnitus from making your life difficult.