You’ve probably heard some ringing in your ears at one time in your life or another. And that ringing has a name: tinnitus. At any given time 15-20% percent of people, as reported by numerous studies, experience tinnitus. Although the majority of people only hear this ringing intermittently, some people experience chronic tinnitus that doesn’t go away. Luckily, there is a common and simple treatment for tinnitus: hearing aids.
Coping With Chronic Tinnitus
Prolonged tinnitus can develop for a variety of reasons, and some of them are understood better than others. Tinnitus can also manifest as a wide variety of subjective and objective sounds, from thumping to clanging to metallic buzz-saw noises, whatever loud symphony your ears can produce.
And tinnitus becomes more obnoxious as the sounds become noisier. Over time, tinnitus can cause declines in mental health, create trouble communicating, and interfere with your daily life.
Hearing Aids And Tinnitus
While hearing aids don’t actually “cure” tinnitus they are quite good at dealing with some of the more pronounced symptoms. There are several ways that hearing aids achieve this.
Bringing The Ringing to a Less Noticeable Level
The symptoms of tinnitus will frequently occur together with hearing loss issues. Sometimes, they have the same underlying cause, but sometimes they don’t. Either way, as your hearing worsens, your tinnitus may become more pronounced. There’s less competition, and that ringing or buzzing can really be noticeable (it’s like winning American Idol in a year with sub-par contestants).
When you’re wearing hearing aids the sounds of the external world will be louder. Once again your tinnitus will, to your relief, get lost in the details. Now you can get back to enjoying your life again.
Muting The Noises Out
Clearly, overwhelming your tinnitus is not the same thing as masking your tinnitus. So to help manage your ringing and buzzing, many modern hearing aids use a type of noise cancellation technology. Certain white noise frequencies can be tuned into your hearing aids that can help decrease tinnitus symptoms. Making use of this kind of technology, you will be less aware of tinnitus noises.
This capability isn’t provided on all hearing aids, so you’ll need to check with us to find out what will work best for you.
There’s no cure for most kinds of chronic tinnitus. But you can still find ways to deal with it. The ringing, buzzing, and other tinnitus-related sounds will be gone and you will be able to enjoy a full life with hearing aids that are calibrated properly. For many people who live with tinnitus, hearing aids are a good choice.
