Is the ringing in your ears so disruptive that you find it difficult to concentrate, relax, or enjoy a quiet conversation?
Chronic tinnitus interrupts the lives of everyone it affects. “People often mistake that loud tinnitus, rather than hearing loss, interferes with their hearing,” according to the American Tinnitus Association. In reality, about 90 percent of people who experience chronic tinnitus also have hearing loss.
Hearing aids often help relieve tinnitus symptoms by augmenting external sounds, which diverts attention away from the perception of tinnitus noise.
I understand the frustration the ringing in your ears is causing you, so I want to dedicate this blog to understanding how hearing aids can help bring relief to those who experience tinnitus along with hearing loss.
Do Hearing Aids Help With Tinnitus?
Most patients develop tinnitus as a symptom of age-related hearing loss, long-term hearing damage, noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), or acute trauma to the auditory system.
The reduction of external sound stimuli reaching the brain due to hearing loss causes the brain to make neuroplastic changes in how it processes different sound frequencies. Tinnitus is the product of these maladaptive neuroplastic changes.
Patients with hearing loss and tinnitus may find relief from the use of hearing aids. A 2007 survey of hearing health professionals demonstrates that roughly 60 percent of tinnitus patients experienced at least some relief when wearing hearing aids and about 22 percent of patients enjoyed significant relief.
How Do Hearing Aids Help?
The most common approach to tinnitus management is a combination of sound masking and tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT). Hearing aids often serve in the capacity of sound masking, in order to help desensitize patients to the disruptive sounds of tinnitus.
Masking and Attentional Effects
Hearing aids help by augmenting the volume of external sounds to the point that they cover (mask) the sound of tinnitus. Since it becomes more difficult to consciously perceive tinnitus, this helps shift the attention of your brain from the tinnitus to outside ambient noises.
For those who experience hearing loss in the same frequency range as their tinnitus, the masking impact of hearing aids is particularly effective in helping provide greater relief.
Auditory Stimulation in a Quiet Environment
Increasing the volume of external noise by use of hearing aids also increases the amount of auditory stimulation received by the brain. However, this becomes more of a challenge in a quiet environment.
Dr. Nathan Bouman, the inventor of the first open-ear in-the-canal tinnitus device, provides an excellent illustration of how hearing aids help with tinnitus in an interview with Audiology Online in 2008.
“A little bit of light in a very dark room is perceived as an extremely bright light; however, if you take the same light and present it in a lighter room, the same light is not perceived as being as bright.”
Dr. Bauman continues to explain how open-fit hearing aids allow a person to be immersed in an auditory environment in such a way that the right amount of amplification, even in a quiet room, makes it possible for a person to become less aware of the tinnitus sounds.
Improved Communication
One of the frustrations of individuals with tinnitus is their struggle during conversations. Hearing aids that are properly programmed to help control background noise and improve speech clarity augment the external conversation, reducing the frustration and social isolation that often accompany chronic tinnitus and hearing loss.
A Comprehensive Hearing Assessment Is Your First Step to Tinnitus Relief
Although tinnitus can have an impact on individuals without hearing loss, the overwhelming majority (90 percent) of those who experience tinnitus also demonstrate some level of hearing loss.
Because hearing loss is so common among tinnitus sufferers, the first step toward tinnitus relief involves ruling out or confirming hearing loss as the primary contributor to your condition.
At Magnolia Hearing, the first step in the process of addressing your tinnitus is a hearing assessment, which is followed by an extensive evaluation of your tinnitus symptoms.
Take the first step to getting the relief from the ringing in your ears by scheduling a hearing assessment using our online form or by giving us a call at (206) 657-5675 today!
