How hearing aids can help with tinnitus

This week is Tinnitus Awareness Week so we wanted to give you a little more information on how hearing aids can help with tinnitus. Hearing aids can be prescribed for patients who suffer with tinnitus that is associated with a hearing loss. Evidence suggests that hearing aids can help your brain receive more natural stimulation which can provide a masking effect for the tinnitus. This means you can hear what you are supposed to rather than the ringing or buzzing sensation that it causes.

Symptoms

Tinnitus is not a disease or an illness, it is a symptom that is generated when a problem occurs in the auditory system. It can present as different sounds for different people; it could be a ringing, buzzing, roaring or clicking noise. There will be no external source for this sound. Some people have tinnitus symptoms that come and go, but some suffer more persistently and will experience things such as sleep disturbance and / or stress-induced anxiety.

Tinnitus is thought to affect as much as 10% of the population. It can begin at any age and is often left untreated for prolonged periods of time purely because there is a common belief that nothing can be done to help with the symptoms. The symptoms be wide spread and triggered by many things including hearing loss, ear conditions, exposure to loud noise, other medical conditions and certain medications.

Treatment

Unfortunately, there is no single known cure for tinnitus, but luckily hearing aids have been proven to help reduce the symptoms for some people. The majority of people who have it will also be suffering from some degree of hearing loss and as the aim of hearing aids is to reduce the impact of hearing loss, this in turn helps relieve their tinnitus.

As hearing aid technology is now so advanced, it helps to reduce your awareness of tinnitus by subtly amplifying sounds around you which allows your brain to focus more on the sounds you do want to hear rather than the ringing or buzzing noise. It can take a few weeks to adapt to life with hearing aids but once you have, you may notice a real difference to your tinnitus symptoms. This can obviously greatly improve the wearer’s quality of life. This makes hearing aids on of the most effective treatments for tinnitus.

If you are concerned you may be experiencing tinnitus, or think you could benefit from a tinnitus consultation, please do get in touch.

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