Tinnitus, hearing loss, and hearing aids are some very intimidating terms for a lot of us. And for some, it is a serious real-life condition. Before beginning the article everyone should know that hearing loss or tinnitus is not something one should be ashamed of. If you have difficulty in hearing or experience ringing in the ears, do not be afraid to seek help. Reach out to a reputed hearing aid clinic that offers tinnitus treatment, tinnitus consultation, tinnitus sound therapy, etc.
Now the following information will help you understand everything you need to know about tinnitus, its association with sound therapy, hearing loss, and hearing aids.
What is Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is the feeling of ringing, clicking, hissing, buzzing, and other similar noises in one’s ear that only the specific person can hear. This ringing sensation in the ears differs from person to person. It can be consistent for some while for others it may come and go. Following are some of the common causes of tinnitus:
- Aging
- Exposure to loud noise
- Certain medications induce tinnitus
- Injury to the ear, head or neck
- Impacted ears
- Upper respiratory infections
- Neurological disorders
What are the hearing aids?
Hearing aids are devices that are typically prescribed by hearing aid specialists or hearing aid practitioners for people who are suffering from hearing loss and also hearing loss associated with tinnitus.
What is the relationship between tinnitus and hearing loss?
Tinnitus and hearing loss is often associated with one another because the majority of people suffering from tinnitus or ringing in the ear also experience hearing loss. Hearing loss can affect the signals being sent from the ear to the brain. These affected signals can cause chaos or unwanted activity in the brain resulting in tinnitus.
What is the relationship between tinnitus and hearing aids?
Tinnitus does not always cause hearing loss. The perceived sound is highly distracting which makes it hard for people to pay attention to other external sounds. This is why hearing aids are a blessing for tinnitus management. The good news for people suffering from ringing in the ear is that hearing aids have come far technology-wise. They help reduce the awareness of tinnitus and manage the tinnitus symptoms to a large extent by either amplifying external noises or by inducing white noise to mask the internal ringing of the ear.
What is the association of ringing in the ear to tinnitus sound therapy and how do hearing aids help tinnitus management or provide tinnitus relief?
The most basic way hearing aids can help a person with a tinnitus condition is simply by amplifying the background noise. This amplified background noise assists in reducing the awareness of the tinnitus or ringing sensation. This also implies that your brain is tricked into eliminating the tinnitus by focusing on the sounds you want to hear instead.
Hearing aids are very beneficial when it comes to managing tinnitus. This is because it helps keep the condition far from interfering with a patient’s everyday life, such as making conversations by amplifying the sounds he or she hears. This allows the patient to focus all their attention to the amplified sounds of the external world, such as other people’s voices, the TV, and other sounds that he or she is trying to hear.
In simpler words when all these sounds are made to be just a bit louder than your internal ringing of the ear using hearing aids, the tinnitus gets masked and no longer interrupts with one’s ability to hear.
A popular name for this process or for reducing awareness of tinnitus using hearing aids is known as tinnitus sound therapy. This therapy was initially created as a distraction for people who have tinnitus. Later on, it was the doctors who started using low levels of noises as background sound, to help manage tinnitus, and it has shown large success rates ever since. It also has shown a reduction in tinnitus for many.
So, if you are someone struggling with hearing loss or tinnitus, it is best for you to book yourself an appointment as soon as possible for a tinnitus consultation with a hearing aid practitioner. There are many reputed and renowned tinnitus treatment clinics in Ontario and Peterborough for your convenience.
And lastly, do not be ashamed of your condition, instead, ask for help and focus on how to improve it.