What is tinnitus?
Tinnitus is a sensation often described as a noise heard in the ears when there is actually no corresponding source of sound nearby. These noises can be continuous, intermittent, high-pitched, buzzing, hissing or whistling, and they can vary in intensity and frequency. Tinnitus may occur in one ear or both ears, or may be described as being located in a certain area of the head.
Tinnitus is not a disease but a symptom that can be associated with a variety of health problems, including but not limited to hearing loss, inner ear problems, ear infections, ear injuries, blood vessel problems, nerve problems, temporomandibular joint disorders, and more. Sometimes, tinnitus can be temporary, but it can also be persistent and negatively impact a patient’s quality of life, such as affecting sleep, concentration, and mood state.
Hearing loss and tinnitus often occur together
About 90% of tinnitus patients have hearing impairment, both symptoms that occur after damage to the auditory system. It’s just that most people are more concerned about the impact of tinnitus, and hearing loss often occurs slowly, especially mild and mild to moderate hearing loss, which may not be felt by listeners in the early stages. When tinnitus occurs for a long time, the hearing loss may decrease during this period, and there is a wrong feeling that “prolonged tinnitus will lead to deafness”. In fact, there is no obvious causal relationship between the two.
Hearing aids can help people with hearing loss improve their hearing, improve communication, and reduce the various impacts of hearing loss. For some patients with tinnitus, it also has a certain improvement effect.
How hearing aids can help improve tinnitus
1. Hearing aids can restore auditory stimulation to the brain
The most common causes of tinnitus are ear disease or hearing loss. When you have hearing loss, your brain is less or less stimulated by outside sounds and instead looks for sounds internally. The brain picks up sounds that occur within the head and labels them as tinnitus. When you use a hearing aid, your brain will receive more external stimulation, so there is no need to search for sounds internally, which can improve tinnitus to a certain extent.
2. Hearing aids allow you to hear background noise
After wearing a hearing aid, as your hearing improves, you may again hear some of the background noises in your life, such as the whirring of the air conditioner, the rustling of leaves in the wind, etc. It reduces people’s attention to tinnitus by increasing background environmental sounds that people may ignore.
3. Hearing aids may help reduce stress
Hearing loss will bring many negative effects, such as the inability to communicate well, obstacles in all aspects of study and work, and pressure on listening and life will naturally arise. When wearing hearing aids, these negative effects can be improved or even disappeared to a certain extent, thus relieving the pressure on people with hearing loss. Stress may also be a cause of tinnitus, and reducing stress may also improve tinnitus.
4. Hearing aid tinnitus masking function
Currently, all major brands of hearing aids on the market have specialized tinnitus management functions that prevent tinnitus from interfering with your participation in conversations and other social situations by playing other sounds specific to your tinnitus. The principle is tinnitus habituation therapy, and the sounds played include but are not limited to white noise, pink noise or various sounds in nature.
