Hearing Aids for Tinnitus

One of the most common concerns we see at Davis Audiology is tinnitus. We recognize the growing problem of tinnitus and its impact on the daily lives of those who suffer from it, which is why we make it our goal to help relieve you of any tinnitus symptoms that you could be facing.

Our audiologists are experts in diagnosing, understanding and helping you find effective tinnitus relief, and one of the best ways to cope is to use a hearing aid. Since hearing loss is one of the common causes of tinnitus, we believe that using hearing aids to relieve tinnitus is one of the best ways to cope with two problems at once.

In this article, we’re going to talk about the different hearing aids available to you that will help deal with tinnitus.

Hearing aids will help mask tinnitus, but they are not a cure

First, it’s good to mention that there is no cure for tinnitus, but hearing aids are an excellent treatment option. Tinnitus is commonly a subjective condition, meaning that only the patient can hear the sounds and they’ll often describe tinnitus differently to others that also suffer from it.

Hearing aids will provide a masking effect for your tinnitus, meaning it’s less prominent and could mean that, over a long period of time, you’ll slowly start to ignore the sound instead of it negatively affecting your lifestyle. It’s all about manipulating the frequencies you hear and training yourself to cope with tinnitus, which is why many people notice that their tinnitus gets harder to notice when they start using hearing aids. This is why we refer to hearing aids providing a masking effect to cover up tinnitus, but not actually cure or treat it.

Hearing aids will naturally help with tinnitus

Since you’re already masking the tinnitus by amplifying the sounds around you, you’ll notice that your tinnitus will get progressively better as you use your hearing aids. For most people, this is enough to reduce the effects of tinnitus and gradually start to phase it out from your life. You may need to speak with your audiologist and let them know that you’d prefer your hearing aids to be tuned in a way that allows them to help you with your tinnitus. There may be specific settings that will amplify background noise to a louder level to help mask your tinnitus.

Since most hearing aids will provide some level of relief for your tinnitus, this means that you can use smaller hearing aids such as in-the-canal types that are discreet instead of larger behind-the-ear variations that many people dislike due to the size and weight on your ears.

But some hearing aids provide built-in tinnitus relief

However, some hearing aids will have built-in sound generators that can assist in masking your tinnitus. These sound generators provide a low level of noise that is pleasant to your ears but also doubles as a masking effect for your tinnitus. Depending on the hearing aid, you may get a low level of white noise or it could be a comforting noise such as ocean waves, wind or even wind chimes. More expensive hearing aids will allow you to customize the noise to your liking, giving it a level of personalization so you can be more comfortable with your hearing aids.

It’s worth mentioning that smaller and older hearing aids will likely not have this function. This is because larger and newer hearing aids have more space for more features, and in most cases, a small hearing aid won’t even have volume control. Make sure you let your audiologist know that you’d like to try a sound generating hearing aid to help relieve your tinnitus and they’ll do what they can to accommodate your needs.

Contact us today

Relieving your tinnitus can be as simple as making an appointment with us. At Davis Audiology, our audiologists are well-trained and experienced with tinnitus, making us one of the best choices for your hearing-related issues. We have plenty of resources available on the website to educate you more about the hearing aids we offer and our services. If you’d like to get in touch and book an appointment or learn more about how we can help, you can contact us at (864) 810-6238.