Reviewed by Mr. Ranjeet Kumar
Sr. Audiologist, Speech Therapist & Cochlear Implant Specialist, BASLP on
According to NCBI, tinnitus affects almost 7 percent of India’s population. Tinnitus is the buzzing, ringing, or whooshing sound in the ear in the absence of external sound.
It is also present in an individual without any kind of deformity in the auditory nerve, middle, external or inner ear.
You can purchase the latest hearing aids at a fair price through HearingSol, If you need any assistance or you have a query regarding Hearing Aids for Tinnitus or Hearing Loss, feel free to call us at +91-9327901950. We are always here to help you.
The National Center For Health Statistics reported that 32 percent of the U.S. population have tinnitus and within these 6 percent are suffering from severe tinnitus.
Even most of the females, because of tinnitus have more difficulty sleeping compared to men.
The major problem with tinnitus is that people suffering from tinnitus do not seek help at the right time. Most of the hearing impaired individuals also didn’t go through any kind of treatment while suffering from the ringing in the ear.
There is no particular cure for tinnitus. But there are some hearing aids for tinnitus which help to reduce the symptoms in patients.
According to a survey, six out of ten individuals (60 percent) found relief with hearing aids for tinnitus. One in five individuals (22 percent) experience major relief.
But less than two percent of the individual found their tinnitus to get worse. However, 39 percent didn’t get any type of relief from hearing aids for tinnitus. It is very important to know tinnitus first, before learning about its treatment.
What Is Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is classified into two types, Objective and Subjective.
In Objective tinnitus, people hear noises or sounds which can be heard by both the patient and other people. One can hear these noises with or without the use of noise-amplifying instrumentation or stethoscope.
This tinnitus can happen because of vascular phenomena or muscle changes such as spasm or involuntary muscle contraction in the palate or the middle ear. Objective tinnitus is also called as “pseudo-tinnitus”, “extrinsic” or “vibratory”.
In the subjective tinnitus, the neural signals coinciding with tinnitus that are present in the auditory cortex can be created by a lesion in the cortex itself.
It can also be produced at some later stage in the auditory pathway. Therefore, subjective tinnitus occurs in the cochlea or in the successive stages of the auditory system.
The patients suffering from tinnitus go through constant irritation. Because tinnitus signal activates the auditory nervous system and the limbic system. The accurate cause is not known yet.
Quick facts about tinnitus:
Here are some key points about tinnitus.
- Around 50 million Americans experience tinnitus.
- Most tinnitus is happening due to damage in the inner ear or to the cochlea.
- Certain medications can cause or worsen tinnitus. E.g., aspirin particularly in large doses.
- People with tinnitus may be oversensitive to loud noise.
- Most people learn to live with tinnitus, but treatment is available for only those who find this difficult.
Causes Of Tinnitus
However, the tinnitus causes are not only restricted to the auditory nerve or the inner ear. But middle ear disorders such as otosclerosis and otitis media or wax accumulation in the external auditory canal causes tinnitus.
The most common cause of tinnitus is hearing impairment such as noise-induced or age-related hearing impairment.
Tinnitus is also found in people with emotional and physical disorders. The physiological or emotional distress linked to tinnitus is depression, stress, worries, difficulty in concentration or sleep, and personality disorders.
Other possible causes are:
- Head and neck injuries
- Ear infections
- Stiffening of the middle ear bones
- Diabetes
- Traumatic brain injury
- Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders
- Earwax touching the eardrum
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Eustachian tube problems
Treatment For Tinnitus
Following are the ways to treat the symptoms of the problem :
Medications:
- Surgery
- Cochlear implants
- Counseling
- Wearable or tabletop sound generators
- Hearing aids
Decreasing emotional stress via stress management techniques:
- Osteopathy
- Physical therapy
- Lifestyle changes
- Biofeedback
- Acoustic neural stimulation
- Chiropractic
- Bite implants for patients with TMJ
How Do Hearing Aids Help Manage Tinnitus?
Hearing machines don’t provide a cure for tinnitus but they help in providing relief. Basically hearing aids for tinnitus help manage tinnitus patients who need amplifying background noises to reduce the constant ringing sound in the ear.
Most of the hearing devices offer a noise generator which helps you in distracting your mind from the clicking or roaring sound in the ear.
Thanks to the hearing aid technology such as digital hearing devices which when connected to smartphone apps offer you a customized library of music and in-ear sounds and also a product that transfers the received sound directly to the ear of the person.
There is no doubt a relationship between hearing impairment and tinnitus.
When a person has some degree of hearing loss than as a result the brain and the hearing nerve stop receiving the same stimulation in the specific frequency range as it used to receive with normal hearing.
These ear machines help in receiving more and more stimulation from the background. Therefore, even in a library, a tinnitus patient can pick the sound of the surrounding environment.
There are many ways hearing devices help tinnitus patients.
Hearing Aids Help In Reducing Ringing In The Ears
A hearing aid helps in reducing ringing in the ear by increasing the volume of external sound to a particular point which masks or covers the tinnitus sound.
The brain starts focusing more on the outside noise in place of inside ear noises like ringing in the ear. It also increases the number of auditory stimulations received by the brain. Tinnitus affects the ability to concentrate, hear, and sleep.
Continuous ringing in the ear makes very difficult for the patient to have a normal conversation or a talk on the phone with anyone which sometimes becomes very frustrating.
Therefore hearing aid decreases this level of frustration and stress in tinnitus patients. People experience a better quality of life with hearing aid. Audiologist especially uses best practices in the fitting of hearing aid.
Need any help with Hearing Aids Devices? Give us a call at +91-9327901950 today!
Effects Of Hearing Aids On Tinnitus
1. Auditory Stimulation
Hearing devices restore the auditory function by increasing the volume of external sound. And also increasing the amplification of auditory stimulation which your brain receives.
Therefore, it causes the reconstitution of the central nervous system of a person.
2. Masking Effect
The capacity to hear external sounds offers a “masking effect” for tinnitus patients. Therefore, hearing devices increase the external sound volume to the extent it masks or hides the tinnitus sound.
An audiologist strongly recommends hearing machines for hearing impaired people who have same degree tinnitus as hearing loss. Therefore, a hearing aid user hearing those sound what he wants to hear.
3. Better Communication
Most of the tinnitus patients face different kinds of speech comprehension difficulties in a noisy or quiet environment.
These speech difficulties result in gradual changes in a person’s communication which impacts the quality of his life.
The primary goal of the application of sound with the help of hearing machines is to reinstitute the accessibility of speech.
Top 5 Hearing Aids For Tinnitus
1. Phonak Hearing Aids
Phonak offers a wide range of Tinnitus balance hearing devices. These hearing machines include all the required features such as sound amplification, sound enrichment, and also counseling for stress management and tinnitus relief.
Some of the Phonak hearing aids are:
- Audio Q
- Audio V
- Bolero V
- Audio B
- Bolero B hearing aids
Phonak also offers Tinnitus Balance applications, an ideal tool for sound therapy support. This app helps you in selecting and combining a different list of sounds with your personal smartphone music library.
There will be a timer option that helps you sleep while listening to sounds. All the received sounds are transferred directly to your hearing device.
One can download the app from the App Store for iPhone or Google Play store for Android.
2. Resound Hearing Aids
Resound LiNX hearing aids offers tinnitus sound generator in the machine. This sound generator forms a white noise signal which is easily adjustable around any specific frequency according to the user.
This device helps to blend your tinnitus into the background.
3. Starkey Hearing Aids
Starkey hearing devices offer Xino Tinnitus devices which is a sound therapy hearing aid. This hearing machine provides the masking effect or it covers the tinnitus.
An audiologist also provides a customizable noise sound stimulator with the hearing machine.
4. Siemens Hearing Aids
Siemens Therapy Signals combines tinnitus therapy with the hearing device. These therapies amplify the external sound by masking the tinnitus effect.
Four types of tinnitus therapy are available such as speech noise, white noise, high-tone noise, and pink noise. According to the user, an audiologist also fine-tunes the signals.
5. Widex Hearing Aids
Widex offers four components for tinnitus patients which include counseling, amplification, relaxation, and Fractal Tones in Widex Zen Therapy. Zen tones are fractal tones that hearing devices generate.
Zen’s tone not only provides tinnitus relief but also reduces stress. A feature of white noise stimulation is also present that can be added to the signal to achieve more “masking” of the tinnitus.
In all the Widex hearing machines Zen tones are present as an individual program.
Before purchasing a suitable hearing aid for your tinnitus you need to consult a certified health professional or an audiologist.
Hearing machines are very expensive, therefore, you should consider many factors such as lifestyle, price, sound sensitivity or hearing loss, and age.
For any other query or issue related to our price list or hearing, Call us (Toll-Free – +91-9327901950). Our experts will be there to assist you.
Read more:
- Why do hearing devices are so Expensive?
- The link between tinnitus and hearing loss.
- The Ultimate Guide for the latest research for tinnitus.
- Tips for getting used to hearing machines.
- Understanding Hearing machine parts and components.