How hearing aids help tinnitus – Healthy Hearing

Linda Spengler can’t recall a time when she didn’t have tinnitus, or ringing in her ears.

“It’s the most irritating thing that can happen to you almost because it just interferes with your total life,” Spengler says, describing her tinnitus as an ever-present unpleasant background noise. 

Many people experience tinnitus. In fact, in the past year, an estimated 10 percent of the population experienced tinnitus for at least a few minutes. For some people—like Spengler—the condition is chronic.

Spengler felt stuck with the aggravating symptoms of tinnitus—so much so, that she doesn’t think she even remembered to bring it up during a recent hearing test. When Spengler put on her hearing aids in the doctor’s office, she got an unexpected and delightful surprise.

“The first minute they put the hearing aids on, the thing that I noticed the most is that the tinnitus is gone,” says Spengler, a retiree in New Mexico. “I can’t even convey to people how wonderful it is,” she says, adding that she thinks hearing aids are the second best invention for older people after cataract surgery.

And this wasn’t just a one-time occurrence. The tinnitus disappears every time Spengler puts on the hearing aids, she says.

That’s not the case for everyone with tinnitus, but it is somewhat common. Here’s what you need to know about the connection between hearing loss and tinnitus—and why hearing aids can sometimes help alleviate tinnitus symptoms. 

Hearing loss and tinnitus often occur together

Hearing loss and tinnitus often go hand-in-hand. Not everyone with tinnitus experiences hearing loss, but it does often occur, says Virginia Ramachandran, AuD, PhD, the head of audiology at Oticon, Inc, a hearing aid manufacturer.

“A lot of times somebody comes into the office with a complaint of hearing noises. And if you test their hearing, they typically will have at least some level of hearing loss, and they might not have been aware of it,” Ramachandran says.

The “why” is hard to know.

“The exact mechanism or mechanisms that cause tinnitus are not entirely known,” Ramachandran says. That said, research studies done using animals show that nearly anything that consistently causes hearing loss will also cause tinnitus, she explains.

Tinnitus is a result of an issue in your brain, not your ears. With hearing loss, you’ll experience missing inputs to your brain, explains audiologist Julie Prutsman, founder of the Sound Relief Hearing Center and board member of the American Tinnitus Association. 

“In its attempt to restore the missing input, the auditory neurons in the brain become hyperactive and misfire,” Prutsman says. The results: tinnitus, or a phantom sound in …….

Source: https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/53312-Hearing-aids-for-tinnitus