How Do Hearing Aids Help With Tinnitus?

Ringing, buzzing, screeching, clicking – you’re suddenly experiencing the whole spectrum of unpleasant noises but you’re the only one that can hear them. Tinnitus might start out as a manageable condition, but left unchecked it can really interfere with a person’s mental health. Thankfully, you can try out hearing solutions that help with tinnitus at no cost, and also take advantage of the free hearing test offered by hearing experts part of the HAC network.

So how exactly do hearing aids help with tinnitus?

• Masking

Most hearing aids have settings that can help distract you from tinnitus. When you start experiencing ringing in the ears, you can either choose to mask it with low-level white noise or other more relaxing sounds such as those of the ocean, waterfalls, nature, etc. 

• Notch Therapy

Notch therapy does not produce an audible signal that masks tinnitus, but instead it teaches the brain to ignore tinnitus sounds over the course of weeks or months of using a hearing aid. In other words, it reduces the perception of ringing in the ears. Notch therapy works best for tonal tinnitus, the most common type of tinnitus.

Easily find a free hearing test near you and explain to the audiologist examining you that you experience ringing in the ears. They’ll then suggest hearing aids best suited to reduce tinnitus that you can then try at no cost.