Tinnitus can be defined as ‘the perception of sound in the absence of a stimulus’. Or to the layman ‘an annoying ringing in the ears!’.
Tinnitus can vary widely in the type of sound, such as high pitch ringing, to white noise, to rustling, or even continuous music. Tinnitus is a symptom of many things, but unfortunately we still do not know what the real mechanical cause of tinnitus is. Therefore we can treat tinnitus, but we cannot cure it.
There are several different methods to treat tinnitus, but here we are just focusing on hearing aids and how we can help alongside other treatments you may wish to undergo, such as cognitive relaxation techniques.
Manufacturers now incorporate tinnitus masking technology into their hearing aids, and this allows us to frequency shape the masking noise to suit your hearing loss.
Some manufactures introduces frequency shaped masking noise, which can be controlled to user preferences in a separate programme using a remote control. Also, the masking has environmental steering which means the masking noise level reduces if speech is present. This has two distinct advantages over other products in that the masking noise does not affect you hearing people speak, and you don’t have to keep changing programs.
Tinnitus Masking can be incorporated in most Hearing aids
