Hearing aids a help?

[Beezee]

Has anyone found that hearing aids have improved their tinnitus in any way?

[Happyrosie]

Absolutely I have. The T doesn’t go away of course but as the real world is at a proper volume then the T appears to diminish. The website of the British Tinnitus Association has information on this.

[Beezee in reply to Happyrosie]

Thanks Happyrosie and everyone for your helpful responses

[TinnitusUKPat Partner]

I would agree with Rosie's post.

My perspective is that hearing aids are a really good way to manage hearing loss. The extent to which they are effective does correlate with how severe a hearing loss is - most audiologists will tell you that if a person's hearing is in the mild-to-moderate loss category, they will experience mild-to-moderate improvements in the quality of their hearing and equivalent impacts on how much they notice tinnitus.

These are all subjective accounts of course, but the audiology chains like Sound Relief in the US include stories from people who've undergone hearing aid fittings and found a positive effect on their tinnitus - soundrelief.com/tinnitus-su...

[rabbits65]

Well I have tinnitus but “ NO hearing loss”!!! So. Audiology won’t give me hearing aids . They said last year that there is no point if my hearing is good.

[PABLR in reply to rabbits65]

Without hearing loss there's no point in having hearing aids. What they do is allow the real world to come in at a normal volume and thus you don't actually notice the tinnitus so much. At least that's the theory. It doesn't seem to make a lot of difference to me regarding the tinnitus. You can apparently get tinnitus masking hearing aids which I assume they try to adjust to the frequency of your tinnitus (I'm sure someone will tell me if that's wrong!) but again you need the sound magnification before they would be really effective.

[rabbits65 in reply to PABLR]

Thank you for your reply. It all makes sense. 😊

[surreycccfan]

I am waiting on my first hearing aids, will be interested to see if they have any effect.

Also, lots of info on hearing aid info at the BTA tinnitus.org.uk/pages/categ...

[doglover1973]

I believe so Beezee I'm going to Audiology end of January. Hoping & praying for a little relief from HA's as I have considerable hearing loss in one ear. I bought some last year to tide me over but didn't get on very well . The audiologist didn't know very much about T . I think it can be a bit hit & miss outside of the NHS .

[daverussell]

I have mild hearing loss and they do help a little with tinnitus. However, I have hyperacusis which the increased volume can make worse. They pick up more background noise which has a negative effect on my hearing. There are adjustments the audiologist can make and add different settings, but it's going to be a compremise.

Due to my hyperacusis I don't wear my hearing aids. However, we're all individual and even the beneficial changes that hearing aids give do take getting used to.

[Graham-E]

Hello this is a tricky one, in essence yes they do but what I find is it helps focus the other sounds which aids distraction. I have trouble hearing ‘over the top’ of my T and the sound is cleaner and amplified. However, I dislike wearing them and it took forever to use them in public or at work. Which is silly as people have glasses. My combination units allow background sounds and with Bluetooth I can listen to podcasts/music and take phone calls.Hope this help

Best Graham

[Linda3017]

Yes I have found they help when there is noise around as they make it louder so can drown it out more, hope this helps

[bantams]

Hi Beezee,I have a pair of NHS hearing aids but I only have mild hearing loss, the NHS audiologist said I could still have these so they would help me with my Tinnitus which they do. They also have a ocean wave masker sound which I can turn on to mask my Tinnitus sound.

I also have a pair from Specsavers which cost £1595 which have Bluetooth, but they are not any better or any worse than the NHS ones regarding my Tinnitus.

[notdodgy]

My story is similar to others. They help with living with tinnitus by boosting voices a bit (I have typical age related hearing loss and would not normally qualify for aids). They include a white noise setting, which helps desensitise / quieten the tinnitus, but it does not help that much. Within minutes the benefit wears off.

The down side is mask wearing - I need to use a snood type covering.

The worse problem is loud environments can feel overwhelming - for example coffee shops when they are steaming milk / grinding coffee.

[perlcoder]

Bottom line: Yes, in my case.

Details: I have had T for almost 22 years. Hearing test ordered by the ENT I initially consulted showed no hearing loss. Five years ago my T worsened considerably, and audiogram showed significant deterioration in my left ear (which had become the main source of my T), less deterioration in the right. Hearing aid in the left definitely helps, and it has the white noise generator which I switch on quite often. I was also prescribed a pair of in-ear noise generators, but I don't find them helpful.

Incidentally, my T is very reactive and is not generally maskable by external sound. If, eg, I run a bath or boil a kettle, my T accepts the challenge and rises above it, which is ummm (pauses to spare the blushes of the moderators here) a "nuisance". Masking by the hearing aid deep in the ear canal does "win" the battle. Kind of.

[RONf]

Yes! I have mild hearing loss on high frequencies. My NHS (therefore free) hearing aids have been carefully set by NHS audiology at the local hospital to boost these frequencies with the impact that the increased volume on higher frequencies helps mask my T when I am wearing them. I'm now on my second excellent pair of NHS hearing aids. No need to go private! I can hear TV, conversation, music etc so much better - with a brighter more vibrant sound.

[Rickardo]

Hi Beezee. Yes in a word. My hearing aid helps with my day to day T but sadly I'm unable to wear at night for obvious reasons, If I could I would. I do recommend hearing aids tuned into your specific frequency which will be done at the fitting stage by your audiology dept. I have found the hearing aid a god send on some occasions and I can fully recommend having them.