Free yourself from the suffering of tinnitus
Have you ever experienced ringing, buzzing or hissing in your ears? If so, you are not alone. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) reports that more than 25 million Americans experience this condition – known as tinnitus.
The team at HearingLife can identify and treat this condition and provide you relief.
Answer a few questions to see if what you experience is tinnitus. At the end you have the opportunity to reach out to a professional for an individual assessment so you can treat your tinnitus.
* The result of this questionnaire may only be used for guidance. Official conclusions about hearing loss/tinnitus can be provided by our certified hearing care experts.
* The result of this questionnaire may only be used for guidance. Official conclusions about hearing loss/tinnitus can be provided by our certified hearing care experts.
* The result of this questionnaire may only be used for guidance. Official conclusions about hearing loss/tinnitus can be provided by our certified hearing care experts.
* The result of this questionnaire may only be used for guidance. Official conclusions about hearing loss/tinnitus can be provided by our certified hearing care experts.
What causes tinnitus?
There are many possible causes of tinnitus. The most common cause is exposure to excessive noise, which damages the tiny hair cells in the inner ear. The ringing in your ears is the result of your brain trying to compensate for the loss of hair cells.
Common causes of ringing in the ears include:
There is no cure for tinnitus, but there are many ways you can manage it and reduce its impact on your life. The following management techniques can be rather effective in turning a potentially negative and emotionally charged sound (tinnitus) into a neutral presence.
Sound therapy can provide relief from ringing in the ears
Although sound therapy cannot eliminate tinnitus, it can be a helpful tool for managing the symptoms. With sound therapy, you listen to different, carefully selected sounds, which can help you feel that your tinnitus is reduced or temporarily gone.
It then becomes easier to hold your attention away from your tinnitus. Plus, it helps you to focus on something more pleasant. You can find the sound therapy that gives you the most effective relief from ringing in the ears by working together with your hearing care expert.
Sound therapy can be provided through:
Hearing aids not only help with hearing loss, they simultaneously mask the sound of tinnitus by amplifying the sounds around you. This can result in reduced listening effort, a perceived reduction in tinnitus volume, and an improved ability to communicate with ease.
In addition, most of our hearing aids offer sound therapy programs that are customized to your individual needs and preferences.
View a list of our hearing aids with tinnitus-masking features:
Tinnitus and hearing loss – do you have both?
Research shows that most people with tinnitus have some degree of hearing loss without being aware of it, and many of them can benefit from hearing aids.
90% of people with tinnitus also have hearing loss
Hearing aids can help transmit more sounds into the ear and brain, thereby making the symptoms of tinnitus less bothersome. Moreover, improved hearing helps you to focus on sounds other than tinnitus, and for many people, this improvement is enough to experience relief.
Take online tinnitus test
Some tinnitus sufferers become sensitive to places with constant talking or loud music, so they begin to avoid such social situations altogether. To others, it is so disturbing that a full night’s sleep can become difficult to achieve. Tinnitus, if left untreated, can lead to the following consequences:
Some people are able to ignore their tinnitus most of the time, but leaving it untreated can have a negative impact on your life if it is experienced over extended periods of time.
Al-Swiahb, J., & Park, S. N. (2016). Characterization of tinnitus in different age groups: A retrospective review. Noise & health, 18(83), 214–219. https://doi.org/10.4103/1463-1741.189240
Beck D.L. (2012) British Academy of Audiology. Podium presentation.
www.hearinghealthfoundation.org
