A new study of 46,000 households by the Better Hearing Institute has found that there are nearly twice as many tinnitus sufferers in the U.S. than previously believed—close to thirty million Americans. And for many of these patients, hearing aids significantly helped them with their tinnitus.
If you or a loved one is afflicted with tinnitus, you know how disruptive it can be to a person’s quality of life. Tinnitus is the perception of a sound that has no external source. It is often described as “ringing in the ears,” humming or buzzing, and can be perceived in one ear, both ears, or in the head. Exposure to extreme noise is the leading cause of tinnitus, and people with tinnitus almost always have accompanying hearing loss, according to the study authors. Tinnitus is now the number one service-connected disability of returning military personnel from Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, there is no known cure for tinnitus.
“The good news is there are effective therapies available to help people cope,” said Sergei Kochkin, PhD, BHI’s Executive Director and co-author of the study. “In particular, we found that a variety of sound therapies and/or hearing aids in conjunction with counseling can help. In fact, 43.5 percent of survey respondents with tinnitus were helped at least mildly with hearing aids. And three out of 10 were helped moderately-to-substantially. For those whose audiologists used best practices in fitting hearing aids, that figure jumped to 50 percent.”
How do hearing aids help? Hearing aids amplify the sounds you are supposed to hear, so the loudness or prominence of the tinnitus is reduced. Taking the focus off the tinnitus means relief for many people. Hearing aids also reduce the stress associated with intensive listening by improving communication, which in turn helps relieve tinnitus symptoms.
The study findings were published in the November issue of Hearing Review. It is the largest study of its kind. To read more, click here.