Could a Hearing Aid Prevent More Ear Damage?

[Jason123]

Hello you lovely people. I'd like to ask your advice on something which has been worrying me for a while.

I've had relatively low-level tinnitus due to noise-related damage since 2008. Or at least, it feels fairly low-level these days because I've become fairly habituated to it - I listen to pink noise at night, etc.

These days I find it's hearing loss that worries me more than tinnitus. My hearing isn't too bad but I obviously want to keep as much of it as possible! I feel like it's slowly deteriorating in certain frequencies - perhaps the highest and lowest ones. My music of choice tends to be extreme forms of heavy metal. Even though I try and play it as low as possible (50-60DB), I sometimes find my ears feel a little 'punished' by it.

So. My question is this. If, at the age of 42, I went for digital hearing aids, is it possible that they would allow me to enjoy my music at lower levels, thus ensuring that I wouldn't have to turn the volume up so high to achieve the clarity I'm after? I'll admit, I'm slightly confused about what hearing aids do, and why they don't damage the ear further by raising the volume of sounds from the outside world...

 

[MCarrie]

I've read alot about hearing aids lately, because I have over 40% hearing loss in my right ear and I've read it can lessen the intensity of tinnitus. The hearing aid itself can be turned up or down, so it won't necessarily make things loud enough to cause damage. I would think the better you can hear, the less you have to turn up the music to a damaging decibel.

 

[Michael2013]

why they don't damage the ear further by raising the volume of sounds from the outside world...

Hearing aids should be programmed specifically to only amplify the frequencies you have hearing loss in. So you may be turning up the volume so that you can better hear some of the high frequency sounds, but of course by doing that you raise the volume of ALL of it. Hearing aids can raise only the high frequency (or whatever you need) to help bring some more clarity.

-Mike

 

[Jason123]

A shamefully belated thank you for these answers, guys. This very much makes sense to me and relieves my worry a little, so it's much appreciated.