My 2 cents having had tinnitus for about 3 years which is highly variable...high frequency hiss basically ranging from very loud to not annoying...or much less annoying at least a smaller subset of the time....my T is bothersome more than it isn't. Also, my tinnitus is mostly affected by sleep...sleeping many times heightens my tinnitus for unknown reasons often speculated about.
I had an audiological evaluation last week. My Dr. seemed to believed I had some kind of virus or some kind of undefined health event to cause my tinnitus and high frequency hearing loss. I didn't suffer from any memorable sound event. I have had pretty normal hearing my entire life with no tinnitus. I have pretty substantial fall off in my hearing above 6k frequency in both ears now...more in the left ear. Further, my ears are a bit sound sensitive. My brain has turned up the gain by about 20 dB. 80 dB is pretty painful to me as tested whereas those with more normal hearing can better tolerate 100 db.
I am a very active sports guy and swim and bike frequently for fitness. I don't want hearing aids...but....if they improve my tinnitus, I want to give them a try at least to see if they are a viable solution to knocking down my tinnitus if I choose to wear them versus not in different settings. For example if home alone, this is when my tinnitus is the most troublesome...with lower sound levels and less distraction. I don't struggle much with my hearing deficit in public. But I many times hear my tinnitus if watching TV or listening to music, but sometimes not depending on how loud it is that particular time. I hear people pretty clearly when people speak. I told my audiologist for example I hear her perfectly because she has such a clear speaking voice and of course many don't. She laughed and said, she knows because she works with so many that can't hear
so she has developed this capability. But her clear speech is native to her voice signature as well. In a crowded room I struggle more. Hearing is more muddled which is common with my type of hearing loss. I like to equalize my sound for those into audio and who love music as I do. I tend to turn up the highs in the music I listen to...and/or choose headphones and speakers with crisp highs. Yes, I subscribe to headphone listening on low volumes. My ears don't like high volume anyway. High volume kills hearing, not type of sound generation. My opinion.
So the end of this week, I am going to start using a 'kit' my audiologist has ordered. We are going to try different strategies of hearing augmentation. Embellishment of highs to fill in the sound my brain can no longer perceive and/or masking or supplemental sound to see if there is a Goldilocks scenario that helps distract me from my tinnitus.
Many different people I speak with that have common high frequency hearing loss due to aging and/or sound exposure through their life as a basis for their tinnitus...they believe....including doctors and laypeople with first hand experience, that filling in the highs with hearing aids the brain can no longer hear, this can help to reduce their sensitivity to tinnitus.
Before I spend the big bucks, using high end hearing aids as a trial...my audiologist charges $200 for such a trial which seems fair for her time and involvement to tune my sound signature and procure top of the line hearing aids on a trial basis etc, we will see if this helps and I will report on the forum the result. If our effort doesn't pan out, then I will not get the hearing aids, or may opt for some much less expensive.
If somebody reading this has a lot of experience with what I describe and has tried many different types of hearing aids and has a particular recommendation based upon the latest technology, please post if you would. I presume my audiologist has access to many brands and I would like to put my best foot forward to helping improve my quality of life if this is possible.
Many thanks.
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