Regular Hearing Aids Are Curing My Tinnitus

[MeBeSurfer]

Hey everyone, I'm relatively new to the tinnitus world. I was born with a mild hearing loss in both ears, but never had tinnitus growing up. Fast forward to the ripe age of 35 where I was suffering from extreme anxiety and decided to give the SSRI medication called Celexa a try. Turns out I won the lottery and was part of the 1-3% who got the side effect of tinnitus from it. However, it is true that I can't exactly blame the pills for sure. I had only been on 10 mg for 7 weeks before I heard a slight ringing. My doctor said to stop immediately, which I did, and of course the tinnitus got louder and I ended up with sounds that alternate between a high toned dentist drill and someone letting out air out of a monster sized tire. It is important to note that during this time, I also signed up for Movie Pass and saw a ton of movies in theaters back to back, and also purchased a gaming headset. Each of these events could have caused my tinnitus as well.

Anyway, where is the success you ask? Well, growing up I never wore my regular hearing aids much, because I hated how much they amplify the sounds of everything. Well, I popped them in last week, and I don't hear my tinnitus at all when they are in (only very very faintly when in quiet situations). Better yet, when I take them out, I get an hour of silence as my ears adjust to the fact I just took them out! I realize some people have horrible tinnitus and the hearing aids don't even help some folks, for that I'm sorry to hear that. Just wanted to share a little trick I found with the community for anyone that might have similar tinnitus as me. I rate it a 6/10 in loudness, which becomes a 2/10 with hearing aids and a 1/10 after pulling them out for an hour.

Not sure if I'm onto something, but for those of you with hearing loss, maybe check into getting regular hearing aids. They make this much much easier to deal with all day if you can just pop in your hearing aids.

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of you said not to wear in-ear headphones. However, my hearing aids go inside my ear canal and seem to making things much better. I think the in-ear headphones are fine as long as they stay on low volume, but what do I know.

Hope everyone is remaining optimistic about becoming habituated aka healed!

 

[Benoves]

Which hearing aids you got?

 

[MeBeSurfer]

I have the Phonak Audeos.

 

[Hope111]

I came to this forum today and found this post. I would say this is the post of the year - Seven Stars!

This is a clear evidence that restoring/recovering hearing loss can help to eliminate the tinnitus in many cases. This is great hope for 70% of tinnitus population who has some degree of visible hearing loss (30% may have invisible/detectable).

There is high hope that in the next 5 to 10 years we have something available to restore hearing loss.

 

[Tinniger]

I also believe that the early use of hearing aids, even with moderate hearing loss, is a promising therapeutic approach.

 

[Phendran]

How would the use of hearing aids affect people with hyperacusis?

Do all hearing aids amplify everything, or are there some that just amplify sounds of certain frequencies?

 

[GregCA]

Do all hearing aids amplify everything, or are there some that just amplify sounds of certain frequencies?

Actually, most "professional" hearing aids amplify different frequency bands differently.
Their configuration is targeted at the patient's hearing profile. So if you have hearing loss in the high frequencies but no losses in the lows, then the aid will amplify high frequencies and not amplify lows.

Only cheap aids "amplify everything" (often without any upper limit too, which makes them quite dangerous).

 

[MeBeSurfer]

My tinnitus comes roaring in response to sounds without my hearing aids. I can't listen to any music while I sleep, have fan noise, or any other sound, because it just aggravates the heck out of my tinnitus. Since I'm only 3 months in, I've been sleeping with my hearing aids on, because they work so well at masking the tinnitus.

 

[Tinniger]

How would the use of hearing aids affect people with hyperacusis?

Hearing aids are a new way of listening. It is not uncommon for hyperacusis to be a result of recruitment caused by hearing loss. This type of hyperacusis would also be treated by a hearing aid.

 

[BuzzyBee]

Question for everyone with one-sided hearing loss. Do you use just one hearing aid or do you use two even if there's loss in only one ear? I haven't had any luck at using one. Even though the hearing aid I tried was very comfortable while in, it started hurting after several hours and my ear felt clogged after taking the aid out. It was open fit and barely touching anything, so there was no actual occlusion or clogging by the aid itself, but rather something going on with my brain that caused the fullness feeling. I'm wondering if all this time I should have been using two hearing aids instead of one even though I only have one-sided hearing loss and one-sided (usually) tinnitus. I may do a third hearing aid trial, but am wondering if it's a waste of time since the first two didn't work.

 

[GregCA]

Question for everyone with one-sided hearing loss. Do you use just one hearing aid or do you use two even if there's loss in only one ear?

Only one hearing aid.

 

[BuzzyBee]

Only one hearing aid.

Thanks Greg. So far I've had different opinions from different audiologists so I don't know what the answer is. I'm just interested in hearing what's working for others.

 

[MeBeSurfer]

AGC, I wear two hearing aids, but I know all about that weird feeling at first. The ear aches should go away after awhile. Your brain will get used to you wearing the hearing aid and eventually it will be a non-issue. That's my experience anyway. I hadn't worn mine in 10 years, so I had to adjust to wearing them again too. Took several weeks to get used to them again.

 

[GregCA]

Thanks Greg. So far I've had different opinions from different audiologists so I don't know what the answer is. I'm just interested in hearing what's working for others.

Interesting. I never heard any audiologist recommend a HA in a "healthy ear". Did they say why they recommended that?

 

[BuzzyBee]

Interesting. I never heard any audiologist recommend a HA in a "healthy ear". Did they say why they recommended that?

In this case it would be for a type of tinnitus retraining using two Widex hearing aids with zen tones, so I think having two has something to do with balancing the chimes. This was also recommended by an audiologist way back, but I didn't see the point in using two and figured it was too expensive, anyway. So in between this audiologist and the one I spoke with a while back, there have been others who have said one hearing aid would work (it didn't). Maybe the third time's a charm? My tinnitus is the highly reactive type. It can be perfectly quiet in a quiet room, but it goes crazy-loud when I step outside or go into a noisier environment. It's as if the left ear is trying really hard to keep up with the right ear and just goes berserk.

 

[GregCA]

In this case it would be for a type of tinnitus retraining using two Widex hearing aids with zen tones, so I think having two has something to do with balancing the chimes.

Ah, for the T part that may make sense indeed. I couldn't see any reason if it were amplification alone, but you brought in the T dimension and that may have an influence in the dual approach.
I do have some masking feature in my hearing aid, and it's not bothering me that it's only in one ear, but maybe it's different with the "zen tones".

 

[BuzzyBee]

Ah, for the T part that may make sense indeed. I couldn't see any reason if it were amplification alone, but you brought in the T dimension and that may have an influence in the dual approach.
I do have some masking feature in my hearing aid, and it's not bothering me that it's only in one ear, but maybe it's different with the "zen tones".

Yes, I think it's more than just amplification but sound therapy using the zen tones. For me the one sided zen tones were pleasant, but they didn't do much for the tinnitus. I also had issues with my ear canal hurting even though the aid was open fit and had a tiny head.

 

[Ozchatnoir]

"MeBeSurfer, post: 293923, member: 28520"]
I just got hearing aids fitted for mild to moderate hearing loss. I started getting T last year but I find when I've got my hearing aids in, apart from better hearing, I hardly notice the T. At night when they are out I listen to my Re-Sound app to go to sleep. I'm still getting used to the hearing aids but it is all good so far. I love that I can control the hearing aids from my mobile phone eg loud on the train - I turn them off.

 

[BuzzyBee]

This thread plus some advice from an audiologist motivated me to try a hearing again. Hopefully third time's a charm, because I'm now trialing a new one. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of the Widex, but it's really comfortable and I haven't experienced quite so much of that annoying fullness when taking it out (or aching).

The issue is I'm hearing new tones . They are not necessarily louder, just scary because I'm used to a loud static hiss and now I've got the hiss plus tones when I'm not wearing the hearing aid. They are not constant (thank goodness!) but when I have a spike the new tones are on top of the usual. In addition I've been waking up and hearing new tones. Last night I woke up to what sounded like a piano tune playing over and over! Could the hearing aid be causing this? I only wear it a few hours a day. Mostly I've been using it in noisy places to try to counteract the reactivity (seems to be helping!) and I've also listened to some zen-like tones on YouTube for sound therapy. But the new tones are a little scary and I'm wondering if that's normal. I'm only on Day 3 of this so I know it's still early to tell.

 

[Sherri786]

Hi MeBeSurfer, thank you for your post, how much did the hearing aid cost ?

 

[MeBeSurfer]

Hi MeBeSurfer, thank you for your post, how much did the hearing aid cost ?

I have them in both ears, so about 3,000 US each. I was able to get my insurance to pay 80% of it when I got these 5 years ago. Now I'm due for an upgrade and don't think insurance covers them anymore.

 

[Sherri786]

Thank you so much MeBeSurfer. Appreciate it.

 

[Chad Lawton]

I'm heading to Costco tomorrow to pick up a pair and see if it helps in the long run. I tried them on last week and they seemed to help. Granted, I'm only a month into this Tinnitus but the fact that I had absent DPOAEs in the 6-8k range and a measurable 25db dip in both ears tells me the damage is done and I'm trying to be as proactive as possible.

 

[Mathew Gould]

My T comes roaring in response to sounds without my hearing aids. I can't listen to any music while I sleep, have fan noise, or any other sound, because it just aggravates the heck out of my T. Since I'm only 3 months in, I've been sleeping with my hearing aids on, because they work so well at masking the T.

My T is the same, sound makes my T worse... My T is below avg, I think to the avg person with T... I'm gonna try one of those hearing loss centers that deals with T soon.

 

[Sherri786]

My T is the same, sound makes my T worse... My T is below avg, I think to the avg person with T... I'm gonna try one of those hearing loss centers that deals with T soon.

Please let us know how it goes. Thank you.

 

[Patrick Hollier]

I have had T for 6 years. My hearing loss is considered "moderate" and it starts at 4k hz. I cannot hear anything above 11k hz. I am 49.

My T reached a loudness last year that was very bothersome. I knew I had to try something in order to preserve my sanity. I decided to try hearing aids. I started with just one ear but it created an unbalanced feeling in the opposite ear. I did notice an improvement with the one hearing aid so I ordered another to have a pair. That was the turning point. Life has been much better since with moments where I do not even notice my T for several hours. When I do notice it, it is less severe. If I take the hearing aids out, the T returns to levels that are bothersome but just knowing that I have a way to get relief makes having T a lot less stressful. I would have paid 5 times the price for these because of the peace that they have brought back to my life.

The hearing aids that I have are sold online, and it is a reputable brand, according to my brother who is an ENT. The brand is Hansaton, and it is sold as the "Oro" through Audicus online. Their prices are listed on their site, and it was very reasonable compared to other brands. They have a 45-day trial period which was the selling point for me. I sent them my last audiogram and told them that I was looking for relief from a high pitched tinnitus. The hearing aids have four different settings. Two of them have a white noise that plays along with sound amplification. The other two programs are just sound amplication. One of the programs amplifies higher frequencies, and that is the one that works the best. The hearing aids are comfortable and almost unnoticeable. I am not trying to push this brand. I suspect that other brands of hearing aids will work just as well if programmed similarly but it is hard to beat the price of the Oro.

I wish I had discovered hearing aids sooner. I don't need them for hearing. I can hear conversations just fine without them.

At night I take them out and play a recording of various high-frequency cricket sounds that completely mask my T at low volumes. This allows me to sleep peacefully through the night. You can find these recordings at the iTunes store. I did a search for "cricket sounds".

It is such a relief to have those moments of silence again. My T will probably never go away. I expect it to get worse but at least I have a tool for managing it now. It's wonderful.

 

[Sherri786]

Patrick Hollier, thank you so much for sharing. Much appreciated.
Will check out the hearing aid now.

 

[MeBeSurfer]

Just an update for everyone. Hearing aids definitely seem to have helped tremendously. When I sleep at night, I don't hear it at all, even when I wake up for a few seconds. My T comes back in the morning when I remember I have T and check for it (yes, I'm trying to get better about that). BUT, the T has vastly improved. It used to be a 6-8/10, now its a 2 or 3. Oddly enough, my hearing aids used to silence my T, but now I can hear my T through the hearing aids, but its very doable and not loud at all. I still feel better off wearing them, since I think it's training my brain not to make up noises, since its filling the neural pathways with proper sounds.

Anyway, I remain confident T is going to go away since I've had such a drastic volume reduction and about 7 months into this. There are times I literally can't hear the T at all, and other times I wanna rip my ears off for still ringing after all this time. I guess we all just hang in there and play the wait and see game right? Staying optimistic here!

 

[Sherri786]

Thank you MeBeSurfer, for the update.
I always look forward to reading your updates, appreciate it.

 

[MartinH]

Just came across this when looking for some posts from those who have hearing aids.. I have mild hearing loss, but still in the normal range. They also found some cochlear damage, from what I have no idea. I'm 52 and otherwise in pretty good shape. My audiologist ordered up hearing aids for me (resound linx 3d) and about 20 minutes after having them in my T went thru the roof. I took them out and the spike lasted for a few days. I don't know how much tuning was actually involved or if they just amplify everything. About the only thing that gives me relief is listening to books or podcasts with ear buds. Between the time my T first started a couple months ago, and the time I got seen by the audiologist my T had died down quite a bit, easily masked and ignorable. I'm regretting not just leaving well enough alone.