Best Hearing Aids to Reduce Tinnitus...

First a bit of background. Been a while since I have been on the support forum and have mostly come back because lately my tinnitus has been raging and I am trying to figure out my best strategy moving forward. My story is a bit complicated. I have a pretty profound jaw/facial nerve injury that was aggravated by a Radio Frequency Ablation procedure which somewhat coincides with my tinnitus getting louder. We all know the circularity of mindset and tinnitus, how mindset influences this condition and since I have been caught in a frenzied state of despair over what has happened to me and we know how facial nerves interact with the auditory nerves etc...I have a perfect storm it seems. To get me down off the ledge, my neurosurgeon prescribed 50mg of Amitriptyline at night time which may be the biggest contributor to my T raging or at least seems to coincide with my T spiking time wise. Additionally it makes me sleepy, a bit more clumsy and generally more out of sorts. Previously, I was on Ativan aka Lorazepam 0.5mg which seemed more effective overall as needed..for both T suppression and not feeling the same unsettled way I do on Amitriptyline. So I will likely try to get my meds directed back to Ativan for an overall mood enhancer and reduce my anxiety without the noted side effects of Amitripyline.

Second prong aside from best meds to reduce my anxiety is with respect to hearing aids. I am now 64 y.o. and no question I have some level of high frequency hearing loss but overall I have functioned pretty well without hearing aids. Its proposed my high frequency hearing loss maybe partly the root cause of my tinnitus…the brain trying to fill in the blanks of this lost high frequency. I will say my tinnitus varies a fair amount. Lately however it has been raging with a very shrill high frequency hiss that is obtrusive and penetrating and hard to not think about. When my T is lower in volume, I can tune it out easier aka habituate.

One idea talking to other older people is…buy some good hearing aids with a tinnitus function…perhaps the hearing aid type that can introduce frequencies to distract from backdrop of the hiss I hear due to tinnitus. I would love to hear from those that have tried this…bought some hearing aids which has helped them better manage their tinnitus….or not.

Our family just got new hearing aids for my elderly Mom who also suffers from tinnitus as did my grandma. No doubt hereditary plays a role in me contracting T after a lifelong of excellent hearing.

Through the local audiologist she was fitted with Starkey – MUSE i2000 aids for a pretty exorbitant sum I will add. One cool function of these hearing aids is TV Bluetooth whereby the TV audio transmits directly to her hearing aids like they were Bluetooth earphones. She overall likes them but I did just a bit of research and audiologists rate Starkey hearing aids ‘middle of the pack’.

Do we have any experts in hearing aids on the forum that may advise the best hearing aids out there for tinnitus sufferers?

Please take a look at the article that rates different brands if interested as rated by audiologists:

https://www.hearingtracker.com/blog/hearing-aid-brands-in-2018/

Are Oticon and Phonak generally perceived as better than Starkey in the industry for those that may have experience or researched hearing aids?

Thanks for reading this and my thoughts are with other T sufferers here and all over.

 

@stophiss,
I was wondering how you were doing.
I have hearing aids with built in maskers and do help during the day but I think mine ramp up my ears.
Have you tried a lower dose of your AD for sleep for a Matinance sleeping dose as It could help ?
love glynis x

 

So nice to hear from you glynis…

I have been off the forum mostly because I have little to add and many are suffering with this condition more than me…until recently where my T has taken a turn for the worse which puts me in with those that struggle.

Do you know the brand and model of your hearing aids? Can you explain what ‘ramp up your ears’ means?...do you mean increase hearing volume level to a fault in order to mask tinnitus? I presume this is part of the calibration calculus. Perhaps you could explain a bit if time permits.

I went from 50mg to 25mg on dosage with Amitriptyline. Reason was I way too zoned out on 50mg. And I am 180 lbs…not a small person…just over 6’. Still feel a little ‘weirded out’ on 25mg. Ativan seems to have similar tranquilizing effect but without the side effects.

Love back to you for all the wonderful work you do to help others.

 

I find when my hearing aids are in they help but at night it is worse torture so at the minute in trying not to wear them just to see if I can adapt to the sound but it's quite hard .
I will get back to you about the make of mine but were free off the NHS a few years ago.
I'm off to the hospital soon for a evening appointment with a consultant about another problem thats not going well and a big worry at the moment .
Catch up when I can maybe tomorrow so take care for now.
love glynis x

 

Hugs and hope things go ok for your consultation.
Thanks for your comments Glynis.

 

Not an expert but I recently got a new hearing aid to see if it would be better than my previous one.
My old HA has a T masking feature: I find it useful and turn it on every once in a while to "take the edge off". The new one doesn't have that feature, but it performs better at amplification (it covers high frequencies better), and so when I put it in, I can "feel" the hearing doing better from my "bad ear".

So now I just switch back and forth depending on my need for relief. I'm trying to go long stretches without the masking feature, but I'm not there yet.

I think HAs can be useful, and given that you have a free trial period, I don't see much of a downside in giving it a try.

Good luck!

 

Nice to hear from you Greg and greatly appreciate your advice as you know so much about tinnitus.
Do you have a suggestion on brand and/or model of hearing aid?
Thanks again.

 

@stophiss I can share my experience in the hope it helps you.

My original hearing aids with a masker was the Phonak brand. It was a good hearing aid but was their first generation model that could only be adjusted through the audiologist’s computer. As my coping declined, my audiologist changed me to the Resound Lynx2 model that could be adjusted and profiles set up by Bluetooth on my iPhone. It also had adapters that could pair to a remote microphone and another adaptor that would pair with a TV set. The ability to control whether I could choose between amplification with masker, amplification alone, or masker alone was huge. It did not make the tinnitus go away but it did help to take the edge off.

After several years with the Resound, my tinnitus has worsened so, in addition to CBT therapy to help me cope, my audiologist is going to have me try a hearing aid from Signia with something called notch therapy. I don’t have them yet....will take a couple months for me to get them, but the audiologist says it attempts to match the frequency of my tinnitus in the hearing aids. I hope and pray it helps.

I have had hearing aids with maskers for going on 8 years or so and, like you, been on a couple meds including Lorazepam to keep from going off the deep end. It’s a daily struggle but I’m convinced the hearing aids with the maskers helped me to survive.

As always, what works for one may not work for someone else. I’m not advocating anything nor do I have an agenda. I’m just hoping my experience helps you. Take care.

Bobby

 

You have to try them to know, really. I personally focused on hearing aids that had amplification bands that went higher than your typical rolloff (~6-8 kHz), because that's where my big losses are. You need to ask your audiologist what aids they have with this feature.

I didn't care for fancy features (like BT, etc).

My 2 HAs are: Oticon Ria2 Pro Ti (with T masking) & Starkey Brio 3 (that handles HF losses better). Both "Receiver In Canal" type.

 

Thanks so much Bobby. You have been through so much with your tinnitus. Like yourself, I am looking to at least take the edge off if hearing aids will help. You identified much of why the latest hearing aids...how the tech has moved forward for those with tinnitus in particular.

Bobby, you mentioned your new aids with notch therapy are from Signia. Do you put any credence in the survey I linked in my opening post? As with the hearing aids we just got my Mom from Starkey, Signia is rated ‘middle of the pack’ in overall effectiveness relative to the competition. Do you put any stock in the veracity of that survey? In other words, do you think that one of the leading hearing aid suppliers may offer that same notch therapy or is it exclusive to Signia?

I look forward to learning your result and prey they work out for you.

Many thanks and keep fighting the good fight. Hopefully help will come.

Signia's description of Notch therapy. Sounds promising Bobby indeed:

https://www.signia-pro.com/blog/tinnitus-notch-therapy/

 

Greg.
When vetting an audiologist, is there a check list you can refer me to on the web of what to look for...for best tests perhaps specific to tinnitus sufferers? In other words, like hearing aids with different features, I presume audiologists aren't all the same. Is there a litmus test to discriminate a good audiologist from average?...maybe ask what kind of particular tests they conduct to ensure they have the latest capability?

Thanks for your advice.

 

I don’t read the reviews or surveys on hearing aids probably because I completely trust my audiologist. From reading this forum, it seems many have not had good responses from their providers such as doctors, audiologists, or ENT’s. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had the same audiologist from the beginning. She believes what I tell her and I honestly feel that her life’s mission is to help people like me. She works incredibly hard to help me cope with this. She has never told me “tinnitus is incurable; just learn to live with it”, she does anything and everything she is able to as my audiologist to help me. So, this is the long answer to your short question, I put credence in my audiologist, not the surveys.

I hope you find a hearing aid that helps you. It may require a lot of trial and error. Now, I also realize that most everyone needs to look at reviews and surveys because this hardware is expensive. So this is why I posted my experience in case you find it helpful. In my case, I’m fortunate that my audiology care comes from Veterans Affairs Healthcare.

 

I don’t mean to speak for Greg. I’ve had a lot of audiologists in my life. I think the litmus test of a great audiologist from an average one is if you believe with all your heart that they are in your corner. You will know rather quickly if this is simply a job or their passion. All the greatest equipment and tests in the world won’t mean much if the audiologist doesn’t believe you and wants to help you. We suffer enough without having an audiologist who doesn’t honestly empathize with our issues.

 

I don't have enough experience to speak with any authority about this. I've seen a few audiologists, and they've generally been helpful, but I like to trust my gut when I meet them: do they spend time with me or do I feel like they need to "be done and move on to the next patient". That'll tell me how much time they've allocated on their schedule for me, and how much investment they think I'm worth.

I like to check whether or not they have T experience, not just themselves as sufferers, but also whether their equipment is adequate for high frequency testing and pitch/volume matching. This tells me they have experience in the practice of T matching, and are probably more knowledgeable about T than another audiologist who never had to go through this process.

Then finally I look at the brands/types they carry, whether it will help me or not: I was specifically looking for aids that could handle HF, so I wouldn't have moved forward with the latest HA if it was similar to my previous one in that respect. I also wanted to give it a try because it's Costco, and being Costco, they have better terms than "normal terms" for the trial period.

A simple consultation with them generally gives you a reasonable gut feeling: are they compassionate? do they dismiss your condition as if it were benign? do they seem to know what they're doing when they program the test aids? do you see them comfortable with the user interface? I tend to ask a lot of questions, some of which I know the answers to (because I have a background in signal processing), as a way to gauge their understanding of the tech, and look for people who will openly tell me they don't know rather than BS me.

 

Greg,
Is Costco a good place to buy hearing aids at?

Or...how about an on line source like:
https://www.ziphearing.com/hearing-...erm=+signia +hearing +aids&utm_content=Signia

I like the concept of notch therapy offered by Signia which appeals to my technical sensibility. I look forward to learning of Bobby's result.

Many thanks...your gut sense of audiologists pretty much dovetails with Bobby's thinking as he reflected above.

 

For me it was ok because I didn't need to do a hearing test (I brought my recent audiogram in) and was able to simply talk to the audiologist and do trials around the warehouse (they set it up, then I go for a walk around the warehouse, then I come back, we make adjustments, and rinse & repeat).
I didn't feel like their setup for a hearing test was very good: sound insulation was not great, and headphones aren't as good as in canal plugs+speakers for insulation either - but thankfully I didn't use it.
For the rest, it's just a device: they set it up, you use it, and you have 6 months to return it. It's also reasonably priced, and I can deal with them face to face.

 

@stophiss mine are Siemens duel purpose hearing aids and my audiologist added a white noise setting on them for me off the NHS.
love glynis x

 

Thank you Glynis. How effective is your white noise filter? May I ask what NHS stands for? Are hearing aids a big help to cope with your tinnitus...or a small help in your opinion based upon personal experience?
Hope all is well.

 

NHS is our National Health service in the UK.
My hearing aids help me focus on other sounds and have conversations and here conversations without my naughty ears running a muck each day out to win the day..
My hearing aids put my tinnitus back in it's cage till bed time .
They give me some control and the white noise setting is good if you have no sound around you to amplify and need a break from your tinnitus sound with adding a better sound to focus on.
love glynis x

 

Your last sentence in particular I can relate to. I do much better when I am outside whereby natural environmental sounds really mask my tinnitus. But when back home and if alone, I find my mind focuses more on the high frequency hiss. So a hearing aid white noise filter may help me as well when inside away from natural environmental sound.

At night, when the hearing aids come out, do you use a white noise generator to distract the mind as you sleep?

Thank you.

 

@stophiss,
I take medication to help me sleep but have a pillow speaker if I want listen to sounds.
Tinnitus Hub facebook group have two lovely men whom make sound videos for tinnitus masking and have their own utube channels and put sound video's on for members.
They are two lovely guys who do it for free and great members.
It's a private group and Markku and Steve are admin and I moderate it.
love glynis x

 

@stophiss, great to see you posting again, although I’m sorry about the circumstances.

 

Nice to hear from you Ed and sorry your tinnitus hasn't improved such that you are still around. What I did because my T baselined for a year or so at a 3-4 or so as I habituated and then accepted it on some level, is...put my hopes into pending Research so I mostly lurked on the Research forum where I had little to contribute...was more a fly on the wall.

Then I had a radio frequency ablation procedure on my mandibular nerve...the inferior alveolar nerve and it went horribly wrong and affected the facial nerve up the side of my face placing pressure on my ear canal. I theorize...don't know if its anxiety invoked or pressure to the hearing related nerves...but believe this has caused my tinnitus to spike and be much more variable. Spikes are much worse. My tinnitus tends to more rage after a night's sleep for example...if I get a full night's sleep which is more rare.

Having talked to some friends locally also with tinnitus and hearing loss, some mentioned they got relief from hearing aids...where the high's are more filled in...they don't tend to notice their tinnitus during the day when wearing them.

So, I came here to ask if there is a generally accepted best hearing aid for tinnitus sufferers and Bobby mentioned Signia's new Notch therapy which makes a lot of sense...to subtract the brain generated tinnitus frequency from the sound enhancement to make the brain skip more over it. Bobby who really struggles with his tinnitus and knows a lot of about hearing aids will receive them in September. If he says they are the ticket and a big improvement over his current T masking aids, I will likely get this type to try because it maybe the next leap in relief to tinnitus suffers...improved technology over pure masking or frequency response enhancement. Will see and hope and prey for Bobby and others if this new tech helps.

Ed, I hope you are doing better and not worse like me and nice to hear from you.

My thoughts are with all the great people on this forum who try to help one another with their tinnitus and hearing related issues.

 

I researched some hearing aids extensively about 4 to 5 years ago and the one that I thought was the best was a Siemens hearing aid that had 12khz bandwith. Some hearing aids only go up to 6khz or 8khz!! The human hearing range can go up to around 20khz so there is a huge lack of frequencies that you won't be able to hear if you get a 6khz aid. I advise you go to a tone generator website and move the frequencies up and down (at a safe volume) to see if your hearing gets worse in the high frequencies. I'm not sure why but Siemens aids turned into Signia hearing aids. I would suggest looking at a Signia 7nx hearing aid and have them program a notch therapy in your aids. Signia actually has notch therapy built in to their aids which supposedly can help with tonal tinnitus over a period of months. They can be programmed to 12khz (you will need an extended audiogram) and they have built in masking sounds and can be hooked up to an iPhone through bluetooth. I would really suggest checking them out and by the way, I don't work for Signia or Siemens. I actually tried the one that came out a few years that had 12khz...I think it was a Primax 7px or Binax 7bx. I loved the 12khz bandwidth because it masked more of my tinnitus. Unfortunately, I decided I had to keep my old aids because the cost would have been so much.

 

I think the some of the new Signia hearing aids can be programmed remotely without you having to go into the hearing place. Bobby, I would suggest trying the Signia 7nx since it can be programmed up to 12khz. Some aids only can be programmed to 8khz. I found that I had some additional tinnitus masked when I had an older pair of 12khz aids. I hated to give them up but I couldn't justify the money since I had already had spent thousands on a previous pair. At least I got to try them out though. Also, the aids can be hooked up to an iPhone so you could stream some masking sounds to them or listen to the built in sounds they have. I think I tried the Primax 7px (possibly Binax 7bx) and they had various ocean sounds in addition to white noise. I think it was also the white noise was customizable so you can turn up various frequencies that you like. I had maybe 3 masking programs.

 

Jason,

Precisely the advise I was looking for to supplement Bobbie’s great advice. Thanks so much for coming here and adding your experience. I am going to wait on Bobby but based upon his and your advice, I am leaning toward the Signia notch therapy hearing aids. Your comments about extended upper frequency range is valuable. My tinnitus is a high frequency hiss and my presumption is, that most of my hearing loss is very high frequency and your advice of ‘filling in very high frequencies’ seems to be particularly applicable to me as well.

A question please. When requesting an audiogram, what exactly should I ask for? Should I ask specifically for an audiogram that tests well above 8K Hz? Do most audiologists have this test capability?...or should I ask for this test capability when vetting an audiologist? Anything else I should ask for in terms of testing when the audiogram is performed?

Last question is…Bobby has on order the ‘over the ear’ hearing aid type with notch therapy from Signia. My elderly Mom just got Starkey ‘In the Ear’ hearing aids which are really unnoticeable from the outside. She says they are extremely comfortable. Do you have a preference as to which type of hearing aid is preferred?

Thanks again. I am learning here what I had hoped before going in for my first audiogram which will likely result in some hearing aids to hopefully take the edge off my tinnitus moving forward.
Seems to be that notch therapy and higher frequency enhancement may be the best ticket to quieting Tinnitus. I believe Greg mentioned this as well in his response....very helpful.

 

Unless your hearing requires it, I'd stay away from the "in the ear" aids (those that fill your canal): they tend to give you a feeling of "being clogged", exacerbate occlusion effects, and can - in time - irritate the delicate skin of the ear canal from the simple friction.

 

I believe an audiologist should be able to give you an extended audiogram. However, if you go to most hearing aid centers for a free hearing test, they usually test up to only 8khz. Also, the only Signia hearing aid I know that has the programmable 12khz extended range is the 7nx hearing aid. The 5nx and 3nx which are less expensive do not have it even though they have notch therapy. As far as hearing aids go, I wear the 312 size. If you use bluetooth a lot, I was told a while back it was better to go with the size 13 aids because of the bigger battery. I don't have any experience with in the canal aids but the hearing aid person told me they produce an occlusion effect when you put them in since the ear canal is plugged up. This way the sound doesn't sound as natural. I would suggest just trying the different ones on in the store and see what you feel is the most comfortable. If the 13 is comfortable and doesn't bother you the way it looks or the way it feels go with that one because it has bigger battery life. I wouldn't suggest anything smaller than a 312 as far as RIC's go because you will be using the battery for tinnitus therapies and possibly masking. The smaller you usually get, the smaller the battery.

Finally, here are the Signia nx series hearing aids compared (Notice the 12khz bandwidth feature):

https://www.signia-pro.com/wp-conte.../Signia-Nx_detailed-feature-table_2018-02.pdf

 

@stophiss I had a private CT done on neck and mouth after my dental and not much slowed up within my mouth. Since then my face became stiff. So then I begin to question if there was more involved besides dental whiplash that straighten my neck. The SCM and other muscles can cause facial problems, but my lower teeth started to have sensations. So I had other radiological testing that found that my inferior alveolar/ mental nerve was damaged. This is the cause of my newer tinnitus.

I remember you mentioning that you had a IAN violation from dental. We were friendly before you stopped posting, but now we are neighbors.

 

I know the new aids form Phonak.
As I know they only have a white noise generator for tinnitus, no other sound option.
With additional devices it is possible to use them as bluetooth loudspeakers, but the quality of the Bluetooth signal reception does not seem very good to me. But I have no comparison.
It is important in any case that the audiologist offers a trial period.