ENT Says Hearing Aids Cure Tinnitus, Lack of Same Causes Alzheimer's

[bob mounger]

Greetings,

Ear infection in September 2015 left me with tinnitus.

ENT November 2015: Try Arches 95% speech recognition

ENT March 2016: MRI, see neurologist & come see me again in a year.

Neurologist April 2016: You had shingles in inner ear.

In between lost job, started contracting, got some relief with ACRN (thanks to you all & Generalfuzz)

ENT Jan 2018: you have 84% speech recognition & hearing loss; you need hearing aids that will cost $4000 & will cure your tinnitus, if you don't buy them you have a highly increased risk of Alzheimers. I told them I would check on insurance funding & left, wondering why they didn't tell me that hearing aids would cure this & let me decide if I wanted to spend the money.

Question: Do I need a new Audiologist?

Thanks,
Bob in Dallas

 

[Aaron123]

ENT Jan 2018: you have 84% speech recognition & hearing loss; you need hearing aids that will cost $4000 & will cure your tinnitus, if you don't buy them you have a highly increased risk of Alzheimers. I told them I would check on insurance funding & left, wondering why they didn't tell me that hearing aids would cure this & let me decide if I wanted to spend the money.

Question: Do I need a new Audiologist?

Your post is confusing. You ask if you need a new audiologist, but you never mention an audiologist in your post so it is not clear if the audiologist told you these things or if the Doc did. It's also hard to say much since you provide no information on your hearing tests in 2015 and 2018. We have no idea how much your hearing (aside from word recognition) changed.

In general: 1) hearing aids may help tinnitus if the cause is hearing loss, but it's far too strong to say HAs will "cure" tinnitus. 2) There is an association between untreated hearing loss and dementia. It's not clear whether it is directly causal, whether folks with untreated hearing loss become socially withdrawn and this increases the risk of dementia, or whether there is some other underlying factor that causes both.

 

[bob mounger]

Please excuse me.

The office has an ENT & an Audiologist. They both referred to themselves as doctors. I have asked for the most recent measurements. They said that there was some high frequency rolloff in 2015, but that it was worse now.

My query stems from the forceful assertion that HAs will cure tinnitus, & that lack of them will likely lead to Alzheimers. The concatenation of these two claims by the Audiologist made me start thinking second opinion.

Since I posted this I have spoken to the medical insurance people who apparently want me to start over with someone else anyway purely from a cost basis.

Thank for reading & commenting.

 

[Ambassador]

Run away as fast as you can and stop at where you can to report malpractice. The idea that a"doctor" will claim hearing Aids will cure tinnitus is insane, and if you don't buy them you might get Alzheimers is doubly insane.

I will say the right hearing aid can help relieve tinnitus with amplification and a built in masker but there's no freakin way it can cure it.

 

[fishbone]

Please excuse me.

The office has an ENT & an Audiologist. They both referred to themselves as doctors. I have asked for the most recent measurements. They said that there was some high frequency rolloff in 2015, but that it was worse now.

My query stems from the forceful assertion that HAs will cure tinnitus, & that lack of them will likely lead to Alzheimers. The concatenation of these two claims by the Audiologist made me start thinking second opinion.

Since I posted this I have spoken to the medical insurance people who apparently want me to start over with someone else anyway purely from a cost basis.

Thank for reading & commenting.

First of all, HAs will not cure tinnitus. HAs can provide relief for some folks, that suffer from tinnitus. Some advance HAs have masking features. Some folks love using HAs and some don't like it, you will never know till YOU try it. Find a new DR, this one doesn't sound very trustworthy....

 

[Ecip]

This ENT seems very confused. There is currently NO cure for tinnitus. Hearing aids may help in masking your tinnitus.
Where is this research that shows that hearing loss can lead to Alzheimers? AFAIK, according to the latest research, Alzheimers is diabetes of the brain.

 

[MartinH]

Probably coming into this a couple months too late, but I'd say get a 2nd opinion. That's what I'm in the process of doing now. I had an ENT tell me after testing that my hearing was within normal ranges but still a little on the low side in one ear. That's where I got the "live with it" advice and sent on my way. Audiology appointment today with the U.S. Navy hospital. The doc did a couple more tests on me and advised I had some damage to the little hairs in my inner ear. Straight away helped me pick out hearing aids. Being a military hospital she doesn't have a stake in selling me hearing aids. Not a bad deal for just under $700 I'm getting a pair of Resound Linx2.. God I hope they help.