Hearing Aids for Hearing Impairment When Having Tinnitus?

Dear fellow forum members,

Allow me to introduce myself - I am a 21 year old guy. My hearing has never been 100% since birth, but good enough to get by in daily situations without the use of hearing aids (doctors allowed me to ditch hearing aids at the age of around 4 or 5). Anyway, 4 years ago, I have gotten moderate tinnitus and, to a lesser extent, hyperacusis, for an unknown reason. While it did cause me to become depressed for a year or two, I have come to terms with it and it no longer upsets me anymore in any way. I had discovered that my Tinnitus is clearly triggered by mental stress and loud noises (e.g. after visiting the cinema or other loud places). For that reason, I decided to reduce as much unnecessary stress as possible and to avoid loud noises. I carry earplugs everywhere I go now just in case.

The problem I currently face is that my hearing has seemed to worsen. Whether it has actually worsened or whether it has become more difficult for me to hear and interpret things due to Tinnitus, I do not know. I have noticed that I have to strain my ears more in order to understand what people are saying. For this reason, I'm considering hearing aids. I'm just afraid that hearing aids, while helping with my hearing impairment, will make my tinnitus worse. Because, if I were to listen to music through headphones for a few minutes only, at the lowest volume possible, my Tinnitus would already be aggravated for a while. I'm afraid that regular hearing aids will have the same effect.

So, what I'm wondering is if there's anything that will help my hearing impairment without aggravating my tinnitus?

 

My hearing aids doesn't aggravate my tinnitus, only certain sounds. An audiologist can adjust your aids to tone down frequencies that hurt your ears. Headphones playing music can say that they are at 60 to 70 db but I noticed that some freq are at 100 db to make them heard over a heavy bass section and activate my tinnitus.

 

Thank you for your post. I am also looking into a hearing aid, if the ENT recommends one. I was hoping to hear from others that have tried them. Maybe a brand name, cost, quality of life effects, etc. I wish the best for all of you, and I will keep an eye out for any information to help add to this post.