Hearing Aids

Ah ok still the audiologist did program a notched white noise sound for me.

 

Hello, I have had severe noise-induced tinnitus (many sounds) for 1 year now and mild hyperacusis in my left hear.

I did a tinnitometry and the audiologist said that I don't have any micro hearing loss but I'm bothered by sounds from 12 kHz.
He thus asked me to wear hearing aids that prevent me from being bothered by sounds from 12 kHz.
I also have a tinnitus masker option with the hearing aids.

I've been using these hearing aids for 1 month now with absolutely no difference regarding my tinnitus.
My tinnitus prevents me from sleeping and the hearing aids can't help me sleep better either as I can't sleep with white noise.

There are also many problems with the programming that always change the settings of the hearing aids.
Plus I hear strangely with that hearing aids.

I don't know what to do; my trial period finishes on Saturday, 7th March. The hearing aids cost 3 300 € but with mutual funds I can have them for about 170 € (thanks France!).

Should I buy them? Do you think my tinnitus will go down if I keep using them as long as possible? I was asked to wear them for at least 6 hours per day.

Please give me your opinion!

Thanks in advance.

 

I was trialing mine. We established with the audiologist that I was not really getting them to help either. For the cost it is not worth keeping them. I am returning them Wens. I can't speak for you.

There is another clinic near my home I may go visit that apparently have phonak as their house brand & there always is a risk free trial period.

 

Sadly, if hearing aids are going to help the tinnitus, it eases off as soon as you put them in and starts up to normal level a few seconds after you take them out. They will not help to cure the tinnitus in any way, certainly not just because you wear them for hours.

 

Thanks for you answer @bobvann!
My hearing aids are Phonak, do you think it's a good brand?
I can afford 170 €, but I don't know if this will help me.

 

@carlover Yes I can hear my tinnitus directly after removing the hearing aids from my ears. There is no inhibition.
That means they won't help me?

 

In my case hearing aids were causing an adverse reaction.

 

One of the ENTs I saw (who is a tinnitus specialist in Paris) told me that hearing aids have to be worn for years to "cure" tinnitus and that it works 90% of the time.

You think that's true?

 

To Kam75:

Carlover is entirely correct.

Since July of 2015 I have worn them nearly 24 hours every day (except to take a shower) and
the tinnitus has not been reduced.

It is not as if the brain will hear silence for so long that it will "forget" the tinnitus (and this was once another seriously bruited theory that was sadly disproven).

This only demonstrates how tinnitus is such an elusive, tenacious, baffling condition.

At times my hearing aids will eliminate the tinnitus; sometimes they will just aggravate it so that it is inflated into a huge ripping sound.

I also find the maximum amplification needed to cover the tinnitus bothersome.

If the white noise masker covers your tinnitus, can you train yourself to imagine this sound as coming from rain or a waterfall, and therefore very pleasant? I talk myself into accepting this white noise when I go to sleep by saying, "Any artificial sound is better than this infernal natural one."

One problem arises, however, when the tinnitus is particularly aggravated; the white noise masker simply places an extra, irritating level of sound on the pre-existing one.

It is a never ending challenge to reach an acceptable "bargaining" model with this condition.

 

I have not tried them. I was trialing Octicon by Siemens. By what you are saying I would not go past the trial. I am having a doozie of a day as well

I think 90% is exaggerated. I have been on a few forums and many have mentioned not being helped and some made worse.

France tu parle francais?

 

When did it give you a reaction, right away or after a couple of days? Did you get the reaction when you had the hearing aids in or out?

 

They have been returned. Audiologist agreed she was out of her depth.

 

Right away and was never able to tolerate them longer then a few minutes up to a few months.

 

@GregCA

How long did it take before you felt a difference regarding tinnitus? Right away or?

 

Pretty quickly yes.

 

In response to your question: I had an ENT telling me that you need to wear hearing aids for at least 6 months to begin noticing a difference.

I am currently wearing a hearing aid in my left, tinnitus, ear. I have mild to absent tinnitus due to noise exposure. One ENT did some tests and told me the tone I was hearing was around 14 kHz. That coincides with a bit of hearing loss around that frequency.

I am also unsure what to expect from my hearing aid, especially since I have high-frequency tinnitus. Hearing aids have a frequency response to a maximum of 8 kHz (I think, without looking that up). That means that the hearing aid actually does not put out any sound at my tinnitus frequency. Even the white noise masker is not white noise but rather a low-pass filtered version.

I have had my hearing aid for about 3 months. I think, but I am not sure, I am doing somewhat better with it.

If anybody has some insight on high-frequency tinnitus + hearing aids, that would be great.

One ray of sunshine: At least in the US, the FDA has widened the market for hearing aid developers. I am not sure about the details but the upshot is this: existing manufacturers of audio equipment will come out soon with their own hearing aids (or similar devices). These might have broader frequency responses. For example, the Bose Hearphones seem to go to at least 10 khz, with a relatively flat freqeuny response. This might be good news for people with high-frequency tinnitus.

 

Protocol for a multi-centre randomised controlled stand-alone feasibility trial to assess potential effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of digital hearing aids in patients with tinnitus and hearing loss (the HUSH trial)

https://pilotfeasibilitystudies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40814-020-00582-5

 

Retrospective evaluation of secondary effects of hearing aids for tinnitus therapy in patients with hearing loss

Abstract
Objective
Acoustic therapies including hearing aids and tinnitus control instruments are widely used in Japan but without high levels of evidence. The outpatient hearing aid clinic at our institution fits patients with hearing aids and instructs patients on how to use them to control tinnitus if present. In this study, we examined the effects of this approach on tinnitus.

Methods
One hundred and eleven of 138 patients who visited our hearing aid clinic from April 2016 to September 2018 purchased hearing aids after fitting. Sixty-six of these patients (31 men, 35 women; mean age 78.0 ± 8.0 years) had both hearing loss and tinnitus and were enrolled. The tinnitus was bilateral in 41 patients and unilateral in 25 (poor hearing ear, n = 16, good hearing ear, n = 9). Hearing aids were worn bilaterally by 23 patients and unilaterally by 43 (89 devices). Seventeen of the 23 patients wearing bilateral hearing aids had bilateral tinnitus and 6 had unilateral tinnitus, i.e., in 40 ears, the tinnitus side matched the hearing aid side (40 devices) and in 6 ears did not (6 devices). Twenty-four of 43 patients wearing unilateral hearing aids had bilateral tinnitus, meaning that in 24 ears the tinnitus side matched the hearing aid side (24 devices). In six of the remaining 19 cases with unilateral tinnitus, the hearing aid and tinnitus were on the same side (6 devices) and in 13 were on opposite sides (13 devices). Changes in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), visual analog scale (VAS, for tinnitus discomfort, severity, and persistence), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores were measured immediately before using a hearing aid and 12 months later.

Results
Significant effects of hearing aids on tinnitus were observed in all subjects (THI, p = 0.0000030), VAS (severity, p = 0.000000066; discomfort, p = 0.0000013). Significant effects were observed with bilateral hearing aids (THI, p = 0.0012; VAS for severity, p = 0.00069; VAS for discomfort, p = 0.00052) and with unilateral hearing aids (THI, p = 0.00055; VAS for severity, p = 0.000034; VAS for discomfort, p = 0.00007). Spearman's rank correlation coefficient showed a significant positive correlation between the THI and VAS scores (p = 0.0033). In cases of bilateral tinnitus, significant differences were observed with bilateral hearing aids (THI, p = 0.011; VAS for severity, p = 0.0019; VAS for discomfort;p = 0.020) and with unilateral hearing aids (THI, p = 0.00069; VAS for severity,p = 0.00071; VAS for discomfort, p = 0.000093).

Conclusion
Acoustic therapy using hearing aids was effective for tinnitus. Even when bilateral, a unilateral hearing aid is able to improve tinnitus. When unilateral, the ipsilateral hearing aid is able to improve tinnitus.

Keywords
Hearing loss
Hearing aid
Bilateral tinnitus
Unilateral tinnitus
Wearing side

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0385814620300729

 

Those p values seemed very impressive on this one.

 

It would be interesting to know what the average THI reduction was, but looks like the article is behind a paywall.

I tried hearing aids (on loan) a while ago. They seemed to produce an improvement, but it’s hard to be sure...!

 

From what I can see hearing aids do not improve tinnitus BUT without mine I am really not sure how I could cope and I am not over stating that. I put them in and my tinnitus is reduced by 50% I wear them in bed as well volume turned right up even though it's quiet for some reason it still keeps the tinnitus away by about half.

 

@carlover, I agree they do help at least that much. Last year I had an illness which kept me in the house resting for several days (not quarantined). I didn’t wear my hearing aids for almost 2 days. I will never do that again!

 

I recently got hearing aids with Bluetooth so that I can play different sounds from my phone.

I tried listening to brown noise for 30-40 minutes, and after my worst ear felt very "tired" and sensitive.
Today I tried nature sounds and it did not feel too bad.

Anyone here have any experiences to share? Are there any risk of overusing it?

I can also mention that I got them prescribed solely for tinnitus and hyperacusis since my hearing is pretty good.

 

Wouldn't hearing aids make hyperacusis worse? Since the whole thing about hyperacusis is that everything sounds painfully loud?

 

It was noise trauma that damaged my hearing, caused Tinnitus, finished my career, wrecked my silence.
I have hearing aids and will never use them.
Why invite amplified noise levels back into my hearing mechanism?
I want the sounds I hear to be quiet.

 

Are you a hearing aid candidate? If so, you might want to reconsider: A portion of tinnitus sufferers find that their tinnitus is lessened when wearing their hearing aids.

Even if that's not the case for you, people who need hearing aids but don't wear them are at a higher risk of Dementia. (Also, how are your eyes? Still having double vision?)

 

Good point.
They're set up to normal hearing so they wont amplify sound. Maybe it's not called hearing aids then.

 

Do you know what frequency your tinnitus plays at? Mine is super high pitched ~13 kHz and I always figured that hearing aids wouldn't be helpful for tinnitus if it is above 7 kHz.

 

My hearing is perfectly adequate - not a struggle for me.
My vision has returned to normal.
Probably down to eye strain - too much screen time.
Hearing aids are essentially amplifiers.
Personally I will not risk further damage.

 

That's one of the issues I had, $3,000-4,000CAD hearing aids to only have the hearing aids portion turned off. The sounds just irritated things more.