Tinnitus Spikes After Removing Hearing Aids

[Bonnie Mac]

Hello everyone,

I've been wearing hearing aids since January of this year (about six months) and have had tinnitus since last September. Almost every night, when I remove my hearing aids, my tinnitus increases if I've had it during the day (my tinnitus is intermittent). If I've had a completely silent, tinnitus-free day, it will start up within minutes of removing the aids.

Because of this, I've sometimes avoided going to bed until the early hours of the morning just to avoid a tinnitus spike. I've tried white noise, brown noise, pink noise, nature sounds, and many other types of sounds, but nothing soothes the tinnitus.

I expected my hearing aids to have "adjusted" my hearing by now, so I wouldn't be so sensitive to the drop in amplification once I remove them. Does anyone else experience this problem? Have I not given the hearing aids enough time?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Jupiterman]

It's as if your tinnitus has a delayed reaction to noise exposure, or rather to the artificial amplification of noise.

This often happens to those with reactive tinnitus.

It's interesting that the hearing aids are making your tinnitus worse. Can you turn the volume down a bit? Do the hearing aids help with speech or music?

People who wear in-ear headphones have reported their tinnitus worsening. I guess hearing aids are essentially the same as in-ear headphones.