How long before a hearing aid might help tinnitus?
December 20, 2015 4:55 PM Subscribe
If a hearing aid is going to help with tinnitus, is that likely to happen within 40 days, or would it take longer? Details inside.
I've had significant hearing loss in one ear for about 15 years. Maybe ten years ago I began getting frequent but intermittent tinnitus, and maybe five years ago it became constant. It is a loud, high pitched tone and pretty darn annoying.
A hearing aid may help by increasing the sound coming into that ear; hearing loss sometimes leads to tinnitus because the brain is compensating for not hearing by making $#%@ up. So I decided to try one out to see if it gets my brain to stop that #%$@. It also will have the option of using tones or something to either decrease the tinnitus via retraining or to keep it from being as annoying.
However, I didn't realize that hearing aids cost a lot of money (just the one will be two paychecks for me) and insurance doesn't cover them. Ack. This is money I can come up with but would rather spend on other things.
I can return the hearing aid for a refund within 40 days if I don't like it (minus a $75 fee). However, is that likely to be long enough to have any effect on the tinnitus? The hearing loss doesn't especially bother me, only the tinnitus. If it's unlikely to work that quickly, I may wait to try it until I'm sure I'm willing to blow $$ (even if it doesn't work) by actually purchasing the aid. If it is likely to work quickly if it's going to work at all, I'm happy to blow $75 now finding out.
My audiologists and doctors find this a fascinating question but have no idea of the answer, so please do not direct me back to them.
I've had significant hearing loss in one ear for about 15 years. Maybe ten years ago I began getting frequent but intermittent tinnitus, and maybe five years ago it became constant. It is a loud, high pitched tone and pretty darn annoying.
A hearing aid may help by increasing the sound coming into that ear; hearing loss sometimes leads to tinnitus because the brain is compensating for not hearing by making $#%@ up. So I decided to try one out to see if it gets my brain to stop that #%$@. It also will have the option of using tones or something to either decrease the tinnitus via retraining or to keep it from being as annoying.
However, I didn't realize that hearing aids cost a lot of money (just the one will be two paychecks for me) and insurance doesn't cover them. Ack. This is money I can come up with but would rather spend on other things.
I can return the hearing aid for a refund within 40 days if I don't like it (minus a $75 fee). However, is that likely to be long enough to have any effect on the tinnitus? The hearing loss doesn't especially bother me, only the tinnitus. If it's unlikely to work that quickly, I may wait to try it until I'm sure I'm willing to blow $$ (even if it doesn't work) by actually purchasing the aid. If it is likely to work quickly if it's going to work at all, I'm happy to blow $75 now finding out.
My audiologists and doctors find this a fascinating question but have no idea of the answer, so please do not direct me back to them.
I have a moderate hearing loss in my right ear and high-pitched tinnitus in that same ear. It's constant, but I don't usually notice it if I'm distracted by other noises or music. I've had my hearing aid for a year or so, and it helps me a bit with understanding speech, but it's had no effect on my tinnitus.
I think if the hearing aid is going to help you, you will know within that 40 days if it will help.
posted by tuesdayschild at 5:48 PM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think if the hearing aid is going to help you, you will know within that 40 days if it will help.
posted by tuesdayschild at 5:48 PM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Costco will give you 90 days to try hearing aids, and their prices are a lot less than anywhere else. I don't know if they have any with tinnitus masking, but you might check, if there's one nearby. Some people think the masking helps.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 6:42 PM on December 20, 2015
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 6:42 PM on December 20, 2015
Best answer: I suffered from sudden hearing loss earlier this year, including developing some pretty bad tinnitus.
I found that white noise iphone apps really helped retrain my brain to deal with the different stimuli - it took about 3 weeks for the tinnitus to subside, with me pumping white noise or music into my ears.
So, tinnitus can respond fairly quickly to audio retraining-style therapies. YMMV.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:02 PM on December 20, 2015 [11 favorites]
I found that white noise iphone apps really helped retrain my brain to deal with the different stimuli - it took about 3 weeks for the tinnitus to subside, with me pumping white noise or music into my ears.
So, tinnitus can respond fairly quickly to audio retraining-style therapies. YMMV.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:02 PM on December 20, 2015 [11 favorites]
I don't know the answer, but I would suggest trying it either way. One, it would cost you $2 a day to find out. If it does not help within 40 days, then return them and know that it was not conclusive and if it does work, well, bonus!
posted by AugustWest at 8:06 PM on December 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by AugustWest at 8:06 PM on December 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I have had hearing loss with tinnitus in my left ear for the last fifteen years. You might be interested to learn that I recently experimented, albeit briefly, with a hearing aide in the damaged ear, and the sudden complete absence of tinnitus was a real shock to me. Unfortunately while trying to remove its corroded battery I soon broke the cheap hearing aide that I had only borrowed. (From the son of its late owner.) Nevertheless, I certainly plan on buying myself a quality hearing aide in the future to treat my tinnitus.
posted by little eiffel at 10:34 PM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by little eiffel at 10:34 PM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
The American Tinnitus Association updated their guidelines recently and now their first recommendation is to try hearing aids. Tinnitus Retaining Therapy (TRT) is another top recommendation. Using both can be be very, very effective. So TRT is worth saving up for and it is worth trying a hearing aid now. http://www.ata.org/
best wishes
posted by egk at 5:32 AM on December 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
best wishes
posted by egk at 5:32 AM on December 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I work in tinnitus research, and used to work as a clinical audiologist. The short answer, that should probably be enough time to give you a good idea.
In many cases, where there is hearing loss (that is aidable) and tinnitus, a hearing aid will help reduce your awareness of your tinnitus while you are wearing it. It's more of a masking effect in this case, than a true neurological change (at least initially). Clinically, people usually had a pretty good idea if they got relief from a hearing aid quite quickly (first few days to weeks. One person noted it immediately after I turned the aid on). Factors related to the hearing loss itself tended to be the trickier side of the equation: depending on the cause, duration, etc, it could take some time to adjust to hearing with an aid.
Sometimes people will get combination devices that function as a hearing aid and has the option for masking sounds. Last I heard, CostCo aids do not have masking options, but that was a couple of years ago so it may have changed. In the clinic, I found that masking options are a bit of a mixed bag, some people find them helpful, others find them annoying. Ones that adjusted for the environment (so would play the masking sound when you were in a quiet room with minimal background noise to mask your tinnitus) seemed to be a good balance for some. I also had a number of people get aids that had streaming capabilities, so they essentially made their own masking sounds (music, narrowband noise, etc) as needed.
I'd say for most people, the hearing aid part was more important, masking (either on board or self-made with streaming) was just a nice add on for some.
Anecdotally, I did have people report to me that consistently using their hearing aids reduced their awareness of their tinnitus even after they took it off at night. If they didn't wear their aids for a few days, the tinnitus would start to ramp up again. This tended to be a more gradual realization, with a lot more variance (one or two may have noticed it within a few weeks, usually it'd take longer). I think in every case that someone noticed the longer lasting suppression, they also felt their tinnitus was less obtrusive while wearing the hearing aid (and they noticed this benefit first).
posted by ghost phoneme at 6:33 AM on December 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
In many cases, where there is hearing loss (that is aidable) and tinnitus, a hearing aid will help reduce your awareness of your tinnitus while you are wearing it. It's more of a masking effect in this case, than a true neurological change (at least initially). Clinically, people usually had a pretty good idea if they got relief from a hearing aid quite quickly (first few days to weeks. One person noted it immediately after I turned the aid on). Factors related to the hearing loss itself tended to be the trickier side of the equation: depending on the cause, duration, etc, it could take some time to adjust to hearing with an aid.
Sometimes people will get combination devices that function as a hearing aid and has the option for masking sounds. Last I heard, CostCo aids do not have masking options, but that was a couple of years ago so it may have changed. In the clinic, I found that masking options are a bit of a mixed bag, some people find them helpful, others find them annoying. Ones that adjusted for the environment (so would play the masking sound when you were in a quiet room with minimal background noise to mask your tinnitus) seemed to be a good balance for some. I also had a number of people get aids that had streaming capabilities, so they essentially made their own masking sounds (music, narrowband noise, etc) as needed.
I'd say for most people, the hearing aid part was more important, masking (either on board or self-made with streaming) was just a nice add on for some.
Anecdotally, I did have people report to me that consistently using their hearing aids reduced their awareness of their tinnitus even after they took it off at night. If they didn't wear their aids for a few days, the tinnitus would start to ramp up again. This tended to be a more gradual realization, with a lot more variance (one or two may have noticed it within a few weeks, usually it'd take longer). I think in every case that someone noticed the longer lasting suppression, they also felt their tinnitus was less obtrusive while wearing the hearing aid (and they noticed this benefit first).
posted by ghost phoneme at 6:33 AM on December 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
Best answer: You'll know pretty quickly if the hearing aid is going to help you. It's not going to have a long, slow, cumulative effect on your tinnitus. It's going to mask it, and make it easier to ignore by presenting your brain with new sounds to focus on. So, I guess I'm saying that a 40-day trial *is* long enough.
A fear easier & cheaper "trial" of this effect, though, will be to use a phone or computer with some sort of noise generation app (or even something like this) and an earbud. Experiment as much as you can. Maybe you'll stumble across a combination of software & tone & volume & earbud that works for you. Then you can find the expensive, permanent solution that comes close to what you already know works.
Source: Year three of day & night bilateral ringing. I listen to podcasts now by day, and fans at night. It's a Harrison Bergeron nightmare. Sigh.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 1:49 PM on December 21, 2015
A fear easier & cheaper "trial" of this effect, though, will be to use a phone or computer with some sort of noise generation app (or even something like this) and an earbud. Experiment as much as you can. Maybe you'll stumble across a combination of software & tone & volume & earbud that works for you. Then you can find the expensive, permanent solution that comes close to what you already know works.
Source: Year three of day & night bilateral ringing. I listen to podcasts now by day, and fans at night. It's a Harrison Bergeron nightmare. Sigh.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 1:49 PM on December 21, 2015
Is there a cheap over the counter hearing aid I can experiment with? I too have tinnitus but don't want to spend 100s of dollars to fins out it doesn't work.
posted by captainscared at 5:06 AM on December 22, 2015
posted by captainscared at 5:06 AM on December 22, 2015
I believe every state has at least 30 day return period for hearing aids (I think some have more) and while it is generally allowed to charge a re-stocking fee, some places will waive the fee. Sometimes a practice will do free in-house demos or trial-period if you don't need a custom ear piece. If you can find a place with a low fee or waived, that might be your best option to try something out at minimal cost.
The OTC options are called personal sound amplifiers products (FDA differentiates them from hearing aids). The ear level ones are usually the ones that are closest to aids, at least as far as form goes. There are some pocket-talker products that can be great in the right situation for the right person (the focus is generally on hearing one person at a time).
I've seen some people play around with the ear level PSAPs, and it can scare people off amplification (of course, I was most likely to see people who hated the PSAPs they tried): PSAPs aren't going to be fit for the individuals loss, so it may over-amplify some frequencies while under-amplifying others. That can make things very uncomfortable without adding clarity. They generally also don't have much help for noisy environments, so they'll amplify everything, including all the ambient noises, which again can be uncomfortable.
As far as tinnitus goes, the comfort and over/under-fitting problems can be magnified, as its not unusual for someone with tinnitus to be more sensitive to loud sounds. Underfitting might make it less likely that one would experience some tinnitus relief (most people have higher frequency tinnitus, which is also where their loss is the worst). Many times these problems can be better managed with a hearing aid (which will have some noise processing strategies and fit for the individuals hearing loss). So if you try a PSAP and it doesn't help, it doesn't mean. that hearing aids won't.
posted by ghost phoneme at 8:28 AM on December 22, 2015
The OTC options are called personal sound amplifiers products (FDA differentiates them from hearing aids). The ear level ones are usually the ones that are closest to aids, at least as far as form goes. There are some pocket-talker products that can be great in the right situation for the right person (the focus is generally on hearing one person at a time).
I've seen some people play around with the ear level PSAPs, and it can scare people off amplification (of course, I was most likely to see people who hated the PSAPs they tried): PSAPs aren't going to be fit for the individuals loss, so it may over-amplify some frequencies while under-amplifying others. That can make things very uncomfortable without adding clarity. They generally also don't have much help for noisy environments, so they'll amplify everything, including all the ambient noises, which again can be uncomfortable.
As far as tinnitus goes, the comfort and over/under-fitting problems can be magnified, as its not unusual for someone with tinnitus to be more sensitive to loud sounds. Underfitting might make it less likely that one would experience some tinnitus relief (most people have higher frequency tinnitus, which is also where their loss is the worst). Many times these problems can be better managed with a hearing aid (which will have some noise processing strategies and fit for the individuals hearing loss). So if you try a PSAP and it doesn't help, it doesn't mean. that hearing aids won't.
posted by ghost phoneme at 8:28 AM on December 22, 2015
Response by poster: Update: the hearing aid immediately solved the tinnitus in that ear, but now I have it in the OTHER ear. Still experimenting.
posted by metasarah at 9:48 AM on January 26, 2016
posted by metasarah at 9:48 AM on January 26, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by captainscared at 5:06 PM on December 20, 2015