With the changes in people’s life rhythm, eating habits, lifestyle and living environment, the incidence of tinnitus is increasing year by year, which seriously disturbs people’s lives and work.
Tinnitus refers to one or more sound sensations that last for a certain period of time when there is no external sound or electrical stimulation to the auditory system.
Tinnitus is often a common symptom of patients with hearing loss, which is a manifestation of hearing system disorders or disorders.
The incidence of tinnitus increases with age, reaching a peak in the 60-69 age group, which is 31.4%. People with hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, anxiety disorders and other diseases have a higher incidence of tinnitus.
There are also different types of tinnitus
Tinnitus is divided into primary tinnitus and secondary tinnitus. The former refers to idiopathic tinnitus with or without sensorineural hearing loss, and the latter refers to a potential cause (except sensorineural hearing loss) or can be diagnosed Tinnitus related to the physiological state is a manifestation of a series of auditory and non-auditory system dysfunctions.
When tinnitus damages these basic functions, many corresponding activities are also affected, thereby comprehensively affecting the quality of life.
The World Health Organization disability classification is used to divide the functional impairment caused by tinnitus into four aspects:
◆ Thinking and emotion;
◆ Listening;
◆ Sleep;
◆ Pay attention to concentration
In terms of treatment, secondary tinnitus mainly treats the cause, while the treatment methods for primary tinnitus are diverse.
The treatment methods recommended in the US “Guidelines for the Clinical Application of Tinnitus” include education and consultation, wearing hearing aids máy trợ thính, sound therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, etc., and pointed out that for patients with persistent annoying tinnitus with hearing loss, hearing aid evaluation can be accepted.
Wearing hearing aids for tinnitus patients with hearing loss can not only compensate for the patient’s hearing loss, but also tinnitus can be at least moderately relieved.
The mechanism of hearing aids for tinnitus
The mechanisms of wearing hearing aids to treat tinnitus are:
The masking effect: the hearing aid can amplify the external sound to form an acoustic environment that suppresses tinnitus, increasing the level of perception of external noise and speech sounds, which is equivalent to the patient being in a “broadband masking sound environment” for a long time, thereby reducing the risk of tinnitus Attention;
Hearing compensation. Tinnitus patients with hearing loss are mostly accompanied by auditory deprivation (referring to the gradual deterioration of auditory function and/or speech recognition rate due to the reduction of sound signals). Tinnitus patients with hearing loss can increase external sound stimulation by wearing hearing aids to prevent Auditory deprivation or slow down the process of auditory deprivation, and at the same time partially reconstruct the auditory nerve conduction pathway, and play a certain inhibitory effect on the abnormal neuron discharge in the auditory pathway.
The effect of hearing aids on tinnitus
Studies have shown that wearing hearing aids can reduce tinnitus, and the long-term effect is positive.
Wearing hearing aids for more than 2 hours a day has significantly improved tinnitus than those who are less than 2 hours. Wearing hearing aids for 6 weeks can alleviate tinnitus symptoms, or even completely relieve tinnitus symptoms, and improve the patient’s hearing, thereby improving the patient’s communication ability and improving the patient’s quality of life .
Generally speaking, the longer the hearing aid is worn daily, the better the effect of tinnitus.
Insist on wearing hearing aids every day, and strive to rebuild the filtering function of the auditory system, so that the sensitivity of the central system to tinnitus will decrease or disappear, stop the auditory perception of tinnitus, and at the same time, properly improve hearing can also effectively divert the patient’s attention, thereby interrupting tinnitus and tinnitus. A vicious circle of bad emotions.
The benefits of choosing bilateral hearing aids
For patients with bilateral tinnitus, it is recommended to choose binaural hearing aids. Hearing aids have better masking effect on tinnitus on the same side than on the opposite side. Therefore, hearing aids on both ears are generally better than those on single ears.
The matching of binaural hearing aids not only has the advantages of improving sound quality, positioning ability, clarity, and preventing hearing deprivation effects, but also better shielding of tinnitus.
However, for patients with bilateral mild to moderate hearing loss and tinnitus, the effect of wearing hearing aids in the treatment of bilateral tinnitus is better than that of patients with bilateral severe hearing loss and tinnitus.
The higher the degree of hearing loss, the lower the effect of tinnitus. The reason may be that the higher the degree of hearing loss, the lower the hearing compensation effect of the hearing aid, or even the insufficient power of the hearing aid, which cannot play an effective hearing compensation effect, nor can it play a role. To an effective tinnitus masking effect.
Before fitting hearing aids, tinnitus patients should make a comprehensive audiology and tinnitus assessment to facilitate the discovery of possible influencing factors and the selection of hearing aids, and improve the effect of hearing aids on hearing compensation and tinnitus treatment.
In addition, due to the sometimes inconsistent correlation between the degree of hearing loss and the severity of tinnitus, some patients rarely use hearing aids. Therefore, it is necessary to raise the awareness of tinnitus patients on the benefits of wearing hearing aids for tinnitus treatment.
