Tinnitus-masking hearing aids?

Posted by stella52 @stella52, Sep 21, 2020

I'm new on this forum, and I hope I'm not being redundant with my question. I have moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing loss AND unrelenting tinnitus. Does anyone have experience with attempts at tinnitus masking using hearing aids? My audiologist has ordered the Phonak Audeo M50 and states she believes these will help mask the tinnitus as well as improving my hearing. I do not have any type of hearing aids yet. I would appreciate any feedback in this regard. Thank you!

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@julieo4

Welcome to this forum. Tinnitus is a common issue, and so often hearing loss goes along with it. We will be interested to hear how hearing aid masking works for you. Hoping the new hearing aids will make a positive difference for you.

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@julieo4 I also have tinnitus since my 40's have never found anything that would help hearing aids mask it to a certain extent but its still there . I even tried the OTC med for it and it was still there that is an expensive med for me now a senior so I just am living with it . What else do you know of that might help?

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@lioness

@julieo4 I also have tinnitus since my 40's have never found anything that would help hearing aids mask it to a certain extent but its still there . I even tried the OTC med for it and it was still there that is an expensive med for me now a senior so I just am living with it . What else do you know of that might help?

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@lioness
Linda I am curious which OTC remedy you used before for your tinnitus. My Linda has been using something called Clear Tinnitus for about 8 to 10 years now. It works sometimes and sometimes not at all. Just wondering if this was the same thing you have tried? Hank

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@jesfactsmon Good morning Hank and Linda good name I did try Lipoflavanoid for my tinnitus but it is expensive now I use Mullein Leaf tea or they have drops also it seems to work but nothing I have found gets rid of tinnitus Ear Dr told me there is no cure Like so many medical problems no cure. Linda

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Correct - because the origins begin in the brain - the inner workings limbic area. Read this article about what happens when your brain's gatekeeper is no longer able to take care of protection your fragile brain and the phantom noises take over: https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/news/2011/tinnitus-what-happens-when-brains-gatekeeper-breaks-down#:~:text=They%20propose%20that%20the%20limbic,our%20conscious%20perception%20of%20sounds. Eloise

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@julieo4

Welcome to this forum. Tinnitus is a common issue, and so often hearing loss goes along with it. We will be interested to hear how hearing aid masking works for you. Hoping the new hearing aids will make a positive difference for you.

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I've never thought I had tinnitus other than an occasional small ringing in the ears after taking aspirin, which I now avoid. However, now I'm wondering.
I live in a condo complex. I have been awakened many times in the past few months from - what I've assumed - is noise from someone's TV. It happens on and off all night. I wake up to noise, it lasts for about half an hour then fades away, and then reoccurs perhaps two hours later. I have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep. Since my hearing aids are out, I can't hear it distinctly but it sounds like a TV show with a male announcer and an audience - maybe a sporting event. Horse race. Or game show.
Is it possible this is tinnitus? Does tinnitus sometimes occur during sleep (I guess it does based on another post.) Are bouts possibly triggered by small noises in the night? It's strange because it rarely happens while I'm awake. My patient upstairs neighbor has convinced me it's not her caused by her after I've complained several times. I live alone to I don't have anyone to confirm the noise while it's happening. So I guess I have to consider whether it's just my hearing. Any comments would be appreciated.

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Perhaps it's not tinnitus at all...but a fun little thing called auditory hallucinations. The less you can hear, the more likely this little trick is to be a new feature in your life. During the year that I was almost totally deaf, I often clearly heard things that I knew (a) I could not hear, and (b) were not happening. The most usual feature was, often in my home office, hearing the dishwasher run...water swishing around, dishes clicking together, etc. Reality is that I've never been able to hear the dishwasher from my office (even before the deaf year) and I KNEW that I had not turned on the dishwasher. Just as some hearing docs believe that tinnitus is Ma Nature's way of providing something for us to listen to, auditory hallucinations also fill the gap of silence. My hearing loss is primarily due to Meniere's, so, once I was able to get on a good program of replacement hormones, my hearing returned to the level it had been before the deaf year, and no more hallucinations.
I've had tinnitus in my right ear for decades, but I only notice it when someone mentions it. When I went bilateral over a year ago, a new kind started in my left ear, which hadn't been affected by Meniere's until then. For a little while, the dueling sounds were a little bothersome, but I've become used to them. While I did recover the hearing I had had in my left ear, the tinnitus is still present. However, for the first couple of months after being able to hear something again, every day brought a wonderful "new" sound. The first time I stepped out on our deck and heard a bird was a super thrill! Of course, the real joke is that, until I went bilateral, I had thought my remaining hearing (age-related deafness in my "good" ear, nothing from the bad right ear) was pretty poor. Now, because I can use phones if I concentrate and hear household things, I think I'm hearing really well!

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@joyces

Perhaps it's not tinnitus at all...but a fun little thing called auditory hallucinations. The less you can hear, the more likely this little trick is to be a new feature in your life. During the year that I was almost totally deaf, I often clearly heard things that I knew (a) I could not hear, and (b) were not happening. The most usual feature was, often in my home office, hearing the dishwasher run...water swishing around, dishes clicking together, etc. Reality is that I've never been able to hear the dishwasher from my office (even before the deaf year) and I KNEW that I had not turned on the dishwasher. Just as some hearing docs believe that tinnitus is Ma Nature's way of providing something for us to listen to, auditory hallucinations also fill the gap of silence. My hearing loss is primarily due to Meniere's, so, once I was able to get on a good program of replacement hormones, my hearing returned to the level it had been before the deaf year, and no more hallucinations.
I've had tinnitus in my right ear for decades, but I only notice it when someone mentions it. When I went bilateral over a year ago, a new kind started in my left ear, which hadn't been affected by Meniere's until then. For a little while, the dueling sounds were a little bothersome, but I've become used to them. While I did recover the hearing I had had in my left ear, the tinnitus is still present. However, for the first couple of months after being able to hear something again, every day brought a wonderful "new" sound. The first time I stepped out on our deck and heard a bird was a super thrill! Of course, the real joke is that, until I went bilateral, I had thought my remaining hearing (age-related deafness in my "good" ear, nothing from the bad right ear) was pretty poor. Now, because I can use phones if I concentrate and hear household things, I think I'm hearing really well!

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Thanks for your response - I think you are onto something. What I didn't mention - because I wasn't sure it was relevant - was that after each of the last 2 incidents I "heard" songs, and I "heard" them clearly enough to recognize the songs and most of the words. So I simply concluded singing a song was part of my neighbor's wake up routine! Maybe my mind was just filling the gap. Oh well - at least I now know that I shouldn't take everything I think I hear as real.
Also, I can think of a couple of possible changes in my life which may be adding to my difficulties - a new medication, and a decline in my intake of water and healthy fluids. We'll see how it goes.

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As an Architect who has designed a lot of Condos, of many types, that is townhouses, multi-story apartment like, and so ... the decibel rating of the sound attenuation of the party Walls and the floor Ceiling Assembly is critical.. Background or Ambient sound often masks low level sounds that may be coming through the walls or ceiling... Check with your CONDO Manager to look at the As Built Drawings and see if the Specifications or contracts noted the Actual Sound Attenuation rating of your surrounding walls and ceilings or floors... Usually you can get a sound meter on your Smart phone to actually test how much noise is coming into your unit via the surrounding construction... Check it out... Small things like an Outlet box that leaks sound could leak that telltale TV that is playing music into the night... K

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@asklar02492

Thanks for your response - I think you are onto something. What I didn't mention - because I wasn't sure it was relevant - was that after each of the last 2 incidents I "heard" songs, and I "heard" them clearly enough to recognize the songs and most of the words. So I simply concluded singing a song was part of my neighbor's wake up routine! Maybe my mind was just filling the gap. Oh well - at least I now know that I shouldn't take everything I think I hear as real.
Also, I can think of a couple of possible changes in my life which may be adding to my difficulties - a new medication, and a decline in my intake of water and healthy fluids. We'll see how it goes.

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Just for fun, google 'What is an ear worm'?

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@asklar02492

I've never thought I had tinnitus other than an occasional small ringing in the ears after taking aspirin, which I now avoid. However, now I'm wondering.
I live in a condo complex. I have been awakened many times in the past few months from - what I've assumed - is noise from someone's TV. It happens on and off all night. I wake up to noise, it lasts for about half an hour then fades away, and then reoccurs perhaps two hours later. I have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep. Since my hearing aids are out, I can't hear it distinctly but it sounds like a TV show with a male announcer and an audience - maybe a sporting event. Horse race. Or game show.
Is it possible this is tinnitus? Does tinnitus sometimes occur during sleep (I guess it does based on another post.) Are bouts possibly triggered by small noises in the night? It's strange because it rarely happens while I'm awake. My patient upstairs neighbor has convinced me it's not her caused by her after I've complained several times. I live alone to I don't have anyone to confirm the noise while it's happening. So I guess I have to consider whether it's just my hearing. Any comments would be appreciated.

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Have you tried putting your hearing aids on when this happens in the middle of the night?

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