The Total Hearing Care Difference

Tinnitus and Hearing Aids: An Unexpected Solution

• Dr. Jill Copley • Episode 4

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Can Hearing Aids Help With Tinnitus?

That persistent ringing, buzzing, or hissing in your ears has a name—tinnitus—and contrary to what you may have been told, there are effective ways to manage it. Dr. Paige Gainey reveals how modern hearing aids offer surprising relief for this common but frustrating condition.

Using a vivid analogy, Dr. Gainey explains tinnitus as a candle in a dark room that inevitably captures our attention. Hearing aids work by "turning on the lights" in your auditory world, allowing your brain to shift focus from that internal noise to the meaningful sounds around you. This simple yet profound change helps many patients experience significant tinnitus relief.

Today's hearing technology goes beyond basic amplification. Dr. Gainey discusses specialized tinnitus management features like masking sounds and fractal tones that never repeat in the same pattern—keeping your brain from settling into familiar tinnitus-focused pathways. She highlights how companion apps allow patients to customize their sound therapy with everything from ocean waves to cicada sounds, acknowledging that tinnitus is as unique as a fingerprint and requires personalized solutions.

Most importantly, Dr. Gainey dispels the harmful myth that nothing can be done about tinnitus. She introduces breakthrough technologies like Lenire that use bimodal neuromodulation to dramatically reduce tinnitus severity for many patients. The message is clear: you don't have to live with that constant internal soundtrack disrupting your life.

Ready to experience relief from tinnitus? Call Total Hearing Care at 469-218-4853 or visit TotalHearingCare.com to schedule your personalized assessment. Because when your brain can finally turn down the volume on tinnitus, you can turn up the joy in your daily life.

To learn more about Total Hearing Care visit:
https://www.TotalHearingCare.com
Total Hearing Care
Multiple Locations Across the DFW Metroplex
469-218-4853

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Total Hearing Care Difference where we help you experience life through better hearing. Hosted by the experts at Total Hearing Care, a leading private audiology practice serving the DFW Metroplex, we're here to provide guidance on hearing loss, tinnitus and the latest advancements in audiology. Transform your life through better hearing. Let's get started.

Speaker 2:

If you ever notice a constant ringing, buzzing or hissing sound in your ears that no one else seems to hear, you're not alone. And there's good news Hearing aids might be a part of the solution alone. And there's good news hearing aids might be a part of the solution. Welcome back everyone. I'm sophia yvette, co-host slash producer, back in the studio with dr paige gainey. Dr gainey, how are you today? I'm doing fantastic. How are you, sophia? I am also doing fantastic. So, draney, can hearing aids help with tinnitus?

Speaker 3:

Sophia, I get asked that question often, like how could hearing aids help with tinnitus? And the answer is absolutely hearing aids can help with tinnitus relief and they can help in more ways than one. So I kind of like to think about tinnitus as a candle in the room right. And so let's say, sophia, you and I are in a dark room and we're looking at this candle moving. Our eyes are going to be focused on it. That's what's happening with our brains. Our brains are focused on that tinnitus or that ringing in your ears. And what happens if I turn on the light in a room? We're focusing on that candle, but it's not as apparent there. So what hearing aids do is they essentially turn on the light of the auditory picture of your ears and in that sense it allows the brain to stop focusing on that tinnitus or that candle in the room. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2:

It does. So, Dr Ganey, I do have another question for you. I have heard it pronounced both ways. Is it tinnitus or is it tinnitus?

Speaker 3:

Oh, I get asked this by patients all the time. You know, dr Ganey, is it tinnitus or tinnitus, just like you said, and it can be either way, kind of like tomato, tomato. So you can say it tinnitus or tinnitus, both are correct.

Speaker 2:

Perfect. Well, thank you for clarifying that. So, dr Gainey, what kinds of sound therapy features do modern hearing aids offer for tinnitus relief?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so for tinnitus relief, hearing devices can offer a couple different things. They have something like a tinnitus masker, different sounds that can be produced in the hearing aids themselves to help keep the patient's brain from focusing on that chronic tinnitus. There's also sounds that are like fractal sounds, so they're tones that are never played in the same rhythm or the same tone. So what it does is, as humans we all like structure and our brain has been structured to focus in on that tinnitus. So those fractal tones that never play in the same rhythm or the same tone always keeps our brain guessing. So what it does is it helps our brain not focus so much on that tinnitus so it doesn't kind of carve a wheel.

Speaker 2:

Now, how do hearing aids amplify external sound to help mask tinnitus?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so that goes back to kind of our auditory picture. So your ears, with hearing loss, aren't picking up as much sound. So what does it do? It focuses on that internal sound, and what hearing aids do is they say, oh wow, look at all of these other sounds I've been missing, let's focus on those. And so then your brain is allowing focus on the sounds that are more important to you, like your grandchildren or birds chirping. So that's not focusing in on that internal sound.

Speaker 2:

So that's not focusing in on that internal sound.

Speaker 3:

Can people with significant hearing loss still benefit from hearing aids for tinnitus management? Absolutely, 100%. There's even apps that work with hearing devices now that the patients can choose what sound works best for them. For instance, my dad. He has tinnitus significant tinnitus and he's able to use an app that we have that works with the hearing devices and he's able to choose which sounds help him most. Sometimes patients choose ocean wave sounds, sometimes they choose cicada sounds, and every patient is different. Sometimes people will choose, you know, kind of like a fan motor sound. Everybody's different. Everybody's brain is kind of like a thumbprint and their experience with tinnitus is different. So that's why it's important to come in see an audiologist to see what might work for you an audiologist to see what might work for you.

Speaker 2:

Why does improving overall hearing clarity help reduce the brain's focus on tinnitus?

Speaker 3:

So whenever you're trying to reduce the focus on tinnitus, what we're trying to do is bring the tinnitus from here to back here, and that is essentially what hearing aids can do. They are going to help focus on other sounds in the environment, and what that in turn does is put that internal sound of tinnitus to the background.

Speaker 2:

Are there certain kinds of hearing aid brands or models that tend to work better for tinnitus relief?

Speaker 3:

That's a great question and the answer to that is absolutely. That's one thing that's important and what I do at Total Hearing Care is I make sure that my patients are able to wear the hearing devices the hearing devices and we are able to ask them questions after wearing a week to see how their tinnitus scores have decreased over time to where their tinnitus isn't as bothersome or not bothersome at all. So we gauge that and we look at different tinnitus treatment options for patients patients Love it, Dr Ganey.

Speaker 2:

Before we go, are there any final words?

Speaker 3:

you have to say today on tinnitus. You know I want patients to know because a lot of times they hear from other people their primary care physicians, internists that there's no cure for tinnitus, there's nothing you can do about tinnitus, and that is not true. There are many different things you can do for tinnitus and we always want to explore those avenues with our patients that will help. There's a new device called Lanier out and it has worked beautifully with so many patients and Lanier uses bimodal neuromodulation and we might want to talk about this in the future, but patients have said that their tinnitus has had a reduction in severity significantly and it's been one of the best things to help our patients, as well as hearing devices.

Speaker 2:

Well, love it, Dr Gainey. We'll catch you in the next episode. Have a fantastic rest of your day.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, you too, sophia.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Total Hearing Care Difference. If you're in the DFW Metroplex and ready to take the next step toward better hearing, call 469-218-4853 to book an appointment or visit TotalHearingCarecom, because when you hear better, you live better. See you next time.