Are Tinnitus and Hearing Loss Connected?

It can be hard to assess the connection between hearing loss and tinnitus, as there are no tests available to be able to measure tinnitus versus the varying degrees of hearing loss. A lot of hearing health professionals promote hearing loss treatments to those that are dealing with tinnitus, and this is because hearing loss and tinnitus have been connected in many patients. Those that are dealing with tinnitus will see a hearing health professional to determine whether this is the case for them and their situation.

How often is tinnitus connected to hearing loss?

Tinnitus is not something that could be measured by anyone who isn’t the person experiencing tinnitus. As external people cannot hear the internal sound, it is up to you – the patient – to describe your symptoms and what you are feeling. The problem is that it’s hard to self-report tinnitus with your hearing health professional because those experiencing it cannot tell whether it’s to do with hearing loss. Instead, your hearing health professional will step in and measure your hearing to determine whether it is the underlying cause of tinnitus. 

The American Tinnitus Association has previously reported that 56% of patients have reported both tinnitus and hearing loss together, which is enough of a statistic to determine that the two are related. There are some things that should be remembered when it comes to tinnitus and hearing loss, and these include:

• Gradual hearing loss: For most people, hearing loss is not instant, but a gradual process. This means that often, our bodies compensate for the hearing loss, and tinnitus is the fallout of that.
• Tinnitus perception: Tinnitus is only heard by the person who is experiencing (subjective tinnitus). Due to this, it’s easy for the person who has it to brush aside the symptoms and over time, get so used to it that they don’t realize how severe it has become. Given that tinnitus can also be intermittent, it makes it very hard to say that tinnitus is something that you can experience.

It is because of these things that hearing health professionals feel that subjective tinnitus cannot exist unless there is a level of hearing loss alongside it.

Will managing hearing loss help with tinnitus?

When hearing loss is managed correctly with the help of a hearing health professional, the symptoms of tinnitus significantly reduce. There are many hearing aid brands out there that have now built-in tinnitus management tools into their hearing aids, which emit soothing noise to overcome the sound of the tinnitus and amplifies the sounds of everyday life. We are lucky to live in a time where our hearing aids and the technology that has developed far enough to be able to do this with ease. 

With hearing loss treated , tinnitus is far less noticeable as the person wearing the hearing aids can finally hear the sounds that they want to hear rather than the sound of the tone of tinnitus. The constant noise poses a problem and impacts everyday life, but with help, this can be lessened.