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Tinnitus - louder with aid

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I have noticed that myself. When I have taken hearing tests and the tones in the earphones roughly matched what my tinnitus tones are at the time, its like ‘nails on a chalkboard’ I wouldn’t say painful, but makes me wince a bit. I’m just guessing, but I wonder if because (in my case) the high frequency tones have been amplified quite a bit to compensate for my high frequency loss, that it has the same affect? I have always been a bit sensitive to sounds which start to close in on the ringing in my head which is ever present. I do wonder though, if using hearing aids could possibly make a persons tinnitus worse? Anyone have thoughts on that? Reason I ask is that it “seems” as though my tinnitus is more pronounced when I remove the HA’s.

This has happened with some of my patients as well. It seems to be related to central gain theory, where because the brain is not receiving certain sounds, your incoming filter opens up (neural activity increases). However, once those sounds come back in, they seem overly loud because the brain was overcompensating. It is very common amongst patients with tinnitus to find that loud sounds make their tinnitus worse, so it is prudent to be fairly liberal with how far you back off of prescription for new users with tinnitus.

This also could relate to and/or could be addressed differently with notch filtering, which Signia has utilized for the last several years. Essentially once you identify the tinnitus pitch/frequency, gain is reduced at that frequency to help further draw the brain away from said frequency.

So do you mean that are brains need to get used to the sounds they haven’t heard in a while and tinnitus will subside?

When I first got my aids, I complained to the Audi that they made my tinnitus worst.
The reason she said was my tinnitus fades into the background with my aids in.
When you take the aids out or your in quite location you notice your tinnitus a lot more again.

I’m always aware of my tinnitus.
I have days that it seems to be worst.
My left ear never changes.
My right ear comes and goes.
It’s possible that you are more conscious of it now that you have the aids.
Times I notice it with my aids in.
Watching TV, church, anytime there is not a lot of noise.

Maybe! I have had aids for 5 years. My last aid was wonderful with masking it. I put the aid in and tinnitus disappeared! I had an ear infection that caused some issues and along with that, I didn’t realize my aid wasn’t working right so I recently bought a new aid… same settings, newer version of oticon. I’m wondering if post ear infection stuff is still lingering and heightening my tinnitus or because I haven’t been hearing right for a few months and maybe more not knowing my aid wasn’t working properly, that I need to get used to sounds still. I certainly did need to turn my aid down when I get the new aid. Sounds are just too loud of me still.

Edited

When I got my new aids they were very loud to me. Had the Audi do so I could be sure of the fit.
I’ve slowly adapted to them.
My aids are set at target.

In reply to @SarKor8012

Why kind of did you have and what do you have now? My tinitus is chronic, high pitched and started about 45 years ago. It’s gotten worse over the years but it was always tolerable. It has gotten notably worse over the last few months. I’m at the point I need to get something but don’t know where to start. I don’t have insurance that will help. TIA!

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