Do hearing aids make tinnitus worse?

I have had tinnitus for 50 years and worn aids for 20 years. While wearing my aids I don’t notice my tinnitus but when I take my aids off my tinnitus is like always without aids.

It’s not impossible for hearing aids to make tinnitus worse, but it’s pretty rare and the experience you are describing does not sound like it is that. The tinnitus perception can do all sorts of things when you first get hearing aids but will generally settle down over time. Tinnitus seeming louder upon removal is very common but is usually just the contrast next to tinnitus being softer with the hearing aids in. Listening fatigue can also be higher for a while with new hearing aids and that can make both hearing and tinnitus seem worse at the end of the day. As much as you can try to not worry too much about it and use management strategies to ignore the tinnitus, I’d recommend those things.

By the end of the day, are your hearing aids still all the way in your ears or are they walking out a bit? If you increase the volume a notch or two, does that soften the tinnitus again or does that make it worse?

Thanks Neville.

The ear pieces are not working their way out a bit as I tend to still make sure they are in well throughout the day. I keep the volume at 8 out of 15 all the time which is the default volume on the Rexton Reach. I sometimes use the “Speech Boost” on the app as it helps me hear speech when I am having trouble hearing people talk. I have always had the odd feeling that turning the volume up past 8 will somehow make my hearing worse or the tinnitus worse due to increasing the volume. Maybe that’s unfounded.

It could be that I am still getting used to the hearing aids since I have only had them since 8/16/2025.