Tinnitus: Hearing Aids

I've been using hearing aids with maskers built in. They are Resound Live TS. There are four settings. The first two settings have no masker. Amplification is able to be controlled. Setting three is the hearing aid amplification and masker. Setting number four is just the masker. I tend to use setting four most often. I can control the volume of the masker and I often adjust it depending on how loud my ringing seems to be.

The masker produces a white noise that sounds like television static. The masker is tuned directly to the frequency of my internal ringing sound.

The hearing aid masker gives me the option of either listening to high pitched ringing (my own internal sound without the hearing aid) vs. lower pitched television static sound (the masker). I don't get silence at any point in my life. I'd enjoy silence. I miss it. But masking is the next best thing.

I'm not sure that "masking" is the correct term. The maskers don't get rid of the tinnitus. Maskers do provide an alternate and less annoying sound for the brain to focus on. A more appropriate term would be a "detractor."

For some reason the tinnitus rings louder than the masker at night as I am trying to fall asleep and throughout the night. The masker does not help with sleep.  I wish that were the case.