Eargo hearing aids are very popular. Marketed as the “affordable” $2,500 hearing aids you can order from home, there’s a lot of buzz around them. Their 2020 listing on Nasdaq also made them very popular. Another reason why they are well-known is because Federal workers can get Eargo hearing aids for free, if they have a FEHB (Federal Employees Health Benefits) plan. But, can Eargo hearing aids help with Tinnitus? If yes, what sort of relief can they provide for the ringing in your ears? Let’s explore.
Will Eargo Hearing Aids Help With My Tinnitus?
First, please understand that Eargo might help with your Tinnitus because it is a hearing aid and not because it is a Eargo hearing aid. In other words, ANY other hearing aid can help or not help your Tinnitus, just as well as Eargo. If you go to Best Buy’s discussion forum, you will see an official response from a Eargo representative that clearly states that Eargo is not specifically designed to help with Tinnitus.
What is Your Tinnitus Handicap Score?
Calculate your THI Score in about 2-3 Minutes
To understand if Eargo or any other hearing aid can help with Tinnitus, please read this detailed post we wrote about how hearing aids can help Tinnitus.
There, you will learn that hearing aids can help only if you have some form of hearing loss and if your Tinnitus is being caused by hearing loss. More on this below. The above linked-to post will also talk about the ideal profile of a person for whom hearing aids can help with Tinnitus.
How Hearing Aids Help Your Hearing to then Potentially Resolve Tinnitus?
Be it Eargo or other hearing aids, hearing aids help you hear frequencies that you couldn’t hear before. Not everyone who has hearing loss is deaf. In fact, one can have what seems like a perfectly normal life without being able to hear all frequencies that a human usually can.
How Severe is Your Tinnitus?
Find out by using this THI (Tinnitus Handicap Inventory) Scoring Calculator
People usually recognize hearing loss only when they can’t follow conversations to socially engage with or understand what people are saying.
But, what does hearing loss have to do with Tinnitus anyway? There’s a big connection.
The Connection Between Hearing Loss and Tinnitus
Did you know that 90% of people with Tinnitus also have hearing loss. Partial, hidden or sometimes full hearing loss is the most common cause of Tinnitus, after loud noise exposure, ear wax buildup and other causes.
When your hearing starts to fail, even partially, your brain registers a drop in the volume of auditory signals passed on by your ears.
Normally, sound waves make hair like cells in your cochlea dance and sway with vibrations. These vibrations are then converted into electrical signals that are passed on through the auditory nerve to your brain, for processing as sound.
Because of many reasons like age or damage caused by loud or chronic noise, these tiny hair cells in the cochlea begin to die. These are cells in the human body that do not regenerate. So, hearing loss resulting from the death of these hair cells is usually permanent. There are some Tinnitus stem cell treatments that attempt to rejuvenate these hair cells but the treatment method is still very experimental in nature.
When the number of auditory signals reaching your brain declines, your brain thinks something is wrong with your ears. It invents a phantom noise. This is the noise you hear as Tinnitus or a ringing in your ears. This is also why most cases of Tinnitus are subjective in nature. When subjective, only the person suffering from Tinnitus can hear the sound. This is why most people are told that the sound is all ‘in their head’. Though they might sound incredibly insensitive, they are in a way right.
How Hearing Aids Can Resolve Tinnitus?
Hearing aids can restore this lost hearing. The brain then has an opportunity to shut off the phantom Tinnitus noise. This is why many people experience signs that Tinnitus is going away, after wearing hearing aids, if it was hearing loss that caused their ringing. Please note that hearing aids in certain rare cases can make tinnitus worse. This is however usually temporary in nature, lasting only the time a user gets used to hearing aids.
Should You Buy Eargo Hearing Aids for your Tinnitus?
We do not recommend Eargo hearing aids for Tinnitus. Now, that doesn’t mean that we think they are bad hearing aids. But, for hearing aids to help with your Tinnitus, they need to be personalized. This means that an audiologist will have to administer professional hearing tests and then use the results to customize your hearing aids for you. An audiologist will also usually give you questionnaires and forms to fill out to learn more about your Tinnitus. Learn what happens in a Tinnitus test here.
Eargo Doesn’t Personalize Your Hearing Aids for Tinnitus
Eargo offers some levels of customization by giving you an online hearing test and also a 30 minute one-on-one Video checkup with a licensed hearing professional, over an online Zoom call. But, these online sessions will not be able to provide the same quality of information that an audiologist administered test can provide.
Eargo Doesn’t have a Tinnitus Masking Feature
Please also note that Eargo hearing aids also do not have a Tinnitus masking feature. A Tinnitus masking feature is when an audiologist is able to provide a sound that matches the frequency of your ringing. When you hear this new sound provided by your hearing aids, in addition to the usual environmental sounds around you, the ringing can take a back seat or even disappear. An online hearing test provided by Eargo simply cannot provide this Tinnitus matching masking feature in its hearing aids, even if it had a masking feature. Learn more about how a masking device can help with Tinnitus.
Eargo App May Provide Some Customization to Help With Your Tinnitus Management
Eargo does provide an app that allows for some customization of its hearing aids. However, these customization options are not meant for Tinnitus relief. They are more to help you find the perfect balance between treble, bass and volume generated by your hearing aids. The app does provide 3 specialized pre-set listening environments that MAY make your Tinnitus more bearable though. But, like mentioned before, almost any other hearing aid can provide that benefit as well, depending on how they are configured.
Eargo definitely has some things going for itself as regular hearing aids though. The battery lasts almost 16 hours. The hearing aids are almost invisible. They fit very well. And, they also connect to Bluetooth, giving you a chance to play media or have phone conversations using them in your ears.
Conclusion
We still STRONGLY recommend that you visit an audiologist to get your hearing aids, if you specifically want Tinnitus relief. It might cost you more than what you pay for at Eargo. But, only an audiologist can understand your Tinnitus and provide you with hearing aids that can help, if they can at all! If it’s just hearing loss you want addressed, you can definitely give Eargo a shot!
