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Tinnitus and Cochlear Implants

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A daughter wrote,

I enjoy reading your newsletter because my dad cannot hear. He had a cochlear implant last year. He also has loud tinnitus, which we hoped the CI would help. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and his doctor hasn’t been able to help. He’s 85 and sometimes he says it’s unbearable. It must be hard to have a silent world and then the loud tinnitus!

Cochlear Implants (CIs) help a lot of people with severe and worse hearing losses—but each person has varying levels of “success”.

Many people find their tinnitus goes away when they get their CIs. However, I think that may depend on the cause of the tinnitus. For example, if your tinnitus is the result of hearing loss (and very often it is), then, since the CI provides sound signals that stimulate the auditory neurons, often the tinnitus goes away—at least while you are wearing the CI.

However, if tinnitus is caused by ototoxic drugs for example, then I wouldn’t expect the CI to make the same difference. Is your dad on a number of drugs? If so, several of them will likely be listed as causing tinnitus.

You can look up each drug he is on in my book Ototoxic Drugs Exposed (This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbs and 148 chemicals.)  and see what the tinnitus risk is for each drug he is taking. If it seems likely that one or more drugs are the cause of his tinnitus, maybe he could get his doctor to change his medications to drugs that won’t make his tinnitus worse.

One way to quickly narrow down the field is to see if any drug he is taking correlates with when his loud tinnitus began.

In addition, if you want to learn more about many things that can trigger tinnitus, or more about a number of things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under control, check out my book, When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How.

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Hearing Loss Research & Resources

Free Visor Cards

Download your free Visor Cards for hard of hearing or deaf people here.

Loop Systems

Loop your home or meeting room. Discover how you can hear wonderfully clear sound again when listening to the TV/radio, etc, or when listening to a speaker at a meeting.

Loop systems are one of the best-kept secrets in town. To learn more about Loop Systems and what they can do for you, click here.

Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How

If your ears ring, buzz, chirp, hiss, click or roar, you know just how annoying tinnitus can be. You do not have to put up with this racket for the rest of your life. This book teaches you many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under your control so it no longer bothers you.

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Sounds Now Too Loud for You?

Hypersensitive to Sound front coverIf some (or all) normal sounds seem so loud they “blow the top of your head off”, or make you wince or jump, or cause you headaches or ear pain, or affect your balance, or result in fear or annoyance of sounds so you feel you have to avoid these sounds, this book is for you!

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Hearing Phantom Sounds?

When hard of hearing people begin hearing phantom voices or music, they immediately worry they are going crazy. It never crosses their minds that they are sane and are just experiencing Musical Ear syndrome.

To learn more about the strange phantom sounds of Musical Ear syndrome and what you can do about them, click here to read a comprehensive article about Musical Ear Syndrome.

Or get the book—Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

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Center for Hearing Loss Help

Neil G. Bauman, Ph.D.

1013 Ridgeway Drive, Lynden,
WA 98264-1057 USA

Email: neil@hearinglosshelp.com

Phone: 360-778-1266 (M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM PST)

© 2025 Center for Hearing Loss Help – Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [which also includes perfect hearing] through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 6:23]

"But know this, in the last days perilous times will come" [2 Timothy 3:1]. "For there will be famines, pestilences, and [severe] earthquakes in various places" [Matthew 24:7], "distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring"—tsunamis, hurricanes—Luke 21:25, but this is good news if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads [and rejoice] because your redemption draws near" [Luke 21:28].