Airpods Pro Tinnitus Treatment | Hearing Aid Review 2022 -2023

AirPods Pro: Set-Up

Once you have your hearing test results, you can then open the Health app on your iPhone, go to the Hearing category, and then plug in your results under Audiogram Data.

After completing this, you will then want to open up the Settings app, select Accessibility, and then open up your AirPods. You will be prompted with a screen that gives you the option for Audio Accessibility. 

Here you’ll turn Headphone Accommodations on. With Headphone Accommodations toggled on, you’ll be able to use your AirPods Pro as hearing aids. 

AirPods Pro: Amplification Settings

If you go to Audio Accessibility settings, and then Headphone Accommodations, you’ll see various amplification options, which will affect how much sound you’ll be hearing from your environment. You can choose between slight amplification, moderate amplification, or strong amplification. You can also take a quick test within the Headphone Accommodations setting to determine your amplification levels, based on your volume preferences for speech and music. 

AirPods Pro: Transparency Mode

A recent upgrade to Apple’s iOS involves the inclusion of something called “Transparency Mode.” If you toggle Transparency Mode, you will be able to hear any audio streaming through the AirPods Pro in addition to amplified sounds from the environment. 

AirPods Pro: Hearing Aid Functions

With the AirPods Pro, you have the ability to change between transparency mode and other modes, or you can even turn transparency mode off completely. In the control center panel, you can also activate the ear icon in order to get direct access for amplification. 

Setup for Airpods Pro as hearing aids

By selecting the ear icon, you can adjust the volume of sounds in your environment as they’re coming in through your AirPods Pro. You can also control tone brightness, enabling you to provide any necessary boosts or amplification to higher pitched tones. 

Many tinnitus patients have hearing loss in the higher frequencies (formally known as high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss). Thus, most patients prefer their sound therapy to include high-pitched tones. 

In my testing of the AirPods Pro, I streamed various tinnitus sound therapy playlists through Spotify. I found the AirPodsPro properly replicate a sound-rich environment, which is a classical form of treatment recommended by Tinnitus Retraining Therapy and Progressive Tinnitus Management (the two most robust tinnitus management protocols).

Along with the previously discussed amplification settings and transparency mode, the Airpods Pro were able to replicate the performance of most hearing aids, and would be beneficial to tinnitus patients who have hearing loss and need sound therapy and/or environment amplification.