Clarifying Myths about Hearing Aids and Hearing Loss

It is not uncommon for us to get our eyesight treated on a regular basis. Even children as young as two or three years of age can be seen roaming around with a pair of glasses. If only people were as eager to treat their hearing loss as they are about treating their eyesight.

If all the people with hearing damage in America actually treated their hearing loss, you would be surprised to see 1 in every 6 adults wearing hearing devices. That is how common hearing loss is, yet not nearly as many people seek treatment for it.

You may wonder why people are so reluctant to treat their hearing. One of the main reasons is stigma. People do not like admitting to hearing loss since society tends to view it in a comical manner. There are comedy shows that frequently make fun of hearing impaired people.

Another reason for not wanting to treat hearing loss is that it is not as tangible as weak eyesight. There is no blurred vision or difficulty reading when it comes to hearing loss. Several compensatory techniques can be used to simply bypass the seemingly minor difficulties that people face each day due to hearing loss. The problem is, the more people rely on these compensatory techniques and continue to deny the existence of their hearing loss, the worse their hearing gets over time.

People would probably seek treatment for hearing loss if there weren’t so many myths floating around that prevented them from doing so. Let us set the record straight by clarifying some misconceptions people have about hearing loss and the use of hearing aids.

It is generally believed that no actual treatment exists for permanent hearing loss. The reality is that even though some forms of hearing loss are indeed irreversible, they can definitely be treated. Hearing aids can significantly help in sound amplification and as much as 95% of hearing loss cases can benefit from the use of hearing aids.

Another common misconception is that your medical doctor would point it out if you had hearing loss. Unfortunately, hearing examinations are not usually conducted in routine check-ups, and without an official hearing examination, it is difficult to diagnose hearing loss with certainty. Since most doctors do not test for hearing loss, they do not identify it easily. The only way a doctor might be able to point out hearing loss without testing for it is if a person had a severe degree of hearing loss that renders them unable to hold a normal conversation. Very few people have this severe form of hearing loss, which is why it may be difficult for doctors to identify patients who have mild or even moderate forms of hearing loss.

Another belief that people have about hearing aids is one of self-perception. In this belief, people think that wearing hearing aids may make them look “old” or bring their hearing loss to everyone’s attention. In reality, modern hearing aids are sleek, discreet, and come with high-tech features that can appeal to even the most tech-savvy individual.

You can use hearing aids as a fitness trainer, heart rate monitor, GPS system, or simply use it for entertainment purposes by letting your hearing aids stream sounds from your favorite songs and videos directly from your smart phones. Hearing aids today can be recharged and therefore do not require clunky batteries and other fiddly bits. As a result, modern hearing aids have become much sleeker and almost invisible to the naked eye.

Hearing aids are often considered to be difficult to use by a lay person. In reality, modern hearing aids are known for their ease of use and user-friendly features. Modern hearing aids use automatic adjustment based on your unique hearing requirements in any given environmental setting. This means that you do not need to constantly manually adjust your hearing aids each time you go out to a different location. Your clever little hearing aid can be pre-programmed to remember your desired settings for these locations and adjust itself automatically!

With so many wonderful new features that help you stay connected in addition to hearing properly, hearing aids no longer just help you hear; they actually help you live your life to the fullest. Talk to your audiologist about getting hearing aids today.