If you or someone close to you is suffering from hearing loss, then you know just how difficult life can get. Hearing impairment often leads to feeling unmotivated, isolated, and frustrated. Hearing constitutes a significant chunk of human lives and suffering from hearing loss and can have an untold impact on your health and life.
Throughout most history, people with hearing loss have had to settle for a lifetime of limited experiences. Thanks to modern medicine and technology, there are now numerous treatments and health management tips and strategies for persons living with hearing impairments.
A hearing test can help diagnose most ear infections and diseases. When detected early, there are plenty of solutions to treat and cope with hearing loss. This is why you should get your ears regularly checked by a specialist.
If the hearing loss is advanced, or if there are no corrective measures, doctors may recommend a hearing aid. While the uptake for hearing aids and gadgets has significantly improved over recent years, there are those who are still hesitant.
Reasons why you should consider hearing aids
Hearing aids are the most recommended solution for people living with ear problems. In the United States alone, there’s an estimated 30 million adults who rely on hearing aids. Are hearing aids that effective? More importantly, can these hearing gadgets improve your quality of life, and if so, how?
Here are several undeniable benefits of hearing aids;
1. They improve your communication
The sense of hearing is one of the most relied upon by most living creatures. Through sound, you can pass on communication in various mediums. When your hearing is impaired, even the most basic of communication turns into a nightmare.
When unable to communicate effectively, most people with hearing loss tend to isolate themselves. Fortunately, hearing aids can significantly improve your ability to perceive and interpret sounds correctly. With the help of a hearing aid, you’ll be able to communicate faster, easier, and consistently.
Moreover, hearing aids can help you navigate areas where you normally couldn’t. For instance, you can comfortably be in spaces like the restaurant, movie, coffee shop, or grocery store with a hearing aid. These places would ordinarily be impossible to visit as communicating over the extra noise and disruption is rather difficult.
Hearing aids make it easier to detect subtle tones, so you can spend less time worrying about or obsessing over what the other person said.
2. They improve your safety
In 2018, a study published in the JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery Journal revealed just how much you rely on your hearing. The study was run from 2007 to 2015 and included a vast pool of 232 million people, both with hearing disorders and without.
6.5 million people in the study reported having suffered accidental injuries. After cross-referencing the data, the results showed a majority of those who reported experiencing accidental injuries had a level of hearing loss. This study highlights the importance of hearing as a means of safety.
Some of the decisions you make without hesitation are influenced by your ability to perceive and interpret sound. For example, if a car hoots behind you, you’re likely to jump out of the way then looking back.
Even the most basic of environments can turn hazardous when dealing with hearing loss. This is even worse if you’re in a noisy environment and can’t pinpoint where a certain noise is coming from. Hearing aids improve your noise perception, helping you understand and discern your environment.
3. They can fix your tinnitus
Sometimes you hear a noise that isn’t really there or feel as though you’ve been called even when there’s no one in sight. When suffering from hearing loss, this experience can be worse and more constant. Tinnitus is a condition where you hear a clicking or ringing noise in your ears. Patients with hearing impairments describe the noise as similar to crickets or running water.
Hearing aids can be useful in the treatment of tinnitus. When properly configured, the hearing aid can create a sound that neutralizes that produced by tinnitus. While the degree of success varies, you should discuss if hearing aids can help you with your general physician or ENT expert.
4. They can help you conserve energy
When dealing with hearing loss and impairment, the ear is affected and cannot properly transmit sound waves to the brain. As a result, the brain compensates for this shortfall by overworking. The brain will likely work harder to pick up sound or even follow through a conversation.
Ultimately, the extra effort needed by the brain to compensate for hearing loss gets exhausting. You may realize you’re getting more tired and feeling lethargic. In some instances, you may have to get some rest to recharge your brain.
With the help of a hearing aid, you can relieve the brain from the extra work and improve your hearing simultaneously. People with hearing aids often report they are now able to get back to and enjoy everyday activities.
5. They are more affordable and reliable
While hearing loss can be sudden, it is mostly a gradual process. At first, you may not realize the change, but this will change over time. Unfortunately, if it’s already too late, you’ll have to spend more time, money, effort, and resources trying to remedy the condition.
Hearing aids effectively improve sound perception, and compared to the cost of other treatment options, they are very affordable. Additionally, hearing aids are easily sourced, and you can get back to living your life and enjoying every moment.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.