One of the biggest reasons people neglect to invest in hearing aids is uncertainty about results. If you're experiencing hearing loss, you're probably wondering what it would be like to have and wear devices that could help your hearing. You may be wondering if you can really benefit from wearing aids. You may also be curious about what to expect in terms of hearing improvements if you do decide to invest in them.
An individual's experience with devices that aid hearing vary based on many factors. The type of hearing loss you have and its severity will affect how things sound with hearing devices. Whether you wear one or two devices may also affect how you hear. Certainly, the type and quality of the hearing devices worn affects performance.
Although everyone's experience is unique, it's possible to describe some basic capabilities and limitations of hearing aids.
Sensorineural hearing loss or "nerve deafness" is one of the most common types of hearing impairment. This condition involves damage to the inner ear. It can be caused by exposure to loud noise, aging, infections, fluid backup and birth-related issues, among other things. In nearly all cases of sensorineural hearing loss, effective treatment is possible with hearing aids.
People with sensorineural hearing impairments may experience a variety of symptoms. Tinnitus or ringing, buzzing sounds in the ears may occur, and it may come and go or differ in intensity or duration. It may be hard to understand speech when there is a lot of background noise. In general, speech may sound unclear, muffled or distorted even in quiet environments.
Oftentimes, people with this type of hearing impairment have difficulty hearing sounds in certain pitches, especially high-pitched sounds. Sensorineural hearing loss often occurs gradually, so the way hearing is affected can change over time, too.
The use of hearing devices for sensorineural hearing loss can help dramatically. Basically, hearing aids enhance sounds so you can hear them easier and more distinctly. This includes speech as well as environmental sounds. However, under even the best of circumstances, no hearing device is capable of fully restoring hearing to the precise experience it once was.
One of the biggest challenges faced by individuals new to wearing hearing devices is growing accustomed to hearing normal environmental sounds once again. You may not have heard traffic noises outside your window, the hum of your refrigerator, insects chirping and buzzing or kids playing next door in years. Selective listening and learning to once again ignore the sounds you may not want or need to hear is part of the process involved in adapting to hearing aids.
Hearing aid settings can help those who wear them by adjusting to different types of environments. Microphone direction and volume of amplification are just two of the most common settings that can be adjusted on aids so they function optimally in different situations. It can take time to become accustomed to how hearing aid settings affect what you actually hear. However with a bit of effort, wearing and adjusting device settings becomes second nature for most people.
