Know When It’s Time To Get A Hearing Aid
Do you know how much you’re missing due to an undiagnosed hearing loss? It could be the sound of your family having an engaging conversation at the dinner table, the laughter of your grandchildren playing in the backyard or simply birds singing away in the trees and shrubs next to your home.
Degradation of hearing can affect all areas of your life, and it can cause you to become isolated as conversations grow more difficult to hear. The good news is that help is available: Hearing aids come in a variety of types and styles, and most use modern digital technology to help bring the world of sound into sharper focus.
Signs That You May Need a Hearing Aid
Hearing loss often happens so slowly that you may not even notice. You may feel that people are mumbling when they speak to you or that the telephone connection is bad. In the early stages, hearing loss may appear as an inability to hear higher-pitched sounds like the voices of children, and the sounds of “F” and “S” may be more difficult to make out.
In addition, you may experience a number of signs and symptoms that can be associated with hearing loss, including:
- Trouble following group conversations.
- Difficulty understanding someone who speaks to you from a different room in the house.
- Preferring the volume of the radio or TV to be set much higher than other people prefer.
- Difficulty understanding dialogue in movies, church and public gatherings.
- Becoming more withdrawn, irritable or impatient.
- Difficulty understanding what someone is saying if you cannot see her face.
- Avoiding noisy environments, including family gatherings.
- Difficulty understanding telephone callers.
- Straining to follow conversations.
- Frequently asking people to repeat what they’re saying.
- Difficulty understanding people when they speak at a low volume.
Why Get a Hearing Aid Now?
If your doctor recommends that you get a hearing aid, there are many reasons to consider doing so sooner rather than later. Although a hearing aid won’t completely correct your hearing impairment, you’ll reap more benefits over time with consistent use.
Here’s what a hearing aid can do for you:
- Improve your ability to hear in noisy settings.
- Amplify sounds so you’re able to hear them. Ideally, you’ll again hear soft sounds while normal conversation will be at a comfortable level and loud sounds won’t come across too loudly.
- Improve your ability to comprehend speech by amplifying sounds you can’t currently hear, such as those at a high pitch.
In addition, getting a hearing aid if your doctor recommends it can improve your quality of life in a number of ways. By acting sooner, you’ll have a better chance for your brain to adapt to sounds you haven’t heard for some time. Your mental health and social life may improve. And you’re more likely to ward off dementia; research indicates that if you don’t receive treatment for hearing loss, you run a higher risk of developing cognitive impairment as you age.
To learn more about the wellness philosophy at Tudor Heights, please contact us.