In the past, hearing aids have had a stigma. If you wear one, people may think of you as old. What is the outcome?
Lots of people of every age put themselves in danger of a number of health problems because they decide not to get hearing aids and choose to deal with hearing loss. The numbers reinforce this: 30 million individuals in the United States suffering from hearing loss, yet only around 15 percent of that group has ever worn a hearing aid.
What’s more, younger people are suffering from hearing loss in greater numbers than ever before: a WHO report from 2015 predicted that excessive use of headphones and overly loud concert events and festivals will cause over 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults to permanently injure their hearing.
However, shifting attitudes and advanced technology have begun to frame hearing aids in a new light, and people are beginning to look at them in a similar way they look at eye-glasses.
If You Need Hearing Aids, You Should Wear Them, This Is Why
There are a ton of reasons why you should wear hearing aids, some of them obvious and some of them unexpected.
Here are several of the most common reasons:
- You’ll be able to earn more money
- You can appreciate social activities and situations again
- You’ll give your brain a rest
- You can listen to music and television at normal volumes
- One of the obvious factors is that you will be able to hear better
- You can decrease tinnitus symptoms
- Conversations will be much smoother
Are these reasons sounding good to you? Some benefit can be gained by using hearing aids even for people with slight hearing loss.
What many people don’t know is that hearing loss is associated with mental decline, mental health problems, and conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
This could occur for a few different reasons according to research, this involves the overworking of the brain as it battles to understand sounds that it hears. It’s possible that the brain cells shrink and die because they don’t get enough stimulation, or it could be linked to social isolation, which is a major cause of depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
By allowing you to hear words and sounds near you more clearly, hearing aids can help alleviate these problems. Your brain can then process these sounds as it normally would without having to use extra resources, while you’ll gain the confidence and ability to find enjoyment in social activities and conversations again.
Hearing Aids Have Advanced in Technology
By now it should be apparent why people of all ages should wear hearing aids if they need them. Now we’re going to talk about the how; for example, how hearing aid technology has progressed to the point where they’re nothing like your grandparents’ hearing aids.
The bulky, over-the-ear hearing aids are still available for the people who want them. They perform their function acceptably and have progressed to the point where the majority of them don’t have a problem filtering out background noises like wind or determining which direction sound is coming from. However, there are new and improved versions of hearing aids that are almost unnoticeable, yet contain quite a lot of technology to work with today’s digital environment.
Would you like to connect your hearing aid to your cellphone, tablet, television, or even your car’s navigation system? Most contemporary hearing aids have Bluetooth technology so you’re in luck. There are even higher-end models keep track of your physical health, take calls for you, stream music. Smart hearing aids are becoming a must for anybody who has hearing loss because like your smartphone or smartwatch, they’re just made to do more. So now that you’re ready to deal with your hearing loss and start using a hearing aid, contact us for an appointment and hearing assessment.
