Hearing loss can seriously effect how you live, even when it’s minor. The way you connect with friends, coworkers, and family members can change significantly. It can become difficult to accomplish day-to-day tasks such as going shopping. But it doesn’t need to have this kind of negative impact on you. If you use a well calibrated hearing aid, it can make a big difference.
Hearing aids help you hear better, and that’s usually how most individuals think of them. And that’s not untrue. But how is the quality of life enhanced? What further benefits will hearing aids deliver?
Hearing aid’s top ten benefits
It’s sort of amazing, isn’t it, how we can so frequently produce top ten lists for anything? I bet you didn’t think you would be reading a top ten list about hearing aids when you woke up this morning. Well, perhaps you did if you’ve been coping with your hearing loss for a while.
So here are the top ten benefits of using hearing aids.
1. Your relationships will improve
For any relationship to be great, good communication is essential. But when you have untreated hearing loss, communication can be a real challenge. With hearing aids, you’ll finally hear more than little snippets of conversation. You’ll be able to follow along with the conversation and get the entire story.
This also means you won’t feel excluded from the conversation, and you won’t feel resentful that the conversations continue without you. So your general relationships, amongst your friends, co-workers, and family members, will improve. The connection between hearing aids and relationships is a strong one!
2. You’ll be more independent
When you’re dealing with untreated hearing loss, tasks like shopping or eating out can be a real ordeal. When you can’t hear very well, communicating with wait staff or cashiers can be tricky. But the overall process becomes easier when you have hearing aids. You can navigate a lot more independently.
Driving will also be safer. That’s because your hearing aids will enhance your total situational awareness (more on that later). When you hear more of the world, you’ll be capable of doing more on your own, and you’ll be able to do it without as much anxiety.
3. You might make more money
Let’s throw out a hypothetical: if you’re losing large parts of what’s being discussed during meetings at work, your work performance will be affected negatively. This can result in lost promotions or even dicey job opportunities.
When you’re wearing precisely tuned hearing aids, you will be less fatigued from struggling to hear, and following along with those meetings will be a lot easier. This can increase your focus on work and put you in a better position to increase your income.
4. You’ll have decreased tinnitus symptoms
Tinnitus is one of those things that the majority of people have experienced from time to time; it’s that ringing or buzzing in your ear. When you have hearing loss, tinnitus can often be felt much more powerfully (there are a number of reasons for this, sometimes the tinnitus is only relatively louder because everything else is so quiet, for instance).
With a hearing aid, many people observe that they experience reduced tinnitus symptoms. The louder overall outside sound supplied by the hearing aid could be, in some cases, just drowning out the tinnitus symptoms. But relief is relief.
5. Decreased risk of mental decline
Hearing loss and cognitive issues are firmly linked. For instance, untreated hearing loss can significantly raise your chance of developing dementia. Treating hearing loss seems to be helpful, even though there are many theories as to why. That’s why it isn’t a good idea to forget to put in your hearing aid. You may be giving your brain a better chance of remaining healthy longer.
6. You can appreciate music again
It’s difficult to appreciate music, in its full entirety, when you suffer from hearing loss. That’s because one wavelength of sound typically goes before the others. For example, you might be unable to hear low frequencies. The music you used to like, consequently, might sound… different.
You will be able to appreciate music again with your hearing aids replacing missing sound. You’ll get the high notes and the low notes, instead of only one or the other (or a garbled mess). Hearing your favorite band again can be extremely enjoyable.
7. You’ll get an increase in confidence
Your confidence will be enhanced when you can hear better and have more successful interactions. And confidence is a great thing.
This isn’t to say that hearing impairment should take away your confidence. We’re simply saying that you may find yourself having a hard time interacting with others, especially if your hearing loss is new.
Those connections can become easier again with hearing aids. And when that happens, confidence will grow.
8. Your vitality will be increased
If your hearing loss has been gradually progressing, your brain has likely been working harder. That’s because your brain doesn’t recognize your ears aren’t working right, so it’s continuously trying to fill in the audio holes that your hearing loss has produced. That’s… a lot of work! And it means that your brain is working (and strained) almost continuously.
Your brain gets to refresh and unwind when you wear a hearing aid. It will have less work to accomplish. Which means you won’t feel so continuously exhausted and drained. You’ll have more vitality to do the things you love to do!
9. Being more mindful of your surroundings will keep you safer
You might not have adapted to your hearing loss, particularly if it’s new. You’re used to hearing oncoming traffic before you step out into the road. Before you look up into your rearview mirror, you would normally hear the oncoming sirens.
You might presume certain situations are safe when, because you’re unaware of your hearing loss, or you’ve ignored it, they really aren’t. That can put you in some really unsafe scenarios.
Hearing aids will help reestablish that lost awareness. Your decision making will be wiser and safer.
10. You will set a good example!
Change can be hard, and personal growth harder still. You’re admitting that things aren’t working effectively now when you invest in a hearing aid. But you’re bettering yourself as well.
There’s nothing wrong with that! We should all strive for this type of thing, right? So when you pop in your hearing aids, you’re making yourself a positive example and role model. (It’s okay, you can blush a bit, you deserve it.)
Schedule an appointment for a hearing test right away
The main benefit of hearing aids is that you get to experience hearing better. That goes without saying. But there are lots of benefits to using hearing aids. This top ten list is only that, one little list of only ten of these advantages.
You might have a completely different top ten list. No matter what advantages you look forward to the most, the first step is making an appointment with us to have your hearing tested.