Even when it’s fairly mild, hearing loss can have a huge impact on your life. There will be a significant change in the way you communicate with family, friends, and coworkers. It can become a challenge to accomplish daily tasks such as going shopping. But that doesn’t mean it has to be all doom and gloom. Quite the opposite, a well calibrated pair of hearing aids can make a big difference.
Hearing aids improve your ability to hear, and that’s normally how most individuals think of them. And that’s true. But how is the quality of life improved? Just how far do the benefits of hearing aids go?
The top ten reasons to get hearing aids
It’s sort of amazing, isn’t it, how people can so frequently put together top ten lists for everything? When you got up today, did you think you’d be reading a top ten list about hearing aids? I mean, if you’ve known about your hearing loss for a while… maybe you did!
So here are the top ten advantages of wearing hearing aids.
1. Your relationships will improve
Great communication is critical to any great relationship. But when you have untreated hearing loss, communication can be a real challenge. With hearing aids, you’ll finally hear more than little bits of conversation. You’ll be able to keep up with the conversation and get the entire story.
You won’t be resentful and feel left out of conversations. So you will have an improvement in your relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. The connection between hearing aids and relationships is a powerful one!
2. You’ll be more independent
When you have neglected hearing loss, tasks like shopping or eating out can be a real ordeal. Attempting to communicate with wait staff and cashiers can be challenging when you can’t hear that well. But the whole process gets easier when you use hearing aids. You can get around much more independently.
You’ll also be better able to drive safely. That’s because your hearing aids will increase your overall situational awareness (more on that in a bit). You won’t be as anxious about doing things on your own when you can hear the world more clearly.
3. Better hearing may result in higher income
Think about this hypothetical situation: if you’re attending a meeting at work and miss a lot of what’s said, you might not do your job quite as well. This can result in decreased job opportunities and being passed-up for promotions.
When you’re wearing properly tuned hearing aids, you will be less fatigued from struggling to hear, and keeping up with those meetings will be much easier. This can increase your focus on work and put you in a stronger position to increase your income.
4. You’ll have diminished tinnitus symptoms
Tinnitus is that ringing or buzzing in the ear that the majority of us have experienced occasionally. When you suffer from hearing loss, tinnitus can frequently be experienced much more powerfully (tinnitus is sometimes louder with hearing loss simply because everything else is quieter, but there may also be other reasons as well).
Many individuals observe that their tinnitus symptoms decrease when they use a hearing aid. The louder overall external sound provided by the hearing aid might be, in some cases, simply drowning out the tinnitus symptoms. But relief is relief.
5. Reduced chance of mental decline
There is a firm connection between mental decline and hearing loss. Your chance of developing cognitive decline can be significantly increased by disregarding hearing loss, for instance. There are numerous theories about why this might be, but the bottom line is that treating your hearing loss appears to be helpful! That’s why it isn’t a good idea to forget to wear your hearing aid. You could be helping the health of your brain!
6. Music can once again be enjoyed
It’s tough to enjoy music, in its whole entirety, when you suffer from hearing loss. That’s because hearing loss is likely to effect one frequency of sound first, then another. For example, you might be unable to pick up low frequencies. As a result, the song you once enjoyed might just sound… strange.
With your hearing aids, though, those missing holes in the music will be filled in, and you can enjoy music again! You’ll get the high notes and the low notes, instead of just one or the other (or a garbled mess). It can be an incredible relief to hear your favorite band again.
7. Your confidence will grow
Having better hearing and interacting more thoroughly will boost your confidence. And confidence is a great thing.
We’re not suggesting that you shouldn’t be confident simply because you deal with hearing loss. It’s just that, especially if that hearing loss is recent, you could suddenly find it a challenge to interact with others in the same ways you usually do.
Those interactions can become easier again with hearing aids. And when that takes place, confidence will grow.
8. You’ll have more vigor
If your hearing loss has been gradually progressing, your brain has most likely been working overtime. The audio gaps that your hearing loss is producing will try to be filled in by your brain because it doesn’t understand that your ears aren’t functioning. That’s… a lot of work! And it means that your brain is struggling (and strained) almost all the time.
Your brain gets to refresh and relax when you wear a hearing aid. It will have less work to accomplish. Which means you won’t feel so continuously tired and drained. You’ll have more vitality to do the things you enjoy doing!
9. You’ll be safer and more perceptive of your environment
You may not have adjusted to your hearing loss, especially if it’s new. Normally, you would hear oncoming traffic before you step out into the road. You’re used to hearing the ambulance siren before you check the rearview mirror.
You might presume certain situations are safe when, because you’re unaware of your hearing loss, or you’ve ignored it, they actually aren’t. That can put you in some very dangerous scenarios.
Hearing aids will help reestablish that lost awareness. So you’ll be capable of making smarter, less dangerous choices.
10. You will set a good example!
Change can be tough, and personal growth still harder. When you get a hearing aid, you’re acknowledging that something isn’t necessarily working right anymore. But you’re bettering yourself as well.
That’s a positive thing! It’s the type of thing we should all work for! So when you pop in your hearing aids, you’re making yourself a positive example and role model. (It’s fine, you can blush a bit, you deserve it.)
Get your hearing checked today
When you wear hearing aids you will hear better and that’s the biggest advantage. That one’s obvious. But there are lots of advantages to using hearing aids. This top ten list is just that, one little list of just ten of these advantages.
Your top ten list might look a little different. Making an appointment with us for a hearing assessment is the first step no matter what advantages you look forward to.