Getting Used To Life With Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is a very common health issue that affects many of us, especially as we get older. Often, it’s due to age causing the hair cells in our ears to degenerate, meaning our inner ears don’t transmit sound signals to the brain as effectively as they once did. However, if you think you are experiencing hearing loss, what can you do to ensure that you live with it as well as possible?

Get the full story

Before you start planning out your life with hearing loss, make sure that you have the full picture, first and foremost. If you haven’t already, arrange a hearing test with an audiologist or hearing health professional. Not only will they take a look at your ear and help you find any hearing loss, they can help you find potential causes if there are physical issues like ear wax blockages or fluid build-up to deal with. What’s more, these specialists tend to be an excellent help when it comes to providing knowledge on how to acclimate to life with hearing loss, so it’s a good idea to get them in the picture, regardless.

Choosing the right hearing aid

After you have had your hearing test done, the professional that helped administer it will likely recommend that you use a hearing aid to improve your quality of life. This is assuming, of course, that they do diagnose a level of hearing loss. From there, it’s all about choosing the device that best suits your needs. There are devices that are better suited for some levels of hearing loss more than others, as well as devices with features such a directional microphone or wind noise reduction to better suit your lifestyle (such as whether you spend time in social situations and need to be able to pick up speech especially well, or spend time outside and want to avoid a lot of wind noise. You should also keep in mind the insurance coverage of hearing aids to make sure that you’re getting a good deal as best as possible. It may be that your insurance provider doesn’t cover hearing aids or that they only cover hearing aids from specific providers or locations, so know your stuff before you make any arrangements.

Protecting your hearing

You might be of the opinion that it’s “too late” to protect your hearing after being diagnosed with hearing loss, but that’s far from the truth. Hearing loss can get progressively more severe if you’re not careful. One of the leading causes of hearing loss is exposure to excess levels of noise, so you should look at investing in options like custom-molded earplugs if you spend time in loud environments.

It’s recommended that you get the help of an audiologist or hearing specialist if you want to make sure that you’re taking the best steps to take care of your hearing health. Hearing loss doesn’t have to be the end of any story, there’s a lot you can do to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself properly after.

Samantha

Samantha hails from Virginia and is a proud wife to a retired Deputy Sheriff and mother to two amazing little boys named Jack & William. A veteran product reviewer; Samantha has been reviewing products for 8 years and offers high quality product reviews with original photography.