Frequently Asked Questions about hearing loss & hearing aids

Since most hearing loss comes on gradually, we don’t always notice the changes in our hearing ability as quickly as others around us do. By the time most of us realize we are missing more than a little of the conversation going on around us, we have actually been living with a hearing loss for a few years or more.

Living with a hearing loss means learning to compensate. Watching faces, looking to conversational topics for clues, asking for repetition, or removing ourselves from situations in which we can’t hear well are all forms of compensation. We may even tell others that people no longer speak clearly. When these tactics no longer work for us, our hearing has become a problem and we seek the help of a hearing healthcare professional. Others will wait until friends or loved ones urge us “to do something” about our hearing problem.

Market research has shown that the average person waits 5 to 7 years to purchase some kind of hearing device after being informed about a hearing impairment. Current research also suggests that the longer hearing impaired persons wait to wear hearing instruments the more difficult their adjustment to them tends to be.

For many hearing impaired persons, learning to distinguish among the many sounds not heard for a long time is a gradual process. Many expect to immediately hear as well as they remember hearing in the past. Common sense will tell you that this may not be a realistic expectation. After all, most of us wouldn’t expect to throw a fast ball immediately after an arm injury begins to mend. We would exercise and work up to it gradually. Efforts to restore hearing ability are no different.

Remember that only your specific type of hearing loss, your everyday listening environment, and a sufficient amount of time will affect how well your hearing instruments will enhance your ability to hear.

The most natural and efficient way to improve your ability to hear in a variety of background situations is by wearing two hearing devices. Two hearing instruments also enhance your ability to pinpoint the source of any sound in your environment.

Just as no two people are exactly alike, ears differ in size shape and texture. Hearing losses differ in degree and type. More importantly, even if two people share similar types of hearing loss, they won’t share the same type of hearing experiences, with or without hearing instruments. For example: One person’s distracting background noise may include sounds that make another person feel they’re a part of what’s going on.

Even sounds we may enjoy hearing one moment may be distracting to us at another time. For example: Your grandchild’s voice may be music to your ears in the afternoon, then distracting while you are trying to watch the evening news.

Hearing aids also differ by size, shape, design, and purpose. They are more or less customized prescriptive instruments. You’d never consider wearing another person’s prescription eyeglasses. The same principle applies to hearing instruments.

Earwax or cerumen is a natural part of our ear canal. Cerumen is made of oil, skin cells, and other matter intended to keep moisture in the ear canal and debris out. Earwax typically moves out of the ear at night while we sleep. However, during the hot summer months or in times of stress, our ear canals can build up wax faster than it can be eliminated. These wax plugs can grow and harden in our canals and reduce our ability to hear.

As our bodies change during our life, so can the amount of earwax which should be removed by your physician.

The science concerned with the aspects of sound and its perception is called audiology.