Wearing Hearing Aids Every Day

People who live alone are often less likely to wear their hearing aids because they have nobody to talk to. The role of hearing health professionals is to make these people aware of the importance of stimulating their auditory systems every single day.

Adjustment Period

When a person with hearing loss starts wearing hearing aids, they first go through an adjustment period. The brain needs to reacquaint the little everyday noises it had stopped hearing, like floors creaking, fridges humming, or cupboard doors closing. That’s why it’s a good idea to wear your hearing aids in a quiet environment to enjoy the sounds again.

What’s more, it will help you prepare for environments where noises are all mixed. That, in turn, will make them sound adequate.

Safety

It’s also important to wear hearing aids for safety reasons, no matter your degree of hearing loss. Our auditory environments provide us with many clues about the world around us. Hearing loss deprives us of essential safety cues like:

² Water running ² Fire starting ² Something breaking

² Someone ringing the doorbell or entering your home

In addition, it’s important to remember that wearing your hearing aids stimulates brain activity1. Someone with hearing loss who does not wear hearing aids may struggle to understand speech a little bit more as time passes by2. This is called sensory deprivation, and can lead to cognitive decline in the long term. There were all strong arguments as to why you should wear your hearing aids all the time, even when you’re alone.

Talk to your audioprosthetist for more information.

Julie Croteau

Audioprosthetist practising in Lévis

References: 1. BERGERON, F., Ph.D. Plasticité cérébrale et surdité : États des lieux.

Presentation at the Lobe convention, 2019. 2. Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults, study by Dr. Frank Lin,

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine