The Hidden Benefits of Better Hearing

It’s frustrating when you can’t hear the TV. You turn up the volume and then your partner or neighbors complain, but you can cope with that. But if you do nothing, have you considered the impact of hearing loss outside of your familiar environment?  

Audiologists want the best for your hearing health. This is because that they understand how individuals with impaired hearing struggle to cope when the unexpected happens. Audiologists know the strategies individuals put in to place in the comfort of the home are often inadequate when that person is plunged into a very different environment, such as a hospital or clinic.

Hearing Loss and the Inpatient

You might be able to cope with mild hearing loss and develop strategies to overcome the muffling, such as turning up the volume or asking people to repeat themselves. This is often effective in a familiar environment, such as your home. But if something happens and you find yourself in a strange place, you may struggle.

Take, for example, a fall or trip, which means an admission to hospital. It might be that you are in pain, and the medical staff speak with an unfamiliar accent or there is background noise, all of which make it difficult to concentrate on listening as you do at home.

Indeed, being in a strange environment requires you to divert concentration from listening to other efforts such as reading signs or finding out where the comfort facilities are. If you are thinking this is all “worst case scenario” then be aware that not only are severely hearing-impaired people more likely to be admitted to hospital than their normal-hearing counterparts, but their stays are significantly longer.

To avoid this situation, all it takes is a hearing test. When the nature of your hearing deficit is identified and an appropriate hearing aid fitted, you take back control of your life.

Hearing Loss and the Outpatient

You’ve invested in health care, so you want to get value for money. But have you considered the impact not addressing your hearing concerns has on that value? For example, you schedule an appointment with the cardiologist. There are many steps in which impaired hearing interferes with the smooth running of this appointment. From scheduling the visit, to getting directions, sitting in a noisy waiting area and listening for you name – all are made harder with hearing loss.

Then the clinician takes a history and comes up with a treatment plan. How frustrating is it not to hear all the instructions? But do you nod and pretend to understand, or persist in asking for these instructions to be repeated after the second, third or fourth attempt?

Isn’t it simpler to schedule a hearing test and get the hearing you deserve?