Improve Your Life by Hearing What You’ve Been Missing

Article submitted by Terry Ball, M.Aud., CCC-A. of Aspen Hearing Center. For further information, she can be reached at 303-722-0886.

The signs of hearing loss can be either subtle and emerge slowly or they can be significant and come on suddenly. Either way, they’ll have an impact on your quality of life and those around you. But, there is good news and a ready solution available.

Hearing loss can be caused by many factors – aging, a history of noise exposure to machinery, heredity, medications, gunfire, and some disease processes. Having poor hearing can sometimes be misinterpreted as dementia, lack of intelligence, or just being rude. This is especially true when the hearing loss is gradual and the individual blames other possible causes… and fails to recognize that it’s their hearing that has changed. Commonly heard “reasons” for not hearing are that others were mumbling, talking from another room, or some outside noise was interfering (e.g. running water, TV, radio). Does that sound familiar?

Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, said “blindness cuts us off from things, but deafness when it cuts us off from hearing (people) is to be isolated indeed.” But most people are not deaf. They have some hearing loss where they miss the sounds of life and/or important sounds of speech that results in their reporting that they are “hearing, but not always fully understanding.” To the rescue are all the advances in technology - especially in digital hearing aids.

The new digital hearing aids are programmed on a computer and amplify the sounds that the individual is not hearing. The technology allows them to be set to automatically start with minimal controls needed by the individual. Today’s more advanced aids even change automatically when the person is in a noisy environment, or by pressing a button. They also come in all different models to match the person’s hearing loss, their lifestyles and other factors such as dexterity or vision.

So, with today’s technology and levels of devices in all price ranges, you no longer need to say “what?” or not to respond at all. To find out what might work for you, have your hearing tested and finally start to hear again what you’ve been missing.