Any hearing loss can impact your life. Even a mild hearing loss can impose a significant change in your life. Hearing aids can make a difference. A hearing aid may improve your hearing and make it easier to continue to participate in social activities and to communicate with those around you.
If your hearing loss is more severe, you will have difficulty understanding people when they talk. People may begin avoiding you because talking with you is so difficult.
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Listening with two ears is as normal and necessary as seeing with both eyes.
- Two ears to distinguish speech from noise
- Two ears to locate the origin of a sound
- Two ears to hear naturally
Hearing with both ears means more confidence and a better quality of life
Sound localization
The ability to localize sound is dependent on two properly functioning ears. How do we know the direction of a car's approach? The sound reaches the closer ear a few microseconds earlier and with a somewhat greater intensity, than it reaches the other ear. These time differences in the signal transferred from the ear to the brain enable us to make important, potentially life-saving decisions regarding the exact location of the car. When one ear functions better than the other, there is inadequate information to quickly and reliably determine the origin of a sound.
Understanding speech in a noisy environment
Hearing with two ears provides improved capacity to suppress background noise, making it easier to understand conversation. Unequal hearing in the left and right ears is a big disadvantage in noise. While one hearing aid may be helpful in a quiet environment, it may not be helpful in noisy situations. The greatest difficulty understanding speech occurs when several people are talking at once. This is common during interactions between family, friends and colleagues at work. Often these exchanges are also taking place in noisy surroundings. With two hearing aids it is possible to maximize understanding in noise.
Hearing with less volume
A sound presented to both ears is judged to be louder than the same sound, at the same intensity, presented to only one ear. This means that a user of two hearing aids can set the volume of each one lower, resulting in more pleasant hearing and less amplification of distracting background noises.
Hearing equally from both sides
Wearing two hearing aids gives the maximum opportunity to respond accurately and confidently, whether the conversation comes from the left or the right.
Sound Quality
Users of two hearing aids report many additional benefits:
- More natural sound quality
- Less hearing effort
- Improved ability to hear correctly and respond appropriately
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On the contrary, evidence exists which shows hearing comprehension deterioration in persons who had hearing losses and did not wear hearing aids. The "use it or lose it" principle seems to apply when it comes to stimulating the hearing mechanism. The longer a person with a hearing loss goes without hearing help, the poorer the listening habits and understanding. Relearning to use hearing then takes much more time and is more difficult.
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After a little while you will probably regard your hearing aids as one of your most valued possessions, as essential as eyeglasses to those who have problems with vision. Once you discover the advantages of your hearing aids, you will forget they are there - except when you stop to appreciate the listening benefits they provide. The embarrassment is experienced only before you have worn them, because in a few days the benefits evidence themselves and you realize you are embarrassed much more by not wearing your hearing aids.
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Sorry, but anyone who knows you well, already knows that you have a hearing loss. It is said that the hearing loss is much more difficult to hide than are hearing aids.
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