Hearing aids are supposed to be worn daily. But you’re also supposed to rinse out your milk jugs before you recycle them. Occasionally, we don’t do the things we’re supposed to. So yeah, you forget to take your hearing aids out of the nightstand drawer occasionally. You may even forget to use it for more than one day.
That isn’t a very smart idea. Because when you don’t use your hearing aids several things occur and some things already developing get worse. And, honestly, most of them are kind of negative.
Consequences of Failing to Use Your Hearing Aids
Much of what occurs when you don’t use your hearing aids will impact both your hearing health and your social life, each with varying degrees of severity and intensity. The effects and consequences of failing to wear your hearing aids could include the following.
Your Hearing Will Continue to Diminish
The technology of hearing aids is pretty remarkable. They increase your ability to hear and help keep your auditory complex (the part of the brain that interprets sound) running efficiently.
If you “forget” to wear your hearing aids and, instead, crank up your TV to an even higher volume, you could be doing additional damage to your hearing. Even if you’re keeping the volumes under control, problems with your brain can result from the lack of sensory input. (It actually shrinks.) So if you don’t use your hearing aids, your hearing will likely continue to get worse (which means you’ll need even more powerful hearing aids before long).
It Will Become More Difficult to Interact Socially
You know when you go to the market and you get into a short conversation with the cashier? Those conversations are pleasant. In a world dominated by technology, these little talks are a touch of humanity.
These day-to-day social connections suddenly become very hard when you don’t use your hearing aids. You need to ask the cashier to repeat what they said. Over and over. And once that happens, the conversation just quickly falls apart. That might not sound significant but every time a scenario like this occurs, you will tend to retreat socially more and more. And the result can be even more serious.
Cognitive Decline And Hearing Aids
When you seclude yourself socially, your brain gets a lot less exercise. Think about how invigorated (or exhausted) you can feel after a good chat or a pleasant evening dinner with your family. Without that exercise, certain cognitive processes can begin to decline (or decline faster). This could mean:
- Depression
- Balance troubles
- Memory issues
- Declines in productivity or energy
But there’s more. Because there are particular parts of your brain and nervous system that need to hear sounds. Without stimulation, certain nerves will begin to weaken, and your auditory complex begins to atrophy. This can make it more difficult to adapt to your new hearing aids and in the worst case accelerate the mental decline.
Hearing aids keep your brain engaged, stimulated, and happy (for the most part).
Loss of Independence
It’s not unusual, as you get older, to require a bit more help. Maybe you hire a neighbor to mow your lawn or ask your son to swing by with supplies more often. You are probably to accelerate your loss of independence if you’re not wearing your hearing aids.
You can miss phone calls or lose parts of conversations with your neighbor when you don’t wear your hearing aids. It’s possible that you will miss important alerts. Perhaps you don’t hear your cat meowing for food at night or your dog barking at somebody knocking on your door.
Is There Any Solution?
Wearing a hearing aid won’t solve all of life’s problems, no matter how technologically inventive those little gadgets become. But they will solve a lot of the issues connected with not wearing your hearing aids.
If you’re having trouble with your hearing aids or if they’re uncomfortable, that’s one thing (and you should speak with us about getting solutions to those specific problems).
It’s worth taking some time to think about what the repercussions will be if you avoid wearing your hearing aids and also what the advantages of using them may be.
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References
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/specialty_areas/hearing/faq.html
https://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20140128/hearing-loss-tied-to-faster-brain-shrinkage-with-age
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation