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Hearing Loss & Hearing Aid Myths

MYTH: My hearing loss cannot be helped.

FACT: Many people with hearing loss in one ear, with a high frequency hearing loss, and with nerve damage have been told, often by a doctor, that they cannot be helped. The fact is most people with hearing loss can be helped, the majority of them with hearing aids.

MYTH: If I had a hearing loss, my family doctor would have told me.

FACT: Very few physicians electronically measure your hearing. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for the majority of doctors to notice most degrees of hearing loss during routine physical checkups.

MYTH: Hearing aids do not work.

FACT: Treatment is now possible for hearing losses which may have been difficult to treat just a few years ago. Modern hearing aids can help 95 percent of persons with hearing loss.

MYTH: I have waited this long, I can wait another few years before I get hearing aids..

FACT: The problem is not just that words become fainter. Waiting to get help can actually cause gradually increased permanent distortion, clinically known as phonemic regression. When this happens, even if the words are made loud enough, the inner ear distortion will make them sound garbled. Putting off hearing aids year after year may increase the rate of phonemic regression, making words less and less clear and ruining the ability to understand them even when hearing aids are eventually purchased.