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- Unveiling the Intricate Link Between Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline - February 9, 2024
If you think you might need a hearing test, you probably do…
Let’s say you are in a quiet room with just a few people, whether it be a Bible Study group or a small office staff meeting, you find yourself being able to hear and understand just about everything being said in that environment. Later on, you find yourself sitting on a patio, enjoying the last few days of our warm weather. Someone at your table says something that appears to be funny, you know it’s funny because everyone around you is laughing however you did not catch exactly what was being said. You find yourself laughing along as to not show others you did not understand the joke. What your experiencing is normal especially when your hearing slowly begins to decline whether it be age related or noise related, or a combination of the two.
Believing you have a hearing loss is hard for you to realize because hearing loss comes on gradually, for most people, and over a long period of time that can be years. At first, the change is so subtle and you find yourself compensating for what you cannot hear whether that be searching for cues in the speaker’s facial expressions, filling in the blanks of what you’ve not heard, making sense of the sentence even if you’ve miss a word here or there. Most people start off having trouble hearing just certain sounds or certain words and so as the individual experiencing hearing loss, you do not necessarily know what you are missing out on until you experience what its is to hear again through hearing aids as a solution to your individualized hearing loss.
Often, age related hearing loss has the following characteristics: trouble understanding high- frequency sounds. People with such a hearing loss have trouble understanding consonants. For instance, the ‘th’ or ‘f’ sounds may be difficult to register and so the difference between fought, bought, thought might be difficult to acknowledge to someone with a high frequency hearing loss. The inability to understand words is then amplified when in situations where background noise is present.
As years pass, high-frequency sounds become harder to hear, even when the room is quiet. The doorbell or the telephone may ring and ring before you notice it. Lower frequency sounds can also become problematic over time. You may find yourself increasingly asking others to repeat themselves or holding back from conversation to avoid embarrassment.
At Sounds Good!, we want everyone to have the opportunity to experience better hearing before making that commitment and investment in hearing aids. Our two week trial is completely risk free and – on top of that – in the state of Minnesota you have a 45 day trial with purchase of your hearing aids and so if for any reason you were not satisfied with your new hearing aids, you can exchange them or return them for a full refund within 45 days of purchase.
Wearing a mask, wearing hearing aids, wearing glasses… how does it all fit?
Many hearing aid users have reported either losing one or both their hearing aids because of them wearing the mask. What is happening is that when they go to remove their masks, their receiver-in-the canal hearing aid also comes out accidentally as seen in the video. What I suggest is the following:
One: Be mindful of your hearing aids, I understand it’s a nuisance to wear your masks and as you exit a store, a doctor’s appointment, or any other public buildings, your first reaction is to quickly remove those straps behind your ear. In doing so, you are inadvertently making contact with your hearing aids and causing them to be removed from your ears, dropping to the surface lot outside and it just disappears as they are hard to see sometimes due to how small they are. My suggestion is to wait until you get into your car, gently remove the mask straps behind your ear to keep your hearing aid in place.
Two: Another solution would be to purchase a mask extender. You can find them online at any major online retailer or you can Google ‘Mask Extenders’. They cost less than $5 a piece. With the mask extender, your mask straps are no longer sitting right behind your ears as seen here.
Instead, they are attached to the mask extender making room behind your ear for your hearing aids and glasses.
Three: For a new user- If wearing a mask is preventing you from wanting to move forward with seeking hearing aids as a solution to your hearing loss, know that there are different models of hearing aids with the more common ones being Behind-The-Ear: Traditionally the more powerful design. A BTE rests on the back of the outer ear. Receiver-In-Canal: Open fit hearing aid that uses a thin plastic micro tube that goes into your ear canal with the shell of the hearing aid resting on the back of the outer ear. In-The-Ear: Small hearing aids that are worn entirely in the ear. With the In-The-Ear model, your mask wearing would never get in the way of your hearing aids.
