You’re supposed to wear your hearing aids daily. But before you recycle your milk containers, you’re supposed to wash them out too. Occasionally, we don’t do the things we’re supposed to. So yeah, you forget to take your hearing aids out of their storage container occasionally. You may even forget to use it for more than one day.
That’s not great. Because when you don’t wear your hearing aids numerous things occur and some things already developing get worse. And, honestly, most of them are kind of bad.
Consequences of Forgetting to Wear Your Hearing Aids
There will be repercussions of varying levels of intensity and severity, both to your health and social life, if you fail to use your hearing aid. Here are a few of those effects and repercussions.
Your Level of Hearing Impairment Will Worsen
Hearing aids are remarkable devices. Not only do they let you hear sounds that you normally wouldn’t have, but they also keep your auditory complex running efficiently (that’s the region of your brain responsible for interpreting sounds).
You might damage your hearing even more if, instead of wearing your hearing aids, you start cranking the volume up on your devices even louder than they already are. Even if you aren’t increasing the volume, the missing sensory input results in issues with your brain. (It actually shrinks.) So if you don’t use your hearing aids, your hearing will most likely keep getting worse (which means you’ll need even more powerful hearing aids before long).
Social Engagement Will Become More Stressful (And Less Frequent)
You know those short interactions you have with the cashier as you’re checking out at the grocery store? They’re pleasant, we think. A nice little bit of humanity in a technological world.
These day-to-day social connections suddenly become really difficult when you don’t wear your hearing aids. You have to ask the cashier to repeat himself. Again and again. And after that, the conversation just quickly falls apart. Maybe that sounds trivial, but every bit you withdraw into yourself makes it that much easier for you to entirely seclude yourself socially. And that can result in even more substantial problems.
Hearing Aids And Cognitive Decline
Your brain doesn’t get nearly as much exercise when you seclude yourself. Think about how invigorated (or exhausted) you can feel after a good conversation or a pleasant evening meal with your family. Certain cognitive functions can begin to decline or decline faster without this exercise. This could mean:
- Balance troubles
- Declines in energy or productivity
- Depression
- Memory problems
But that’s not the entire picture. Because hearing sound is vitally important to certain parts of your brain and nervous system. Without stimulation, certain nerves will begin to weaken, and your auditory complex starts to atrophy. This can result in an even more accelerated cognitive decline (or, even in the best-case scenario, make adjusting to your hearing aids even more difficult).
Hearing aids keep your brain engaged, stimulated, and happy (for the most part).
Loss of Independence
Needing a bit more help, as you get older, is not uncommon. Perhaps you get a neighbor to mow your lawn or ask your daughter to swing by with groceries more often. You are probably speeding up your loss of independence if you’re not using your hearing aids.
When you don’t use your hearing aids, it can quickly become harder to answer the phone or talk with your neighbor. It’s possible that you will miss important alerts. Maybe you don’t hear your cat meowing at night for food or your dog barking at somebody knocking on your door.
What’s The Solution?
No matter how technologically advanced hearing aids become, they won’t solve all of life’s problems. But they will solve a lot of the problems connected with not wearing your hearing aids.
You need to come see us for help if you’re having difficulty with your hearing aids or if they’re uncomfortable.
It’s worth taking a little time to think about what the repercussions will be if you avoid using your hearing aids and also what the advantages of using them may be.
Call Today to Set Up an Appointment
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