Effects of Hearing Loss

Hearing loss affects every aspect of daily life and can reduce your quality of life by making communication more difficult by:

• Causing misunderstandings
• Heightening stress
• Triggering unnecessary fatigue
• Isolating someone from society and loved ones
• Straining relationships with family and friends

Here's the good news — hearing loss can generally be treated with hearing aids. This means you or your loved one can reconnect with life. Assess whether you or a loved one has a hearing loss or contact a hearing care professional to schedule an appointment.

What to expect when you get a hearing aid

• Have realistic expectations. Hearing instruments won't restore hearing to the same level as it once was, but will most likely provide dramatic improvement.
• Be patient — adjusting to wearing a hearing aid takes time.
• Start slowly — wear your hearing instruments for a couple of hours a day at first and build up.
• Be persistent — it's important to consistently wear your instruments so that you get used to them.
• Stay committed — your brain needs time to readjust to hearing sounds it may not have been hearing for years. You will be amazed at your own ability to reconnect with your life with the help of your hearing aids.

Check out Audibel's Five Steps to Better Hearing, which shares the five principles vital for success with hearing instruments. Or contact your hearing professional to receive the entire kit including the workbook and DVD.

Hearing loss is invisible and nearly always painless. It can also develop over time. If you suspect that you or a loved one is experiencing hearing loss, take a look at the hearing assessment or visit a hearing healthcare professional to take a hearing test.