Does Using A Hearing Aid Weaken Your Real Hearing?

When people buy hearing aids, one of their biggest worries is that their hearing loss will get worse if they start wearing them. Could hearing aids make people lose their hearing? People who use hearing aids may say that after a few weeks, they have a more challenging time hearing without them than they did before they started using them. But the truth is that it’s just how they see things and how their brains are tricking them. The reality is that hearing aids don’t make your hearing worse. Read on to find out more. 

Loud Noises Are a Problem

We know that loud noises can make hearing worse and can even cause hearing loss. The modern sound environment can be bad for your hearing. But the next question that comes to mind is: If loud noises are bad for your hearing, doesn’t that mean that hearing aids could also be? After all, they make sounds louder. It makes sense that they could hurt your hearing.

Hearing aids that aren’t set up right can cause problems, but hearing aids that are chosen and fitted by an audiologist are safe and work well. Any loud noise, like loud music or drills on a construction site, can damage your hearing. When sound waves are too strong, they hurt the tiny hairs in the middle ear that sense sound. This makes it harder for the hairs to send signals to the brain.

But here’s the catch: hearing aids can only hurt your hearing if they’re set up wrong. If you go to an audiologist who is trained, the risk is very small. The key to adjusting hearing aids is to make sure they produce a level of sound that doesn’t hurt the ears more. If you buy a hearing aid on the Internet and put it on yourself, you won’t have any tools to help you figure out how loud it should be. If you go to a professional, on the other hand, they do all of that for you using the latest methods.

Getting a hearing aid isn’t just about finding the right one, though. The fitting is also very important. If you do it right, you’ll have better hearing and healthier ears. If you mess up, you might make things worse. Always work with an audiologist to make sure the device is set up right.

Use The Hearing Aid More

Going to a professional audiologist is important for a second reason: it makes your ears feel more comfortable when you use hearing aids. If you have trouble hearing, you’ll have to wear your hearing aid for long periods of the day. If your hearing aid doesn’t fit right, it will rub against the inside of your ear canal, causing pain and making you less likely to use it.

Audiologists take care to make sure that the part of the device that touches your skin, called the earmold, fits the shape of your ear perfectly. The better the experience, the tighter the fit needs to be. If your hearing aids don’t fit right, you and they will never get along.

Of course, the more you use your hearing aid, the better you’ll be able to hear. So, it might seem as though your hearing is being affected negatively by the device when the truth is that you’re not wearing it enough to make a positive change.

Hearing Aids Prevent Further Hearing Loss

Hearing aids don’t just make sounds louder; they also stop hearing loss from getting worse. So, it’s not true that hearing aids that fit well hurt your hearing. It’s the opposite.

Why Does This Happen?

The main reason for this is that it stimulates the auditory cortex, which is the part of the brain that deals with sounds. If your hearing is getting worse, this area gets less stimulation. In the end, it weakens like a muscle that hasn’t been used, making it harder to understand incoming signals.

When you wear a hearing aid, the nerves that send information to the brain to be processed and start working again. The body knows it needs them, so it starts moving resources toward them to make them stronger. Over time, they get better, and some people find that they can turn their hearing aids down. Some people notice that their hearing loss stops getting worse or slows down.

For more information and to speak to an expert audiologist, please don’t hesitate to contact the professionals at GL Wyeno Hearing Specialists PC at (402) 463-2431 to learn more.