There are many benefits to treating your hearing loss. You can communicate with others effortlessly, stay socially active, and improve your overall well-being. The potential effects of untreated hearing loss are equally numerous, from social isolation, to depression, to an increase risk of falls. Further down the line, some researchers have linked hearing loss with dementia.
Here are some of the key benefits to treating your hearing loss sooner rather than later.
Benefits for Your Personal Relationships
- Improved communication
Most people are aware that regular communication is one of the most important things to maintain if you want a strong, lasting relationship. Without the constant back and forth of daily conversation, sharing and emotional support, the bond you have with a loved one will deteriorate fast.
And not all of it is obvious and spoken at conversation level. We need to be aware of every utterance, intonation and nuance of our partners words to be able to respond appropriately and with tact. If you treat your hearing loss you stand a much better chance of being successful with this.
- Improved intimacy
It can be exhilarating engaging in whispered conversation with your partner. That kind of quiet, almost silent sweet nothing is lost when one of them has a hearing problem. From that very first whispered ‘I love you’ to a muttered inside joke only for your ears, these small gestures have a big impact in any relationship.
- Improved independence
Individuals with hearing loss report getting their independence back once they have taken charge of their hearing. This is great for both parties, not least the person who has to deal with a partner with hearing loss, for no longer are they forced to repeat things and speak up just for the benefit of their partner.
The person with newly regained hearing will savor the new independence this hearing affords them. Even something as simple as answering the phone becomes effortless again, removing self-doubt from the individual, and restoring a confidence only seen prior to their hearing loss.
Benefits for Your Health
Hearing occurs in the brain. The processing that the brain does when receiving audio information remains a key method for preserving cognitive health. Parts of the brain can only stay active and engaged when it has sound to process. When hearing suffers, that’s when the brain suffers from a weakening of areas that it isn’t using, leading to atrophy over time. This vicious circle of under-stimulation and deterioration can increase the risk of cognitive decline and even dementia. Treating your hearing appropriately can restore lost sound pathways which exercises those parts of your brain again.
Improved hearing will also enable the wearer to be more socially active, which improves quality of life and helps the individual stay connected to the people that they care about.
Benefits for Your Career
Most modern workplaces rely on company employees working together in close-knit teams to produce the desired outcomes to achieve company goals. For this to work properly, employees need to be able to communicate regularly using a variety of methods.
When an individual finds it difficult to maintain this level of communication either by face-to-face or phone, communication breakdown occurs and the quality of work declines, which reduces the value of the individual’s work. This has a knock-on effect on earning power of those with hearing loss.
This phenomenon was demonstrated by Sergei Kochkin, PhD, the executive director of the Better Hearing Institute. He ran a study which looked at the average salary of three groups of individuals, those with hearing aids (around 1,800 of them), those with untreated hearing loss and a large group of ordinary hearing individuals as the control group. Hearing loss severity was broken down into ten groups to better document the effect of each level of hearing loss on earnings.
The results were decisive. Those with the mildest hearing loss suffer almost no drop-in pay in comparison to those without hearing loss. But when the severity of hearing loss increases, average salaries fall accordingly. Unfortunately, this means that those who have the most severe loss see their earnings cut by an average of up to $30,000 less than those who can hear normally.
So, there you have it. Treat your hearing loss and you could see a myriad of benefits for years to come! Are you ready to act on your hearing loss? Schedule a hearing consultation with Elevate Audiology today!