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You just went to your audiologist and were told you have hearing loss.  Although deep down, you already knew this was true, there’s a part of you that is still in denial.  Worse yet, now that you’re heading home, you realize you have to tell (or admit to) your family that you have hearing loss.  But, where do you start?  You hardly remember what the audiologist told you at this point.  How do you explain what your hearing loss means to you and your family?

Before you begin to speak to your family, remember that they care about you and want you to hear better. In most cases, there will be some relief for your family members that many of the issues they had been experiencing with you were hearing issues, not memory or cognitive issues.  And, though some may jest and say something to the effect of “I told you so,” they are usually thankful that you finally took the first step of diagnosis.  They are also hopeful you’ll take the next step to treat it.  So, do your best not to feel embarrassed or ashamed.  Many people are diagnosed with hearing loss each day.  And, your family already knew – probably even before you did.

Now that you’ve gotten the “confession” out of the way, the next step is to explain what it means for you and your family.   First of all, most people have a major misconception about hearing loss.  They assume that when someone has hearing loss it means sounds are just softer and harder to hear.  So, they believe that just turning up the volume will solve everything.  This is why many people will begin to yell when they find out someone has hearing loss.  

However, hearing loss which requires hearing aids typically is not just a volume problem.   In most cases, hearing loss affects each pitch that you hear differently.  You may hear some pitches normally and others you may not hear at all.  This can cause distortion to whatever sound you hear.  A good way to help clarify what is going on is to use an analogy.  Think of hearing like an equalizer you may use on your TV or stereo.  You can have them imagine what it would sound like to turn the treble all the way down and only hear the mids and the bass.  For some hearing losses, you would need to remove the mids as well.  If you have a TV or stereo, see if you can actually do this (though there may be a limit as to how much you can actually turn each portion down).  Doing this will allow them to get a small understanding of how much clarity you are actually missing, even when the volume is increased.  They may begin to appreciate that treating hearing loss is not as simple as they thought.  

Explain to your family that when someone has vision loss due to refraction issues, glasses make a world of difference because the nerve is working well and the light just needs to be “re-shaped.”  But, when there is damage to the nerve of the eye, glasses may help some, but they won’t eliminate the vision issue.  Some issues with vision will remain, even with glasses in those situations.  It is the same with hearing.  Most people assume that hearing aids will essentially cause your hearing to return to “normal.”  They think that, since you are wearing hearing aids, they will not have to repeat themselves anymore and that you will understand everything as if you had normal hearing again. Hearing aids won’t eliminate hearing struggles because there is damage to the nerves in your ear.  But, they will help compensate and make the perceived hearing loss less severe.    For someone with mild hearing loss, the compensation may be enough to bring speech understanding near the same level of someone with  normal hearing sensitivity.  But, for those with greater losses, even the best hearing aid out there will have limitations on how much clarity they will provide.  So, it is important to remind your family (and even yourself) that hearing aids will provide significant benefit, but you will still misunderstand or need things repeated at times.  

Of course, getting the best care will help to ensure you are maximizing your benefit with hearing aids.  This is one area where you do get what you pay for.  Hearing aid programming requires a good deal of expertise in order to fit them properly.  There is no set prescription that will work for everyone with the same hearing loss.  Each individual will require fine tuning depending on their ear canal size and shape along with how their brain interprets the signal.  Therefore, it is important to ensure you have your hearing health care provided by an individual with the degree of training and knowledge necessary to fit your hearing aids properly.

Oro Valley Audiology has experienced Audiologists who have trained extensively in the field and have doctorates of Audiology.  We are committed to providing the best care for our patients and use real ear measurements on each patient during their hearing aid fitting to ensure optimal sound quailty.  We listen to our patients and make appropriate adjustments based on issues and concerns.  If you or someone you love are ready to move past talking about your hearing loss and delve into the path of taking action to improve your hearing, please call our office to schedule your hearing aid consultation.  Or, if you have hearing aids and they never really worked well, give us a call and we would be happy to see what we can do to work with what you have and program them correctly so you can start again on your path to better hearing.