You’re supposed to use your hearing aids every day. But you’re also supposed to wash out your milk jugs before you recycle them. We don’t always do what we’re supposed to. So yeah, you forget to take your hearing aids out of their storage container once in a while. You may even forget to wear it for more than one day.
That isn’t a really good idea. Because when you don’t use your hearing aids a number of things happen and some things already developing get worse. And, to be honest, the majority of them are rather negative.
Effects And Repercussions of Not Using Your Hearing Aids
Much of what occurs when you don’t use your hearing aids will affect both your hearing health and your social life, each with varying levels of severity and intensity. Here are a few of those effects and consequences.
Your Level of Hearing Impairment Will Worsen
The technology of hearing aids is pretty remarkable. They enhance your ability to hear and help keep your auditory complex (the region of the brain that interprets sound) working efficiently.
If you “forget” to use your hearing aids and, instead, turn your TV up to an even louder volume, you might be doing further damage to your hearing. Even if you’re keeping the volumes under control, issues with your brain can result from missing sensory stimuli. (It actually shrinks.) So if you don’t use your hearing aids, your hearing will most likely continue to get worse (so you’ll need even more powerful hearing aids before long).
It Will Become More Difficult to Engage Socially
You know when you go to the store and you get into a short conversation with the cashier? Those conversations are pleasant. A nice little bit of humanity in a technological world.
These normal social interactions suddenly become really difficult when you don’t use your hearing aids. You regularly miss parts of the conversation and have to ask people to repeat themselves. Over and over. And that’s when the conversation becomes really uncomfortable. Maybe that sounds trivial, but every bit you retreat into yourself makes it that much easier to entirely separate yourself socially. And the result can be even more serious.
Hearing Aids And Mental Decline
When you separate yourself socially, your brain gets a lot less exercise. Think about how revitalized (or exhausted) you can feel after a good chat or an enjoyable evening meal with your family. Certain cognitive functions can begin to decline or decline faster without this exercise. This could mean:
- Depression
- Memory issues
- Balance issues
- Declines in energy or productivity
But that’s not all. Because hearing sound is vitally important to certain parts of your brain and nervous system. Your auditory complex starts to atrophy when certain nerves begin to deteriorate from lack of stimulation. This can cause an even more accelerated cognitive decline (or, even in the best-case scenario, make adapting to your hearing aids even harder).
Hearing aids keep your brain engaged, stimulated, and happy (for the most part).
Losing The Ability to be Independent
It’s not uncommon, as you get older, to need a little more help. Maybe you ask a neighbor to mow your lawn or ask your son to swing by with groceries more often. You are probably to accelerate your loss of independence if you’re not using your hearing aids.
You can miss phone calls or fail to hear parts of conversations with your neighbor when you don’t use your hearing aids. It’s possible that you will miss important alerts. Maybe you fail to hear your dog barking when there’s somebody at the door or your cat meowing in the morning when he’s hungry.
Is There Any Solution?
No matter how technologically sophisticated hearing aids get, they won’t resolve all of life’s issues. But they will solve many issues related to not using your hearing aids.
You need to come see us for help if you’re having problems with your hearing aids or if they are uncomfortable.
But if you’re looking for reasons to avoid wearing your hearing aids, if you’re just leaving them in the nightstand drawer, it’s worth taking a little time to think about what may be gained by wearing them… and what could happen if you don’t use your hearing aids.
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