if you need eyeglasses, chances are you don’t think twice about slipping them on before you drive, read, study or watch tv.
in most cases, we associate glasses with intelligence and style, and see their need as a natural result of aging. but hearing aids often have the opposite impact.
thanks to negative depictions in popular culture, schoolyard taunts and in public discourse, there’s an irrational stigma around hearing aids that keeps many people from getting help.
“that’s very frustrating,” says jillian price, chief audiologist with hearinglife canada, a national network of hearing clinics. “we don’t think there’s anything to hide.”
many people with hearing loss worry about how they’ll be perceived if they wear hearing aids, but the lifestyle benefits are so profound that there’s really no argument.
hearing loss can be treated just as effectively with hearing aids as a vision impairment can be treated with eyeglasses.
and if you wear them, they can benefit you in ways you may not even realize. here’s how.
1. hearing better can boost your confidence
if you struggle with hearing loss, many sounds will seem muffled, garbled or distorted. it’s not that you can’t hear anything at all; it’s that you’ll find it difficult to hear clearly.