You’re supposed to use your hearing aids daily. But before you recycle your milk containers, you’re supposed to rinse them out too. Sometimes, we don’t do the things we’re supposed to. So yeah, you forget to take your hearing aids out of their storage container once in a while. You might even forget to wear it for more than a day.
That’s not good. Because there are numerous things that happen (or continue to happen) when you don’t use your hearing aids. And, to be honest, most of them are rather bad.
Consequences of Failing to Use Your Hearing Aids
There will be consequences of varying levels of intensity and severity, both to your health and social life, if you fail to use your hearing aid. The effects and consequences of neglecting to wear your hearing aids could include the following.
Your Level of Hearing Impairment Will Get Worse
The technology of hearing aids is fairly amazing. Not only do they allow you to hear sounds that you normally wouldn’t have, but they also keep your auditory complex working smoothly (that’s the region of your brain responsible for interpreting sounds).
You may damage your hearing even more if, instead of wearing your hearing aids, you begin cranking up the volume on your devices even louder than they already are. Even if you’re not increasing the volume, the lack of sensory input contributes to issues with your brain. (It actually shrinks.) So if you don’t use your hearing aids, your hearing will most likely keep getting worse (which means 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? They’re pleasant, we think. A nice little bit of humanity in a technology-driven world.
These day-to-day social interactions suddenly become really difficult when you don’t use your hearing aids. You need to ask the cashier to repeat what they said. Again and again. And after that, the conversation just quickly falls apart. Perhaps that sounds superficial, but every bit you retreat into yourself makes it that much easier for you to entirely isolate yourself socially. And the result can be even more significant.
Hearing Aids And Mental Decline
Your brain doesn’t get nearly as much exercise when you seclude yourself. Think about how invigorated (or exhausted) you can feel after a good conversation or a pleasant evening meal with your family. Certain cognitive functions can begin to decline or decline faster without this exercise. This could mean:
- Balance issues
- Declines in productivity or energy
- Memory problems
- Depression
But there’s more. Because there are particular parts of your brain and nervous system that need to hear sounds. Without stimulation, certain nerves will begin to weaken, and your auditory complex begins to atrophy. This can make it more difficult to adapt to your new hearing aids and in the worst case speed up mental decline.
Hearing aids keep your brain active, stimulated, and happy (more or less).
Loss of Independence
Needing a little more help, as you age, is not abnormal. Maybe you ask a family member to go shopping for you or a neighbor to do some yard work. You are likely speeding up your loss of independence if you’re not wearing your hearing aids.
You can miss phone calls or fail to hear parts of conversations with your neighbor when you don’t wear your hearing aids. You may miss important weather alerts. Maybe you don’t hear your cat meowing at night for food or your dog barking at someone knocking on your door.
Is There Any Solution?
No matter how technologically sophisticated hearing aids get, they won’t resolve all of life’s problems. But many of the problems connected to failing to use your hearing aid can be resolved.
If you’re having problems with your hearing aids or if they’re uncomfortable, that’s one thing (and you should consult us about finding solutions to those particular issues).
But if you’re looking for reasons to avoid using your hearing aids, if you’re just forgetting them in the nightstand drawer, it’s worth taking a little time to reflect on what could 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