Hearing loss is a major concern amongst Americans today, especially those over age 60. While about one-third of Americans over age 65 have hearing loss, the rate climbs to two-thirds by age 75. Nearly 100% of centenarians have hearing loss, which makes it seem likely that if we live long enough, eventually we will all have some degree of hearing loss.
When we start to notice hearing loss in older age, many people worry that their hearing will deteriorate slowly until they have lost the ability to hear entirely. For most people, this shouldn’t be a concern. Hearing loss tends to plateau at a certain point and remain there. Still, many people wonder how long they should wait until getting hearing aids.
The answer is that you should get hearing aids as soon as they’re recommended by a hearing care professional. While it may seem like you’re “getting along fine” without them, there are some consequences of untreated hearing loss that you’ll likely want to avoid.
Social Consequences
People tend to first notice hearing loss when they have trouble understanding a conversational partner’s speech amidst background noise. Maybe you’ve been out to a restaurant or bar and found all the sound blending together while you tried to understand what another person was saying. This is a common experience for those in the early stages of mild hearing loss.
While this might be annoying, you might also experience yourself becoming tired sooner. Many older people in the early stages of age-related hearing loss mistake the exhaustion that comes with hearing loss as a separate age-related condition. In fact, a good set of hearing aids would allow them to participate more easily in conversation and become less fatigued in the course of a social gathering.
These problems can make socializing so taxing that many people start to avoid social gatherings. This can leave them feeling lonely and isolated when a set of hearing aids would allow them to enjoy the company of others as they always have.
Those who get hearing aids tend to report improvements in their social relationships. The effects go beyond friends and acquaintances and even to intimate partners. While we might not imagine that our hearing loss could have an effect on our partner, it’s actually the case that hearing loss makes conversation between loved ones more difficult and can strain even long-term relationships. When conversations become more difficult, the tendency is to avoid unnecessary exchanges, and the relationship can become less joyful.
Mental Consequences
Speech comprehension takes place in the auditory cortex of the brain, toward the back of the head. Here, incoming sound from the ears is processed and sorted, and speech sounds are understood and shunted to short-term memory. When we can’t hear that well, we need to engage the frontal cortex of our brain to help us make sense of what is being said. We use context clues, facial expressions and lip reading to put together a guess at what is being said.
That’s not only harder work for our brains (hence the fatigue), but less direct activity for the auditory cortex. This may be why those with even mild hearing loss tend to say they have memory issues more commonly than those with normal hearing or hearing aids: since the auditory cortex has a more direct connection to memory, this circuitous way of understanding speech may not make it to short-term memory as easily.
What’s more, over time the auditory cortex will actually shrink, as it sees less sound coming to it from the ears. It’s not that brain cells die, but that the grey matter between the neurons begins to collapse and the neurons lie dormant. When you finally do get hearing aids, it takes a great deal of effort to retrain the brain to understand speech again. It’s really true in this case that you have to “use it or lose it.”
If hearing loss goes untreated for too long, it’s even been shown to contribute to an increased risk of earlier onset of dementia and cognitive decline.
Treat Hearing Loss with Hearing Wellness Solutions
If you or a loved one has been struggling with hearing loss, don’t put off having a comprehensive hearing examination until it gets “really bad.” If hearing loss is detected, we will recommend the best course of treatment for you. Keep in mind that hearing aids are an adjustment, but it is much easier and healthier to make that adjustment earlier than later. Make an appointment for a hearing test with us today and find out if you can benefit from hearing loss treatment!
