The Effect of Not Wearing Your Hearing Aids - A Case Study of Paul
by Rick Kirkham
Paul came into Ohana Hearing Care as a 50 year old male who had been wearing hearing aids for nine years. Paul had a moderate-severe hearing loss in both ears. The hearing loss was equal in both ears. Paul walked into the office wearing just the right hearing aid. He told me his left hearing aid had stopped working four years ago and he never replaced it.
Testing was done to find out how correctable Paul's hearing loss was. The results were as follows:
Paul's right ear, the ear which wore the hearing aid on a regular basis, showed a correctable hearing loss of 80% of what the average person would understand when Paul wore a hearing aid in the right ear.
Paul's left ear, the ear which went without a hearing aid for four years and had the same hearing loss as the right ear, showed a correctable hearing loss of only 40% of what the average person would understand when Paul wore a hearing aid in the left ear.
The ONLY difference between Paul's left ear and his right ear was he supported his hearing and level of correctable understanding with a hearing aid in the right ear and did not wear a hearing aid in the left ear.
The moral is use it or lose it.
Accept your level of hearing loss.
Accept that you may have limitations due to your hearing loss even with hearing correction.
Accept the help that you have available due to your hearing loss
Wear your hearing aids regularly each day to keep from losing more of your ability to understand speech.
Find out more at:
http://GlobalHearingServices.com
