Approximately 15% of U.S. adults (37.5 million) report some trouble hearing. One infrequently discussed side effect of hearing loss is the impact it can have on your daily safety.
Let’s look at a couple of ways hearing loss can impact your safety and how hearing aids can help.
When Can Hearing Loss Impact Safety?
Three common times and places hearing loss can adversely impact your safety include:
- At home. Your home is full of auditory cues that alert you to potential dangers. Burglary and smoke alarms, doorbells, dogs barking, family members calling for help, glass breaking and phones ringing are just a couple of examples.
- Out of the home. Auditory cues are vital to your safety outside of the home. Hearing a biker coming up behind you at Huckleberry Trails Park or someone telling you to watch out before you slip on a spill at the grocery store are necessary cues you may miss with hearing loss.
- In the car. Protecting yourself, your passengers and other drivers on the road requires your full attention. Similar to how you use your eyes to see a pedestrian in the crosswalk or a driver about to veer into your lane, you use your ears to keep you safe. Sirens, tires squealing and more give you clues about the safest course in a car. You may risk missing some or all of this critical information with hearing loss.
How Can Hearing Aids Help?
Hearing aids can help keep you safe by closing the gap in auditory communication. A couple of features that hearing aids use to keep you safe include but are not limited to:
- Speech amplification. Hearing aids have directional microphones that identify and amplify speech. This feature can help ensure you aren’t missing crucial verbal safety warnings.
- Noise suppression. While it may seem counterintuitive, noise suppression features can help you hear important noise. Your hearing aids will analyze the environment around you, reduce irrelevant noise, such as typing or dishwashing, and amplify important noise, like cars honking on a drive.
To learn more about the many benefits hearing aids offer, contact Advanced Audiology & Hearing Aids today to make an appointment with one of our knowledgeable specialists.
