Hearing Loss Prevention and Treatment
Hearing loss affects 17 percent of American adults, and 77 percent of that are individuals over the age of 65. There are many causes and risk factors of hearing loss in older individuals, but there are also ways to treat and prevent the issue. While hearing loss is an inevitable part of aging for some individuals, it is a preventable issue for others. If it is not preventable, there are many treatment options for seniors that are faced with this challenge in their golden years.
Hearing Loss Prevention
Most experts would agree that long-term exposure to loud noises is the most common cause of hearing loss, so by the time an individual is a senior, there are limited things that can be done to prevent the loss of one’s hearing.
The most obvious preventative action to take is to essentially avoid loud noises. There are more than 10 million adults in the United States that suffer from some form of hearing loss due to a loud noise. These things can include: gun shots (especially shotguns), listening to loud music, loud motor vehicles (motor boats, loud cars, motorcycles) and more. A simple rule to remember within this is that if a noise is loud enough for one person to have to yell to another who is only a few feet away, it’s too loud.
Avoiding these things altogether will help prevent hearing loss, but when that becomes impossible, there are ways to protect hearing. Here are a few ways that adults can protect their ears:
- Adults should wear ear protection if they will be around loud noises (earmuffs, earplugs, etc.)
- Adults should avoid using ear buds in place of headphones, and if they choose to use earbuds, keep the volume below 50 percent.
- Adults should see a physician regularly to have their hearing abilities assessed.
Hearing Loss Treatment
Upsettingly, there is no way to cure hearing loss. While some individuals that are born deaf can undergo surgeries that allow them to hear, hearing loss acquired over time is a bit more difficult to combat.
The most common and well-known treatment option for hearing loss is hearing aids. A hearing aid is a complex mechanism that is placed in an individual’s ear, which allows the sounds waves to move through a microphone before entering the ear, amplifying the sound waves. Hearing aids come in all shapes and sizes and are available in a wide range of prices. Typically, the individual using the hearing aid has the ability to control the volume of the device, turn it on and off, and more. While hearing aids are a primary option when it comes to hearing loss in older adults, it is difficult to fix the device if it is ever broken or stops working.
Another popular treatment option that often coincides with hearing aids is hearing loss counseling. Older individuals can choose to speak with a medical professional or another individual suffering from hearing loss to discuss the difficulties of being unable to hear properly. This counseling helps individuals continue to effectively communicate with people, despite their newly acquired disability. If a senior is considering this option, his or her physician will make helpful recommendations.
A small percentage of older individuals with hearing loss are not ideal candidates for hearing aids, and for those people, other options are available, such as cochlear implants. Although surgical implants and other similar options are much less common in seniors, due to the invasive nature, this typically isn’t an option for seniors that have not lost complete hearing.
Finally, it is important that seniors do not let their hearing loss go completely untreated. While it is inevitable for some people, hearing loss can lead to other issues, especially in older individuals, if the situation is not being cared for properly. For example, an older man may not want to accept his age and cope with the fact that his body doesn’t function like it used to. Lack of acknowledgment can lead to depression, frustration, and more serious health issues.
