June 24-30
It is Senior Health Awareness Week
This year's theme is:
Maintain hearing health and enjoy a happy old age
Hearing loss in older people is usually progressive, and most older people will gradually accept the change and dismiss it during this process. In life, it is usually the people around you who first notice that the elderly have hearing problems. For example, some elderly people can hear well in a quiet environment, but they will have hearing difficulties in a noisy environment.
At this point, older people may attribute their hearing to the confusion of the environment or to the "slurred speech" of the speaker. In fact, the occurrence of this situation has indicated that there is a problem with the hearing function of the elderly, and the doctor should help determine whether intervention is needed.
If an older person cannot hear certain sounds clearly, there may be some degree or scope of hearing loss. For example, people with high-frequency hearing loss may not be able to hear certain sounds, such as "sh", "s", "th", "t", etc. Don't underestimate the inability to hear individual sounds, when they appear in a sentence or paragraph, it can significantly affect the hearing loss's understanding of speech, so they have to repeatedly ask "Huh?" "What?" Or answer the question.
In such cases, professionals can program digital hearing aids to enhance the range and extent required by the patient, allowing the patient to make better use of their residual hearing. The sooner you intervene for hearing loss, the better the long-term results.
Almost all patients who consider themselves to have "good ears" have hearing problems of varying degrees in both ears. When one ear is slightly better hearing than the other, we are more inclined to use that ear to make phone calls, participate in group conversations, etc. However, long-term use of one ear with good hearing will increase the burden on the ear and produce auditory fatigue, while the hearing loss ear will atrophy the auditory nerve due to the long-term lack of sound stimulation, resulting in lower speech resolution.
In addition, unilateral hearing loss can affect sound localization, which can be dangerous for patients' lives. For example, when you are behind a car, you can't tell the source of the horn sound and it will affect the direction of evasion; When communicating with others, there will be movements such as turning your head sideways and squinting, which can lead to psychological problems such as low self-esteem. Therefore, if you have hearing damage in one ear, you should go to a regular hospital for a detailed examination and be equipped with hearing aids according to the situation.
Many older people may choose to temporarily use hearing aids when they are "needed", such as when they are attending social activities or when they cannot hear each other clearly in a noisy environment. This practice seems to avoid the discomfort of daily hearing aid wear, however, this intermittent use is not conducive to maximizing the hearing benefits of hearing aids.
Therefore, it is advisable for older adults to use hearing aids consistently in their daily lives rather than only in specific situations.
Many people think that buying a hearing aid is as simple as buying a pair of reading glasses, but this is actually ignoring the complexity and individualized needs of the hearing aid fitting process. Especially for the elderly, proper fitting is a critical step in ensuring that hearing aids are effective.
The causes of hearing loss are different for each person and involve different diseases, different frequencies and degrees of hearing loss. Random purchase of hearing aids is indeed cheap, but it is not scientific and practical. In hospitals, audiologists can provide patients with high-quality hearing health guidance, including accurate hearing assessment, choosing the right type of hearing aid, professional guidance on the proper use of hearing aids, and follow-up adjustment.
In short, the elderly should realize that hearing aids not only provide hearing and quality of life improvement, but also bring more opportunities for the elderly to participate in social interactions, so that the elderly do not lose touch with society. In addition, hearing aids can also help older adults increase self-confidence, improve social skills, and promote overall improvement in social activity and cognitive skills. Therefore, when necessary, the elderly can choose and insist on using hearing aids under the guidance of a doctor, so that their later life can be more exciting.
Editor: Wu Baixin, Fang Siyu (intern)
Source: Healthy China
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