Do hearing aids prevent or slow further hearing loss?

The answer to this question is complex because there are two aspects to hearing loss. First, physical hearing—do your ears hear a stimulus or a particular sound? In most cases, hearing aids won’t prevent or slow physical hearing loss. Only time will tell what’ll happen. If your ability to hear certain tones decreases, which is easily confirmed through a hearing exam, your provider can adjust your hearing aids to help you hear those tones better.

The second aspect is comprehension. Research shows it takes an average of four years for individuals to visit a doctor or hearing provider once aware of their hearing difficulty. Not being able to consistently hear what’s going on around you can cause the auditory processing parts of the brain to atrophy over time.

This can decrease your ability to comprehend speech, even after you address your hearing loss with hearing aids. Why? Because the brain hasn’t had to interpret and process speech the same way it did when you had normal hearing. Once you start wearing hearing aids and have the volume you need to hear, it’s like saying to the brain, “Hey, wake up! What are you going to do with all this information I’m giving you?”

By keeping the brain active, processing, and interpreting the information it receives, hearing aids can help slow down the loss of understanding because they help maintain your brain-level activity. When it comes to addressing hearing loss, it’s much more important to maintain your ability to understand than it is to increase the volume of the sounds you hear.

TruHearing® is here to help you take care of your hearing health and make the most of your hearing aids. We have plenty of resources to guide you on your journey.

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