Hearing Care & Optics

Hearing Care & Optics
Purchasing a hearing aid can be a confusing process. We try to make it as easy as possible and help you make decisions based on YOUR best interest

Do Hearing Aids Ever Make Hearing Worse?

The simple answer is no, hearing aids should not harm your hearing. For decades hearing aids have had loudness limits where the sound cannot exceed a certain level. So a properly fit hearing aid and a properly set hearing aid will not get loud enough to do any damage.
 Why then, do some hearing aid users feel their natural hearing gets worse after just a few weeks of wearing their new hearing aids? This can occur once their brain has adapted to their improved hearing. And without their hearing aids, they feel like they hear worse than before. They’re addicted to hearing better.
There are, however, products that can harm your hearing. For instance amplifiers that you purchase over the counter without hearing measurement(Hearing loss is measured by a professional) at places such as internet (online shop) sites. do have the ability to harm your hearing. These products are simple amplifiers and the loudness level is not based on your specific hearing. So turning up these amplifiers too loud may indeed do damage to your hearing.
Hearing loss is measured by a professional during a comprehensive hearing evaluation. During a comprehensive hearing evaluation, the ability to hear speech and frequency-specific tones as a function of the loudness required to hear them is assessed. In other words, hearing is essentially measured as "loudness versus pitch." Results are plotted on an audiogram. Loudness is plotted on the y-axis with softest sounds closest to the top and loudest sounds at the bottom. Frequency is plotted on the x-axis with low pitch sounds farthest to the left, increasing in frequency as you move along the axis to the right. Hearing loss (HL) is measured in decibels (dB) and is described in general categories:
Degree of Hearing loss Audiometric Thresholds
  • Normal hearing (0 to 25 dB HL)
  • Mild hearing loss (26 to 40 dB HL)
  • Moderate hearing loss (41 to 70 dB HL)
  • Severe hearing loss (71 to 90 dB HL)
  • Profound hearing loss (greater than 91 dB HL)

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