What if I have a hearing loss? If your hearing loss can be managed medically, your audiologist will refer you to an ear physician. If the hearing loss is not caused by a medical problem, hearing aids along with aural rehabilitation, counseling and speech reading may be necessary. Does my hearing loss progress? If you have a hearing loss that is caused by a medically treatable problem, the problem may or may not get worse over time without treatment. If the hearing loss is due to a condition such as a lesion or tumor in the auditory system, this could be potentially life threatening. Whether the condition is medically treatable such as with most conductive losses, or due to damage such as with noise exposure or age, the result in the brain is the same. That is, the brain does not receive the stimulation necessary to function. This is called auditory deprivation. When the brain is not getting stimulated by sound, the potential to "forget" how to hear is great, and is closely related to the length of time the brain goes without stimulation. The longer the patient goes without treatment (including amplification if that is warranted) the more likely it is the brain will forget how to hear and understand speech even after treatment is implemented. These findings suggest that it is important to seek appropriate treatment in a timely manner for hearing loss if the brain is to maintain its ability to understand speech. What should I expect from my hearing aids? Patients are expected to understand the role of hearing aids. Just as eyeglasses do not "cure" vision deficiencies, hearing aids do not solve all hearing problems. But hearing aids can provide an important difference in your life and the lives of your family members. What is aural rehabilitation? Audiologists provide additional services and procedures for lessening or compensating for hearing impairment. Various approaches involve auditory training, speech reading and helping to improve listening skills with assistive devices. This part of audiologist's job is of paramount importance in providing the patient with utmost improvement from the treatment. What you should know about hearing aids? After a complete hearing examination, the audiologist recommends a hearing aid for you. He or she will take into consideration your lifestyle and personal goals and guide you to the most suitable hearing aid. He/she then explains the limitations of each hearing aid and prescribes the most appropriate hearing treatment. Hearing aids are only a part of the treatment plan. Each patient's needs warrants a different treatment plan. Are there any studies showing health benefits of hearing aids? Hearing aid users report higher levels of involvement in social activities, shorter periods of depression, fewer worries and more positive social and family experiences than those who have uncorrected hearing loss. Recently, a new survey on more than 4000 individuals, by National Council of Aging has confirmed that there is a significant improvement in the quality of lives of hearing aid users. Who Can Be Helped? Patients with "nerve deafness" and high-frequency hearing loss can benefit from the use of hearing aids in most cases. One is never too old to start using hearing aids. Today, over 95% of patients with hearing loss can benefit from hearing aids. This benefit depends on the type, and degree of loss, patient's expectation, and type of hearing aid selected. Two Hearing Aids or one? You and your audiologist should determine the need for one hearing aid or two. For more than 80% of people with hearing loss, binaural amplification offers substantial improvement under both quiet and noisy conditions, along with a better sense of direction for locating the sound source. Also, auditory deprivation (explained under Progression of Hearing loss) becomes a possibility when only one ear is treated with a hearing aid. People wearing two hearing instruments understand speech and conversation significantly better than people wearing one hearing instrument do. Better understanding in group and even noisy situations is possible with two hearing instruments. Less volume is required out of the hearing instruments when two are used; thus battery life is longer. With a lower volume control setting, the chance of feedback back is reduced with two hearing instruments.