How soon should I treat Hearing Change?


Perhaps the most compelling reason to never put off a hearing test and treatment, however is simply this: We “hear” with our brain, not with our ears. When we have a hearing loss, the connections in the brain that respond to sound become reorganized.

Fortunately, for many people, hearing aids can provide the sound stimulation needed for the brain to restore the normal organization of connections to its “sound center” so it can more readily react to the sounds that it had been missing and cognitively process them.

In fact, the vast majority of people with hearing loss can benefit from hearing aids. And dramatic new technological advances have completely transformed hearing aids in recent years, making them more effective, comfortable, and easy to use. So the sooner you identify hearing loss and start using professionally fitted hearing aids if recommended by a hearing healthcare professional, the sooner you’ll begin to reap the rewards of better hearing.


The sooner hearing loss is treated with thresholds (your lowest level of hearing ability at any given pitch) at 40 dB HL or greater at 2 or more frequencies, you will benefit optimally from hearing aids rather than waiting longer, having auditory deprivation kick in that is essentially a reduction of nerve stimulation due to reduced perception and resulting weakness in the nerve tracts along the auditory pathways to the auditory cortex and in the auditory cortex. It is that simple.
