Hearing Aid Helps Many with Hearing Losses, Even Temporary Problems
Many young children, mostly between the ages of birth and three years of age, experience multiple ear infections which leave them temporarily hard of hearing. A temporary hearing loss means a child is missing about 20 percent of what they hear, and in children who are learning to speak, this can be a major setback. Parents may want to consider using a hearing aid as a temporary solution to a temporary problem.
Older kids, teenagers and young adults who listen to loud music directly in their ears such as with ear-buds from an MP3 player or iPod could end up loosing their hearing for good at a young age. Studies have shown that repeated exposure to loud music can have a damaging and lasting affect on someone’s hearing. Older adults, who work with noisy machinery like in a factory, with industrial machines like jack hammers, leaf blowers or anywhere there is excessive, extreme noise, should always wear shielding ear coverings to protect their delicate hearing system.
According to an otolaryngologist, an ear nose and throat doctor, it is around the age of 12 when people who were going to lose their hearing due to hereditary reasons began to show signs of a slight hearing loss. Some medications could also weaken a child’s delicate hearing system if used over a long period of time. Their doctor may want to switch medications after several months to avoid any possible hearing loss. Of course each child is different and some children lose their hearing at earlier ages and this is why it is very important to add hearing screenings to yearly or every other year’s checkup.
Today’s hearing aids are nothing like a hearing aid of yesteryear, those hearing aids were a typical large black box, about the size of the transistor radio, that was strapped to a person’s chest with two wires traveling up to each ear in order for them to collect sound. Today’s hearing aids include state-of-the-art digital hearing aids that are computerized with tiny computers that fit within the ear and some larger models that fit behind the ear; however all are discrete and hardly anyone notices a person is wearing a hearing aid.