Will wearing hearing aids cause hearing loss, and will you become more deaf the more you wear them?

Rumor: "Wearing hearing aids will cause hearing loss, and the more you wear them, the more deaf you become!"

“Look, Mr. Li next door wore a hearing aid, but his hearing deteriorated after a few years. It’s probably because of the hearing aid. If he didn’t wear it, he might not be deaf.” Many people may have heard their parents say such things, which has led to many people who need hearing aids not daring to wear them and unable to enjoy normal sound quality like healthy people.

Rumor analysis: Not true.

Wearing hearing aids correctly will not cause hearing loss, but will help people improve their hearing and provide better perception and understanding of sound.

If hearing aids are not fitted correctly and you listen to sounds at too loud a volume for years, there is a risk of accelerated hearing loss.

Everyone may have heard of hearing aids, but they may not really know what hearing aids are. A hearing aid is a mini electronic device, and its main body can be divided into: microphone, amplifier, receiver and battery. Powered by a battery, the receiver receives external sounds, amplifies the sound through the amplifier, and then transmits it through the microphone, and then inputs it into our ear canal through the front earphones, thereby achieving the function of amplifying the sound. Why do some people feel that their hearing has decreased after wearing hearing aids? Is it true that the more you wear hearing aids, the more deaf you become?

Will wearing hearing aids damage your hearing and cause you to become more deaf the longer you wear them?

The answer to this question is that wearing hearing aids correctly can help people improve their hearing and will not cause hearing loss. First of all, our risk of hearing loss increases with age. According to a cohort study in the United States, the prevalence rate of people aged 65 to 84 is 43%, and most people over 80 and almost all people aged ≥ 90 have hearing loss.

Because our cochlea, the organ responsible for hearing sounds, will gradually age with age, including deformation of the stria vascularis, spiral ganglion cells, and hair cells. This aging will first manifest itself in the cells responsible for high-frequency hearing loss. Moreover, this aging is characterized by bilateral symptoms, occurs gradually, and is a relatively slow process. By the time we really feel a significant hearing loss, many years have often passed.

So no matter if we wear hearing aids or not, as we age, our hearing loss is still happening slowly. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to reverse this aging process with medication. Many people do not know the reason and think that hearing loss will not occur if they wear hearing aids. However, the reality is contrary to their wishes. Under this information error, some people who wear hearing aids will have misunderstandings, thinking that wearing hearing aids is the cause of hearing loss. In fact, this is a misunderstanding.

Secondly, hearing loss is complicated. In addition to natural aging, there may be other factors that affect it. For example, patients with chronic suppurative otitis media may experience hearing fluctuations due to long-term pus discharge. Patients who take chemotherapy drugs for a long time may also experience aggravated hearing loss due to drug damage. In these cases, hearing will be impaired regardless of whether hearing aids are worn or not.

As we have introduced before, hearing aids are simply sound amplifiers. They amplify the sounds we need to hear so that we can "hear". As long as the volume of the hearing aid is within a safe range, its role is to improve our hearing and sound quality, and it will not aggravate hearing loss. However, it should be noted that if the hearing aid is not properly fitted, resulting in the volume being too loud, and it is still worn for many years, there is indeed a risk of increased hearing loss.

3 Mistakes That May Accelerate Hearing Loss

Sound is an important way for us to perceive the world. It is crucial to correctly fit hearing aids. If we do not choose the right hearing aids or wear them incorrectly, the hearing aids will not only fail to provide us with good hearing effects, but may also backfire and cause the risk of hearing loss. The following three situations need attention.

1. Wear hearing aids by yourself

Hearing aids require professional fitters to use fitting software to personalize the fitting according to each person's audiogram. Especially now, high-end hearing aids amplify different sounds at each frequency, and have advanced functions such as automatic noise reduction, which allows people to hear clearly and comfortably. In most cases, hearing aids are customized according to the wearer's ear canal conditions. The ear mold can be completely inserted into the ear canal to ensure that the sound of the hearing aid is not leaked. Therefore, the hearing aid after debugging is unique and can only be worn by yourself. Others cannot use it directly.

If you buy hearing aids directly but do not debug them, once you choose the wrong power, the sound may be too loud, which will not only be irritating but may also damage your hearing in the long run.

2. Failure to actively treat other causes

For example, for patients with chronic suppurative otitis media, especially when pus discharge occurs frequently, the best option is surgery to repair the eardrum and then consider wearing hearing aids after the discharge disappears.

If you wear hearing aids without surgery, the risk of infection may increase due to the closure of the ear canal, aggravating otitis media and possibly damaging the hearing aids.

3. Failure to adjust hearing aids in a timely manner

Unlike wearing glasses, our hearing aids need to be constantly adapted and adjusted after wearing. They are not in the best condition when you first wear them. We also recommend that you go for a follow-up visit 1 to 3 months after wearing them to evaluate the wearing effect. If you can't hear clearly or the sound is too loud, you need to adjust it in time. If you are afraid of trouble and don't adjust it in time when you feel uncomfortable, it is also possible to damage your hearing.

Pay attention to 4 points to make hearing aids better help hearing

1. Early detection and early treatment

We know that hearing loss occurs slowly and gradually, especially at the beginning, the manifestation of high-frequency hearing loss is that there is no problem in hearing in a quiet environment, but only difficulty in talking to others in a noisy environment, so early hearing loss will be ignored.

Many elderly people are not aware of their hearing loss until their family members discover it. They are often “hard of hearing” and still try to prove that they can hear very quiet sounds when they come to see a doctor. This is because low-frequency hearing has not been damaged, so very light low-frequency sounds can be recognized, such as drum sounds and mobile phone vibrations, but high-frequency sounds such as bird calls and electrical alarms will be difficult to recognize. This is reflected in language. Our vowels such as “i, e, o” are basically close to low frequencies, while our consonants such as “s, th” are mostly close to high frequencies, so the same vowels and similar consonants are easy to be unclear. For example, “husband and wife” may be heard as “breathing”. This is the reason for “interruption”.

Moreover, many elderly people still have an avoidance mentality towards hearing loss. They feel ashamed to wear "hearing aids" as if they have become "disabled people". Therefore, they often seek help only after many years of hearing loss when hearing loss seriously affects their lives.

However, if hearing loss lasts too long, our brain's auditory cortex may have degenerated. At this time, even if we wear the most advanced hearing aids and can hear any sound clearly, we still have difficulty hearing or understanding. This is the reason for the "degeneration of the auditory center". Therefore, people who have just started to experience hearing loss often get better results with hearing aids, while people who have had hearing loss for many years do not get good results with hearing aids. Therefore, it is very important to detect hearing loss early and receive treatment as soon as possible. It can be said that the earlier you wear hearing aids, the better.

2. Regularly check your hearing

As we age, our hearing will gradually decline. Even after wearing hearing aids, we still need to have our hearing checked regularly according to the doctor's advice. Especially when hearing aids do not work well, in addition to ruling out quality issues with the hearing aids, we should also pay attention to whether it is due to hearing loss.

If you experience a sudden and significant hearing loss, you must seek medical attention as soon as possible. If the sudden deafness is caused by an acute injury, it can be recovered with early treatment.

3. Maintain and maintain your hearing aids

Regularly cleaning the ear mold of the hearing aid, replacing the wax guard, and not dropping the hearing aid frequently can help extend the life of the hearing aid. Even if you have been "running in" with the hearing aid very well, you can go to the fitting agency for a physical examination of the "hearing aid" every year to ensure the effectiveness of the hearing aid.

4. Listen more and practice more

After wearing hearing aids, the wearer needs to listen more and practice more to make the brain more flexible. At the beginning, family members do not need to speak loudly, but speak slowly and to the wearer, so that the wearer can have time to hear and understand what you mean and communicate with you. The more they listen and speak, over time, the wearer will no longer need to read the lip shape, and slowly they can listen more easily and more comfortably like normal people.

Nowadays, the performance of hearing aids is constantly being optimized. With the improvement of fitting software functions, the volume level can be adjusted very accurately to a suitable and safe level. As long as you wear it scientifically, you don’t have to worry about hearing damage or worsening hearing loss. But if the method is wrong, it will indeed accelerate hearing loss, which is not worth the loss. Therefore, many times what we need is not only a high-end hearing aid, but more importantly, a professional doctor, an experienced fitter and a loving family.

Looking in the mirror of rumors

We often hear rumors that are spread through informal channels, such as social media or word of mouth, and lack authoritative information support, such as "mobile phone radiation causes cancer" and "drinking cold water can cause colds". These rumors often have the following common characteristics:

1. Taking advantage of people’s fears about their health or physical conditions to cause unnecessary anxiety.

2. Complex medical problems are often simplified into a single cause-and-effect relationship, ignoring the complexity of biology and medicine.

3. Often use emotional language or worrying consequences to make the audience more receptive and spread the message.

When you encounter similar rumors, be sure to keep your eyes open and don't be led astray.

Author: Wenting, ENT doctor at Zhuozheng Medical

Review | Pan Chunchen, deputy chief physician of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China