Every day, we get phone calls from individuals in our area who are worried about their hearing or that of a loved one. They raise a lot of questions and concerns about what to do and are often unsure of the next step they should take.

Unfortunately, many of them don’t have a personal point of reference for hearing challenges among their circle of friends and loved ones, so they need someone to turn to for advice.

If this describes you or somebody you know, then this article may provide some help.

A handful of our patients are able to open up and share their experiences with hearing loss and the hearing care solutions they discovered at Hearing Doctors.

For them, helping others like them to find the help and hope they need to overcome their hearing challenges is an important part of giving back to the community.

Here are a couple of stories from those patients.

Participate More in Life With Hearing Technology

Thomas’s wife wouldn’t stop insisting that Thomas see someone for his hearing challenges, because it was obvious to her that he wasn’t hearing well. “I went to an ENT specialist first, just to make sure there wasn’t something else going on,” Thomas says.

Thomas’s hearing tests showed that he had significant hearing loss in the higher ranges and couldn’t hear women speaking. He explains, “I wasn’t hearing everything that was going on around me, like when I was driving.”

Thomas wanted to be a full participant in the world around him, and his hearing was holding him back. He recognized that he would need the assistance of hearing aids.

He was shopping around when he came to Hearing Doctors and met Dr. Ana. Thomas says, “I found her very easy to get along with, very accommodating, and she adjusted my hearing aids when I felt like they weren’t exactly right.”

Thomas wanted a type of hearing aid that he could control with his phone, rather than carry a secondary device, so that he could hear sermons at church and other speakers. He was able to find the right apps to do just that with his advanced-technology hearing aids, allowing him to participate more in life.

Why does Thomas recommend going to Hearing Doctors?

“I know there are new things on the market now where people are able to buy things to fix their hearing, but in my situation I had a significant hearing loss and so I don’t really trust some of those things and I prefer to have somebody making a recommendation who knows what they’re doing.”

Communicating With Family

Betty was frustrated because she wasn’t able to communicate well with her family due to hearing loss.

“I was noticing that I was asking people to repeat something again and again,” she explains. To make things even more frustrating, Betty has two adult sons with progressive disabilities that involve some difficulties with speech. “I wasn’t hearing the subtleties in their voices.”

Dr. Ana did a thorough evaluation of Betty’s hearing and then showed Betty the audiogram, which showed significant hearing loss. The visual graph helped her understand just how bad things were.

The one thing she celebrates most about her hearing aids is that they “made a huge difference, huge difference in being able to hear her sons.”

Being able to hear her sons and other members of her family is an enormous positive in her life that Betty wants everyone in the communities we serve to know about.

You can read and pass along more stories just like this one to family and friends who might benefit from them by following this link.

Common Roadblocks to Getting Help for Hearing Challenges

People wait from seven to 10 years from first realizing that they have a hearing loss to finally getting the help they need, according to nationwide statistics. Not surprisingly, once they begin to hear better, every one of them tells us they wish they had acted sooner.

Protecting your hearing health protects your overall health and allows you to continue to live an active and independent lifestyle without interruption. Seeking treatment as soon as possible is incredibly important.

So, why do people wait? Two of the most common reasons people put off seeking treatment are hearing aid stigmas and cost.

#1—The stigma of being a hearing aid wearer

While people are eager to get a driver’s license, be able to go off to college, or get married, nobody grows up looking forward to the day that they can become a hearing aid wearer.

Unless someone makes a giant breakthrough in medical research, hearing aids are the most effective way to reconnect with the world around you—but, unfortunately, they come with an outdated stigma.

Today’s hearing technology is far more discreet than the hearing aids that many of us remember our parents or grandparents wearing. Modern hearing aids can be color-matched to your skin/hair color and are smaller, lighter weight, and incredibly powerful.

Many of our patients tell us that their family, friends, and colleagues haven’t even noticed them!

If you’re hesitant because you don’t want to be stigmatized as a “hearing aid wearer,” then you’re encouraged to schedule an appointment and see what modern hearing aids look and sound like—you’ll be pleasantly shocked by what you discover!

#2—They’re just too expensive

We’ll be straight with you at Hearing Doctors: Modern hearing aid technology and hearing care require a significant investment.

The advanced research and expert craftsmanship that are put into hearing aids to make them more user-friendly, as well as make them capable of producing very near natural hearing clarity, even in a crowded room, is expensive.

For some, over-the-counter devices seem like a more affordable option, but without the guidance and expertise of a hearing care professional partnering with you to meet your better hearing goals, you’re apt to come up short when it comes to achieving your objective.

We are not here to pressure you into buying a hearing aid; we just want to have a conversation about what being able to hear better would mean to you and what solutions might make that happen for you.

What Should I Do Next?

If the stories from Thomas and Betty struck a chord with you and you’re ready to take the next step, we congratulate you on your decision.

Your next step is to schedule a hearing evaluation with one of our doctors of audiology at Hearing Doctors or contact us at the Maryland or Virginia clinic nearest you.

Schedule a Hearing Assessment

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Dr. Ana Anzola, CCC-A, FAAA, ABA Principal

Dr. Anzola received her Doctorate degree in Audiology (AuD) from the Arizona School of Health Sciences, and her Master’s Degree in Audiology and her Bachelor's Degree in Speech Language Pathology and Audiology from Towson University. She has been a fellow of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) since 1995, board-certified by the American Board of Audiology (ABA), and certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
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