When it comes to deafness, many hearing-impaired patients are reluctant to admit that they have hearing problems. Not to mention wearing hearing aids, it seems that as soon as you put on a hearing aid, you prove that you are "deaf". I just think I'm a slight "hearing loss", so how do you think about deafness and hearing aids correctly?
Deafness is a common saying. It means that someone has hearing problems and can't hear or hear clearly when talking to him normally. In fact, it is called "hearing impairment" in professional audiology, just like other functional impairments in the body. Such as "visual impairment", "physical impairment" and so on. Audiology divides hearing impairment into four grades: mild, moderate, severe and very severe. For our hearing disability standards, it is only divided into: "second-level hearing loss", "first-level hearing loss", "second-level deafness", and "first-level deafness". Hearing loss of more than 80dBHL is called "deaf".
Hearing aids are only second-class medical devices that amplify sound, and are very effective auxiliary devices for solving hearing impairments, just like "glasses", "crutches", and "dentures". We should not look at it differently. They are all auxiliary rehabilitation methods that have to be taken to solve the dysfunction of different tissues or organs in our body.
With the rapid development of high technology, hearing aid technology has also undergone rapid changes. Today's OTC hearing aids are not only more invisible and beautiful in appearance, but also more intelligent and humanized in function. Mid-to-high-end hearing aids perfectly improve the comfort and clarity of hearing-impaired patients. Hearing aids need to be worn when hearing sensitivity, speech discrimination and slowing of further hearing loss in hearing-impaired patients, as well as preventing hearing-impaired patients from prematurely entering Alzheimer's due to lack of daily communication.
Of course, hearing aids are just hearing aids after all. Whether you can understand and recognize speech is not entirely the work of hearing aids or ears, but the brain. The ear is only responsible for collecting, amplifying, and transmitting sound, and transforming the audible sound to a certain extent, which is more conducive to transmission to the brain. The auditory center of the brain needs to convert and parse the sound in order to understand what is heard. In other words, the ability to understand speech or not depends mainly on the brain. Some hearing-impaired patients may complain that they can hear, but cannot hear clearly or understand, and feel that it is better not to wear hearing aids. In fact, patients with hearing loss should insist on wearing them. It is correct to listen more and practice more, and the hearing effect of hearing aids will get better and better.
Hearing aid is just a rehabilitation tool, it has certain limitations, it is impossible to achieve the same effect as a real ear, and it is impossible to treat hearing impaired patients well. Don't blindly "worship" its function, and don't overly "depreciate" its function, in order to benefit the most from wearing hearing aids.