You may think that the primary benefit of hearing aids is helping you hear speech more clearly. While it’s certainly true that hearing aids strengthen communication and listening ability, they provide numerous other benefits as well! You will be amazed at the number of sounds there are out there that you’ve forgotten about, and it’s a great joy to discover them anew.
Birds Singing
This one is a classic, and for good reason. High-pitched noises are some of the first sounds you lose with gradual hearing loss, so birdsong goes silent pretty early on. Many new hearing aid users delight in hearing birds singing again, and you will, too! Enjoy the added joy and music to your daily walk, and make sure to notice the other sounds in nature that have opened up to you again: the sound of leaves crunching, rain tinkling into a puddle and the wind moving through the tree branches, to name a few.
Cooking
The kitchen can be the stage for a symphony after you get hearing aids. Bacon sizzling on the stove, the crunchy sound of a knife cutting through fresh vegetables, the patient purr of the stand mixer mixing cookie dough and saucy noodles sticking and squishing in the pan are all incredible, mouth-watering sounds that you’ll be so glad to hear again.
Music
Perhaps you’ve been able to hear the basic tune of a song, but the depth of music may surprise you once you put in your first pair of hearing aids. Hear beautiful chords, complex percussion beats, flowing violin melodies and the grounding power of the bass again. As mentioned above, you lose the ability to hear high-pitched and high-frequency sounds early on in the development of hearing loss, which means there’s a whole lot of musicality happening that you have been missing.
Your Own Voice
This one takes some getting used to, and for many, the sound of one’s own voice is surprising at first. Your brain is the center of your auditory processing, and it learns to soften the sound of your own voice, treating it like background noise. With hearing aids, you need to relearn how to do that, so for the first few weeks, you might be hyper-aware of the sound of your own voice. Take this time to enjoy it: sing, whistle and read out loud to hear your own voice again.
Is It Time for Hearing Aids?
If you have noticed the early stages of hearing loss and have hesitated on seeking help, don’t wait until hearing loss progresses to such a point that you can’t hear the beautiful everyday sounds of your life. Some people wait ten years or more to seek help for hearing loss, and waiting only means that your untreated hearing loss will progress. Call Waterville Audiology today to schedule a hearing test and get reconnected to the everyday sounds you love and miss.