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Advice on choosing a hearing aid for an elderly person
About 50% of people over 65 years old face hearing loss. this phenomenon is called presbyacusis and is associated with age-related changes in the structures of the ear. It is because of him that elderly people become withdrawn, begin to avoid communication even with the closest people. It is embarrassing for them to admit their problem to others, although there is nothing shameful about it. Moreover, the situation can be corrected if you choose the right hearing aid. We tell you how to do it!
Why hearing declines with age
The main causes of hearing loss in the elderly are related to age-related changes. The aging of the body makes the skin less elastic, vision is not as sharp as before, hair is gray, etc. hearing is not an exception. They begin to deteriorate due to irreversible changes in the tissues. In particular, in elderly people, the hair cells of the inner ear gradually die, and this provokes the development of tinnitus.
The risk of hearing loss increases with age if a person:
- worked in a noisy production;
- often suffered from ENT pathologies;
- received craniocerebral injuries;
- has chronic pathologies associated with impaired blood circulation.
Also, the problem is often hereditary. If a person's parents, grandmothers and grandfathers lost their hearing in their old age, then, most likely, he will also face this problem. Fortunately, today medicine is at a higher level, and it is possible to live comfortably and actively with hearing loss.
How to choose a hearing aid grandfather
To begin with, he will persuade the ego to take this step. Old people often deny or hide their hearing impairment, and even pretend to hear everything. Therefore, prepare to face the strong rock of misunderstanding and intransigence. Act gently - first, suggest that grandfather or grandmother undergo a hearing test. You use the argument that if everything is fine with your hearing, the examination will show this, and you will feel calmer.
Thanks to diagnostics, it is possible to determine the severity of hearing loss and hearing thresholds at different frequencies. In the future, this will be useful for choosing a suitable hearing solution model. There are some special features of selection for the elderly. Specialists recommend buying behind-the-ear hearing aids, as they are more convenient to use. Old people often have problems with hand motility. Because of this, miniature in-ear and in-canal models are not suitable for them - they can accidentally drop them when putting on, removing or changing the battery.
It is also important to ensure that the device has convenient navigation - clearly defined program buttons, volume controls, latches of the battery compartment. This will help the user manage ego settings more easily.
Today, modern digital devices for hearing correction with comfortable sound are available to the elderly. At the same time, many of them are presented in the budget segment - these are models of the basic, standard and economy levels, which have the necessary set of options. For them, individual adjustment of the hearing aid is available, taking into account the patient's audiogram.
