How Hearing Aids Improve Your Safety

They may be small, but hearing aids are extremely powerful devices that have the ability to make dramatic improvements in your life. Of course, hearing aids will help wearers to hear more clearly, better engage in conversations, and improve social relationships. However, did you know that hearing aids will also improve the wearer’s personal safety and security? Going beyond the ability to hear and react to these basic sounds of caution, we discuss some ways hearing aids improve the safety and security of their users.

Improved Overall Safety, Security and Independence

A recent study conducted by EuroTrak in 2015, which studied the non-auditory benefits of hearing aid use on a global scale, found extremely exciting results. According to the study, 88% of Americans surveyed stated that their hearing aids occasionally or regularly improve their quality of life. Similar results were found in other countries like France with 86% and Switzerland with a whopping 93% stating hearing aids improve their quality of life. When asked specifically about their safety and independence, about half the respondents reported feeling more safe, secure and independent after using hearing aids.

Improve Safety at Home

Some of the most important sounds in our home are actually quite faint – especially when a person is sleeping. Knocks on the door, the sound of a preheated oven, or even intruders and burglars can be very muffled. With the TV blaring due to hearing loss, or during a snooze, it’s easy to see how hearing impairment can greatly impact safety at home.

Meet Shannon and her grandmother, “Gram”: Like many people who suffer from hearing impairment, Gram went many years living with, and denying her hearing loss. After a great amount of time and much suffering, “Gram” finally went to an audiologist and received her hearing aids. Only a few short weeks later, “Gram” accidentally dozed off after putting some food in the oven. Her dinner caught fire and triggered the fire alarm. Thanks to her hearing aids, “Gram” was alerted quickly and acted fast. She was even able to call the fire department and understand their directions clearly over the phone. In regards to the dramatic experience Shannon states. “I am so thankful she was able to overcome her misconceptions about hearing aid’s in time, because I firmly believe it saved her life.”

Improve Safety When Out

Whether driving to work or walking to the park, there are many, many, instances in which our sense of hearing is imperative to our safety. We need to be able to hear sounds of warning and be able to react quickly and accordingly. When biking or walking, the ability to hear a car coming around the corner before we see it can be the difference between a nice Sunday and a terrible accident. While our other senses do much to keep us safe in the world, our hearing also plays an incredibly important role.

Meet Christine Bowden: Christine is a profoundly hearing impaired woman in the UK who famously saved the lives of two capsized sailors – thanks to her hearing their cries. Luckily for the sailors, Christine had been fitted for hearing aids only 24 hours before the incident. She heard cries coming from about ½ mile from the shore – but couldn’t see any bodies. She dialed the local emergency number and paramedics believe the two vacationers owe their lives to Christine and her hearing aids. Christine states of the incident, ““They were very lucky. I just got my hearing aids the morning before. “I was virtually deaf before and had them for less than 24 hours.”

Click for more information on the EuroTrak Study or to read more about Shannon & Gram or Christine’s stories.

If you are living with untreated hearing loss, contact us at one of our My Hearing Centers locations today to learn more about improving your hearing health.

How Hearing Aids Improve Your Safety