Which people need to wear hearing aids

According to the category of hearing disability: the average hearing threshold of excellent ear is 55-69 decibels, which is mild disability, 70-89 decibels, which is moderate disability, and 90 decibels and above which is severe disability. Those who meet the disability standard are entitled to receive part of the subsidy from the government when selecting hearing aids. This is a regulation made by the government to implement the care for the disabled. However, we found that some hearing impaired people use the criteria of disability identification to determine whether they need to wear hearing aids. In our society, it is true that many people will draw an equal sign between wearing hearing aids and “handicapped”. They think it is necessary to wear hearing aids to the extent of hearing impairment. They have a different vision of hearing aids. In fact, this is a very serious misunderstanding. In fact, hearing loss does not need to reach 55 decibels (about 30 to 40 decibels) before it begins to affect daily communication. The correct concept of hearing aids needs to be: as long as there is a loss of hearing ability that will affect the language communication in daily life, or any listening quality, the use of hearing aids should be considered. Just like the problem of eyesight, when one’s eyesight is not enough for the requirements of daily life, one should seek the assistance of eyesight, such as wearing glasses. My own myopia is only 150 degrees, but because I have to have more than 1.0 vision to meet the needs of daily work, so glasses become my indispensable vision aids. Maybe another person has 300 degrees of myopia, but he may only need 0.1 vision to cope with daily needs, so he may not need glasses at all. We should treat hearing aids as glasses. I don’t think anyone will say that I am a visually handicapped person because I wear a pair of glasses. Similarly, we should sweep away the idea that a person wearing hearing aids is a hearing handicapped person.

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From the perspective of a doctor, we can see whether adults need to wear hearing aids from two aspects:

1. Listening factors:

Pure tone audiometry and language audiometry are the most important sources of this information. Pure tone audiometry can provide the types of hearing loss (sensorineural, conductive or mixed), severity (mild, moderate, severe, extremely severe), and the types of audiogram (flat, steep drop or rising, etc.). It is very important to help judge the needs of hearing aids, which kind of hearing aids should be selected and how to adjust them. Language listening test can provide SRT (speech reception threshold), that is, the minimum volume when a person can hear a voice, and the uncomfortable voice loudness level (UCL); uncomfortable loudness level. If the above two are reduced, the dynamic range (in decibels) of a person’s language reception can be obtained. This dynamic range is very important to the effect of hearing aids. Most adults with hearing loss belong to sensorineural. The lesion lies in the inner cochlea. It will have the phenomenon of reverberation, which makes SRT rise and UCL fall, and then narrow the dynamic range. The output range of hearing aids is to be able to fall within the dynamic range, so the narrower the dynamic range, the harder the natural hearing aids are to perform. Usually the most comfortable volume of a person’s ear should be around the middle of the dynamic range. In addition, language listening test can also provide the quality of word recognition ability. The better the recognition ability is, the better the content of the language can be understood after amplification by the hearing aid. If the recognition ability is less than 75%, it means that even if the hearing aid has enough gain value, its effect will be discounted.

2. Motivational factors:

Whether a person feels that his hearing loss has caused a kind of disorder (handicap) is closely related to his motivation to wear Jinghao hearing aids. Assuming that his hearing loss has impacted his communication with others and quality of life, it will naturally promote his motivation to choose. For example, I once had a case where there was only one side with moderate hearing impairment, but because its work had to meet frequently, people on the side of the patient would have some trouble talking with him and discussing with him. In order to meet the needs of work, he had a strong desire to wear a hearing aid to help him. On the contrary, I have also encountered cases of moderate and severe hearing impairment on both sides. Because he is old and his daily routine is only three meals, with little social activities and no habit of watching TV, he will not feel that hearing impairment causes trouble to his life, and will not be willing to wear hearing AIDS naturally. In addition, the impression of hearing aids will also affect the motivation of matching. Many people have a negative impression of hearing aids. For example, I have another case of moderate hearing impairment of about 50 decibels on both sides. He works in the town peasant association and has to communicate with many people face to face every day. Obviously, hearing aids will be very helpful to his work, but he thinks that wearing hearing aids will be considered as disabled people and will not be used. According to the clinical research, hearing aid users with strong motivation can get more benefits through the gain of hearing aid.

In addition, the self-report procedure can also be used to assess the demand of hearing aids. This is a kind of questionnaire assessment, in which the subjects are asked to answer the impact of hearing loss (such as hearing handicap inventory) in different situations that may occur in daily life.

The assessment of whether children need to wear hearing aids is different from that of adults. For children, we don’t need to consider the motivation factors, but from the perspective of their language acquisition process and education. As long as their hearing loss will cause difficulties in language learning, and further affect future growth education and even personality development and social interaction, these children must use hearing aids and give special language training. For pure tone hearing test, hearing aids are needed as long as the hearing loss is above 40 decibels. At present, it is even suggested that children with mild hearing impairment (i.e. hearing loss between 25 and 40 decibels) may need hearing aids because they think such hearing loss will affect language learning.