Tips for Driving Safely with Hearing Loss

Does your hearing loss affect your ability to drive safely? Hearing loss, while often inconvenient and frustrating, can also be quite risky when you are behind the wheel of a car. You may be unable to hear someone honking or yelling at you to possibly get out of the way of danger. The sound cues we normally rely on while driving, such as horn honking or the ringing of a bicycle bell, become a lot harder to detect with hearing loss and they could even go unnoticed. We want to share some things that can help you to navigate the road safely if you’re hard of hearing.

Get your hearing treated. This is the best way to help you drive safely. If you haven’t had your hearing checked, but you believe you may suffer from hearing loss, don’t wait any longer to get it checked out. You may need hearing aids, which will greatly increase your hearing and safety on the road. If you already wear hearing aids, make sure you always wear them while operating a vehicle and continue to get regular hearing aid checkups.

Avoid distractions. Do not try to multitask while on the road. Put down the phone! It’s a widely known fact that texting and driving can lead to accidents, and trying to talk on the phone can be extremely distracting because you’re busy straining to hear what the person on the phone is saying. If you’re in a situation where you need to call someone or address a situation, pull over and deal with it before attempting to do so while driving.

Keep the music down. Not only does loud music damage your hearing, but it’s also a big distraction that makes it impossible to hear sound cues from the outside environment. Loud music can cause you to miss ambulance or police car sirens that are near by. These are noises you do not want to miss in case you need to move your car out of the way.

Pay attention visually. It’s always important to keep your eyes on the road, but if you suffer from hearing loss, it’s extra important because you need to use visual cues to make sense of your external environment. Pay close attention to traffic signals and always use your rearview mirror. Hearing loss makes it harder to pinpoint the relative distance of moving vehicles, so using your eyes carefully is important for protecting yourself and those around you.

If you believe you’re suffering from hearing loss please call Evolution Hearing at our Charlottesville, VA location, 434-260-8007 or at our Raleigh, NC location, 919-670-3258 to schedule an appointment today.

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Find Hearing Loss Doctor in North Carolina?

A person with hearing issue has a blessing in disguise if he/she has hearing aid. The aids or assistive listening devices are like door to the world. The people with hearing aids forget to take care of their devices from time to time. With 14.6% of baby boomers today having a hearing problem, you need your listening device to function the best it possibly can. Thus, here are the few ways you can take care of your hearing aids:

1. Battery Life: The battery of hearing equipment is very small due to its. Thus, it does not carry good amount of power. The best way to combat this is to carry spares. Spare batteries for hearing aids can be kept in a purse or pocket will compensate for the dead one, allowing you to continue to keep using your device.

2. Avoid Moisture: Rain, wet or humid atmosphere could damage your hearing aid. The regular splash of water could damage your hearing aid too. Thus, if you come in contact with humidity frequently, then get a coat for hearing aid. However, if this happens once in a while, then you do not need to worry about that.
   
   

3. Perform listening checks: Listen to the hearing aid every day. Using a listening tube, you can listen to the hearing aids to be sure that they sound clear and not weak or scratchy. Your audiologist will teach you how to listen to intermittency and internal feedback.

4. Wax: The ear wax building up inside your ears will affect your hearing aid adversely and eventually it will damage the hearing aids permanently. A good hearing aid should be kept dry and clean by practicing a good hygiene in your ears. Remove the Ear molds from the hearing aids once in a while and clean it with a mild soap solution.

5. The feedback noises: Due to technical issues, one of the most common problems with hearing aids these days is high-pitched shrieking noises known as feedback. To avoid this, do not turn on your hearing aid until it’s fitted snugly in your ear. Some hearing aids nowadays also come with an elimination feature to avoid feedback noises.

These are the few tips to take care of your hearing aids. Follow these tips and you will never face any issue with hearing aids. However, if you need proper guidance, you can contact Evolution Hearing.

Hearing Loss and Depression in Seniors

Hearing health and mental health are both important, but did you know there is a strong correlation between the two? According to a study done by The National Council on the Aging (NCOA), untreated hearing loss has serious emotional and social consequences for seniors.

The study, which consisted of a survey of 2,300 hearing impaired adults age 50 and older, found that those with untreated hearing loss were more likely to report depression, anxiety and paranoia and were less likely to participate in organized social activities compared to those who wear hearing aids.

Difficulty communicating can lead to social isolation and stress, which commonly leads to depression. Because hearing loss is the third most occurring condition in older adults, this is especially relevant to them. Between 25 and 40 percent of those over the age of 65 suffer from hearing loss and unfortunately for the majority of these people, hearing loss goes untreated.

What can be done to help?

Most physicians do not report offering hearing tests or depression screening to their older patients, so it is important to ask for these things at your next visit if you suspect that you’re suffering from hearing loss and/or depression. Not all symptoms of depression are obvious; sadness and hopelessness are the most common symptoms, but other symptoms include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, loss of appetite, loss of interest in hobbies and irritability.

If hearing loss is the source of your or a loved ones depression, a hearing care professional can help you and possibly keep you from having to take any unnecessary medications. Those who seek treatment for hearing loss early on greatly reduce their risk of depression. After seeking treatment, a well-planned adjustment period is necessary for new hearing instruments. A good audiologic rehabilitation program will help new hearing aid users adjust to their equipment and new sounds over a period of time.

While there is a link between hearing loss and depression, it doesn’t have to be that way. If you or someone you know is experiencing depression and you believe it could be related to hearing loss, please call Evolution Hearing in Charlottesville, VA at 434-260-8007 or our Raleigh, NC location at 919-670-3258 so we can help improve your quality of life.
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Audiologist In Raleigh North Carolina

Hearing loss to each person is unique. One has 30% of one problem and 70% of other while it could be vice versa for another person. But everyone suffering from the hearing impairment should immediately rush to an audiologist and get the issue treated. Also, there are many kinds of hearing aids available. If not then you could face some major issues which are as below:

• Vocab: When you miss out the hearing of certain vowels and sounds, you will find it difficult to learn them. Each letter and its sound have a unique frequency, which one needs to learn but hearing impairment could disrupt that. The sounds, letters and words involved with those frequencies are difficult to comprehend at all the stages of life and as we know ears and brain communicate together to help produce words clearly, and if certain sounds are no longer heard, the brain’s ability to produce the words clearly and accurately is impaired.
  
  
• Voice: When you have even a minor impairment, you miss out on the sound of the voice of the people. Some people with untreated hearing loss, their auditory loss may actually influence and change the way their voice sounds all together. When we meet new people, if they have an accent, we catch on that immediately. Similarly, a person with hearing issues cannot make out accent and thus, making out the meaning. This is something many may not realize they are doing, and for many, it takes hearing aids or assistive listening devices to realize just how loud they’ve been talking.
  
  
• Music, Movies, Parties, Restaurants: With an untreated hearing loss, captions or subtitles becomes necessary for some to comprehend what is a movie about. They would always need someone to be there with them while at parties or restaurants to make conversation with people. If a person with the listening issue is watching a drama, action, romance or comedy, one’s ears might be making enjoyment impossible. When loud ambient noises overwhelm the ears, they cannot focus on speech, even if it’s nearby which is even hard for people with absolutely no hearing issue.
  
  
• Work Performances: It is said in a research that a person with untreated hearing impairment could make up to loss of $30000 annually. Hearing loss can hurt work performances like meetings, calls, conferences, video calling, and also missing important auditory announcements. Untreated hearing loss can also lead to listening fatigue at work and affect an ability to focus and retain information.
  
  
• Relationship: Friendships and relationships with untreated hearing loss can be stressful and challenging. Restaurants, bars and other loud, group environments make it difficult not only to hear but also to understand what is being said and who is speaking. And it is not only stressful for you but for others too. Over time, this may even lead to the person with untreated hearing loss to become isolated and avoid social events.
  
  

So, get your hearing issue treated right on with Evolution Hearing. The audiologists will assist you with your hearing loss and solve your queries on where to buy hearing aids? Located in Charlottesville, Virginia and Raleigh, North Carolina, we would love to hear from you.