Visiting a Hearing Center for the Elderly

Perhaps you knew that the brain and the ears were closely connected, but maybe the consideration that the brain could be causing issues with a person's inability to hear had not occurred to you. The aging of the brain does affect the ears in 2 specific ways. It can affect the ears because it could have changed so that feedback is no longer being filtered. A timing problem can also occur due to the aging brain. You might not know whether your problem is from an aging brain or from normal loss. Visit a hearing center and speak with an audiologist to get their opinion of this.

The problem with the brain aging is that you will no longer filter out background noise. This is a serious problem. What can eventually happen as this continues is that it can cause the more damaging sounds to come through because the brain will no longer filter it.

The timing issue that can take place from the brain's aging has to do with individuals having trouble with hearing words like they are running all together. This issue takes place because an individual can no longer hear the pauses that take place between words.

Both of these issues could be mistaken by you as something caused by just not being able to hear. It is important for you if you are having these issues to go to a hearing center to find out where you are at in your inability to hear and whether your problem is due to the brain aging.

When you go to a hearing center and find out that you do have a problem, you will likely be fitted with some type of aid. Because the brain is so involved in your ability to hear, it is important to remember that there are things an aid can do and things that it might not be able to do.

Aids can make things more audible, bring to the foreground sounds that the brain has forgotten how to hear, take away some feedback, and they can keep the volume of the sounds you hear at a good level.

An aid may not be able to help with temporal resolution; they might not help with the brain's plasticity, or help resolution problems with frequency.

If you are older and notice the first issue that was mentioned dealing with feedback issues, it is important to definitely go to a hearing center, but it is also important to talk to your family. If your problem is from the brain aging, then it might not help to speak loudly to you. It might help the communication with your family if you explain to them that you will do better if they speak slowly and in a clear voice. Talking with your family about your problem may help them to better understand your needs.