Myth #3 – Hearing aids will cure my hearing loss.

Most hearing losses are permanent and cannot be reversed. Hearing aids help by amplifying sounds that would otherwise be too soft for the person to hear. Since the sounds are louder, the person would be able to detect them even with reduced hearing. Similar to wearing glasses, hearing aids will improve the individual’s quality of life but they do not cure the condition.

It is also important to know that for some people, wearing a hearing aid may make it easier to hear but the clarity will not be perfect (i.e. even when the words are loud enough to detect, it sounds distorted). For those people, they likely have the hearing loss from damage or deterioration of the inner ear and auditory nerve which may cause distortions in the auditory signals going up to the brain. A hearing test can reveal whether the individual has this problem and to what degree; furthermore, the audiologist can use the test results to predict the amount of benefit the individual can realistically receive from hearing aids.