January 17, 2023
In this article, we will discuss how you hear, disclose 6 simple secrets to better hearing and show you how to apply them in difficult situations such as restaurants, parties, and family gatherings. We will also give you some important tips to improve family communication at home.
Before we start, the first thing you must understand is that hearing happens in your brain, not in your ears! The ears send the message to your brain, where the information is combined with what you see and what you expect to hear. After the brain puts it all together we say that “we hear and understand what is said”. Some of the listening tips are going to deal with your ears, some with your eyes, and still others with your brain. We hear best when all three of these are working together and helping each other.
The quieter it is, the better you are going to hear.
So, reduce the noise!
This is actually easier than you think. You can turn the TV down or off or choose to have conversations during the commercials and use the mute button. You can turn the faucet off. Water is a great masker of speech. Everyone has trouble hearing and understanding over the sound of running water. You can go into a quieter area or another room to get away from the noise.
You can also move out of the center of a room and get near the wall. In large rooms the center is the noisiest area and the closer you are to the walls the quieter it gets.
Your eyes and ears work together to give your brain the information it needs to “hear and understand”.
Use your eyes to help you hear better. You can move in front of the person who is speaking so you have a clear view of their face. This helps you lip read as well as watch for facial expressions which add so much to our understanding of speech.
You can ask the speaker to look at you and if necessary to move their hand away from their face. If they turn and start to walk away while they are still talking, ask them to come back and finish the conversation face to face.
An easy way to improve your comfort and preserve your hearing health is by keeping the noise levels down as much as possible. 80 decibels or louder in your environment are damaging - and, where possible, you should move away from the high volume. Alternatively, if this is not an option, ensure that you always wear some form of hearing protection.
It’s possible that your hearing could be affected by a build-up of earwax (also known as cerumen). If earwax is impacted, your inner ears may not be receiving all of the sounds necessary to understand. Not to worry, though; an excess of wax in the ears is both common and easily treatable.
Hearing loss can be prevented through various lifestyle choices. This includes cessation of smoking, keeping your diabetes under control, eating lots of fruits and vegetables and trying to avoid ototoxic medications (prescription medications that are known to cause hearing loss).
For those with hearing loss, the best way to hear better is with modern hearing aids fit by an Audiologist. Today, hearing aids can adapt to your environment and help you hear better - even when there is a lot of noise around.
Our Audiologists can come to you to perform hearing tests and even fit you with new hearing aids in the comfort of your own home. If you’re in New Jersey, New York or Connecticut, contact us to schedule an appointment.
