Hearing Loss: What Does it Mean for You?
Your hearing is one of your most precious senses. So many meaningful aspects of your life depend on being able to hear well, such as communicating, socialising, connecting, relaxing, and participating in your daily routines. Hearing allows you to fully enjoy your life, while hearing loss can drastically disrupt your professional, social, and family worlds.
Experiencing hearing loss over time is common, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Hearing loss affects your ability to communicate and participate, which may lead to a wide range of feelings. You may find yourself frustrated, discouraged, embarrassed, isolated, or even depressed as it becomes harder to engage in your regular activities. However, while hearing loss over time may be natural, it doesn’t mean you deserve to go through it alone.
Hearing Loss Treatment Options
You don’t have to suffer without support. When you reach out for help, both personally and in terms of treatment, you give yourself a chance to rediscover the joys of life without being held back by your hearing. We often say that patients experiencing permanent hearing loss will go through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The journey will look different for everybody, but one fact remains true: the sooner you seek treatment, the sooner you will be able to get your life back on track.
Here at Melbourne Audiology Centre (MAC), we can provide a diagnosis and help you find a treatment plan going forward. With the help of hearing aids, people suffering from sensorineural hearing loss, or nerve deafness, will be able to support their hearing and get back to their work and social lives.
The Melbourne Audiology Clinic Treatment Process
1. Assessment
Everything starts with assessment. By sitting down for a comprehensive hearing examination with one of our experienced audiologists, you will receive a thorough diagnosis of your hearing condition.
2. Select
Once we have assessed your hearing, our team will build a treatment plan centred around your unique needs. By selecting the right specialised hearing aids, we will be able to support your hearing health as needed.
3. Aftercare
The MAC team isn’t going to just hand you a hearing aid and send you on your way! We will offer thorough aftercare advice to support you in the long term, ensuring your transition into using hearing aids is comfortable, and will offer checkups to ensure everything works as planned.
Understanding Auditory Deprivation
Hearing loss can prevent certain sounds from being received by the brain. As hearing worsens, the brain processes less and less sound simulation, meaning the hearing nerves and areas in the brain responsible for the processing of sound will start to weaken. In the world of hearing science, this is known as ‘auditory deprivation’.
Over time, as the brain continues to be deprived of certain sounds, the effects on the brain will be ongoing. It can ‘forget’ how to hear, and process sounds properly, even impacting the ability to understand speech and identify where sound is coming from. This can lead to psychological effects such as anxiety, denial, frustration, fatigue, shame, and social isolation. Severe hearing loss can also make people more likely to develop cognitive decline and dementia.
Preventing Auditory Deprivation
The best ways to prevent auditory deprivation are:
- Protecting your hearing from a young age to prevent hearing loss
- Testing your hearing regularly and as soon as you feel you may have hearing loss
- If you do have hearing loss, using hearing aids to prevent auditory deprivation and help get the hearing pathways in your brain working again
If you feel you may need hearing aids, or if you have hearing aids but are struggling to wear and use them, reach out to the Melbourne Audiology Centre (MAC) team today.
Your Hearing Loss Questions Answered
Sensorineural hearing loss is a permanent hearing loss condition. Symptoms include difficulty hearing higher-pitched tones, sounds becoming muffled, and difficulty picking out words and conversation against background noise.
Hearing loss can range from mild to severe and can be a result of many different causes. Some of the most common causes include injury to the ear or eardrum, disease, natural degradation with age, and genetic defects.
Sensorineural hearing loss is a permanent hearing loss condition. To treat this, hearing aids are often the best path forward. This can help lessen the strain on your hearing and help you process sounds.
The first step is to get your hearing examined. Our free online hearing test can give you a quick analysis of the state of your hearing, and from there, you can book a diagnostic assessment for a complete examination with an audiologist.
As Melbourne’s experienced provider of hearing loss support, our audiologists at Melbourne Audiology Centre will be able to assess the state of your hearing and provide a unique treatment plan. We can help find you hearing aids as needed and provide ongoing support to address your hearing loss.
Why Choose Melbourne Audiology Centre?
Helpful and Experienced Team
The MAC difference is the expert level of care provided by the highly experienced audiologists on our team. Not only are our clinics run by caring and welcoming team members, but we have audiologists that speak a range of languages to ensure we can support our diverse local communities as best we can.
Honest Care
As a privately owned facility, we don’t run on commission. Melbourne Audiology Centre prioritises one thing above all else: honest, trustworthy care. By visiting one of our clinics, you can trust that your treatment is our only focus.
Serving Melbourne for 20 Years
Since 2001, MAC has been providing Melbourne locals with unparalleled hearing care and services. That’s over two decades of experience! With locations all across Melbourne, dedicated hearing care is sure to be right at your doorstep.
Find Out if Hearing Aids Are Right for You
Experiencing sensorineural hearing loss is a challenge. Fortunately, you don’t have to tackle this chapter of your life alone. With the support of our audiologists at Melbourne Audiology Centre, you can discover whether hearing aids could improve your health and wellness in the long term.
Book your appointment today, and let’s build toward a healthy future together.