"Let's see ... If your hearing aids amplify sounds, when you go to noisy places, like a concert or a soccer stadium, you'd better leave them at home, right?"

 

Continuing with our goal of answering all the questions that customers ask us in the audiology centers, today we will talk about high volumes and hearing aids. To begin with, the answer to the question with which we started this post: you can go to concerts - and discos - or to the stadium of your soccer team with your hearing aids. In fact, the better you take them, the better you'll hear. And, now, pay attention because the explanation comes.

 

The amplification of a hearing aid is conditioned by two factors: the hearing loss and the discomfort threshold. About the hearing loss we have already spoken extensively in this blog: it refers to the minimum volume we need to start hearing. But what we haven't told you yet is that there is also a maximum volume, which marks our tolerance to loud sounds.

 

What lies in between is the audible dynamic range, which is different for each person, and both limits are detected when we make an audiometry. The lower is determined when we stop hearing the sounds that are triggered. And the superior, the threshold of discomfort, when the loud sounds are annoying.

 

Let's look at it with an example. Someone with hearing problems may have a dynamic range of hearing ranging from 60 to 100 dBs average - the threshold of discomfort in healthy ears is usually between 110 and 120 dBs - and this means that the hearing aid will be programmed to make sounds between these values. Therefore, it will amplify sounds below 60 dBs, which our ear can not perceive on its own, but it will also protect us from sounds that exceed our threshold of tolerance and will reduce them to the maximum limit of each one, in this case, 100 dbs. In a way, it is the same thing that makes an ear without hearing problems, since when we expose ourselves to very strong sounds, the small bones of our ear contract to protect us, for example.

 

Hearing aids also protect us from transient loud sounds, such as an ambulance, a slamming door or a firecracker, but in this case it is to facilitate communication: after blows or loud sounds, we tend not to hear what comes immediately afterwards, so that we can lose part of a conversation. Therefore, the hearing aid reduces the impact of these transient sounds, so that our ability to communicate is not affected which, as you well know, is our main objective.

 

So you do not have to worry about the intensity of the sounds when you wear a hearing aid, you can focus on having fun ... and live every moment with the intensity that you want!