After the cause and degree of deafness are clarified by a specialist, on the basis of active standardized treatment of the primary disease, if hearing loss still exists and affects normal life and physiological functions, hearing aids can be worn to assist in improving hearing.
Hearing aids can improve the hearing of patients with conductive, sensorineural, and mixed deafness by amplifying sound; however, when the patient’s word recognition decreases, the assistance from the hearing aid will be reduced, and the amplification effect of hearing aids cannot restore the clarity of hearing for these patients.
All hearing impaired patients with residual hearing who wish to improve their speech communication skills can be fitted with hearing aids after standardized evaluation and preparation and after their condition has stabilized. Generally speaking, people with moderate hearing loss benefit the most from hearing aids.
However, hearing aids have some unavoidable drawbacks, such as ear blocking effect, whistling caused by acoustic feedback, irritation to the skin of the ear canal, allergies, as well as limited frequency range and distortion of sound transmission.
Whether a deaf patient needs to wear a hearing aid, and the related treatments that still need to be coordinated before and after wearing a hearing aid, should be clarified after medical checkups, so as to avoid delaying the treatment of the disease.