According to statistics, currently 11% of the elderly over 60 years old in China have hearing loss, numbering about 20 million. Since senile deafness is a progressive sensorineural deafness, which is irreversible, the treatment is based on hearing aids. However, due to the misunderstanding of hearing aids, the number of hearing aids and cochlear implants for the elderly is still very small. Misunderstanding 1: My hearing is fine, I don’t need to wear it now. Many elderly people think their hearing is fine, so they are not willing to accept the help of hearing aids. Wu Pena, chief physician of the Department of Otolaryngology at Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, says that they often see elderly people who are forced by their families to come to the clinic, and these elderly people often say, “My hearing is fine, I can hear you all when you talk, and I can hear the TV.” In fact, others involuntarily raised the volume when talking to the elderly, and the volume of the TV was turned up. After testing, these elderly people all have different degrees of hearing loss. Generally speaking, patients with hearing loss of about 40db should wear hearing aids. Misunderstanding 2: Wearing hearing aids will have dependence, hearing loss faster Some people are reluctant to wear hearing aids because they are worried that they will have dependence on hearing aids, wear them and never take them off, hearing loss faster. Pena Wu explains that theoretically, hearing aids can slow down the hearing loss and maintain the original speech recognition ability. Some studies have shown that the poor speech recognition ability of senile deafness may be related to the dysfunction of the central system and the patient’s cognitive ability, and wearing hearing aids early can protect the central nervous speech recognition function of patients. Some elderly people think that hearing aids are like presbyopia glasses, as their eyesight decreases, they need to get glasses with a deeper prescription and their hearing aids need to be replaced. That’s not true. Pena Wu says that hearing aids have an adjustment function, so as hearing declines, you can adjust them accordingly. A pair of hearing aids can last for years if they are properly protected. Misunderstanding 4: A relative has an unused hearing aid, so I can use it. It is wrong to buy a hearing aid or use someone else’s hearing aid. There are different types of hearing loss, including high-frequency hearing loss, which means you can’t hear high-frequency sounds, and low-frequency hearing loss, which means you can’t hear low-frequency sounds. Therefore, before hearing loss patients with hearing aids, they should go to the hospital for hearing test and then for hearing aid fitting. Misunderstanding 5: Both ears have hearing loss, only one hearing aid can be worn It is understood that some patients who have worn hearing aids in one ear are not satisfied with the later effect, especially in a noisy environment with a lot of noise or people. They often complain, “Why can’t I hear what people are saying even though I’m wearing a hearing aid?” Patients who wear hearing aids in one ear often put the blame on the hearing aid, saying that the hearing aid is not good or something like that. Experiments have shown that wearing hearing aids in both ears can significantly improve speech recognition, provide a better sense of direction than in one ear, and increase the stereo sound, making the sound clear and full. Tips: For patients with severe deafness or above, wearing hearing aids is no longer sufficient to compensate for the patient’s hearing, cochlear implants can be considered. The cochlear implant converts sound signals into electrical signals and directly stimulates the auditory nerve to produce auditory information to the center, allowing the deaf patient to perceive sound again. Elderly deaf patients are postlingually deaf and have a language base. Cochlear implants can quickly help them regain their language skills.