Neglect in the treatment of hearing loss will result in serious health issues along the way. Not to mention the immediate effects of hearing loss, there could also be long-term effects that compound your wellness, mental health, and psychological well-being.
Untreated Hearing Loss in Children
Children with hearing loss will most likely suffer difficulties in learning at school, language comprehension, speech impairment, social interaction, and behavioral complications. These difficulties are directly proportional to the severity of loss of hearing.
Pre-school children with this condition will not know the sound of words which leads to speech derailment. When at school, that same child will have lesser academic performance, peer isolation, loneliness that becomes depression which may lead to erratic behavior.
Untreated Hearing Loss and Serious Illnesses
A study in 1994 done by a group of physicians and health and hearing care professionals sought to compare brain changes over a set period of time of ten years. The study participants were all adults where one group is with hearing loss and the other group with normal hearing.
During and after the ten-year study, it was apparent to the researchers that hearing loss had a big influence on the brain. Normally, the brain does shrink as we age, but hearing loss is a catalyst, or makes the shrinkage even faster.
Brain atrophy, as the study had shown, was persistent in all the years of the study and the researchers had come up with a measure of the loss at a cubic centimeter, additionally annually.
They had also pinpointed the location of the brain loss at the place where processing of sound and speech would normally occur. This region of the brain loss has three parts. Two of these three parts are believed to be involved in another serious illnesses.
Alzheimer
This is the most common form of dementia and affects more women than men. The loss of memory in Alzheimer’s Disease may be characterized by symptoms of depression, sleep disorder, anxiety and agitation.
Treatment for this disease may not be that far in the future since in 2017 researchers had found an alternative route to reconnect brain synapses that may even prevent memory loss.
If your children suffers a hearing loss, it is necessary to take a hearing test to determine the extent of damage and the severity of hearing loss. For more details of our hearing aid prescription and hearing aid services, please contact HK Hearing & Speech Centre.
Source:
HK Hearing & Speech Centre
Specialist of Hearing test & assessment,
and Hearing Aid Prescription
https://www.hkhearingspeech.com