Why You Should Use Your Hearing Aids All the Time
By Dr. Megan Adams, Lafayette Audiologist
If you wear hearing aids, you’ve certainly heard your provider tell you: “You need to wear your hearing aids all waking hours”…but do you really know why?
1. Putting your hearing aids in daily Helps form a Habit
Change is hard, but worth it. Some hearing aid users, especially if you haven’t been wearing your hearing aids a long time, may find it hard to remember to put in their hearing aids. Have you ever made it halfway to church and realized your hearing aids are still at home?
You may have heard it takes 30 days to build a new habit. Wearing your hearing aids is no different. For habit formation, make putting in your hearing aids a quick, simple addition to your existing routine. For example, if you always wake up and have a cup of coffee, don’t break this routine; add to it. Get your coffee, then take 2-3 minutes to insert your hearing aids before you continue on with the rest of your morning routine.
If you’re in the early stages of hearing aid use, putting in your hearing aids may not be a quick process. Be patient with yourself. Practice makes perfect, and getting them on your ears will get easier! If you need more guided practice to get them in, go back and talk to your provider so that they can help you.
2. Wearing your Hearing Aids regularly Keeps Your Brain Active
Auditory Deprivation is a term that describes what happens when you don’t hear well. Your brain is deprived of all the sound it needs to make sense of your world. The longer your brain goes without getting all the right sound, the more it “forgets” how to interpret sounds and speech effectively. Wearing your hearing aids gives your brain continuous access to everyday sounds, preventing auditory deprivation.
Based on research by Dr. Anu Sharma, this is a very good thing. According to her groundbreaking studies regarding auditory deprivation and neuroplasticity, we now know that hearing aid use can quite literally change the brain’s processing centers. She confirmed these important changes using MRI results before and after consistent hearing aid use. Her research continues to show that our brains rewire themselves even with mild hearing loss, and that this “rewiring” in the wrong way can correct itself with consistent hearing aid use.
A study by Dr. Frank Lin, a renowned medical doctor, professor, and expert in hearing loss and dementia, determined that adults with untreated hearing loss are significantly more likely to develop dementia than their same-aged peers without hearing loss. Research from his team has also showed that regular hearing aid use can reduce the risk for someone with hearing loss developing Alzheimer disease and has said that hearing loss is one of the most important modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer disease. Treated hearing loss means consistent, daily use of your hearing aids.
It’s important to understand that hearing loss alone does not CAUSE dementia, but rather, untreated hearing loss impacts how effectively your brain can process information and increases your risk for developing dementia.
Imagine trying to put together a puzzle, but you’re missing 1/3 of the pieces. This is what a brain with untreated hearing loss is like.
3. Regular Hearing Aid Use Improves Your Tolerance for Background Noises
Even when you’re home alone, wearing your hearing aids is highly beneficial. Why? Hearing through your hearing aids keeps your brain engaged and allows it to more easily adapt to identifying all the sounds around you.
Forcing your brain to constantly switch between a quiet world and a louder world can be tiring and confusing. Wearing your hearing aids consistently allows your brain to settle in to the “new normal” so that everyday sounds sound normal to you, and not different.
By experiencing a full day of sound with your hearing aids, you allow your brain to get used to the input. Over time, it will learn to ignore the unimportant background noises and can better focus on the sounds that matter most. This is why only wearing them when you go out isn’t enough.
4. Regular Hearing Aid use reduces Your Fall Risk
Untreated hearing loss can increase the risk of falls up to 2.5 times. A 2026 study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (ACHIEVE study) found a 27% reduction in falls among adults, aged 70-84, who treated their hearing loss by wearing hearing aids. Accidental falls are the greatest cause for accidental death for older people, according to the World Health Organization.
Even a mild hearing loss can triple the likelihood of an accidental fall. This happens because reduced hearing input limits environmental and spatial awareness.
Your ears pick up subtle cues that help you keep your balance while you walk. With hearing loss, your brain misses out on these cues, increasing the amount of work required from your brain. This subconscious multitasking can impede the mechanism that allows you to walk safely.
5. You Should Enjoy your Life (and your Hearing Aids can help!)!
Your treatment plan is designed to let you ENJOY life, while hearing and communicating more effectively. If this feels like a foreign concept to you, let’s re-evaluate your hearing goals. For example:
- Do you need to hear a family member or friend better?
- Would you like to be able to effortlessly watch your favorite TV show?
- Would it help to be able to hear a loved one better during a phone conversation?
- And many more…
If you have hearing goals that need a refresh, call your caring team at Lafayette Hearing Center to establish a new plan to meet your hearing needs. We’d love to sit down with you to re-evaluate your hearing health goals!
What are signs that you should wear your hearing aids more?
- You avoid social situations. Even if you show up to a social event, do you find yourself retreating from the conversation?
- You may notice more difficulties remembering things. If you didn’t hear it, there isn’t anything to remember. Then later, friends or family comment, “but I told you that!”
- You experience Listening Fatigue more frequently. You might notice conversation wears you out more easily than it used to.
- You only wear your hearing aids “when you need them”. Only wearing them in certain situations prevents your brain from fully adjusting making the sound from the hearing aids unnatural, and your more quiet sound more “normal” (but it isn’t normal!)
- Others might complain that your TV, music, or other sounds are too loud.
References:
Lin FR, Metter EJ, O’Brien RJ, Resnick SM, Zonderman AB, Ferrucci L. Hearing loss and incident dementia. Arch Neurol. 2011 Feb;68(2):214-20. doi: 10.1001/archneurol.2010.362. PMID: 21320988; PMCID: PMC3277836.
Beck DL. How might the brain change when we reintroduce sound? Interview with Anu Sharma, PhD. Hearing Review. 2020;27(4)[April]. In press
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2026, March 4). BIOLINCC: Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in elders (achieve). National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. https://biolincc.nhlbi.nih.gov/studies/achieve/