'99.9% of the patients who come into my private practice have no idea that one of the most serious consequences of losing our hearing is that we can lose our ability to process sounds into words,' said hearing aid specialist, Randy Wohlers. 'Usually the more prolonged and the more severe the hearing loss, the worse the ability of processing and understanding words becomes. In my private practice we have about 8% of our patients who have zero discrimination or ability to understand words.'

As a result, Wohlers says that anyone who purchases a hearing aid after waiting too long to address their hearing loss won't get the help they expect. He sees many patients who have purchased hearing aids only to discover their brain has already lost the ability to form words out of incoming sound.

Wohlers places the blame for this directly on the medical community. Regarding the lack of information surrounding this issue Wohlers says, 'The medical community neglects to inform someone with a hearing loss that as their hearing diminishes so does their ability to convert sounds into words. This almost always occurs with a hearing loss and patients should be aware of this as soon as a hearing loss is detected.'

With digital technology available in hearing aids, there has never been more advanced hearing assistance available. Thanks to calibrated phonetically balanced word lists given to patients, their ability to capture sounds as words can be studied. The results of these tests have indicated the ability to translate sounds into words has a direct correlation to the length of their hearing loss and how severe the loss has become.

Organizations like the Hearing Loss Association of America have also recognized the lack of information available to adults regarding hearing loss. According to their website, they created an online 'Academy' to provide detailed, specific information regarding hearing loss.

'I believe this information is important to get out there to everyone who may have a hearing loss, so they are aware of the possibility of losing their ability to recognize words. When we ask a patient the question ‘If you knew this years ago, would you have gotten help earlier?' The answer is always, ‘I would have gotten help years ago.' Sadly, without word recognition, quality of life can greatly diminish', said Wohlers.

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