Listen Up: Get an Annual Hearing Exam
As you begin to write or review your New Year’s resolutions, consider adding an annual hearing exam to your healthcare plan this year!
While we typically remember to go to the dentist twice a year, or schedule an annual physical with our doctor or get your flu shot, most Kentuckians do not visit an audiologist for an annual hearing exam.
Hearing loss can affect people of all ages. At Lexington Hearing & Speech Center, we see individuals from newborns to seniors.
Our ears are the doorway to our brain.
For children, this means access to sound and speech through their ears directly impacts language development.
The inner ear is developed in utero at about twenty weeks, so babies without hearing loss have stimulation of the auditory brain centers months before they are even born.
Babies with hearing loss are at an immediate disadvantage.
But with early detection of hearing loss and intervention, they can learn to listen and talk on par with their hearing peers.
According to research by Dr. Carol Flexor, babies/children must have very early access to intelligible speech to fully develop all auditory areas of the brain for optimization of spoken language, knowledge and literacy capacity.
Hearing is a stepping stone to cognition.
In addition, because we hear with our brains, untreated hearing loss in adults can lead to vocational, social and cognitive difficulties and increase the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s.
It’s surprising to learn that untreated hearing loss can impact your entire body, which explains why hearing loss is the third most common public health condition after arthritis and heart disease.
Making hearing exams part of your annual routine can promote healthy living.
Routine exams can help detect hearing loss early enough so your audiologist can treat it successfully, preventing or reducing the likelihood of physical, mental and social health conditions from affecting your quality of life.
Lexington Hearing & Speech Center
Lexington Hearing & Speech Center is a non-profit organization serving over 65 Kentucky counties with a mission of teaching children with hearing loss and speech/language delays to listen and talk.
For children 6 weeks of age through Kindergarten, LHSC provides education services, speech/language therapy and audiology services.
The Audiology Clinic provides a full range of hearing diagnostic testing and hearing healthcare options for the whole family. Or, as we like to say, “twinkle to wrinkle.”
With the help of our community, the Lexington Hearing & Speech Center is able to ensure that no child or adult is ever defined by their communication delay and will have a sound beginning.
Marcey Ansley is the executive director of the Lexington Hearing & Speech Center.