Just one of every four Americans with hearing loss wears hearing aids, a figure that suggests many are missing the chance to hear better and improve their quality of life, said Sergei Kochkin, director of the Washington DC based Better Hearing Institute, at a convention session.
Part of the problem may be stigma."To some, hearing aids are a sign of impending death," he adds.
But, according to Kochkin, stigma is just an excuse for underuse because if more people wore hearing aids, there'd be less stigma. The real issue, he said, is too many people have negative experiences with hearing aids due to poor fitting and improper adjustment.
"Thirty percent of new use fittings are probably failures," he said. "They get poor benefit, poor fit and comfort, and poor performance in noise. As a result, we fail to improve positive word-of-mouth about our services."
Between 11% and 18% of hearing aids stay in people's drawers. In other words, more than a million of the 8.4 million hearing aid owners never use the devices, said Kochkin.
Wow. That hurts. And I want to comment:
At Kenwood Hearing Center, we PROMISE to work with you; to customize your chosen hearing technology to best fit not only your hearing loss, but more importantly, your hearing needs. We PROMISE to work with you ensure that your hearing ability supports your listening demands.
As Audigy Certified Professionals, we are committed to making every effort to maintain your confidence and satisfaction while providing you with the best hearing care possible.
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