An estimated 15% of U.S. adults have hearing loss. One of the chief concerns among people with hearing loss is that the condition will interfere with their safety.
How Does Hearing Loss Affect Safety?
Our hearing provides a significant number of safety sounds throughout the day, from cars honking on your route to work to your fire alarm alerting you to a low battery to someone yelling “DUCK” as a frisbee comes your way in Lubber Run Park. When hearing loss dulls these essential sounds, it can leave you feeling unsafe or hesitant about moving around the world on your own.
A 2025 study also found that hearing loss was associated with 51% higher cross-sectional odds and 17% higher longitudinal risk of falls compared with people without hearing loss. The heavy mental load of hearing loss and the decreased background awareness are two possible contributors to this increased risk.
The Safety Benefits of Hearing Aids
A few ways hearing aids help you stay safe include:
- Amplifying speech. Many warning noises are verbal. Hearing aids will amplify everything from your coworker’s voice as they tell you they’re coming around the corner to your spouse’s warning that the pan on the oven is hot.
- Amplifying background noise. Background noise includes anything from doorbells and car horns to burglar alarms and shattering glass. When hearing aids bring these sounds back to life, you can worry less about the potential safety issues in your environment and more about enjoying your day.
- Connecting to smart devices. Modern hearing aids feature Bluetooth® technology that connects you to various smart devices in your home, including your phone, laptop, security cameras, doorbells and more. If you have a motion-activated doorbell camera that sends notifications to your phone, you can stream the notifications right to your hearing aids, ensuring you don’t miss a visitor.
- Decreasing mental load. When hearing loss increases the mental effort it takes to communicate with the world around you, hearing aids can lift some of that load. With a little more energy, you can focus on navigating the world safely.
Your safety is essential. For more information on the benefits of hearing aids, contact ENT Specialists Of Northern Virginia today.