DO YOU HEAR
Precision Hearing Is Helping Southern Utah Residents Hear Every Sound By Diane Del Toro
The change in Dan Johnson’s* hearing was so gradual, he hardly noticed. He missed a sentence in a phone conversation with a friend or received a perplexed look from his daughter when he appeared to be ignoring her questions. Eventually, when he couldn’t hear enough of what was going on to be confident in social settings, Dan withdrew from friends and family members, preferring instead to stay in familiar environments. After several years, Dan’s wife observed that he often “faded away” whenever they went to a restaurant or met up with friends. “I had such a hard time understanding what was being said,” Dan explained. “All the noise around me made it impossible to follow a conversation, so I’d mentally checked out. I always felt like I was missing something and even felt myself falling into depression.” Dan’s experience is compelling because it highlights the social, psychological, cognitive, and health effects of hearing loss. Impaired hearing results in distorted or incomplete communication leading to greater isolation and withdrawal and therefore, lower sensory input. In turn, the individual’s life space and social interactions become restricted. “A large number of people wait seven to eight years or more from the point that they first recognize they have a hearing loss to when they purchase their first hearing aids,” explained Ryan Gaines, owner of Precision Hearing. “This is a tragedy since they might not be aware of the impact this delayed decision has had on their life and the lives of their family and associates.” 14 www.sghealthandwellnessmagazine.com
Precision Hearing is located at 321 West Tabernacle in St. George, Utah. Since opening its doors to the public in 1987, Precision Hearing has dedicated its efforts to helping southern Utah residents regain their quality of life after experiencing hearing loss by providing exceptional hearing care. According to Ryan, there is a long list of ways that an individual can be impacted by hearing loss. This list includes embarrassment, fatigue, irritability, stress, anger, avoidance of social activities, withdrawal from social situations, depression, negativism, danger to personal safety, rejection by others, reduced general health, loneliness, social isolation, decreased alertness to the environment, impaired memory, diminished adaptability to learning new tasks, reduced coping skills, and reduced overall psychological health. For those who are still in the workforce, uncorrected hearing loss has a negative impact on overall job effectiveness, opportunities for promotion, and life-long earning power. Few would disagree that uncorrected hearing loss is a serious issue.
