HERMITAGE, Pennsylvania (WKBN) – When you hear a sound, you probably don’t think much of it. A car horn, a dog barking, a lawnmower–these are all sounds we’re used to. But the process of actually hearing just one sound is a lot more complicated than you might think.
Dr. Michael Rairigh is a doctor of Audiology at Hermitage Audiology. He says a sound makes its way to our brains through several different processes. Once the sound reaches the brain, the brain then has to process all of the information.
“This is what we refer to as ‘brain hearing’,” said Dr. Rairigh. “It’s a complex idea and process where the brain has to separate the sound from background noises to speech. It has to process the speech from high frequency to low frequency. It has to make sense of all of this information.”
Dr. Rairigh says the process can be complex because the brain is only receiving the information from the ear that the ear is hearing.
“The ear itself is the volume control of the brain,” said Dr. Rairish. “If you’re not receiving enough information from the ear or if you have hearing loss, the brain is receiving the wrong information.”
The longer the hearing loss goes untreated, the more distorted sound can become and the more damage can be done to your hearing. Dr. Rairigh says the longer you wait, the harder it will be to adjust to some type of hearing aid.
Once you do start wearing hearing aids, your body goes through an adaptation process for the brain to adapt. Dr. Rairigh says the process of adaptation can take anywhere from a few days, to a few weeks to even a few months as it is, and the longer you wait to correct your hearing, the longer it could take your brain to adapt.
Hermitage Audiology is located at 3135 Highland Road #B in Hermitage. Call (724) 347-2005 and visit them online at HermitageAudiologyPa.com.
