“The consequences of hiding hearing loss or pretending it doesn’t exist are far more severe than the actual hearing loss itself. If you’re in a conversation and you may miss a punch line. If you’re at the workplace, you may miss what the boss said and it can affect you far more than you think.

We know it affects spouses and relationships at home. It can affect your interaction with your children or grandchildren.

The irony of hearing loss is that people think that a hearing aid makes them look old; they don’t realize that not able to hear and answering inappropriately makes them look much older than wearing a hearing aid and participating normally.

As a physician, I’m aware that the effects of untreated hearing loss include depression, social isolation, dementia, withdrawal, and even symptoms that are confused for Alzheimer’s disease. It’s very important to not only recognize if you or a family member have hearing loss, but to go ahead and get a hearing test and get it treated.”