Introducing change into your life, from undertaking a new job to going on a health kick, always takes some getting used to. Wearing new hearing aids is no exception.

The numbers are compelling. According to the National Institutes of Health, people who have diabetes are twice as likely to experience hearing loss as those who don’t. People with prediabetes--elevated blood sugar levels indicating you’re likely to develop diabetes unless you make significant lifestyle changes--have 30 percent more chance of experiencing hearing loss than those with healthy blood glucose.

Most people experience tinnitus—continuous ringing, buzzing, or other sounds only the individual can hear—for at least short periods of time. For most, their tinnitus will go away in a matter of minutes or at most, a few days. But for around 29.7 million Americans, their tinnitus is a permanent fixture in their lives.

Hearing loss should not be a side effect of your job. And yet, some 30 million Americans are exposed to hazardous noise in the workplace, according to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

Much like the other electrical devices in our lives, how hearing aids work can be a bit of a mystery. To demystify hearing aids, our hearing specialists at Hearing Healthcare Centers wanted to explain exactly how hearing aids work and how they can help you regain your hearing.

A question that our hearing specialists have been asked at our Hearing Healthcare Centers is if there really is a difference between wearing one hearing aid versus wearing a pair of hearing aids. The short answer is, yes, there are major differences between wearing one hearing aid or two, and wearing two hearing aids is significantly better for a variety of reasons.

For many people, tinnitus is a temporary problem. Most people will have a few minutes of ringing or other monotone noise like static, roaring, or buzzing, but the sound eventually goes away and is forgotten. But for some, tinnitus is an ongoing struggle.

Some people delay their visit to our hearing specialists at Hearing Healthcare Centers, believing that their hearing loss isn’t that big an issue or that they can just live with it. However, there are some serious side-effects over the long term if you choose to leave your hearing loss untreated.