What Hearing Aids Cannot Do

Hearing aids can’t

• Grow new hair cells and restore the normal function of a damaged hearing system.
• Humans are born with 15,500 hair cells in each cochlea. Hair cells detect sound and transfer the signal to the brain.
• Human damaged hearing cells cannot regenerate themselves, just as our damaged teeth do not regrow back.
• Only birds and amphibians can regenerate hair cells throughout their lives.⁸
• make speech sound B/P, T/D, K/G, F/V, S/Z. more distinct

To prevent or improve hearing loss from organic conditions, speech sounds such as B/P, T/D, K/G, F/V, S/Z need to be made more distinct. Hearing loss can be compared to vision loss if a person has damaged or scratched the retina of their eye. The dead area of the retina creates holes in their visual field, which remain the same with or without glasses. Similarly, the dead area of damaged hearing cells creates dead areas in the frequency regions of hearing. If outer hearing cells are damaged, individuals won’t be able to hear the difference between sounds like B/P, D/T, F/V, etc., with or without hearing aids.⁷