An estimated 35 million Americans are hearing impaired. Of these individuals who have difficulty hearing, only 28.5% use hearing aids for assistance. If the appearance of hearing aids is preventing you from relying on these devices to help improve your own hearing, there are some simple things you can do to make hearing aids more stylish.

Here are three ways to make hearing aids more fashionable, so that you don't have to be self-conscious about wearing them in the future.

1. Wear your hearing device on a necklace.

Accessorizing an outfit can be fun, but when your hearing device can be worn as a necklace, accessorizing can also be functional. Necklaces with built-in high-fidelity analog microphones allow you to amplify sounds generated within a 6 foot radius from your body, while sounds generated outside that radius are ignored.

You can transfer these amplified sounds to your ears via a pair of headphones. Having a hearing device built-in to a necklace ensures that you won't draw unwanted attention as you rely on a hearing device in the future.

2. Invest in eye glasses with hearing aids built-in.

Eye glasses can be stylish fashion accessories, but they can also serve as a valuable disguise for your hearing aids. Tiny microphones can be built into the arms of eyeglasses. These microphones help to amplify sounds coming from the front, while simultaneously dampening sounds coming from behind.

Since the hearing aids built into eyeglasses give you the ability to still hear natural sounds, you can differentiate the direction from which sounds are coming. This can be beneficial when eating out with friends or attending a birthday party, events where wearing a traditional hearing aid might make it hard to determine where sounds are originating from.

3. Add some bling to your hearing device.

If you rely on a cochlear implant to help amplify your hearing, you have the option of adding some bling to your device to make it more stylish. Colorful silicone twists that wrap around your implant's tube and blinged-out charms that dangle from tube like an earring provide the perfect options for customizing your cochlear implant.

Wearing a hearing aid doesn't mean you have to compromise your personal sense of style. Try a hearing aid built into a necklace or a pair of eyeglasses, or invest in some jewelry for your cochlear implant to make good hearing more fashionable in the future. Visit a business like Mark Montgomery MD FACS to learn more about hearing aid options.