Knowing when you require some medical advice is normally rather easy. You know you need to go to the doctor right away if you break your leg, for instance. With situations like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t a possibility. At least, not for very long (especially if you want your bones to mend themselves properly).
But in terms of hearing aids, it isn’t always so simple to know when it’s time to get some help. Hearing loss usually progresses very gradually over time. This means recognizing when to get treatment for hearing loss can be tricky.
So watching out for signs that your hearing is going is a good idea. If you detect any, it might be time to consult us about your first set of hearing aids.
Hearing aids and hearing loss
Hearing aids are the main method of treatment for hearing loss. But that doesn’t mean everyone who has hearing loss will immediately need a pair of hearing aids. In cases where patients have very minor hearing loss, hearing aids won’t always be useful. We might want you to hold off on using hearing aids because of this. It’s also possible that we could advise you to only wear your hearing aids when you’re in certain situations.
This means that just because you are diagnosed with hearing loss doesn’t mean you will automatically need hearing aids.
However, hearing aids will be the best solution in many circumstances. Many individuals won’t have their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more serious because hearing loss advances slowly and frequently goes unnoticed for a while. But if you come in to see us regularly, you may be able to catch your hearing loss early, and, because of this, you may not need hearing aids immediately.
So how will you know if you have hearing loss?
Indications you need a hearing aid
Instant communication challenges can be the consequence of hearing loss. The curious thing, though, is that you don’t always understand that those communication issues are the result of hearing loss. So, when is it time for a hearing aid?
Here are a few of the typical signs you should watch out for:
- When you’re in very loud settings, you have a difficult time following conversations: When people ask, “What are the signs of hearing loss?”, this one almost always comes up. One of the surest indications of hearing loss is that you have trouble following conversations in noisy settings, like bars or restaurants. That’s because your brain has difficulty filling in the missing information that gets lost with hearing impairment. As a result, there’s a lot of muffled conversations.
- When people speak, you can’t always understand what they said: Many people don’t think they have hearing loss or need hearing aids because the total volume they hear seems fine. But hearing loss is funny, it tends to affect particular frequencies before others. Which means that the vast majority of sounds might seem ordinary but things in the high frequencies (like certain vowels) will be distorted. This could cause you to have a hard time understanding what people are saying.
- Phone conversations sound muddled: Voices usually sound a little flat on even high-quality phone speakers. If you have hearing loss, this can make it even more challenging to understand conversations. Once again, certain frequencies are cut out and the result is that it’s extremely difficult to understand those voices.
- The volume on your devices is becoming very loud: Hearing loss could be the culprit if you continuously need to turn the volume of your devices up. This is especially true if you keep turning that volume knob higher (and even more especially true if the people around you complain about how loud your media is).
So how should you deal with it?
When you break your leg, it’s clear cut what to do: you go to the doctor! But what do you do when you start to notice the symptoms of hearing loss? What degree of hearing loss requires hearing aids? Well, that’s difficult to answer, but when you begin experiencing these symptoms, it’s a good plan to schedule an appointment with us. We will be able to let you know how serious your hearing loss is.
A hearing test will also help you get the optimal hearing aids for your requirements if you do indeed need hearing aids. Then you will be able to get back to taking pleasure in good conversations with your friends and loved ones and doing the things you love.
Call us to schedule your hearing exam, we can help you understand if you’re suffering from hearing loss.