In some cases, it’s easy to identify when you need medical advice. You know you need to go to the doctor right away if you break your leg, for example. You may need a splint or a cast or supportive device, but the thing is that you’re unlikely to try “toughing it out”. If you want your bones to heal properly, you need to get them taken care of as soon as possible.
It’s not always that obvious in terms of hearing aids, however. Hearing loss usually advances really slowly over time. This means recognizing when to get treatment for hearing loss can be tricky.
So keeping an eye out for signs that your hearing may be going is a good idea. If you detect any, it may be time to talk to us about your first pair of hearing aids.
Hearing aids and hearing loss
Hearing loss is primarily treated with hearing aids. But that doesn’t mean everybody 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 helpful. We might want you to hold off on using hearing aids as a result. It’s also possible that we could advise you to only wear your hearing aids when you’re in specific situations.
This means that just because you are diagnosed with hearing loss doesn’t mean you will necessarily need hearing aids.
But in many cases hearing aids will be the best option. Many individuals won’t get their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more serious because hearing loss develops gradually and often goes undetected for a while. Getting your hearing examined regularly is the key to catching hearing loss early and possibly mitigating the need for hearing aids.
So how will you know if you have hearing loss?
You need hearing aids if you detect these indicators
Immediate communication challenges can be the consequence of hearing loss. The interesting thing, though, is that you don’t always realize that those communication issues are caused by hearing loss. So, when is it time for a hearing aid?
Watch out for these signs:
- The volume on your devices is becoming very loud: If you’re always turning up the volume on your television or radio or smartphone, it might be the result of hearing loss. If you find individuals around you complaining about the high volume of your devices, this is particularly relevant.
- You have a difficult time hearing conversations in noisy places: This is probably one of the most prevalent symptoms of hearing loss. One of the surest signs of hearing loss is that you have difficulty following conversations in noisy places, like bars or restaurants. That’s because your brain has difficulty filling in the missing information that gets lost with hearing impairment. Because of this, there’s a lot of muddled conversations.
- You can’t understand people on the phone: Voices usually sound a little flat on even high-quality phone speakers. If you have hearing loss, this can make it even more difficult to understand conversations. It can be extremely difficult to hear voices as an outcome of the loss of these frequencies.
- When people speak, you can’t always understand what they said: Many people feel like the overall volume of life is fine so they never consider that they might have hearing loss. But the thing about hearing loss is that certain frequencies of sound often go before others. Due to this, things like vowel sounds in the higher pitches can sound distorted. This could cause you to have a hard time making out what people are saying.
So what can you do?
When you break a bone, it’s obvious what to do: you go see the doctor! But what do you do when you begin to detect the symptoms of hearing loss? What degree of hearing loss requires hearing aids? That’s not a really easy answer but you should make an appointment with us for a hearing assessment if you begin to notice any hearing loss symptoms. We will be able to inform you about how severe your hearing loss is.
And if you do wind up needing hearing aids, a hearing exam will help identify the best device for your hearing needs. Then you will be able to get back to enjoying good conversations with your friends and loved ones and doing the things you love.
Contact us to schedule your hearing exam, we can help you recognize if you’re suffering from hearing loss.