Hearing loss is about pitch as much as about volume. It’s conceivable you have some level of high-frequency hearing loss if you can comprehend what the men in the room are saying but you can’t hear women and children. This is a very prevalent type of hearing loss so you’re not alone.
Warning Signs of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
With high-frequency hearing loss, you could still be able to pick up the volume of a woman’s voice or a child’s voice, but consonant sounds that make conversations easy to understand, get muddled. Usually, consonant sounds like t, th, ch, soft c, s, sh, f, k, and h are the hardest to pick out. So, it may sound like a woman or child is mumbling, even though they aren’t. Losing the ability to distinguish these sounds makes it very hard to understand a child’s joke or your sister’s question about dinner plans. This can result in frustration, depression and social isolation from your circle of family and friends.
People who have high-frequency hearing loss also miss other sounds that are within the high-frequency range (2000 Hz and higher). This includes high musical notes, birds chirping, and squeaks or sirens. Low-frequency sounds such as bass musical notes, the rumble of thunder or a man’s voice might still be quite easy to discern, even if the volume isn’t that loud.
Reasons For High-Frequency Hearing Loss
As the most common type of loss of hearing, high-frequency hearing loss can creep up on people as they get older, frequently imperceptibly in the beginning. high-frequency hearing loss can be caused by other things in addition to aging such as specific medical problems like cardiovascular disease, excessive noise exposure, and some medications.
The little hair-like sensors in the cochlea are injured by all of these scenarios. Sound input is picked up by these little cells and sent to the brain for processing. The high-frequency sensory cells are more sensitive to injury than the low-frequency sensory cells, and this is why the higher-pitched sounds are commonly the first to become difficult to understand.
How to Prevent High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Even though you can’t prevent your ears from aging, there are many steps you can take to stop or at least slow the progression of high-frequency hearing loss. Including these:
- If you use any medication, ask your doctor if it has any effect on hearing. high-frequency hearing loss can be triggered by at least 200 different kinds of medications. Even too much aspirin can harm your hearing. To discover if there are options less likely to injure your hearing, consult your doctor. If you can’t avoid taking a particular medication, stay in close contact with your hearing specialist for regular hearing loss and balance testing. Additional hearing loss can be avoided by treatment.
- When getting rid of earwax, never use a swab or any other small object. Your ability to hear becomes blunted when you push old earwax against your eardrum. A hot shower is usually enough o get rid of exes earwax but if this doesn’t work ask your hearing care professional for other ways to irrigate your ears.
- Quieter things are better. Find the quietest model by examining the noise rating of the appliances. If it’s hard to hear your dinner companions, don’t be scared to ask the manager to turn down the music.
- In loud situations, put in hearing protection. If you have to shout to be heard in a loud environment, this is a definite signal the noise could damage your hearing. Some instances of occasions when wearing ear-plugs are live music concerts, motorcycles revving, running power tools, and a loud stereo. Noise-canceling earphones are also a good option in certain situations, but may not fit inside your pocket as easily as ear-plugs.
- Taking good care of your general health. Your hearing can be damaged by smoking. Poor health, poor nutrition, or lack of exercise can also injure your hearing. Preserve your hearing by taking care of your general health.
high-frequency Hearing Loss Treatment
Hearing aids are at this time the most effective strategy for treating high-frequency hearing loss. And there are numerous designs to choose from because this is the most common kind of hearing loss. Hearing aids can augment high-pitched sounds so they are clearer to the user. You can immediately manage your level and degree of hearing loss by having your hearing care expert fine-tune your hearing aid to improve your ability to hear sounds at the right level. For situations like talking on the phone, listening to children, having dinner at a restaurant, or business meetings many hearing aids can be controlled by your phone and have directional microphones for fine-tuning.
If you think that you may be dealing with high-frequency hearing loss, schedule a hearing examination. Odds are, there are individually-customized solutions that can enhance your ability to catch your grandchild’s precious one-liners.