Knowing when you require some medical advice is normally rather easy. When you break your leg, for example, you know you should go to the doctor (or the emergency room, depending on the scenario). You may need a splint or a cast or supportive device, but the point is that you’re unlikely to try “toughing it out”. If you want your bones to heal properly, you need to get them treated as soon as you can.
It isn’t always that clear cut when it comes to hearing aids, though. Hearing loss usually advances really gradually over time. This means recognizing when to get treatment for hearing loss can be tricky.
So keeping an eye out for indications that your hearing is going is a good plan. It’s probably time to call us for a consultation if you do detect any.
Hearing loss and hearing aids
Hearing loss is primarily treated with hearing aids. But that doesn’t mean everybody who has hearing loss will immediately need a set of hearing aids. Hearing aids won’t always be beneficial in cases of mild hearing loss. Consequently, we may want you to wait before beginning to use them. In addition, you might be advised to wear hearing aids only in certain situations.
In other words, the threshold for needing hearing aids isn’t always a diagnosis of hearing loss.
However, hearing aids will be the best answer in many circumstances. Because hearing loss can be a sneaky and gradual condition, many people don’t receive a diagnosis until there’s been substantial damage. Getting your hearing assessed 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 experience these indicators
Hearing loss is one of those conditions that can produce instant communication obstacles. But lots of times you don’t even recognize that hearing loss is the reason for those communication issues. So, when is it time for a hearing aid?
Look out for these indicators:
- You have a hard time following conversations in loud places: When people ask, “What are the signs of hearing loss?”, this one is almost always mentioned. If you have difficulty hearing conversations in noisy places, that’s usually a sure sign that you have hearing loss. This occurs because your ears aren’t getting as much information as they used to, and your brain isn’t really able to fill in the gaps as easily. Lots of conversations get muffled as a result.
- You can’t understand people on the phone: Even the best phone speakers tend to flatten a voice. That can make it hard to understand, especially if you have hearing loss. Once again, particular frequencies are missing and the result is that it’s really difficult to understand those voices.
- When people speak, you can’t always make out what they said: Many people don’t think they have hearing loss or need hearing aids because the overall volume they hear seems fine. But the thing about hearing loss is that certain frequencies of sound often go before others. Which means that the great majority of sounds could seem ordinary but things in the high frequencies (such as particular vowels) will be distorted. Consequently, you may have a hard time making out what people are saying to you.
- The volume on your devices is getting very loud: Hearing loss could be the cause if you continually need to turn the volume of your devices up. If you find people around you complaining about the loud volume of your devices, this is particularly true.
So what should you do?
Obviously, you know precisely what you need to do when you break a bone! But what about when you experience these indications that you might need a hearing aid? What degree of hearing loss requires hearing aids? Well, that’s hard to answer, but when you begin detecting these signs, it’s a good idea to schedule an appointment with us. We will be able to let you know how severe your hearing loss is.
A hearing evaluation will also help you get the optimal hearing aids for your needs if you do indeed need hearing aids. This means you’ll be able to get back to communicating with your friends and family, you’ll hear your grandkids when they call you on the phone, your co-workers at your morning meeting, and your friends at the pub.
Call us for a hearing exam so we can help you improve your quality of life.