In some cases, it’s easy to know when you require medical help. When you break your leg, for instance, you know you should go to the doctor (or the emergency room, depending on the scenario). With scenarios like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t an option. If you want your bones to mend correctly, you need to get them treated as soon as you can.
But in terms of hearing aids, it’s not always so simple to recognize when it’s time to get some help. Hearing loss usually advances really slowly over time. This means recognizing when to get treatment for hearing loss can be difficult.
That’s why it’s a good idea to watch out for some particular indicators that you might be losing your ability to communicate. It’s likely time to call us for a consultation if you do detect any.
Hearing aids and hearing loss
Hearing aids are the main form of treatment for hearing loss. But that doesn’t mean everybody who has hearing loss will immediately need a set of hearing aids. Hearing aids won’t always be practical in cases of minor hearing loss. We may 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 certain situations.
This means that just because you are diagnosed with hearing loss doesn’t mean you will necessarily require hearing aids.
However, hearing aids will be the ideal solution in many instances. Many individuals won’t have their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more severe because hearing loss develops slowly and often goes undetected for a while. But if you come in for a hearing exam regularly, you might be able to catch your hearing loss early, and, as a result, you might not require hearing aids right away.
And if that’s the case, you’re probably thinking: how can I tell if I require hearing aids?
Signs you need a hearing aid
Immediate communication challenges can be the result of hearing loss. But a lot of times you don’t even realize that hearing loss is the reason for those communication issues. So, at what stage will a hearing aid help you?
Here are a few of the typical signs you should watch out for:
- You have a tough time following conversations in loud places: When people ask, “What are the signs of hearing loss?”, this one almost always comes up. If you have difficulty hearing conversations in loud places, that’s often a sure sign that you have hearing loss. That’s because your brain has a hard time filling in the missing information that you lose when you have hearing impairment. Because of this, there’s a lot of muddled conversations.
- You listen to the radio or TV at high volumes: If you’re continuously turning the volume up on your television or radio or smartphone, it may be because of hearing loss. If you find individuals around you complaining about the high volume of your devices, this is especially true.
- When people talk, you can’t always understand what they said: Many people feel like the total volume of life is fine so they never consider that they might have hearing loss. But hearing loss is funny, it tends to affect specific frequencies before others. Because of this, things like vowel sounds in the higher pitches can sound distorted. As a result, you may have a tough time making out what people are saying to you.
- 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. It can be very challenging to hear voices as a result of the loss of these frequencies.
So what can you do?
Clearly, you know precisely what you need to do when you break a bone! But what do you do when you start to detect the symptoms of hearing loss? What level of hearing loss requires hearing aids? That’s not a really easy answer but you should schedule an appointment with us for a hearing assessment if you begin to experience any hearing loss symptoms. We’ll be able to assess the health of your hearing and ascertain just how severe your hearing loss may or may not be.
A hearing screening will also help you get the optimal hearing aids for your requirements 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 understand your grandkids when they call you on the phone, your co-workers at your morning meeting, and your friends at happy hour.
Call us to schedule your hearing test, we can help you understand if you’re suffering from hearing loss.