Knowing when you require some medical advice is typically rather easy. You know you need to go to the doctor right away if you break your leg, for example. You might 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 mend properly, you need to get them treated as soon as possible.
But with regard to hearing aids, it isn’t always so simple to recognize when it’s time to get some assistance. Hearing loss is usually a progressive condition. This means knowing when to get treatment for hearing loss can be difficult.
So keeping an eye out for signs that your hearing may be going is a good idea. It’s likely time to call us for a consultation if you do notice any.
Hearing loss and hearing aids
Hearing aids are the primary method of treatment for hearing loss. But that doesn’t mean everybody who has hearing loss will instantly need a pair of hearing aids. In situations where patients have very slight hearing loss, hearing aids won’t always be useful. As a result, we may want you to wait before beginning to use them. It’s also feasible that we could advise you to only use your hearing aids when you’re in specific situations.
In other words, the threshold for requiring hearing aids is not always a hearing loss diagnosis.
But in many instances hearing aids will be the best option. Because hearing loss can be a sneaky and slow condition, lots of individuals don’t get a diagnosis until there’s been considerable damage. But if you come in for a hearing exam regularly, you may be able to catch your hearing loss early, and, as a result, you may not require hearing aids immediately.
And if that’s the situation, you’re probably thinking: how can I tell if I need hearing aids?
You need hearing aids if you experience these signs
Immediate communication challenges can be the result of hearing loss. But lots of times you don’t even recognize that hearing loss is the reason for those communication problems. So, when is it time for a hearing aid?
Here are a few of the typical signs you should watch out for:
- You listen to the radio or TV at high levels: If you’re always turning up the volume on your television or radio or smartphone, it may be due to hearing loss. If you find people around you complaining about the high volume of your devices, this is particularly true.
- Phone conversations sound muffled: Voices usually sound a little flat on even high-quality phone speakers. If you have hearing loss, this can make it even harder to understand conversations. It can be really difficult to hear voices as an outcome of the loss of these frequencies.
- When you’re in very loud settings, you have a difficult time following conversations: This is probably one of the most prevailing symptoms of hearing loss. One of the surest indications of hearing loss is that you have difficulty following conversations in loud locations, like bars or restaurants. 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 very easily. As a result, there’s a lot of muffled conversations.
- When people speak, you can’t always make out what they said: Many individuals don’t think they have hearing loss or need hearing aids because the overall volume they hear seems fine. But hearing loss is curious, it tends to affect particular frequencies before others. Which means that the vast majority of sounds could seem ordinary but things in the high frequencies (such as certain vowels) will be distorted. As a result, you might have a difficult time making out what people are saying to you.
So how should you deal with it?
Clearly, you know precisely what you have to do when you break a bone! But what do you do when you begin to notice the symptoms of hearing loss? How bad does hearing loss have to be to call for a hearing aid? Well, that’s hard to answer, but when you begin detecting these signs, it’s a good plan 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 requirements if you do indeed need hearing aids. This means you’ll be able to get back to spending quality time with your friends and loved ones, you’ll hear your grandkids when they give you a call, your co-workers at your morning meeting, and your friends at the pub.
Call us to schedule your hearing exam, we can help you recognize if you’re suffering from hearing loss.