Knowing when you require some medical advice is typically pretty easy. You know you need to go to the doctor right away if you break your leg, for example. With situations like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t a possibility. 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 with regard to hearing aids, however. Hearing loss typically advances really gradually over time. This means it’s not always easy to know when you may need to start using hearing aids or to put off finding treatment you know could be beneficial.
That’s why it’s a good idea to watch out for some particular signposts that you may be losing your ability to communicate. It’s likely time to call us for a consultation if you do notice any.
Hearing loss and hearing aids
Hearing loss is mainly managed with hearing aids. But that doesn’t mean everybody who has hearing loss will instantly need a set of hearing aids. In cases where patients have very minor hearing loss, hearing aids won’t always be practical. As a result, we may want you to wait before starting to use them. In addition, you may be instructed to wear hearing aids only in certain situations.
This means that just because you are diagnosed with hearing loss doesn’t mean you will automatically need hearing aids.
But in many situations hearing aids will be the best option. Many people won’t get their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more severe because hearing loss advances gradually and frequently goes unnoticed for a while. But if you come in for a hearing exam regularly, you may be able to catch your hearing loss early, and, because of this, you might not need hearing aids right away.
So how will you know if you have hearing loss?
Signs you need a hearing aid
Immediate communication issues can be the consequence of hearing loss. The funny thing, though, is that you don’t always realize that those communication challenges are the result of hearing loss. So, when is it time for a hearing aid?
Here are a few of the common signs you should look out for:
- You listen to the radio or TV at really loud levels: Hearing loss could be the cause if you continually need to crank the volume of your devices up. This is especially true if you keep moving that volume knob higher (and even more especially relevant if the people around you complain about how loud your media is).
- You can’t understand people on the phone: Voices usually sound a bit flat on even high-quality phone speakers. That can make it tough to understand, especially if you have hearing loss. It can be really challenging to hear voices as an outcome of the loss of these frequencies.
- You have a tough time following conversations in loud places: This is probably one of the most prevalent symptoms of hearing loss. If you have trouble hearing conversations in noisy places, that’s usually a sure sign that you have hearing loss. That’s because your brain has a hard time filling in the missing information that gets lost with hearing impairment. As a result, there’s a lot of muddled conversations.
- You have difficulty making out what people are saying: Many individuals feel like the overall volume of life is fine so they never imagine that they may have hearing loss. But hearing loss is curious, it tends to affect particular frequencies before others. Which means that the vast majority of sounds may seem ordinary but things in the high frequencies (such as particular vowels) will be distorted. As a result, you might have a tough time making out what people are saying to you.
So how should you deal with it?
When you break a bone, it’s obvious what to do: you go to the doctor! But what do you do when you start to detect the symptoms of hearing loss? What level of hearing loss calls for hearing aids? That’s not a very easy answer but you should make an appointment with us for a hearing test if you start to notice any hearing loss symptoms. We’ll be able to assess the health of your hearing and find out just how serious your hearing loss may or may not be.
And if you do wind up needing hearing aids, a hearing test 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 family members and doing the things you love.
Call us for a hearing test so we can help you improve your quality of life.
