Recognizing when you require some medical advice is normally fairly easy. You know you need to go see a doctor right away if you break your leg, for example. You could 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 correctly, you need to get them treated as soon as you can.
But with regard to hearing aids, it isn’t always so simple to identify when it’s time to get some help. Hearing loss is typically a developing condition. This means it’s not always simple to know when you may need to start wearing hearing aids or to delay finding treatment you know could be beneficial.
That’s why it’s a good plan to watch out for some specific indicators that you might be losing your ability to communicate. It’s likely time to call us for a consultation if you do notice any.
Hearing aids and hearing loss
Hearing loss is mainly managed 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 practical in cases of minor hearing loss. Because of this, we may want you to wait before beginning to use them. Likewise, you might be advised to wear hearing aids only in specific situations.
Essentially, the threshold for needing hearing aids is not always a hearing loss diagnosis.
But in many situations hearing aids will be the best option. Many people won’t have their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more severe because hearing loss develops gradually and frequently goes undetected for a while. But if you come in to see us regularly, you might be able to catch your hearing loss early, and, as a result, you might not require hearing aids right away.
So how will you know if you have hearing loss?
You need hearing aids if you recognize these indicators
Hearing loss is one of those conditions that can produce instant communication obstacles. But a lot of times you don’t even realize that hearing loss is the reason for those communication problems. So, at what stage will a hearing aid help you?
Here are some of the typical signs you should look out for:
- You have trouble understanding what people are saying: Many people feel like the total volume of life is fine so they never imagine that they might have hearing loss. But hearing loss is curious, it tends to impact particular frequencies before others. Because of this, things like vowel sounds in the higher register can sound distorted. This could cause you to have a hard time understanding what people are saying.
- The volume on your devices is getting very loud: Hearing loss could be the cause if you continuously need to crank the volume of your devices up. This is especially true if you keep turning that volume knob higher (and even more especially relevant if the people around you complain about how loud your media is).
- Phone conversations sound muddled: Voices typically sound a little flat on even high-quality phone speakers. If you have hearing loss, this can make it even more challenging to understand conversations. It can be very difficult to hear voices as a result of the loss of these frequencies.
- When you’re in very loud locations, you have a hard time following conversations: This is probably one of the most common symptoms of hearing loss. If you have difficulty hearing conversations in noisy places, that’s usually a sure sign that you have hearing loss. That’s because your brain has difficulty filling in the missing information that gets lost with hearing impairment. Lots of conversations get muffled as a result.
So what can you do?
Clearly, you know precisely what you need to do when you break a bone! But what about when you notice these indications that you might need a hearing aid? What degree of hearing loss calls for hearing aids? Well, that’s difficult to answer, but when you begin experiencing these signs, it’s a good plan to make an appointment with us. We will be able to let you know how severe your hearing loss is.
And if you do wind up needing hearing aids, a hearing exam 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 loved ones and doing the things you love.
Contact us to schedule your hearing test, we can help you understand if you’re suffering from hearing loss.