In some cases, it’s easy to know when you require medical advice. You know you need to go see a doctor immediately if you break a bone, for instance. With situations like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t a possibility. At least, not for that long (especially if you want your bones to mend themselves correctly).
But when it comes to hearing aids, it’s not always so easy to identify when it’s time to get some help. Hearing loss is usually a developing condition. This means recognizing when to get treatment for hearing loss can be difficult.
That’s why it’s a good plan to watch out for some distinct indicators that you may be losing your ability to communicate. It’s probably time to call us for a consultation if you do detect any.
Hearing aids and hearing loss
Hearing loss is mainly treated with hearing aids. But that doesn’t mean everyone who has hearing loss will immediately need a set of hearing aids. Hearing aids won’t always be helpful in cases of mild hearing loss. Because of this, we might want you to wait before starting to use them. Likewise, you may be advised to wear hearing aids only in particular situations.
This means that just because you’re diagnosed with hearing loss doesn’t mean you will automatically need hearing aids.
But in many instances hearing aids will be the best answer. Many individuals won’t get their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more severe because hearing loss advances slowly and often goes unnoticed 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 may not need hearing aids right away.
So how will you know if you have hearing loss?
You need hearing aids if you recognize these signs
Immediate communication challenges can be the consequence of hearing loss. The curious thing, though, is that you don’t always understand that those communication challenges are the result of hearing loss. So, at what stage will a hearing aid help?
Watch out for these signs:
- You have problems making out what people are saying: Many individuals 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 affect specific frequencies before others. Which means that the great majority of sounds might seem ordinary but things in the high frequencies (such as particular vowels) will be distorted. This could cause you to have a hard time making out what people are saying.
- When you’re in noisy locations, you have a difficult time following conversations: This is probably one of the most common symptoms of hearing loss. If you have trouble hearing conversations in loud places, that’s often a sure sign that you have hearing loss. That’s because your brain has difficulty filling in the missing information that you lose when you have hearing impairment. Lots of conversations get muddled because of this.
- You listen to the radio or TV at really loud volumes: Hearing loss could be the culprit if you constantly need to turn the volume of your devices up. This is particularly true if you keep turning that volume knob higher (and even more especially true if the people around you complain about how loud your media is).
- You can’t understand people on the phone: Even the best phone speakers tend to flatten a voice. If you have hearing loss, this can make it even more difficult to understand conversations. It can be extremely challenging to hear voices as a result of the loss of these frequencies.
So what can you do?
Obviously, you know precisely what you have to do when you break a bone! But what do you do when you start to experience the symptoms of hearing loss? What degree of hearing loss requires hearing aids? Well, that’s difficult to answer, but when you start detecting these signs, it’s a good plan to make an appointment with us. We’ll be able to evaluate the health of your hearing and ascertain 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 determine 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.