In some cases, it’s easy to recognize when you need medical advice. You know you need to go see a doctor immediately if you break your leg, for example. With situations like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t an option. If you want your bones to heal correctly, you need to get them treated as soon as you can.
But when it comes to hearing aids, it’s not always so easy to recognize when it’s time to get some assistance. Hearing loss is normally a progressive condition. 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 distinct signposts that you may be losing your ability to communicate. If you notice any, it may be time to talk to us about your first pair of hearing aids.
Hearing loss and hearing aids
Hearing loss is mainly treated with hearing aids. But that doesn’t mean everyone who has hearing loss will immediately need a pair 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 instruct 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.
However, hearing aids will be the ideal answer in many cases. Because hearing loss can be a sneaky and slow condition, many individuals don’t get a diagnosis until there’s been substantial damage. Getting your hearing examined regularly is the key to catching hearing loss early and possibly mitigating the need for hearing aids.
So how will you know if you have hearing loss?
Indications you need a hearing aid
Immediate communication challenges can be the result of hearing loss. The curious thing, though, is that you don’t always comprehend that those communication challenges are due to hearing loss. So, at what point will a hearing aid help you?
Look out for these indicators:
- When you’re in very loud locations, you have a tough time following conversations: When people ask, “What are the signs of hearing loss?”, this one is almost always mentioned. One of the surest signs of hearing loss is that you have difficulty following conversations in noisy settings, like bars or restaurants. This occurs because your ears aren’t receiving as much information as they used to, and your brain isn’t really able to fill in the gaps very easily. A lot of conversations get muffled because of this.
- You listen to the radio or TV at really loud levels: Hearing loss could be the culprit if you continually 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: Voices usually sound a bit flat on even high-quality phone speakers. That can make it tough to understand, particularly if you have hearing loss. Again, specific frequencies are cut out and the result is that it’s very difficult to understand those voices.
- You have problems understanding what people are saying: Many people feel like the overall volume of life is fine so they never consider that they may have hearing loss. But the thing about hearing loss is that specific frequencies of sound usually go before others. Because of this, things like vowel sounds in the higher register can sound distorted. As a result, you may have a difficult time making out what people are saying to you.
So what can you do?
When you break a bone, it’s obvious what to do: you go to the doctor! But what about when you notice these signs that you may need a hearing aid? What degree of hearing loss calls for hearing aids? That isn’t a really easy answer but you should make an appointment with us for a hearing test if you start to notice any hearing loss symptoms. We will be able to inform you about how serious your hearing loss is.
A hearing evaluation will also help you get the best possible hearing aids for your requirements if you do indeed need hearing aids. Then you will be able to get back to enjoying good conversations with your friends and loved ones and doing the things you love.
Call us to schedule your hearing test, we can help you understand if you’re suffering from hearing loss.