Knowing when you require some medical advice is usually fairly easy. When you break your leg, for instance, you know you should go to the doctor (or the emergency room, depending on the scenario). With scenarios like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t a possibility. If you want your bones to mend correctly, you need to get them treated as soon as possible.
But when it comes to hearing aids, it’s not always so simple to know when it’s time to get some assistance. Hearing loss is normally a developing condition. That means it isn’t always easy to know when you might 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 keep an eye out for some particular signposts that you might be losing your ability to communicate. If you detect any, it might be time to talk to us about your first set of hearing aids.
Hearing aids and hearing loss
Hearing loss is mainly treated with hearing aids. But everybody who has some degree of hearing loss won’t necessarily need hearing aids. In situations where patients have very minor hearing loss, hearing aids won’t always be helpful. We may want you to hold off on using hearing aids because of this. It’s also feasible that we could advise you to only wear your hearing aids when you’re in particular situations.
Essentially, the threshold for needing hearing aids is not always a diagnosis of hearing loss.
But in many instances hearing aids will be the best solution. Because hearing loss can be a sneaky and gradual condition, many individuals don’t receive a diagnosis until there’s been considerable damage. Getting your hearing tested 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?
Signs you need a hearing aid
Hearing loss is one of those conditions that can produce instant communication problems. But a lot of times you don’t even realize that hearing loss is the reason for those communication issues. So, at what stage will a hearing aid help you?
Look out for these signs:
- Phone conversations sound muffled: Even the highest quality phone speakers have a habit of flattening a voice. If you have hearing loss, this can make it even more difficult to understand conversations. Again, specific frequencies are cut out and the outcome is that it’s really hard to hear those voices.
- You have a difficult time hearing conversations in loud places: This is probably one of the most common symptoms of hearing loss. If you have trouble hearing conversations in noisy places, that’s often a sure sign that you have hearing loss. This happens because your ears are not getting as much information as they used to, and your brain isn’t really capable of filling in the gaps as easily. Lots of conversations get muffled as a result.
- When people speak, you can’t always make out what they said: Many people feel like the overall volume of life is fine so they never imagine that they may have hearing loss. But hearing loss is funny, it tends to impact specific frequencies before others. Which means that the vast majority of sounds could seem ordinary but things in the high frequencies (like certain vowels) will be distorted. As a result, you may have a tough time making out what people are saying to you.
- The volume on your devices is getting very loud: Hearing loss could be the culprit if you constantly need to turn the volume of your devices up. If you find people around you complaining about the loud volume of your devices, this is particularly true.
So what can you do?
Clearly, you know exactly what you have to do when you break a bone! But what about when you detect these indications that you may need a hearing aid? What degree of hearing loss requires hearing aids? Well, that’s hard to answer, but when you begin detecting these signs, it’s a good idea to schedule an appointment with us. We’ll be able to assess the health of your hearing and determine just how severe your hearing loss may or may not be.
And if you do end 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 taking pleasure in good conversations with your friends and loved ones and doing the things you love.
Give us a call to schedule your hearing exam, we can help you understand if you’re suffering from hearing loss.