In some cases, it’s easy to recognize when you require medical advice. When you break your leg, for instance, you know you should go to the doctor (or the emergency room, depending on the situation). With scenarios like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t a possibility. At least, not for very long (particularly if you want your bones to mend themselves correctly).
But in terms of hearing aids, it isn’t always so easy to know when it’s time to get some help. Hearing loss is usually a developing condition. That means it isn’t always simple to know when you may need to begin wearing hearing aids or to put off finding treatment you know could be beneficial.
So watching out for signs that your hearing may be going is a good idea. 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 managed with hearing aids. But everybody who has some degree of hearing loss won’t automatically need hearing aids. In situations where patients have very slight hearing loss, hearing aids won’t always be practical. We may want you to hold off on using hearing aids because of this. It’s also possible that we could direct you to only use your hearing aids when you’re in certain situations.
In other words, the threshold for requiring hearing aids is not always a hearing loss diagnosis.
However, hearing aids will be the best answer in many situations. Many individuals won’t get their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more severe because hearing loss develops slowly and frequently goes undetected for a while. Getting your hearing tested regularly is the key to catching hearing loss early and possibly mitigating the need for hearing aids.
And if that’s the situation, you’re probably thinking: how can I tell if I require hearing aids?
You need hearing aids if you detect these indicators
Immediate communication problems can be the consequence of hearing loss. But a lot of times you don’t even comprehend that hearing loss is the cause of those communication problems. So, when is it time for a hearing aid?
Look out for these indicators:
- You can’t understand people on the phone: Voices usually sound a bit 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 really challenging to hear voices as an outcome of the loss of these frequencies.
- When people talk, you can’t always understand what they said: Many people feel like the total volume of life is fine so they never consider that they may have hearing loss. But the thing about hearing loss is that particular frequencies of sound often go before others. Because of this, things like vowel sounds in the higher pitches can sound distorted. This could cause you to have a tough time making out what people are saying.
- The volume on your devices is becoming very loud: If you’re continuously turning the volume up on your television or radio or smartphone, it may be due to hearing loss. If you find people around you complaining about the loud volume of your devices, this is especially relevant.
- You have a difficult time following conversations in loud places: When people ask, “What are the signs of hearing loss?”, this one is almost always mentioned. If you have a hard time hearing conversations in noisy 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 muffled as a result.
So what can you do?
Clearly, you know exactly what you have to do when you break a bone! But what do you do when you start to detect the symptoms of hearing loss? How severe does hearing loss have to be to call for a hearing aid? Well, that’s difficult to answer, but when you begin noticing these symptoms, it’s a good idea to schedule an appointment with us. We will be able to let you know how severe your hearing loss is.
A hearing evaluation will also help you get the most effective hearing aids for your needs if you do indeed need hearing aids. 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.
Call us for a hearing exam so we can help you improve your quality of life.
