Recognizing when you need some medical advice is normally fairly easy. You know you need to go to the doctor right away if you break your leg, for instance. You may need a splint or a cast or supportive device, but the point is that you’re not likely to try “toughing it out”. If you want your bones to heal correctly, you need to get them taken care of as soon as possible.
It’s not always that obvious when it comes to hearing aids, however. Hearing loss is typically a progressive condition. This means knowing when to get treatment for hearing loss can be difficult.
That’s why it’s a good idea to watch out for some distinct indicators that you may be losing your ability to communicate. If you detect any, it might be time to talk to us about your first pair of hearing aids.
Hearing aids and hearing loss
Hearing loss is primarily treated with hearing aids. But everybody who has some level of hearing loss won’t necessarily 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 as a result. It’s also possible that we could instruct you to only use your hearing aids when you’re in particular situations.
In other words, the threshold for needing hearing aids isn’t always a hearing loss diagnosis.
However, hearing aids will be the best solution in many circumstances. Many individuals won’t get their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more serious because hearing loss develops gradually and frequently goes unnoticed 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 may not require hearing aids right away.
So how will you know if you have hearing loss?
Signs you need a hearing aid
Immediate communication problems can be the consequence of hearing loss. The interesting thing, though, is that you don’t always realize that those communication challenges are due to hearing loss. So, at what stage will a hearing aid help?
Watch out for these signs:
- You have difficulty making out what people are saying: Many individuals feel like the overall volume of life is fine so they never imagine that they might have hearing loss. But the thing about hearing loss is that particular frequencies of sound tend to go before others. Due to this, things like vowel sounds in the higher pitches can sound distorted. As a result, you might have a difficult time making out what people are saying to you.
- The volume on your devices is becoming really loud: 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 moving 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: Even the highest quality phone speakers tend to flatten a voice. That can make it difficult to understand, especially if you have hearing loss. It can be extremely difficult to hear voices as an outcome of the loss of these frequencies.
- When you’re in very loud locations, you have a tough time following conversations: This is probably one of the most common symptoms of hearing loss. One of the surest signs of hearing loss is that you have difficulty following conversations in noisy locations, like bars or restaurants. That’s because your brain has a hard time filling in the missing information that you lose when you have hearing impairment. Because of this, there’s a lot of muddled conversations.
So how should you deal with it?
When you break a bone, it’s obvious what to do: you go see the doctor! But what about when you notice these signs that you may need a hearing aid? What level of hearing loss requires hearing aids? That’s not a really easy answer but you should make an appointment with us for a hearing exam if you begin to notice any hearing loss symptoms. We will be able to let you know how serious your hearing loss is.
And if you do end 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 taking pleasure in good conversations with your friends and family members and doing the things you love.
Call us to schedule your hearing test, we can help you recognize if you’re suffering from hearing loss.