Knowing when you need some medical advice is normally pretty easy. You know you need to go to the doctor immediately if you break your leg, for instance. With scenarios like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t a possibility. If you want your bones to heal correctly, you need to get them taken care of as soon as possible.
But with regard to hearing aids, it’s not always so simple to recognize when it’s time to get some help. Hearing loss normally advances really slowly over time. This means recognizing when to get treatment for hearing loss can be difficult.
So watching out for signs that your hearing is going is a good idea. If you detect any, it may be time to consult us about your first pair of hearing aids.
Hearing loss and hearing aids
Hearing aids are the main method of treatment for hearing loss. But everybody who has some degree of hearing loss won’t automatically need hearing aids. Hearing aids won’t always be beneficial in cases of mild hearing loss. We might want you to hold off on using hearing aids because of this. In addition, you might be advised to wear hearing aids only in specific 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 instances. Because hearing loss can be a sneaky and slow condition, lots of people don’t receive a diagnosis until there’s been considerable damage. But if you come in to see us regularly, you may be able to catch your hearing loss early, and, because of this, you might not need hearing aids right away.
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 recognize these indicators
Instant communication issues can be the result 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?
Look out for these indicators:
- When you’re in very loud locations, you have a difficult time following conversations: When people ask, “What are the signs of hearing loss?”, this one almost always comes up. One of the surest signs of hearing loss is that you have difficulty following conversations in noisy places, like bars or restaurants. That’s because your brain has trouble filling in the missing information that you lose when you have hearing impairment. Lots of conversations get muddled because of this.
- When people speak, you can’t always understand what they said: Many people don’t think they have hearing loss or need hearing aids because the total volume they perceive seems fine. But hearing loss is funny, it tends to affect specific frequencies before others. Which means that the great majority of sounds might seem normal but things in the high frequencies (like certain vowels) will be distorted. This could cause you to have a tough time making out what people are saying.
- The volume on your devices is getting very loud: Hearing loss could be the cause if you continuously 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 relevant.
- Phone conversations sound muffled: Voices usually sound a little flat on even high-quality phone speakers. If you have hearing loss, this can make it even harder to understand conversations. Once again, specific frequencies are cut out and the result is that it’s really difficult to hear those voices.
So how should you deal with it?
Obviously, you know precisely what you need to do when you break a bone! But what about when you experience 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 experiencing 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 determine just how serious 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 family members and doing the things you love.
Call us for a hearing exam so we can help you improve your quality of life.