You would think hearing loss should be simple to identify, but it’s not as straightforward to notice as you may believe.
To start with, most individuals with hearing loss have difficulties only with select sounds and in specific situations. So, if you can hear normally on some occasions, you’ll have the tendency to blame other factors or other people for the times you do have difficulty hearing.
Second, hearing loss occurs slowly and gradually as time passes, so it’s challenging to recognize the slow progression. It’s simpler and easier to blame others for mumbling, or to turn up the TV volume a little higher, than to confess that you may have hearing loss.
As a result, the signs and symptoms can be subtle. You have to know what to watch out for, and although it’s easy to reject that you have hearing loss, you should be truthful with yourself about the warning signs.
Here are the top 10 to watch out for. If you recognize any, it may be time to arrange for a hearing exam.
- You experience ringing or buzzing in the ears – this might be an indication of permanent hearing damage. Hearing aids can not only help you hear better, but they may additionally be able to relieve the ringing in your ears.
- You can’t hear normal household sounds – hearing loss can make it tough to hear the doorbell, the phone ringing, or another person calling your name from another room.
- You have trouble understanding TV dialogue – speech is ordinarily a lot more challenging to hear than other kinds of sound. This often manifests itself as difficulty following movie or TV show plots.
- You have your phone, TV, or radio at max volume – if you can hear the television, phone, or radio better than you can hear face-to-face conversations, check out the volume settings on your devices. You could have these gadgets set at excessive volumes while at the same time believing that everyone else talks too quietly.
- You request that people repeat themselves frequently – you recognize that you say “what?” a lot, or that you need to ask people to repeat themselves when you’re not facing them.
- You frequently misunderstand what people are saying – consonants are higher-pitched, and thus much more difficult to hear, than vowels. Since consonants impart the majority of the meaning in a sentence, speech comprehension suffers.
- You have difficulty hearing all the words in a conversation – select sounds and letters are more challenging to hear than others. What this means is you can hear most of the words in a sentence, but that you have to more often than not try to fill in the blanks.
- You have difficulty hearing when your back is to the speaker – you may rely on lip reading, body language, and other tips to meaning more than you realize. When you’re not looking at the speaker, and can’t use these hints, you may have difficulty comprehending speech.
- You have trouble hearing with lots of background noise – as hearing loss gets more serious, contesting noise becomes more of a problem. You might have the capacity to hear speech in tranquil spaces, but it becomes more and more difficult to follow discussions in a boisterous environment like a restaurant.
- People complain that you shout or have the TV volume too loud – people may comment that you have the TV volume too loud or that you have the habit to yell. It doesn’t feel this way to you because you’re compensating for your hearing loss.
Do you have one or more of the top 10 warning signs of hearing loss? If you do, book your hearing test today, and take the steps to begin living an improved, more productive, and healthier life.