Hearing loss is about pitch as much as about volume. If you find it hard to comprehend the speech of a woman or a child, but you can still, for the most part, understand the men in the room, you could have some degree of high-frequency hearing loss. You’re not alone…this is the most common form of hearing loss.
high-frequency Hearing Loss Warning Signs
With high-frequency hearing loss, consonant sounds that allow conversations to be understood, get muddled even though you may still be able to pick up on the volume of a woman or a child’s voice. Usually the hardest to differentiate are consonant sounds like ch, th, t, soft s, c, sh, k, f, and h. So, it may sound like a woman or child is mumbling, even though they aren’t. Comprehending a child’s joke or your loved ones question about dinner plans becomes very difficult because you have lost the ability to differentiate these sounds. This can result in frustration, depression and social isolation from your circle of family and friends.
Other sounds within the high-frequency hearing loss range (2000 Hz) are lost to people who have this problem. This includes high musical notes, birds chirping, and squeaks or sirens. Even at low volumes a man’s voice, thunder, and bass musical notes, might be relatively easy to discern.
Reasons For High-Frequency Hearing Loss
As the most typical type of hearing loss, high-frequency hearing loss can sneak up on people as they get older, frequently imperceptibly in the beginning. high-frequency hearing loss can be triggered by other things in addition to aging such as some medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, excessive noise exposure, and various medications.
The tiny hair-like sensors in the cochlea are harmed by all of these situations. It’s these little cells that receive sound input and send it to the brain for processing. The higher pitched sounds are usually the first to be tough to understand because the high-frequency cells become injured more easily than the lower pitched cells.
high-frequency Hearing Loss, How to Avoid it
Although you can’t stop your ears from growing older, there are several things you can do to prevent or at least slow down the advancement of high-frequency hearing loss. Including these:
- medication hearing protection in noisy environments.A definite indication that your ears could be getting damaged is if you need to yell to be heard in a loud environment. Heavy traffic, engines revving, power tool sounds, the loud stereo systems at movies or rock concerts are all examples of instances when popping in the ear-plugs is a smart idea. Noise canceling earphone might not fit inside your pocket, but they are the best solution in certain situations.
- Your health is important so take good care of it. Your hearing can be damaged by smoking. Your hearing can also be injured by poor health due to poor nutrition. Maintain your hearing by taking care of your general health.
- Looking for quiet things. Pick the quietest model by checking the noise rating of the appliances. If it’s difficult to hear your dinner companions, don’t be hesitant to ask the manager to turn down the music.
- Ask your doctor about medications you use. At least 200 different kinds of medications can cause or worsen high-frequency hearing loss. Even too much aspirin can injure your hearing. To find out if there are choices less likely to harm your hearing, consult your doctor. If you can’t avoid using a specific medication, stay in close contact with your hearing care professional for regular hearing loss and balance testing. Getting treatment for hearing loss early can help avoid further loss.
- Never utilizing a swab (or other small objects) to take out ear wax. This can push old ear wax into your ear canal and blunt your ability to hear. Carefully wash out excessive earwax with a cloth when you’re done showering, or ask your hearing professional about other ear irrigation techniques for getting rid of earwax without damaging your hearing.
high-frequency Hearing Loss Treatment
Hearing aids are presently the most efficient strategy for dealing with high-frequency hearing loss. And there are various designs to pick from since this is the most common type of hearing loss. Hearing aids can enhance high-pitched sounds so they are crisper to the listener. Many models can be configured and your hearing professional can help fine-tune them to improve your ability to hear those sounds at the correct level, immediately addressing the level and extent of the hearing loss. For circumstances like talking on the phone, listening to children, having dinner at a restaurant, or business meetings many hearing aids can be manipulated by your phone and have directional microphones for fine-tuning.
Schedule a hearing test if you suspect you might have high-frequency hearing loss. Chances are, there are individually-customized answers that can improve your ability to hear your grandchild’s precious one-liners.