Sometimes, it’s easy to know when you need medical advice. When you break a bone, for instance, you know you should go to the doctor (or the emergency room, depending on the situation). You could 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 mend properly, you need to get them taken care of as soon as possible.
But when it comes to hearing aids, it’s not always so easy to identify when it’s time to get some assistance. Hearing loss is normally a developing condition. That means it’s not always easy to know when you may need to begin wearing hearing aids or to delay seeking treatment you know could be beneficial.
That’s why it’s a good idea to watch out for some distinct signposts that you may be losing your ability to communicate. If you detect any, it may be time to consult us about your first set of hearing aids.
Hearing aids and hearing loss
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. In situations where patients have very mild hearing loss, hearing aids won’t always be beneficial. We may want you to hold off on using hearing aids as a result. It’s also possible that we could direct you to only use your hearing aids when you’re in certain situations.
Essentially, the threshold for requiring hearing aids is not always a hearing loss diagnosis.
However, hearing aids will be the best answer in many circumstances. Many individuals won’t have their hearing loss diagnosed until it becomes more serious 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.
So how will you know if you have hearing loss?
Indications you need a hearing aid
Hearing loss is one of those conditions that can create instant communication difficulties. The funny thing, though, is that you don’t always comprehend that those communication difficulties are the result of hearing loss. So, at what stage will a hearing aid help?
Look out for these indicators:
- You’re unable to understand people on the phone: Voices typically sound a bit flat on even high-quality phone speakers. That can make it tough to understand, particularly if you have hearing loss. It can be very difficult to hear voices as an outcome of the loss of these frequencies.
- The volume on your devices is getting really loud: If you’re always turning the volume up on your television or radio or smartphone, it may be because of hearing loss. If you find people around you complaining about the high volume of your devices, this is especially true.
- When you’re in very loud locations, you have a tough time following conversations: This is probably one of the most prevalent symptoms of hearing loss. If you have a hard time hearing conversations in noisy places, that’s usually a sure sign that you have hearing loss. This happens because your ears aren’t getting as much information as they used to, and your brain isn’t really able to fill in the gaps very easily. Because of this, there’s a lot of muffled conversations.
- You have trouble understanding what people are saying: Many individuals feel like the overall volume of life is fine so they never consider that they might have hearing loss. But hearing loss is curious, it tends to affect certain frequencies before others. Which means that the great majority of sounds could seem ordinary but things in the high frequencies (like certain vowels) will be distorted. This could cause you to have a hard time understanding what people are saying.
So how should you deal with it?
When you break a bone, it’s obvious what to do: you go to the doctor! But what about when you detect these signs that you may need a hearing aid? What degree of hearing loss requires hearing aids? Well, that’s difficult to answer, but when you start experiencing these symptoms, it’s a good idea to make an appointment with us. We will be able to let you know how severe 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. This means you’ll be able to get back to spending quality time with your friends and loved ones, you’ll understand your grandkids when they give you a call, your co-workers at your morning meeting, and your friends at the pub.
Give us a call to schedule your hearing test, we can help you understand if you’re suffering from hearing loss.