Knowing when you require some medical advice is usually fairly easy. When you break a bone, for example, you know you should go to the doctor (or the emergency room, depending on the scenario). With scenarios like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t a possibility. At least, not for very long (especially if you want your bones to mend themselves correctly).
It’s not always that clear cut when it comes to hearing aids, though. Hearing loss usually advances really gradually over time. This means it isn’t always simple to know when you may need to start wearing hearing aids or to put off seeking treatment you know could be beneficial.
That’s why it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for some specific signposts that you may be losing your ability to communicate. If you detect any, it may be time to talk to us about your first set of hearing aids.
Hearing loss and hearing aids
Hearing loss is primarily treated with hearing aids. But that doesn’t mean everybody who has hearing loss will instantly need a pair of hearing aids. In situations where patients have very slight hearing loss, hearing aids won’t always be useful. Consequently, we may want you to wait before starting to use them. Likewise, you may be directed to wear hearing aids only in particular situations.
In other words, the threshold for requiring hearing aids is not always a diagnosis of hearing loss.
But in many situations hearing aids will be the best answer. Because hearing loss can be a sneaky and slow condition, lots of individuals don’t receive a diagnosis until there’s been substantial damage. But if you come in to see us regularly, you might 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 most likely thinking: how can I tell if I require hearing aids?
You need hearing aids if you detect these signs
Hearing loss is one of those conditions that can cause instant communication difficulties. But a lot of times you don’t even realize that hearing loss is the cause of those communication problems. So, at what point will a hearing aid help?
Watch out for these signs:
- When you’re in very loud settings, you have a hard time following conversations: When people ask, “What are the signs of hearing loss?”, this one almost always comes up. If you have difficulty hearing conversations in loud places, that’s usually a sure sign that you have hearing loss. That’s because your brain has difficulty filling in the missing information that you lose when you have hearing impairment. A lot of conversations get muddled as a result.
- The volume on your devices is becoming really loud: Hearing loss could be the culprit if you continuously need to crank the volume of your devices up. This is particularly true if you keep moving that volume knob higher (and even more especially true if the people around you complain about how loud your media is).
- Phone conversations sound muddled: Even the best phone speakers tend to flatten a voice. That can make it tough to understand, especially if you have hearing loss. It can be really challenging to hear voices as an outcome of the loss of these frequencies.
- You have trouble understanding what people are saying: Many individuals feel like the total volume of life is fine so they never imagine that they might have hearing loss. But the thing about hearing loss is that certain frequencies of sound usually go before others. Which means that the great majority of sounds might seem normal but things in the high frequencies (such as certain vowels) will be distorted. As a result, you may have a tough time making out what people are saying to you.
So how should you deal with it?
When you break your leg, it’s clear cut what to do: you go to the doctor! But what about when you experience these signs that you may need a hearing aid? What level of hearing loss calls for hearing aids? Well, that’s hard to answer, but when you start detecting these signs, it’s a good plan to schedule an appointment with us. We will be able to inform you about how severe your hearing loss is.
And if you do end up needing hearing aids, a hearing exam 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 family, you’ll understand your grandkids when they give you a call, your co-workers at your morning meeting, and your friends at the pub.
Call us for a hearing test so we can help you improve your quality of life.
