Sometimes, it’s easy to recognize when you need medical help. When you break your leg, 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 an option. At least, not for that long (especially if you want your bones to repair themselves properly).
But in terms of hearing aids, it’s not always so easy to identify when it’s time to get some assistance. Hearing loss is usually a developing condition. That means it’s not always easy to know when you might need to start wearing hearing aids or to delay finding treatment you know could be helpful.
So watching out for signs that your hearing is going is a good idea. 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 aids are the main form of treatment for hearing loss. But that doesn’t mean everyone who has hearing loss will immediately need a set of hearing aids. Hearing aids won’t always be beneficial in cases of minor hearing loss. As a result, we may want you to wait before beginning to use them. In addition, you might be instructed to wear hearing aids only in specific situations.
This means that just because you are diagnosed with hearing loss doesn’t mean you will necessarily require hearing aids.
But in many cases hearing aids will be the best option. Because hearing loss can be a sneaky and slow condition, many individuals don’t receive a diagnosis until there’s been substantial damage. But if you come in for a hearing exam regularly, you might be able to catch your hearing loss early, and, because of this, you might not require hearing aids right away.
And if that’s the case, you’re most likely thinking: how can I tell if I need hearing aids?
You need hearing aids if you detect these signs
Immediate communication problems can be the result of hearing loss. The curious thing, though, is that you don’t always realize that those communication challenges are the result of hearing loss. So, at what stage will a hearing aid help you?
Look out for these indicators:
- The volume on your devices is getting very loud: Hearing loss could be the culprit if you continually need to turn the volume of your devices up. If you find people around you complaining about the high volume of your devices, this is especially relevant.
- You have a tough time hearing conversations in loud places: This is probably one of the most common symptoms of hearing loss. If you have difficulty hearing conversations in noisy places, that’s often a sure sign that you have hearing loss. That’s because your brain has trouble filling in the missing information that gets lost with hearing impairment. Because of this, there’s a lot of muddled conversations.
- You have trouble making out what people are saying: Many people 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 often go before others. Which means that the great majority of sounds might seem ordinary but things in the high frequencies (like certain vowels) will be distorted. As a result, you might have a hard time understanding what people are saying to you.
- You can’t understand people on the phone: Voices typically sound a little flat on even high-quality phone speakers. That can make it tough to understand, especially if you have hearing loss. It can be really difficult to hear voices as an outcome of the loss of these frequencies.
So what should you do?
Obviously, you know exactly what you have to do when you break a bone! But what about when you detect these signs that you might need a hearing aid? How severe does hearing loss need to be to call for a hearing aid? Well, that’s difficult to answer, but when you begin detecting these symptoms, it’s a good plan to schedule an appointment with us. We will be able to inform you about how serious your hearing loss is.
And if you do wind up needing hearing aids, a hearing exam 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 test so we can help you improve your quality of life.
