You might think hearing loss would be obvious to identify, but it’s not as easy to recognize as you might think.
To start, most individuals with hearing loss have problems only with certain sounds and in distinct scenarios. So, if you can hear normally on some occasions, you’ll have the tendency to blame other factors or other people for the occasions you do have a tough time hearing.
Second, hearing loss takes place slowly as time passes, so it’s challenging to detect the slow development. It’s simpler and easier to find fault with others for mumbling, or to turn up the TV volume a bit higher, than to admit that you may possibly have hearing loss.
So, the signs and symptoms can be elusive. You have to know what to watch out for, and while it’s easy to deny 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 detect the presence of any, it may be time to arrange for a hearing test.
- You experience ringing in the ears – this may be a sign of permanent hearing damage. Hearing aids can not only assist you to hear better, but they may also be able to minimize the ringing in your ears.
- You can’t hear normal household sounds – hearing loss can make it difficult to hear the doorbell, the telephone ringing, or somebody shouting your name from another room.
- You have difficulty comprehending TV dialogue – speech is normally much more difficult to hear than other sorts of sound. This frequently shows itself as trouble following movie or television show plots.
- You have your phone, television, or radio at max volume – if you can hear the television, phone, or radio better than you can hear face-to-face discussions, check the volume settings on your technology. You could have these devices set at excessive volumes while at the same time believing that everyone else speaks 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 commonly misinterpret what people are saying – consonants are higher-pitched, and therefore much more difficult to hear, than vowels. Given that consonants convey the majority of the meaning in a sentence, speech comprehension suffers.
- You have difficulty hearing all the words in a discussion – specific sounds and letters are more challenging to hear than others. Consequently, you can hear most of the words in a sentence, but that you have to many times try to fill in the blanks.
- You have difficulty hearing when your back is to the speaker – you may be dependent on lip reading, body gestures, and other hints to meaning more than you realize. When you’re not facing the speaker, and can’t use these hints, you may have trouble comprehending speech.
- You have difficulty hearing with a great deal of background noise – as hearing loss gets to be more serious, contending noise becomes more of a problem. You may be able to hear speech in tranquil spaces, but it becomes more and more difficult to follow conversations in a boisterous setting 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 tendency 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 start living a better, more productive, and healthier life.
