You normally would think that hearing loss would be obvious to spot, but it’s not as easy to recognize as you may think.
To start with, many people with hearing loss have difficulty only with specified sounds and in distinct scenarios. And so, if you can hear normally on some occasions, you’ll be inclined to blame other factors or other people for the times you do have a tough time hearing.
Second, hearing loss arises slowly as time passes, so it’s difficult to detect the slow development. It’s simpler and easier to pin the blame on others for mumbling, or to turn up the TV volume a bit louder, than to acknowledge that you may possibly have hearing loss.
As a result, the signs can be subtle. You need to know what to watch out for, and while it’s easy to disavow 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 a hearing test.
- You experience ringing or buzzing in the ears – this might be an indicator of permanent hearing damage. Hearing aids can not only make it easier to hear better, but they may additionally be able to relieve the ringing in your ears.
- You can’t hear regular household sounds – hearing loss can make it hard to hear the doorbell, the telephone ringing, or a friend shouting your name from another room.
- You have difficulty understanding TV dialogue – speech is ordinarily much more challenging to hear than other types of sound. This often shows itself as trouble following movie or television show plots.
- You have your cellphone, TV, or radio at max volume – if you can hear the television, phone, or radio much better than you can hear personal discussions, check out the volume settings on your devices. You may have these gadgets set at elevated volumes while simultaneously believing that everyone else speaks too softly.
- You request that people repeat themselves frequently – you notice that you say “what?” a lot, or that you have to ask people to repeat themselves when you’re not facing them.
- You frequently misinterpret what people are saying – consonants are higher-pitched, and therefore more difficult to hear, than vowels. Seeing as consonants impart the majority of the meaning in a sentence, speech comprehension suffers.
- You have trouble hearing all the words in a conversation – specific sounds and letters are more difficult to hear than others. Consequently, you can hear the majority 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 depend on lip reading, body language, and other hints to meaning much more than you think. When you’re not facing the speaker, and can’t use these cues, you may have difficulty comprehending speech.
- You have trouble hearing with a great deal of background noise – as hearing loss gets more serious, competing noise becomes more of a problem. You might have the ability to hear speech in quiet settings, but it becomes increasingly difficult to follow conversations in a loud setting like a restaurant.
- People complain that you shout or have the TV volume too loud – people may notice that you have the TV volume too loud or that you have the proclivity to shout. It doesn’t seem this way to you because you’re compensating for your hearing loss.
Do you notice 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 begin living an improved, more productive, and healthier life.