Hearing loss is about pitch as much as volume. If it’s hard to comprehend the speech of a child or a woman, but you can still, for the most part, understand the men in the room, you might have some amount of high-frequency hearing loss. You’re not alone…this is the most prevalent kind of hearing loss.
Warning Signs of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
With high-frequency hearing loss, you may still be able to register the volume of a woman’s voice or a child’s voice, but consonant sounds that make conversations easy to understand, get muddled. Normally the hardest to pick up are consonant sounds such as ch, th, t, soft s, c, sh, k, f, and h. Even though a woman or a child is not mumbling, it might sound that way. Comprehending a child’s joke or your loved ones question about dinner plans becomes very difficult because you have lost the ability to distinguish these sounds. Separation from family and friends, sadness, and frustration can be the result.
People with high-frequency hearing loss also miss other sounds falling within the high-frequency range (2000 Hz and higher). This includes high musical notes, birds chirping, and squeaks or whistles. Even at low volumes a man’s voice, thunder, and bass musical notes, might be relatively easy to detect.
Reasons For High-Frequency Hearing Loss
As the most widespread type of loss of hearing, high-frequency hearing loss can creep up on people as they get older, usually imperceptibly in the beginning. In addition to aging, too much noise exposure, some medications and numerous medical conditions like cardiovascular disease can result in high-frequency hearing loss.
The tiny hair-like sensors in the cochlea are injured by all of these scenarios. It’s these tiny cells that pick up sound input and send it to the brain for processing. The higher pitched sounds are typically the first to be tough to understand because the high-frequency cells become injured more easily than the lower pitched cells.
How to Avoid High-Frequency Hearing Loss
While you can’t stop your ears from growing older, there are quite a few steps you can take to prevent or at least slow down the progression of high-frequency hearing loss. Some of these include:
- When removing earwax, never utilize a swab or any other small object. This can jam old ear wax into your ear canal and dull your ability to hear. A hot shower is usually enough o get rid of exes earwax but if this doesn’t work ask your hearing professional for other ways to irrigate your ears.
- Quieter things are better. Select the quietest model by examining the noise rating of the appliances. And don’t be scared to ask the restaurant manager to turn down the music if it’s difficult to hear your friends at dinner.
- In noisy spaces, put in hearing protection. If you have to yell to be heard in a noisy setting, this is a definite indication the noise could hurt your hearing. Heavy traffic, engines revving, power tool sounds, the loud sound systems at movies or live music concerts are all examples of instances when popping in the ear-plugs is a good idea. Noise canceling earphone might not fit inside your pocket, but they are the best solution in certain scenarios.
- Caring for your overall health. Your hearing can be damaged by smoking. Poor health, poor nutrition, or not enough exercise can also injure your hearing. Try to take good care of your health in all ways and this will safeguard your hearing also.
- Ask your doctor about medications you take. high-frequency hearing loss can be triggered by at least 200 different kinds of medications. Even aspirin at high doses can injure your hearing. Check with your doctor to determine if there are possibilities less likely to injure your hearing. Stay in close touch with your hearing health care provider if you can’t avoid using a particular medication. Further hearing loss can be prevented by treatment.
Treatment For High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Hearing aids are presently the most effective method for dealing with high-frequency hearing loss. And since this is the most widespread kind of hearing loss, there are numerous different designs a person can pick from. Hearing aids can boost high-pitched sounds so they are clearer to the user. You can immediately address your level and extent of hearing loss by having your hearing care pro fine-tune your hearing aid to enhance your ability to hear sounds at the right level. Many hearing aids can be controlled by your phone and include directional microphones for fine-tuning in circumstances such as business meetings, restaurant dinners, talking on the phone or listening to children.
If you think that you may be dealing with high-frequency hearing loss, schedule a hearing test. If you would like to enhance your capacity to hear your grandchild’s priceless one-liner, odds are there are individually designed solutions for you.