You need to pay special attention to your auditory health. If you are not paying attention, then your hearing can start to decline without you realizing it. This can lead to a loss of quality of life and small problems can evolve into larger problems without intervention. There is no reason for you can’t seek help and get the hearing loss treatment you need to get your hearing back on track.
Signs You Have Hearing Loss
While you may think that the signs of hearing loss are easy to spot, it may surprise you that the early signs of hearing loss are very subtle and can be easy to miss. Understanding these early signs of hearing loss can help you get the assistance you need from a trusted audiologist.
When hearing loss starts to set in it is usually the cells that detect higher-pitched sounds that start to fail first. This can manifest in ways like having a harder time hearing the voices of people with higher-pitched voices, primarily women and children. This can also cause you to have a hard time hearing the microwave beep or crickets outside.
You may also notice that it is hard to have a conversation in a place with background noise. If you are in a restaurant or other public place that has some background noise at a low level, you may have a harder time hearing tones that are high-pitched. Your ears may pick up the background noises better than the conversation at hand.
If you are experiencing the beginnings of hearing loss, you may also notice that you are very tired after social events. When you start to lose your hearing, your brain has to work especially hard to fill in the gaps in conversation and make sense of what other people are saying. This takes a lot of focus and will make you feel especially tired after social events where you have to focus on several conversations and speakers.
Normally when we engage in conversation, we make eye contact with the person we are talking with. If you find yourself dropping your gaze to watch their lips instead of their eyes. If your ears are not working as well as they used to, other senses try to fill in the gaps automatically. If you are automatically watching someone’s lips instead of their eyes, then you are likely subconsciously trying to compensate for hearing loss.
If you have too much wax fluid in your ears, your ears may feel clogged sometimes. If you go to an audiologist and says your ear is clear, then that could be indicative of hearing loss. Your hearing may seem dull and muffled and sounds may seem far away.
If you are dealing with the early signs of hearing loss, you may be able to see some tangible proof in the volume settings on your devices. Things like the volume on the TV, the car radio and your phone will become hard to hear, so you will turn it up a little bit. As the hearing loss progresses, the volume level will continue to creep up. If you see that the volume is louder than it has been in the past, or other people complain that the volume is too loud, you may want to visit an audiologist.
How To Find The Right Audiologist For You
It is important to find an audiologist that you can trust. This means doing your research before you make a decision. It is important to talk to other people about your options. One good resource is your regular doctor. They can give you recommendations from local audiologists that might be a good fit for you.
You can also turn to friends and family members to find out who they enjoyed working with. They can give you their experiences as a patient that will give you insight into how your own experience might be.
You can also look for information online. You can not only view the websites of different audiology practices, but you can also look up reviews from third-party resources that are unbiased. This will give you an idea of the general trend of customer experiences.
Kampsen Hearing is dedicated to helping those with hearing loss live their best life. They cover a lot of different areas of hearing loss and can help you every step of the way on your journey. You can call us today at (813) 369-5692 to make a consultation appointment and ask questions to help put your mind at ease.