Untreated hearing loss is a significant problem; of the almost 30 million Americans who could benefit from hearing aids, fewer than 30% have ever worn them. There are many reasons why hearing loss may go untreated, and one of those reasons is that the person suffering from hearing loss may not yet realize that their ability to hear is declining.
Hearing loss often comes on gradually. The cells in your inner ear, which play a key role in transmitting sound information to your brain, age and die as you get older. The first cells to die are typically the ones that process high-pitched sounds. This process happens slowly, and you may not even notice it happening at first. We’ve compiled some common early warning signs of hearing loss—keep them in mind for yourself or for your loved ones.
1: Difficulty Understanding Conversations
This is a significant indicator of hearing loss, but it’s more subtle than you might expect. There are more nuances to conversing with hearing loss than just asking people to repeat themselves a lot (although that is a big part of it). Some other signs of hearing loss that might be noticeable when speaking with someone include:
- Pretending to follow along to avoid asking for repeats.
- Feeling like everyone is mumbling. This is due to losing the ability to hear high-frequency sounds, which often include consonants. When you can hear the vowels in words but not the consonants, it sounds like people aren’t speaking clearly.
- Group conversations are hard to follow. Perhaps speaking with someone one-on-one isn’t that challenging, but when in a group conversation, you can’t keep up with who says what.
- Difficulty understanding children. As mentioned, you lose the high-frequency sounds first. Children’s voices are higher, so if you’re experiencing the early stages of hearing loss, they’ll be harder to hear.
2: Feeling Tired After Conversations
As the cells in your inner ear age and die, they send less sound information to the brain. This forces the brain to work harder to process the sound information it does get and then fill in the blanks. This leads to mental exhaustion, also called listener’s fatigue. If you feel completely drained after a conversation, that could be a sign of hearing loss.
3: Feeling Irritated at Background Noise
With your brain working overtime to process sound information, it struggles to discern what sounds are background noise and what sounds aren’t, and it has less energy to filter accordingly, meaning background noise might feel like it has been turned up. You may blame the background noise for your difficulty hearing conversations. Or, if you’re at home, you might find yourself more easily distracted by background noise than usual.
4: Missed Phone Calls
You can’t pick up a phone call if you don’t hear it ringing. This sign also relates to the loss of high-frequency sounds; a ringing telephone is usually a high-pitched sound.
Talking on the phone gets more difficult with hearing loss, as well, which may make you feel averse to picking up a call. When holding your phone up to your ear, only one ear is receiving the sound information, which makes it even harder for your ear and brain to capture sound information.
5: Battles Over the Volume
If you’re watching TV and can’t hear it, you’ll turn the volume up, maybe without even thinking about it. However, if other people in the room complain about it being too loud, that’s a good indicator to get your hearing checked. Or, if you are watching TV alone, pay attention to the volume level; if it’s at high or maximum volume and you still struggle, it’s time to seek help.
How to Seek Help
Untreated hearing loss doesn’t go away. The sooner you seek medical advice for hearing loss, the better. The good news is that hearing aids help with all of the difficulties listed above: you’ll hear conversations more clearly, use less brain power to hear, take advantage of background noise suppression, and even link your phone and TV to your hearing aids and stream audio directly to your ears. Don’t wait to get your hearing checked. Call Valley Audiology today to make an appointment.