How do people suffer from hearing loss? Do they wake up one sweet sunny morning to discover that they are partially or completely deaf? Or do they notice a few signs before everything goes completely quiet?
Like blindness chronic kidney disease, and other health issues, hearing loss can be a gradual and slow process. It sometimes begins with multiple signs indicating a defect in your hearing. Your ability to determine the symptoms of hearing loss and act accordingly may save you from profound deafness.
If you are experiencing certain issues with your hearing, you may want to go through these signs to determine if you are at risk of hearing loss.
What is Hearing Loss?
Hearing loss is the total or partial inability to process sounds. An individual with hearing loss cannot hear as well as someone with normal hearing. This means that hearing loss patients cannot interpret sounds that are 15dB or more.
Hearing loss varies among individuals. It can be mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, or profound and can affect one or both ears. People with hearing loss didn’t become deaf immediately. Sometimes, this defect is followed by signs that people often ignore.
That said, here are five hearing loss signs you shouldn’t disregard.
1. Some sounds seem louder than normal.
Are you easily frightened by the loud music from your kid’s room? The reason is because of a phenomenon known as “recruitment.” Recruitment is common with hearing loss patients, and it occurs because you don’t lose all the hair cells in your ears at once.
When louder sounds penetrate your ears, it triggers the healthy cells to react more forcefully than they normally would, so louder sounds can be startling or may even be unclear.
2. Children’s voices sound muffled or unclear.
As you age, the inner ear organ that is instrumental to your hearing and the cells that detect high-pitched sounds, may fail. When that happens, hearing people with a high-pitched voice (like women and children) becomes difficult. You may also have issues hearing minute noises like your microwave beep or the little birds tweeting at sunset.
If you discover any issue with your hearing, especially a persistent problem, don’t hesitate to reach out to your doctor. There are also top ENT doctors at SFENTA who diagnose and treat hearing issues, nose infections, breathing and sleep issues, skin disorders, head and neck pains, etc.
3. Everyone is yelling at you to turn down the TV.
Do you often raise the TV’s volume to max or somewhere in-between so you hear properly? Sometimes, you may be unaware of the fact that you just maxed the TV’s volume until, of course, someone tells you. However, if the sound is so loud that hearing background noises becomes difficult, you may have issues with your hearing.
4. People notice you are talking too loud.
People with a hearing defect will talk louder than those with normal hearing. Such individuals may raise their voices when talking to people nearby, making the listeners appear confused. More often than not, people with hearing loss may not realize the nature of their voice until they are told.
If you discover that your voice sounds quieter whenever you talk, but you are often told that you talk too loud, it’s a sign that something is wrong with your hearing. Ensure you seek treatment if this becomes a regular occurrence.
Conclusion
Hearing loss doesn’t happen overnight. So pay attention to those signs. If they become persistent, you should visit your doctor for a proper diagnosis and treatment. Reporting signs of hearing loss earlier can save you from complete deafness.
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