Top 10 Early Warning Signs of Hearing Loss

You would think that hearing loss would be obvious to spot, but it’s not as easy to notice as you may think.

To begin with, many individuals with hearing loss have problems only with specified sounds and in distinct scenarios. And so, if you can hear normally on some occasions, you’ll have the tendency to blame other factors or other people for the instances that you do have a tough time hearing.

Second, hearing loss comes about slowly and gradually through the years, so it’s difficult to notice the slow development. It’s more convenient to pin the blame on other people for mumbling, or to turn up the TV volume a little louder, than to admit that you may possibly have hearing loss.

As a result, the signs and symptoms can be subtle. You need to know what to watch for, and although it’s easy to disavow that you have hearing loss, you should be honest with yourself about the warning signs.

Here are the top 10 to watch out for. If you recognize any, it may be time to set up a hearing test.

1. You experience ringing in the ears – this may be an indicator of permanent hearing injury. Hearing aids can not only help you to hear better, but they may also have the ability to minimize the ringing in your ears.
2. You are not able to hear normal household sounds – hearing loss can make it difficult to hear the doorbell, the telephone ringing, or another person calling your name from another room.
3. You have difficulty understanding TV dialogue – speech is generally much more challenging to hear than other sorts of sound. This often shows itself as difficulty following movie or TV show plots.
4. You have your phone, TV, or radio at max volume – if you can hear the television, phone, or radio much better than you can hear face-to-face discussions, check out the volume settings on your technology. You might have these gadgets set at excessive volumes while simultaneously believing that everyone else talks too softly.
5. You ask people to repeat themselves regularly – you realize that you say “what?” a lot, or that you need to ask people to repeat themselves when you’re not facing them.
6. You frequently misunderstand what people are saying – consonants are higher-pitched, and thus much more difficult to hear, than vowels. Considering that consonants communicate most of the meaning in a sentence, speech comprehension suffers.
7. You have trouble hearing all the words in a conversation – certain 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 frequently try to fill in the blanks.
8. You have difficulty hearing when your back is to the speaker – you may be dependent on lip reading, body language, and other cues to meaning much more than you think. When you’re not looking at the speaker, and can’t use these cues, you may have difficulty comprehending speech.
9. You have difficulty hearing with a great deal of background noise – as hearing loss becomes worse, competing noise becomes more of a challenge. You may be able to hear speech in tranquil areas, but it becomes increasingly difficult to follow conversations in a loud setting like a restaurant.
10. 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 tendency to shout. It doesn’t feel this way to you because you’re compensating for your hearing loss.

Do you have one or more of the top 10 warning signs of hearing loss? If yes, set up your hearing test today, and take the steps to start living an improved, more productive, and healthier life.