Guidance From A Hearing Center Can Make Hearing Loss Less Troublesome

Perhaps you are aging. We all are. Perhaps you notice that you ask what a lot or respond inappropriately in conversation. Maybe your spouse complains that you speak to loudly, or that you have the television up to loud. This can signal hearing loss. Hearing loss is not an uncommon problem. At times the cause is temporary conductive hearing loss. Something like ear wax buildup or fluid in the ear. Other times it is more serious like damage to nerve cells. If you visit your local hearing center they may be able to offer you a free hearing test.

A hearing test is given to test sensitivity to sound. The likely test you would be given is audiometry. This test would be given by having the patient sit in a sound proofed room. The test requires the patient to raise their hand to indicate they have heard a sound. When the test is complete the audiologist will have an idea of what ranges the patient is hearing in.
Sound is measured in decibels. So 20dB is like whispering with your girlfriends, 80-120dB would be a rock concert. This level is to loud. After a few hours damage can begin. About 50dB is normal speech. So what does it look like when you are hearing within normal ranges?

If your hearing is normal your testing will indicate that you hear a whisper, the ticking of a watch or clock, and that you can hear normal conversation. The result would come back saying you hear 25dB or lower. If your testing is not normal then you cannot hear 25dB or lower. Hearing loss is tricky though. You might lose the ability to hear only low tones, or high tones. The areas of hearing loss can indicate what type of loss you have.

Sensorineural hearing loss is damage to the inner ear. This damage could be from disease, drugs like aspirin, aging, or genetics. This type of hearing loss cannot be repaired through surgery. Amplifying sound can improve your quality of life however. Conductive hearing loss is when something is keeping the sound from traveling through the outer ear to the eardrum and over the small bones of the middle ear. This might be from fluid, ear wax buildup, perforated eardrum, tumor, or swimmers ear. This type of loss can be treated.

Treatment can be antibiotics to clear up an ear infection or surgery to remove a tumor. If your treatment is a hearing aid be advised that there are many options. Hearing aids don't fix the problem, but they do help amplify sound. In other words, to hear you will need the hearing aid. A hearing center can talk about options and guide you to one that works best for your degree of loss as well as lifestyle.