People who are born with perfect hearing, but whose hearing have gotten worse over the years often find the idea of getting hearing aids ludicrous. Most people tend to wave off the hearing loss as temporary.
In fact, it’s not unusual for people to say that it’s probably because they have too much wax in the ear, have been around a lot of noise, or their ear is fine and nothing is wrong.
Here’s the reality: everyone loses some degree of their hearing with age. In fact, it is estimated that by the time most people live to 100 years, they would have suffered significant hearing loss.
But, how do you tell a temporary hearing loss from a permanent one that requires the use of hearing aids to hear other people?
People Often Need to Repeat Things to You
One of the most difficult things about hearing loss is that sometimes, you’re the last person to notice. You will think you’re fine, but your relatives and friends often find themselves having to tell you one thing several times before you can hear.
And even when you do hear it, it would be because they shouted or said the thing very loudly. If you find people around you having to tell you things directly in your ear without any loud music playing in your immediate vicinity, then you should start thinking about saving them from all that stress by getting a hearing aid.
Struggle With Understanding Conversations
If you struggle to understand conversations, or some words seem muffled to you, chances are you may be developing a hearing impairment condition. This also applies to when you’re talking to people on your phone.
If you find that you often have to really listen or that you don’t hear most of the things the other person with a fully functioning phone mic is saying, maybe it’s time to visit an audiologist.
You Need to Increase the Volumes of Devices
If you find yourself constantly increasing the volume of your appliances and mobile phone to the loudest, then it means you’re not hearing well anymore.
Also, if you find that certain sounds cause you physical ear pain, or you keep hearing a ringing sound in your ear, chances are you need to see an ear specialist quickly to determine if you have any form of hearing loss.
Conclusion
Some people often try to lump the use of hearing aids and disability together. Well, the truth is using hearing aids doesn’t necessarily qualify as a disability. There are certain conditions you’ll need to meet before your hearing loss is officially considered a disability. These include:
- Poor word recognition –Your word recognition score is 40 or lower
- Air and bone conduction audiometry – the air and bone conduction thresholds in your better ear are less than or equal to 90dB and less than or equal to 60dB respectively
So confirm with your audiologist to make sure that you can file for disability on the basis of hearing loss.
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