When is it time to have your hearing checked? You need a hearing exam if you have any of these four signs.
I guess my TV is regularly turned up to the point where my kids recently complained. And guess what I said. I said, “What”? It was a joke. I thought it was funny. But it also wasn’t. I have needed to turn the TV up louder and louder as of late. And I began to wonder: should I get a hearing test?
It really doesn’t make much sense to neglect getting a hearing test. Hearing assessments don’t cause you any discomfort, they’re non-invasive, and there isn’t any radiation. You’ve most likely just been putting it on the back-burner.
Considering how much neglected hearing loss can affect your health, you really should be more vigilant about making sure your hearing loss hasn’t gotten worse.
There are lots of good reasons why hearing evaluations are essential. It’s usually challenging for you to identify the earliest indications of hearing loss without one, and even slight hearing loss can affect your health.
So how can you recognize if you should schedule an appointment? Here are several ways to know if you need to consult with us.
Signs you should get a hearing test
If you’ve recently experienced any of the symptoms of hearing loss, it’s probably a good idea to get a professional hearing exam. Naturally, if things are hard to hear, that’s a pretty solid indication of hearing loss.
But some of the other indications of hearing loss are more subtle:
- It seems as if people are mumbling when they talk: Sometimes, it’s not loss of volume you have to be concerned with, it’s a loss of distinction. One of the first signs of hearing loss is difficulty following conversations. If you experience this happening more and more, you might want to make an appointment for a hearing test.
- Ringing that won’t go away: Ringing in your ears, which goes by the name of tinnitus, is often a sign of hearing damage. Ringing in the ear may or may not indicate hearing loss. But it’s certainly a sign that you should get a hearing assessment.
- You’re always missing text messages: Your cellphone (or mobile device, as they’re called now) is designed to be loud. So if you’re frequently missing calls or text messages, it may be because you aren’t hearing them. And perhaps, when you think about it, you’re failing to hear more everyday sounds.
- It’s hard to hear in noisy locations: Have you ever been to a crowded or loud space and had trouble hearing the conversation because of all the ambient noise? If this sounds familiar you could be developing hearing loss. Being able to isolate sounds is one sign of a healthy ear; this ability tends to wane as hearing loss advances.
Here are several other circumstances that indicate you should make an appointment for a hearing evaluation:
- Your ears aren’t clearing earwax completely
- Your ear is still plugged after an infection
- You have vertigo
- You can’t readily identify where specific sounds are originating
- You frequently use certain medications that are recognized to have an effect on your hearing.
This checklist, clearly, is not extensive. For example, if your TV’s volume is maxed and you still can’t hear it. But any one of these signs is worth following up on.
Regular examinations
But what if, to your awareness, you haven’t experienced any of these potential signs of hearing loss? So how frequently should you get your hearing tested? With all of the other guidelines for everything else, this one seems like a no-brainer. There are, actually, some suggestions.
- Sometime after you turn 21, you need to have a hearing assessment. Then your mature hearing will have a baseline.
- If your hearing is normal, undergo hearing examinations or tests every three years or so. That can be a huge chunk of time to pay attention to, so make sure they’re marked in your medical records somewhere.
- If you notice signs of hearing loss, you will want to have it checked right away, and then yearly after that.
It will be easier to uncover any hearing loss before any warning signs become apparent with routine screenings. You will have a better chance of maintaining your hearing over time the sooner you get examined. Which means, you should probably turn down your TV and make an appointment for a hearing test.
