If you have a partner with neglected hearing loss, you know that getting their attention can be… a problem. First, you try to use their name. “Greg”, you say, but you used a standard, indoor volume level, so you get nothing. You try saying Greg’s name a little louder and still nothing. So you resort to shouting.
Well this time Greg hears you and grouchily asks what you’re yelling for.
It’s not just stubbornness and irritability that create this situation. Hypersensitivity to loud sound is often documented in those with hearing loss. So it seems logical that Greg gets aggravated when you shout his name after he continually fails to hear you when you speak to him at a normal volume.
Can loud sounds seem louder with hearing loss?
Hearing loss can be a strange thing. Usually, hearing loss will cause your hearing to decline, particularly if it goes untreated. But every once in a while, you’ll watch a Michael Bay movie, or be talking with someone, or be eating in a restaurant, and things will get really loud. Uncomfortably loud. Maybe it’s someone yelling to get your attention or one of the explosions in the latest Transformers movie, it just becomes really loud really fast.
And you’ll wonder why you have this sensitivity to loud noise.
Which can, truthfully, put you in an irritable mood. Many people will feel like they’re going mad when they notice this. They have a difficult time determining how loud things are. You have a sudden sensitivity to loud sounds even as your friends and family are pointing out your very noticeable hearing loss symptoms. How is that possible?
Auditory recruitment
A condition called auditory recruitment can trigger these symptoms. Here’s how it works:
- There are little hairs, called stereocilia, that cover your inner ear. When soundwaves enter into your ears, these hairs resonate and your brain translates that signal into sounds.
- Age-related “sensorineural” hearing loss happens as these hairs are damaged. Over time, these delicate hairs are permanently damaged by repeated exposure to loud sounds. Your hearing becomes duller as a result. Your degree of hearing loss will be progressively more severe the more hairs that are damaged.
- But this isn’t an evenly occurring process. There will be a combination of healthy and damaged hairs.
- So when the impaired hairs are exposed to a loud noise, the healthy hairs are “recruited” (thus the condition’s name) to send a signal of alarm to your brain. Suddenly, all of the stereocilia fire, and everything gets really loud.
Think about it this way: everything is quiet except for the Michael Bay explosion. So the Michael Bay explosion is going to seem louder (and more obnoxious) than it would otherwise!
Isn’t that the same as hyperacusis?
Those symptoms may sound a little familiar. That’s likely because they’re frequently confused with a condition known as hyperacusis. That conflation is, initially, understandable. Auditory recruitment is a condition in which you have a sensitivity to loud sounds, and hyperacusis is a condition in which sounds very suddenly get loud.
But here are a few substantial differences:
- While hyperacusis has no link to hearing loss, there is a direct link between auditory recruitment and hearing loss.
- When you have hyperacusis, noises that are at an objectively normal volume seem extremely loud to you. Think about it like this: A shout will still sound like a shout with auditory recruitment; but with hyperacusis, a whisper may sound like a shout.
- Hyperacusis causes pain. Literally. Feeling pain is common for individuals who have hyperacusis. That’s not necessarily the situation with auditory recruitment.
Overall, auditory recruitment and hyperacusis have a few superficially similar symptoms. But they are entirely different conditions.
Can auditory recruitment be treated?
Here’s the bad news, there’s no cure for hearing loss. Once your hearing is gone, it’s gone. Treatment of hearing loss can prevent this, largely.
The same is true of auditory recruitment. But the good news is that auditory recruitment can successfully be treated. Typically, hearing aids are at the center of that treatment. And there’s a specific calibration for those hearing aids. So it will be necessary to schedule an appointment with us.
We’ll be able to determine the particular wavelengths of sound that are causing your auditory recruitment symptoms. Your hearing aids can then be calibrated to reduce that wavelength of sound. It’s a very effective treatment.
Only certain types of hearing aid will be effective. Over-the-counter hearing aids or sound amplifiers, for example, do not have the necessary technological sophistication and built-in sensitivity, so they won’t be able to deal with your symptoms.
Reach out to us for an appointment
It’s essential that you know that you can get relief from your sensitivity to loud noise. The bonus is that your new hearing aid will make everything sound clearer.
But it all begins by making an appointment. This hypersensitivity is a natural part of the hearing loss process, it happens to many, many people.
You can get help so call us.
