Top 10 Signs of Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is incredibly common, yet often ignored. Why? In pondering, I have came to the following. The full answer is a measuare of two parts. First, there are various causes of hearing loss and even different type of hearing loss. The most common cause of hearing loss, presbycusis, is simply due to aging. With this, you will notice the person struggling most often with high frequency sounds. They will feel like they can hear, but will struggle to fully understand conversation or pick up on every little sound. Speech is complex and utilizes the entire frequency spectrum. While someone is missing parts of words, they still may be fine at lower frequencies. This allows them to compensate by filling in the gaps of what they are missing, and use what they can hear to carry on a conversation. The subconscious ability for the brain to compensate for a hearing loss can make it difficult for one to detect the early stages of a hearing loss.

Compounded by this, we have to consider inevitable aging. It is not uncommon to have your loss accelerated by genetics and exposure to loud sounds throughout your lifetime. However, unless you experience some form of extreme trauma to your hearing, the natural aging process is so gradual that a hearing loss often will go unnoticed. The break down of someone's physiological ability to hear rarely happens overnight. Until the loss becomes severe enough to affect everyday life, the minute degradation in a person's ability to hear is extremely hard to detect.

With any medical condition, the sooner you address the hearing loss the better treatment outcome you will have. For those of you reading this that suspect you or a loved may struggle with hearing, below are the ten most common signs of a hearing loss.

1. Telephone Trouble

Most phones come with a volume control setting, so you might not have trouble hearing your friend because you have amped the telephone to the max. Check the volume setting on the telephone receiver. If it is at max volume, chances are you or someone at home has a hearing loss. If the people around you comment that you talk too loud on the phone, this is another telling sign you may have a loss. People will talk louder usually because they cannot hear themselves. They may be assuming the other person is having just as hard a time, or may not even notice they are doing it.

2. Conversation Trouble

Our ability to process multiple incoming and competing signals deteriorates over time. Let’s say you are at a meeting at work or eating dinner with the family. When two or more people talk at the same time, do you have a hard time keeping up? Many with a hearing loss complain they cannot follow conversation when too many things are happening at once.

3. TV Trouble

When your family complains that the TV is too loud, you probably have a hearing problem.

4. Straining To Hear

I do this all the time with my vision without noticing it. If I am too lazy to go find my glasses, I will automatically start squinting to try to read. I honestly do not even realize I am doing it until someone around me points it out. Same with hearing. If you find yourself straining to hear the speaker in the boardroom or at the podium, what does that tell you? If everyone else was able to hear with ease, have you considered having your hearing tested?

5. Trouble In Noisy Environments

You are with some friends at the new restaurant in town. It is noisy. All that background noise makes it difficult to hear the folks at your table. People with hearing loss often have problems masking out background noise. Good news. Today’s hearing aids – even the entry-level variety – come with directional microphones and digital noise reduction. Directional mics pick up sound in front of you, while reducing the cacophony of ambient noise surrounding you. Digital noise reduction reduces the din of background noise to improve comfort.

6. ‘What?’

If “what?” is the most commonly-used word in your vocabulary, you are not getting the sound signals you need to process information.

7. Clarity Trouble

They mumble. They do not speak loud enough. While that may be true for some, if you are having problems frequently with understanding conversation, it could be your hearing. People start to complain about muffled hearing when they are not picking up the full range of sound. Those low to high frequencies all sound like mumbling.

8. Word Discrimination Trouble

“You want me to eat a frog?” “No, Fred, I said, ‘See the fog’.” If you are having problems with word discrimination, a hearing test will cover that. During our free tests, we will do a speech test which will target specific sounds that may be giving you trouble.

9. Trouble Hearing Women/Children

As previously discussed, with age you are more likely to experience trouble in the higher frequencies. If you are struggling to hear women and children it could be because they speak at a higher pitch which is out of your hearing range. That is why it is harder to hear what your granddaughter is saying than your best friend with a big, booming, deep voice.

10. Family Trouble

Hearing loss is not soley about the ears. Loss of hearing can be associated with depression, anxiety, and isolation. Many times I see a spouse get frustrated that their significant other cannot hear them. They want the other person to repeat themselves and speak up. This blame game cycle wears on them, and can cause unneccary strain on the relationship. In reality, they are not aggrevated at their spouse, but that they cannot communicate as effectively as they once did. They are annoyed that they cannot hear. Healthy hearing is a quality of life issue. If you are missing out on conversations with your spouse, if you do not hear the birds tweeting, or your grandchild’s laughter, you are not living life to the fullest. Fortunately, there are lots of hearing solutions availabe. You just have to find the one that is most comfortable for you.

Hearing Aid Style Breakdown:Receiver in Canal

Small, discreet, and quick to fit.
Behind the Ear hearing instruments that place an earbud directly in the ear are referred to as Receiver in the Canal hearing aids. For our office, this style of aid is by far our most popular. Visually they are very similar to a classic Behind the Ear hearing aid. They are also worn the same way. Side by side, the case on a Receiver in the Canal (RIC) hearing aid is much smaller than a BTE. Even though a RIC instrument often is best fit without using a traditional custom earmold, its modularity allows this option to be used on patients when beneficial. If you forego an earmold, it is possible to fit your hearing aids the same day as your test. There is no need to take impressions, send them off to the factory, and wait for a couple weeks before having your aids ready.

While many see the RIC's convienance as a major advantage, the real selling point is in the design.  At times, offering a discreet fit can sacrifice performance. Making instruments smaller can result in increased acoustic feedback, a shorter battery life, and additional fit and comfort complaints. Well aware of these issues, the design of a RIC style hearing aid works to bring patients a small, yet effective product.

The RIC style features a receiver that is placed in the ear canal rather than in the case behind the ear. The receiver is then connected to the sound processor, which is worn behind the ear, via a wire link. A benefit of placing the receiver in the canal rather than behind the ear is that it provides an overall increase in sound pressure level, especially in the high frequencies. This added "gain," allows the hearing aid to function without the additional increase in amplifier gain needed with thin tube BTEs to compensate for acoustic anomalies. Additionally, multiple receiver units are available during the fitting process that can accommodate the appropriate power and acoustic needs for each patient. Multiple sizes of wire connectors can be chosen to optimize the comfort, performance and appearance of the instrument.

The design of the RIC instrument also offers a distinct advantage for feedback management due to the physical separation of the microphone and receiver. Mechanical feedback occurs when vibrations from the receiver pass through other components or the hearing aid case and enter the microphone. Acoustic feedback results from sound waves coming out of the receiver and re-entering the microphone. Consequently, for instruments that fit all in the ear, or in the canal, the feedback path is relatively short. The RIC design provides a greater separation of transducers over any other device, thus reducing both mechanical and acoustic feedback sensitivity.

Let us end with dicussing custom earmolds more in depth. The following also applies to custom hearing aids that fit down into your ear canal. If you have a custom earmold or a Completely in the Canal hearing aid, have you ever had that 'plugged up' feeling? That is a common complaint that is caused by the occlusion effect. There are two ways to reduce or eliminate the occlusion effect. The first is by venting or open fitting. The second is to obtain a sealed fit in the bony region of the canal. Both methods are possible with a modular RIC instrument. The open fitting can provide a very comfortable and easy fit for patients with high-frequency loss. However its benefits are limited when low-frequency amplification is needed. It allows non-amplified sound to pass dir­ectly to the eardrum naturally while also allowing low-frequency sounds to escape from the canal, thus reducing or eliminating the occlusion effect, but also reducing low-frequency amplification. Sealing the ear canal in the bony region also keeps the low-frequency sounds of the user's voice from passing to the tympanic membrane, therefore reducing and/or eliminating the occlusion effect, but additionally is able to retain low-frequency ampli­fication as needed. Therefore, the RIC style fitting can reduce occlusion effects for all levels of hearing loss and amplification.

May Fillmore and Delta Openhouse!

We have added a schedule to our blog! You will notice some events are labeled as a 'clinic' and others as an 'openhouse'. Clinics are an opportunity for our current patients to call and schedule a cleaning, service, or adjustment appointment. An Openhouse is a special event for new and prospective patients to have their hearing tested for free and see the latest technology. We will continue to update our monthly schedule so you will know where we will be in advance. Please call to make an appointment for a location close to you.

This month, May 8th through the 10th, House of Hearing Orem will be in both Fillmore and Delta UT. We will be at the Bird Senior Center in Delta, and the Best Western Resort (Paradise Inn) in Fillmore. With the recent success of our Richfield Openhouse, we have again invited NuEar Product Representative Don Bain to our event. He will be offering tremendous incentives and factory discounts toward the purchase of any hearing aids sold during this event. During this special event, we will be working with Mr. Bain to offer the following free of charge:

*Complete Hearing Evaluation
*Product Demonstrations
*No Obligation Consultation
*Complete Clean and Check of Your Current Aids

If you are in the Fillmore or Delta area, contact us for an appointment. Our number is 877-432-7457 or 801-221-1220. Call and take advantage of our limited time no cost services!