Hearing and Overall Health
Our ability to hear is highly complex. Hearing is connected to many aspects of our health, from balance to cognition to speech comprehension. While there are many possible causes for hearing loss, the most common is often age. As we get older, our ability to hear decreases. By age 50, it is recommended to have your hearing checked annually. By age 60, the likelihood of hearing loss further increases.
Hearing loss can have many causes, the most common being:
- Age
- Genetics
- Loud noise exposure
- Ototoxic medications
- Head/ear trauma
- Underlying health conditions (diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc.)
Signs of
Hearing Loss in Adults
For many people, hearing loss occurs gradually. It can be difficult to recognize the symptoms because many people become accustomed to not hearing well. Some common signs include:
- Sounds seem muffled
- You can hear but you lack clarity
- You often ask people to repeat themselves
- It’s difficult to hear when there is background noise
- You hear a ringing in your ears (tinnitus)
Hearing Loss
in Children
Children can experience hearing loss at any point, from birth to later in childhood. Your child’s hearing plays a crucial role in their social, emotional, and cognitive development. It’s important to be proactive about your child’s hearing in order to provide them with the resources necessary for success by visiting a pediatric audiologist.
It’s important to recognize the signs of hearing loss in your child early.
- They have limited, poor, or no speech
- They are inattentive
- Difficulty learning
- They need to have the TV at a higher volume
- They fail to respond to conversation-level speech
- They answer inappropriately to speech
- They don’t respond to their name
Tinnitus
Tinnitus, also known as “ringing in the ears,” is a common condition that affects millions of people. Tinnitus is described as hearing a buzzing, humming, ringing, or whistling sound in the ears when no external sounds are present. These phantom sounds can range from quiet to loud and can last anywhere from a few seconds to days at a time.
Although there is no cure to stop ringing in the ears completely, there are tinnitus treatments that can help. A management option we carry at our hearing care center is tinnitus masking hearing aids. These hearing aids have a masking feature that will play soothing sounds in your ears to distract your brain from tinnitus. Contact us today to schedule an appointment to discuss options to help you alleviate ringing in the ears.