Hearing Loss Treatment
You can feel really isolated when you have hearing loss. Even minor hearing loss can affect your brain and mental function—often going unnoticed in its early stages, which can be dangerous.
At Real Hearing USA, with locations in Augusta, GA, Davenport, IA, Traverse City, MI, Memphis, TN, Rock Hill, SC, Bradenton, FL, and Jackson, TN, we help patients across the country understand, detect, and treat hearing loss before it impacts their quality of life.
Is hearing loss a common condition? Absolutely. Globally, more than 466 million people are affected by hearing loss, according to estimates. It’s one of the most prevalent health concerns in the world, with a wide range of causes, types, and treatment options.
The good news? Many cases are preventable. Health officials and hearing experts alike are investing in educational programs to raise awareness about hearing health and prevention. Understanding the facts about hearing loss puts you in a better position to protect your hearing and take proactive steps toward long-term wellness.
Some Symptoms Of Hearing Loss That Are Frequently Overlooked
Maybe you think hearing loss means you simply have a hard time hearing. But it’s not uncommon for the early indications of hearing loss to go undetected or even just ignored. Some signs of hearing loss include:
- It sounds like people’s voices are muffled when they speak
- When there is background noise, like crowd noise, hearing becomes a real challenge
- You constantly need to turn up the volume on your devices
- Because you have trouble hearing softer dialog, you’ve been avoiding going to the movies or to the theater
- You’ve begun to isolate yourself from social situations, especially louder settings and bigger groups of people
- You always feel exhausted even though you’re getting plenty of rest
- You frequently find yourself tuning out colleagues
- Memory and other basic cognitive functions are becoming a struggle for you
Contact us for a hearing test if you are noticing any of these initial symptoms.
Hearing Loss Causes
The underlying cause of hearing loss is sometimes fairly obvious. But identifying one particular cause of hearing loss, for most people, will be difficult. There can be a combination of slight problems, for instance, that interact in surprising ways to cause hearing loss.
Here are a few common causes of hearing loss:
Congenital Issues
Physical Obstruction
Infection
Noise Damage
Age
Trauma
Types of Hearing Loss
Generally, there are two main categories of hearing loss:
Conductive Hearing Loss
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
With conductive hearing loss, hearing will usually return to normal when the blockage is removed. In some cases, both types of hearing loss could be present simultaneously.
Treatments For Hearing Loss
Most hearing loss can be treated even if it can’t be cured. Regular hearing assessments might be all that is required in the less extreme cases. But when there is more significant hearing loss, hearing aids can be an effective treatment.
There are a large number of sophisticated technologies packed inside of a modern hearing aid. Making voices and sounds sharper and clearer is exactly where innovations like machine learning-enabled sound balancing shine. And modern hearing aids come with an impressive array of other useful technologies, like Bluetooth connectivity, automatic emergency contacting, and step counting, to name just a few.
At first glance, it may seem excessive to pack that much technology into a hearing aid. But for individuals who cope with hearing loss, these technologies can be very helpful. Communication is improved with sound balancing which favors voices. Essential social bonds can be preserved and connection to the outside world can remain intact with features like Bluetooth. For someone with hearing impairment, maintaining quality of life is what all of these technologies were designed to accomplish.
Why Is It Essential To Effectively Manage Hearing Loss?
It’s very common for hearing loss to be treated by the use of hearing aids. Getting that treatment is really important, and not only for your hearing.
Here are some of the advantages of getting prompt treatment:
What's The Future Of Hearing Loss?
Around the world, hearing loss is becoming a more urgent problem because of the prevalence of technology like earbuds for personal listening and the increase of noise pollution. It’s clear that every year, millions of new people will be impacted by hearing loss.
Health concerns that are associated with hearing loss can best be managed by getting treatment as early as possible. Contact us right away to make an appointment for a hearing test.