TGIF everyone! Today's blog post is a guest post by Hearing Partner's Audiologist Shermin Lim. Enjoy!
As an Audiologist, I am frequently asked by my patients when they should consider wearing hearing aids. Here is the main reason:
You were diagnosed with hearing loss.
Oftentimes, hearing loss is the key reason why you were asked to wear hearing aids. Hearing loss often occurs due to:
Injury
Aging
Medical Conditions (e.g. sudden hearing loss)
Loud noise exposure
How do I know I have hearing loss?
Communication
Do you struggle to communicate with people on a daily basis, be it at work, at home or during recreational activity?
For a working adult, do you often have trouble understanding conversations, during meetings or tele-conversations?
For a retiree or someone enjoying their leave, while talking to your friends or loved ones, do you find yourself asking them to repeat what was spoken during conversations?
Entertainment
Do you tend to increase the volume of your television or devices when listening to your favourite tv program or music?
If you are unsure, you can ask the people living with you, whether the tv volume is louder than usual. Or despite increasing the volume, you find that you are unable to hear what was being played through the television.
Safety
Other than communication and entertainment, you may also be missing out the sounds of bicycle or someone coming through at times, while walking on the pavement or across the pedestrian crossing.
Ringing in the ears
Do you experience ringing in your ear? At times, this could be a sign of hearing loss.
How do I confirm that I have hearing loss?
Hearing and speech assessment
A hearing and speech test will be conducted by an Audiologist.
ENT evaluation
After being evaluated for your hearing and speech understanding by an audiologist, an ENT doctor will discuss the possible treatment and management options. If medication or surgery are unable to treat the hearing loss, you will be referred back to an Audiologist for a hearing aid evaluation.
If I was confirmed to have hearing loss and was recommended to wear hearing aids. What’s next?
Hearing aid evaluation
During a hearing aid evaluation, the audiologist will recommend a suitable hearing aid based on your hearing profile, preference and lifestyle.
Hearing profile
Interestingly, the severity of your hearing loss is proportionate to the size of your hearing aids.
Preference
Nowadays, users can opt for hearing aids with different aesthetics and sound quality, based on individual preferences, e.g. some prefer those which are tiny and hidden in the ear. Small hearing aids have their merits and limitations, which I will share more in another blog post – “How to choose a hearing aid that is suitable for me”. Aesthetics aside, sound quality matters too. Generally, a higher and more premium model provides better quality in terms of comfort and clarity. Think of your luxury car brands - the models increase in comfort and performance, when you go higher up the range.
Lifestyle
Thanks to technological advancement, we are fortunate to have the ability to connect with others virtually nowadays, via our cell phones or other electronic devices.
Hearing aids have advanced too, by providing wireless connectivity to various devices. A good example will be the television and landline. Thanks to the connection, we can now hear the tv programs and phone conversations better, via the hearing aids.
A trial may be provided to assess whether the hearing aids will improve your hearing ability, whether it be listening to speech or your favourite song or program.
Should you think you would need a hearing evaluation, do contact us today for an assessment.
Thank you for reading!
