When should you have your hearing tested? You need a hearing exam if you have any of these four signs.
The other day, my kids complained about how loud my TV was. Do you know what I said to them? I said, “What”? It was a joke. I thought it was amusing. But, in some ways, it was anything but funny. The TV has been getting progressively louder. And I began to wonder: should I get a hearing test?
There aren’t all that many excuses not to make an appointment for a hearing test. They’re not invasive, there’s no radiation, you don’t have to worry about discomfort. It’s really just that you haven’t put aside time to do it.
You should really be more vigilant about keeping track of your hearing because, if left unchecked, it can affect your general health.
Hearing evaluations are important for many reasons. It’s usually challenging for you to observe the earliest signs of hearing loss without one, and even slight hearing impairment can affect your health.
So when should you get your hearing tested? Here are a few ways to tell if you need to come see us.
Signs you should get a hearing test
It’s time to get a professional hearing assessment if you’ve been noticing signs of hearing loss recently. Obviously, if things are hard to hear, that’s a pretty solid indication of hearing loss.
But that’s not the only symptom, and there are some signs of hearing loss that are much less apparent:
- It’s difficult to hear in noisy locations: Have you ever had a difficult time following along with conversations because of ambient noise in a busy room? If this seems familiar you could be developing hearing loss. As your hearing goes from healthy to impaired, one of the first warning signs is the loss of the ability to identify distinct sounds.
- Chronic ringing in your ears: Ringing in your ears, which is called tinnitus, is typically a symptom of hearing damage. If you’re dealing with some ringing that won’t stop, it might or might not be a sign of hearing loss. But it’s certainly an indication that you should get a hearing exam.
- It sounds like everybody’s mumbling all the time: Sometimes, it’s clarity not volume you have to worry about. One of the earlier signs of hearing loss is difficulty making out conversations. It might be time for a hearing assessment if you notice this happening more and more often.
- You’re always missing text messages: Your phone (or mobile device, as they’re called now) is made to be loud. So if you keep noticing text messages or calls that you missed, it’s probably because you couldn’t hear them. And perhaps, when you think about it, you’re failing to hear more everyday sounds.
This list is not exhaustive, here are a few more:
- You regularly use certain medications that are recognized to have an impact on your hearing.
- It’s difficult to determine the origin of sounds
- You have an accumulation of ear wax you’re body can’t clear on your own
- You have an ear infection and it won’t go away
- You have vertigo
This checklist, obviously, isn’t extensive. For example, if your TV’s volume is maxed and you still can’t hear it. But any one of these symptoms is worth following up on.
Regular checkups
But what if, to your knowledge, you haven’t encountered any of these possible symptoms of hearing impairment? Is there a guideline for how often you should go get your hearing checked? There’s a guideline for everything, right, so there’s got to be a guideline for this. There are, in fact, some suggestions.
- Sometime after you turn 21, you need to have a hearing test. Then your mature hearing will have a standard.
- Every three years or so will be a practical schedule if your hearing seems normal. But make sure you mark these appointments in your calendar or medical records because it’s easy to forget over these huge periods of time.
- If you show signs of hearing loss, you will want to have it checked right away, and then annually after that.
Routine examinations can help you discover hearing loss before any red flags appear. The earlier you find treatment, the better you’ll be able to preserve your hearing in the long run. So it’s time to give us a call and schedule a hearing examination.