When Do I Need To Buy A Hearing Aid?
Normal hearing is considered normal, even if you have down to a 30 to 35 decibel hearing loss. If you have normal hearing and stick your fingers in your ears, that’s about what a 30 decibel hearing loss would sound like.
What is considered perfect hearing is usually the norm for very young people. In fact, that’s how they arrived at what decibel level was considered normal. They simply tested many very young children and averaged their responses.
Beyond the normal hearing range comes moderate, severe and profound levels of hearing loss. When to get help usually depends on the patient and their hearing needs. When any of your hearing level drops below the normal range you will begin to notice a change in your hearing ability. For example, if your high frequencies drop below this level, you will notice you hear everything fine. However, you’re missing and misunderstanding some words. This is because the high frequencies are where the high pitched consonants in the English language are and it’s the consonants that give words their meaning.
I tell patients when they are noticing they are missing words and not getting words right is usually the best time to get help. Someone who gets their hearing checked every couple of years and is aware of their hearing loss can get correction and will be usually completely back to normal hearing levels with proper correction.
The correction of a hearing loss gets complicated when someone puts off getting help for years because hearing losses are usually progressive over time. If correction is not gotten what often happens is a slow loss of the individual’s ability to process sounds into meaningful words — all due to sound depravation caused by a hearing loss. I have as high as 8% of my patients in my private practices that have zero ability of understanding words. Most people who hear in a normal range usually can’t even comprehend this because if you can hear someone talking you understand the words. That’s not how it is with someone who has a hearing loss and has lost a portion of their speech understanding.
Wearing a hearing aid will slow this process down. Keeping the sound stimulation and processing of sounds into words provides enormous difference, even as the hearing loss progressively gets worse.
Please get your valuable hearing checked routinely. I recommend every couple of years, unless you already know you have a hearing loss. Then if you have a correctable loss look into how to get it corrected.
