Cranking up the volume doesn’t always remedy hearing loss issues. Consider this: Lots of people can’t understand conversations even though they are able to hear soft sounds. The reason for this is hearing loss often develops unevenly. Certain frequencies get lost while you can hear others perfectly fine.
Hearing Loss Comes in Numerous Types
- Sensorineural hearing loss is more common and caused by problems with the fragile hairs, or cilia, in the inner ear. These hairs vibrate when they detect sound and send out chemical impulses to the auditory nerve, which passes them to the brain for translation. When these little hairs in your inner ear are injured or killed, they do not regenerate. This is why the normal aging process is frequently the cause of sensorineural hearing loss. Things like exposure to loud noise, particular medications, and underlying health conditions can also lead to sensorineural hearing loss.
- Conductive hearing loss is a result of a mechanical issue in the ear. It might be a result of too much earwax buildup or due to an ear infection or a congenital structural problem. Your root condition, in many cases, can be managed by your hearing specialist and they can, if necessary, recommend hearing aids to help fill in any remaining hearing impairment.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss Symptoms
You may hear a bit better if people talk louder to you, but it’s not going to completely address your hearing loss problems. Certain sounds, such as consonant sounds, can be difficult to hear for people who suffer from sensorineural hearing loss. This could lead someone with hearing loss to the mistaken idea that those around them are mumbling when in fact, they’re speaking clearly.
The frequency of consonant sounds make them difficult to hear for someone dealing with hearing loss. Pitch is measured in hertz (Hz), and the majority of consonants register in our ears at a higher pitch than other sounds. Depending on the voice of the person talking, a short “o”, for example, will register between 250 and 1,000 hertz. But consonants like “f” or “s” will be anywhere from 1,500 to 6,000 hertz. Due to damage to the inner ear, these higher pitches are difficult to hear for people who have sensorineural hearing loss.
This is why just speaking louder doesn’t always help. It’s not going to help much when someone speaks louder if you don’t hear some of the letters in a word like “shift”.
How do Hearing Aids Help?
Hearing Aids fit in your ears helping sound reach your auditory system more directly and get rid of some of the outside noise you would typically hear. Also, the frequencies you are unable to hear are amplified and mixed with the sounds you can hear in a balanced way. This makes what you hear a lot more clear. Modern hearing aids can also cancel out background noise to make it easier to make out speech.