1 in 6 adults experience some degree of hearing loss
Imagine dining in a busy restaurant. In the background there are dishes clattering, chairs scraping, people talking and laughing, and waiters rushing about. You are straining to follow what is happening at your table – and the effort of doing this is starting to make you feel more and more tired.
Eventually, you start pretending you can hear. You nod, look interested and laugh with the crowd even though you didn’t get the jokes. You begin to feel left out. When you leave the restaurant you have a throbbing headache, disappointment and no plans to repeat the experience anytime soon.
Hearing loss differs from vision loss
As with the eye, the ear’s performance is affected by aging. However, bad vision gradually makes reading harder as the letters get smaller, but hearing loss is different.
Hearing loss can make certain syllables and sounds harder to hear. For example, high-pitched consonants like f, s and t are easily drowned out by louder, low-pitched vowels like a, o and u. This results in a person with hearing loss complaining that they can hear others are talking, but not what they are saying.
Symptoms of hearing loss
If you can answer YES to one or more of these questions you might have hearing loss:
1. Do you find that people around you mumble or speak softly?
2. Do you find conversations in restaurants or crowded places difficult?
3. Do you often have to turn up the volume on your TV, radio or phone?
4. Do friends and family members complain that they have to repeat what they say to you?
5. Do you have to look at people’s faces in order to be able to understand what they are saying?
6. Have you noticed that everyday sounds, like the twittering of birds, footsteps or the clock ticking, are gone?
Do you think you are experiencing some form of hearing loss? Tim Harmon and Purchase Ear Technology in Paducah, KY want to help. Give us a call today at (270) 558-3996 to schedule an appointment or stop by our office located at 2008 Broadway, Paducah, KY.