Hearing loss isn’t simply about volume, it’s also about pitch. If it’s hard to understand the speech of a woman or a child, but you can still, for the most part, understand the men in the room, you could have some degree of high-frequency hearing loss. You’re not alone…this is the most common type of hearing loss.
Symptoms of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
With high-frequency hearing loss, consonant sounds that allow conversations to be understood, get muddled even though you might still be able to register the volume of a woman or a child’s voice. Normally the most difficult to pick up are consonant sounds such as ch, th, t, soft s, c, sh, k, f, and h. Even though a woman or a child is not mumbling, it may sound like they are. Comprehending a child’s joke or a family member’s question about dinner plans becomes very difficult because you have lost the ability to differentiate these sounds. Separation from family and friends, sadness, and frustration can be the result.
Other sounds within the high-frequency hearing loss range (2000 Hz) are missed by people with this condition. This includes high musical notes, birds chirping, and squeaks or sirens. Even at low volumes a man’s voice, thunder, and bass musical notes, may be fairly easy to detect.
Causes of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
As the most common type of hearing loss, high-frequency hearing loss can sneak up on people as they grow older, often imperceptibly at first. high-frequency hearing loss can be triggered by other things besides aging like specific medical issues like cardiovascular disease, too much noise exposure, and various medications.
The little hair-like sensors within the cochlea are harmed by all of these situations. Sound input is received by these tiny cells and sent to the brain for processing. The higher pitched sounds are frequently the first to become tough to understand because the high-frequency cells get injured more easily than the lower pitched cells.
high-frequency Hearing Loss, How to Prevent it
Although you can’t stop your ears from growing older, there are quite a few things you can do to stop or at least slow the advancement of high-frequency hearing loss. Including these:
- If you use any medication, ask your doctor if it has any impact on hearing. At least 200 different kinds of medications can cause or worsen high-frequency hearing loss. Your hearing can even be damaged by too much aspirin. To discover if there are possibilities less likely to harm your hearing, check with your doctor. Stay in close touch with your hearing health care provider if you can’t avoid taking a particular medication. Dealing with hearing loss early can help avoid further loss.
- Never utilizing a swab (or other small objects) to remove ear wax. This can push old ear wax into your ear canal and dull your capacity to hear. A hot shower is usually enough o get rid of exes earwax but if this doesn’t work ask your hearing care professional for other ways to irrigate your ears.
- In noisy settings, use hearing protection. If you need to yell to be heard in a noisy environment, this is a sure sign the noise might hurt your hearing. Heavy traffic, motorcycles revving, power tool sounds, the loud sound systems at movies or live music concerts are all examples of times when putting in the ear-protection is a good idea. Noise canceling headphone may not fit in your pocket, but they can be the best choice in some circumstances.
- Seeking out quiet things. Find noise ratings on appliances and select the quietest models. If it’s tough to hear your dinner companions, don’t be scared to ask the manager to turn the music down.
- Your health is important so take good care of it. Smoking can injury your hearing. Poor health, poor nutrition, or not enough exercise can also injure your hearing. Try to take good care of your health in all ways and this can protect your hearing also.
Treatment For High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Currently, the most reliable method for managing high-frequency hearing loss is hearing aids. And there are numerous models to pick from because this is the most prevalent kind of hearing loss. So that they are clearer to the user, hearing aids can increase high pitched sounds. You can directly manage your level and degree of hearing loss by having your hearing care expert fine-tune your hearing aid to improve your ability to hear sounds at the correct level. Some hearing aids can be controlled by your phone and include directional microphones for fine-tuning in circumstances like business meetings, restaurant dinners, talking on the phone or listening to children.
If you suspect that you may be dealing with high-frequency hearing loss, make an appointment for a hearing examination. If you would like to enhance your ability to hear your grandchild’s precious one-liner, chances are there are personally tailored answers for you.