Hearing Loss  

Hearing loss can affect your life in many ways. It can range from missing certain sounds to total loss of hearing. Hearing loss can be serious. You may not hear the sound of your smoke detector alerting you to a fire. You may miss out on talks with friends or family. Hearing problems can make you feel anxious, upset, and left out. It’s easy to withdraw from people when you can’t follow what is being said at the dinner table or in a restaurant. Friends and family may think you’re confused, uncaring, or difficult when you’re really having trouble hearing. If you have a problem hearing, there is help.  There are many treatments—hearing aids, medication, or surgery. 

How Do I Know if I Have a Hearing Loss? 

The tell-tale signs of hearing loss are that you: 

-        Have trouble hearing over the telephone 

-        Find it hard to follow conversations when two or more people are talking 

-        Often ask people to repeat what they are saying  

-        Need to turn up the TV volume so loud that others complain 

-        Have a problem hearing because of background noise 

-        Think that others seem to mumble 

-        Can’t understand when women and children speak to you 

Types Of Hearing Loss 

Conductive Hearing Loss - Caused by disorders of the outer and/or middle ear. Physical obstructions or abnormalities may block or inhibit the efficient entry of sound waves from reaching hearing nerves deeper in the ear. This results in difficulty hearing faint noises.   

Sensorineural Hearing Loss – You will have lost the ability to hear high-pitched noises and properly understand conversations.  This type of hearing loss occurs when the auditory nerve or the inner ear has experienced some damage.  Loud noise is one of the most common causes of this type of hearing loss. Noise from lawn mowers, motorcycles, firecrackers, or loud music can damage the inner ear. This can result in permanent hearing loss. You can prevent most noise-related hearing loss. Protect yourself by turning down the sound on your stereo, television, or headphones; move away from loud noise or use earplugs or other ear protection 

Mixed Hearing Loss – A combination of both conductive and Sensorineural losses.   

Other Hearing Loss Problems 

Ear wax or fluid build-up can block sounds that are carried from the eardrum to the inner ear. If wax blockage is a problem, try using mild treatments, such as mineral oil, baby oil, or commercial ear drops, to soften ear wax. Syringing may also be necessary to remove the ear wax.  

A punctured eardrum can also cause hearing loss. The eardrum can be damaged by infection, pressure, or putting objects in the ear, including cotton-tipped swabs. See your doctor if you have pain or fluid draining from the ear. Viruses and bacteria, heart condition, stroke, brain injuries, or tumours may affect your hearing. If you have hearing problems caused by a new medication, check with your doctor to see if another medicine can be used. Sudden deafness is a medical emergency that may be curable if treated in time. See a doctor right away. 

What to do if I think I am suffering from hearing loss? 

Have a free hearing test conducted by a qualified registered Audiologist.  During the test your ears will be thoroughly examined at different frequencies.  An audiogram is produced showing the type and extent of your hearing loss.  A clear explanation of the hearing test results will be provided.   

What Devices Can Help? 

Hearing Aids have been found to help in most cases of hearing loss. Hearing aids can be described as either analogue or digital, depending on the technology they use to process sound. Digital hearing aids are the newest kind of hearing aid. In fact, analogue technology is gradually being phased out.  

Digital aids take the signal from the microphone and convert it into ‘bits’ of data – numbers that can be manipulated by a tiny computer in each hearing aid. A digital hearing aid receives sounds and digitizes it. It breaks sound waves into very small units prior to amplification. This makes it possible for the digital hearing aids to process sounds in ways that are impossible with analogue aids.  An analogue hearing aid simply makes the sound wave larger to amplify sounds.  

It also means that the person fitting your digital hearing aids can tailor the sound very precisely to suit you. Digital hearing aids can be very finely adjusted to suit your individual needs. You may also be able to switch between different digital hearing aid settings suitable for different listening conditions. Many digital aids even adjust themselves automatically to suit different sound environments.  A digital hearing aid can be programmed to adjust itself to the current environment millions of times each second. Digital hearing aids can amplify certain sounds and neutralise others and therefore can perform exceptionally well in a variety of different environments.