You’re having a conversation with someone at a party or restaurant, and, try as you might, you just can’t make out much of what they're saying. Instead of interrupting and asking others to speak louder or repeat themselves, you gamely smile and nod. Sadly, you’ve missed what they said and hope it’s nothing important.
These lost connections can begin to add up over time until you end up living more in your own world than the one around you.
Hearing loss is very common, especially as you grow older, and affects about 15% of adults in the United States. The good news is that, with the help of an audiologist, there are ways to restore your hearing.
At Advanced ENT & Allergy, Dr. Timothy Queen, Nancy Gibson, FNP-BC, and Kristi Pham, MSN, FNP-BC, offer comprehensive audiology services, including testing and treatment.
In the following, we explore five signs that it's time to make an appointment with us.
One of the hallmarks of early hearing loss is difficulty hearing someone talk when there’s a cacophony of sounds around you, such as at a restaurant or at a party. You can’t single out the voice directed at you because the other noises interfere.
You find yourself reaching for the remote to turn the volume up on your TV, or you turn on the subtitles because others complain that it’s too loud. Turning up the volume on your TV, radio, or computer is a sign of potential hearing loss.
Increasingly, voices and sounds seem muffled, as if blocked by a hat or earphones, even though there’s nothing between the source and your ears.
You can make out vowels and can distinguish between them, but consonants are harder. Losing the ability to hear consonants before vowels is a hallmark of hearing loss.
An interesting effect of hearing loss is that some isolated noises may seem too loud. This is called recruitment, as your diminished hearing focuses and amplifies a single sound.
If any of the symptoms above sound familiar, it’s time to come see us. Through comprehensive testing, we can determine whether there’s a temporary problem, such as earwax buildup, or whether you’re experiencing an irreversible decline in hearing.
A loss of hearing may be irreversible, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t solutions. Nearly 30 million people in the US could benefit from hearing aids, tiny devices that can greatly improve your hearing.
To figure out what’s behind your hearing difficulties, please contact our office in Newport News, Virginia, to schedule your audiology appointment.
