Hearing loss is about pitch as much as volume. It’s conceivable you have some amount of high-frequency hearing loss if you can understand what the men in the room are saying but you can’t hear children and women. This is a very common kind of hearing loss so you’re not alone.
high-frequency Hearing Loss Warning Signs
With high-frequency hearing loss, consonant sounds that allow conversations to be understood, get muddled even though you might still be able to pick up on the volume of a woman or a child’s voice. Normally, consonant sounds such as t, th, ch, soft c, s, sh, f, k, and h are the most difficult to differentiate. So, it might sound like a woman or child is mumbling, even though they actually aren’t. Losing the ability to distinguish these sounds makes it very difficult to understand a child’s joke or your sister’s question about dinner plans. Isolation from family and friends, sadness, and frustration can be the result.
Other sounds within the high-frequency hearing loss range (2000 Hz) are lost to people who have this condition. This includes birds chirping, high musical notes, whistles or squeaks. Even at low volumes a man’s voice, thunder, and bass musical notes, might be relatively easy to detect.
Causes of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Often imperceptible at first, high-frequency hearing loss, the most prevalent kind of hearing loss, can sneak up on you as you get older. Other than growing older, too much noise exposure, certain medications and numerous medical issues like cardiovascular disease can result in high-frequency hearing loss.
These scenarios all harm to the tiny, hair-like sensory cells within the cochlea. It’s these little cells that pick up sound input and deliver it to the brain for processing. The higher pitched sounds are commonly the first to be tough to understand because the high-frequency cells become damaged more easily than the lower pitched cells.
How to Prevent High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Although you can’t stop your ears from getting older, there are quite a few steps you can take to prevent or at least slow the progress of high-frequency hearing loss. Including these:
- In noisy situations, put in hearing protection.A certain sign that your ears might be getting injured is if you have to shout to be heard in a loud setting. Heavy traffic, engines revving, power tool sounds, the loud stereo systems at movie theaters or rock concerts are all good examples of times when putting in the ear-plugs is a good idea. Noise canceling earphone might not fit in your pocket, but they are the best solution in certain scenarios.
- Caring for your general health. Smoking can harm your hearing. Poor health, poor nutrition, or not enough exercise can also hurt your hearing. Preserve your hearing by taking care of your general health.
- Ask your doctor about medications you take. high-frequency hearing loss can be caused by at least 200 different kinds of medications. Your hearing can even be injured by high doses of aspirin. Check with your doctor to determine if there are choices less likely to damage your hearing. If you can’t avoid using a specific medication, stay in close contact with your hearing specialist for regular hearing loss and balance testing. Additional hearing loss can be avoided by treatment.
- When removing earwax, never use a swab or any other small object. Your capacity to hear becomes blunted when you push old earwax against your eardrum. Carefully wipe out excess earwax with a washcloth when you’re done showering, or ask your hearing professional about different ear irrigation techniques for getting rid of earwax without hurting your hearing.
- Getting quiet things. Select the quietest model by checking the noise rating of the appliances. And don’t be afraid to ask the restaurant manager to turn the music down if it’s hard to hear your friends at dinner.
Treatment For High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Presently, the most effective method for managing high-frequency hearing loss is hearing aids. And there are various models to choose from since this is the most prevalent type of hearing loss. So that they are clearer to the listener, hearing aids can augment high pitched sounds. You can immediately manage your level and degree of hearing loss by having your hearing care pro fine-tune your hearing aid to increase your ability to hear sounds at the correct level. For circumstances like talking on the phone, listening to children, having dinner at a restaurant, or business meetings many hearing aids can be manipulated by your phone and have directional microphones for fine-tuning.
If you suspect that you might have high-frequency hearing loss, make an appointment for a hearing test. Chances are, there are personally-tailored answers that can increase your capacity to catch your grandchild’s precious one-liners.