Why is it essential to have your hearing tested regularly? Well, the reality is that hearing loss can have considerable and long-term impacts on your general health. Getting your hearing assessed regularly can help you identify hearing loss early, get care faster, and, improve your health, wellness, and quality of life.
Who should get a hearing examination?
Your health and well-being can be significantly affected by untreated hearing loss. For example, hearing loss can result in extreme social isolation. Discussions with family and friends can become more difficult, and individuals who suffer from hearing loss might be less likely to reach out to other people, even during routine activities like shopping or going to work. This sort of social isolation can be detrimental to your mental health and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, your physical wellness.
Hearing loss can cause other issues as well. Numerous chronic conditions, including depression and dementia, have been associated with neglected hearing loss. Comorbidities, like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease have also been associated with hearing loss.
So scheduling a routine hearing assessment will be a good plan for pretty much everybody.
Four reasons to check your hearing
Getting your hearing checked can be helpful to your general health for four distinct reasons.
1. Establishing a baseline for your hearing is important
It might seem foolish to take a hearing test while your hearing is still healthy, right? Well, getting a hearing test early is a good plan for a number of reasons. The most significant is that a hearing test will give us a detailed picture of your present hearing health. This will make it much easier to identify any changes in the future. This is especially true because hearing loss tends to develop gradually, the first symptoms aren’t always apparent.
Before you notice any symptoms, a hearing exam will help identify hearing loss in its early stages.
2. Diagnose and treat issues earlier
Hearing loss is usually a progressive condition, meaning it tends to get worse over time. Consequently, identifying hearing loss early often means a better prognosis. If you treat the condition as early as possible, you will have more positive outcomes.
Early treatment could include anything from taking measures to protect your hearing such as wearing ear protection in noisy settings to using hearing aids. Many of the related problems like dementia, social isolation, and depression can be avoided with early treatment.
3. It’s easier to evaluate future changes
Your hearing loss will keep progressing even after you get diagnosed. Regular hearing exams can enable early detection and your treatment plan can be modified as needed.
4. You can prevent additional damage to your ears
Hearing loss that develops slowly over time is normally caused by damage. Seeing us regularly to get your hearing assessed helps you identify that damage as early as possible, and it also gives you access to a significant resource: your hearing specialist. We can help you keep your hearing as healthy as possible by providing you with treatments, best practices, and information.
For example, we can help you figure out ways to protect your ears from day-to-day damage or establish strategies designed to help you keep sounds around you quieter.
What should my hearing exam routine look like?
In general, it’s recommended that adults get a hearing exam sometime in their 20s or 30s, on the earlier side. It’s usually ordinary best practice to get a hearing test every ten years thereafter unless you notice signs of hearing loss or we suggest something more often.
But perhaps you’re thinking: what should I expect at my hearing test? Generally, they’re entirely non-invasive procedures. Frequently, all you do is put on special headphones and listen for a particular sound.
Whether you require some hearing protection or a new set of hearing aids, we will be able to help you with the best hearing care. And a hearing exam can help you determine when the best time to get your care may be.
