How Often Should You Take a Hearing Test
Hearing is one of the core senses in the human body. It helps one to navigate and take part in a conversation. But due to various reasons, one can severely lose one’s hearing. According to WHO, 5% of the world’s population is suffering from hearing difficulties. This number is increasing horrifically day by day, and for this reason hearing aids that are rechargeable are also becoming more popular.It is estimated that over 900 million people worldwide will have disabling hearing loss within 2050. That is one in ten people, by estimation. Early detection and diagnosis can reduce the severity of the problem. In the following article, we are going to discuss how often you should get a hearing check and why.
Matters to be Considered
There’s no definitive answer to how often you should get your check. But if you have any of the conditions listed below, you may want to get yourself checked often. The conditions being:
Excessive Noise at Work
For the well-being of your ear, you shouldn’t be exposed to loud noises exceeding 85 decibels. Continuous exposure to sounds higher than 85 decibels can highly impact your hearing.
Home Electronics Usage
If you listen to music or watch movies with high volume, there is a significant risk of losing hearing. You should get yourself checked often to see if there’s a sign of hearing loss.
Concerts and Clubs
Many of you love to go clubbing on the weekends. Some of you don’t miss the chance to see your favorite bands playing whenever they are in the town. However, these places consist of very loud noises. You cannot turn down the volumes in these places. Additionally, hundreds and thousands of other people are present there. They can significantly increase the noise levels in these places. This impacts very badly on one’s ear. If you are often found yourselves in these places, you should get a regular check-up for your hearing.
Loud Machinery
You can be a professional who operates machines that cause loud noise. Or you can operate a leaf blower or snow plunger to clean the premises of your house. In both cases, you are exposed to high-frequency noise for a substantial amount of time. This can highly impact your eardrums and push you toward deafness.
Foreign Bodies in the Ear
Most people around the world use cotton buds to clean earwax. It can often do more harm than good. Instead of bringing out the wax, it can push them towards the ear canal. This can often promote infection and other underlying conditions. If you feel any abnormalities in your ear, you must consult a doctor at the earliest possible moment.
Disease and Infection
Due to various reasons, an infection in the ear can develop. Such as a bacterial attack, side effects of medication even washing your ear with impure water. Other than these, some childhood conditions can also trigger deafness, like measles, whooping cough, or mumps. If one has a history of these conditions, they should be under regular hearing checkups.
Recommendations of the Experts
The experts suggest that, under normal conditions, one must appoint for a hearing check within 10 years until they are 50. After the age of 50, a hearing check-up within 3 years is highly recommended. With age, our cell’s regeneration power gets reduced. Thus one becomes more vulnerable to be a victim of hearing loss. If you are presented with any of the conditions mentioned before, the frequency of your hearing check-up should be increased. Because you can be significantly benefited from early detection of hearing problems. Your hearing loss may not be irreversible, but with early diagnosis, you can protect the remaining hearing ability.
Signs to Look for
In addition to regular check-ups, there may be some signs that you need to get your hearing check immediately. If rapid action is not taken, this can cause permanent hearing loss along with some other chronic conditions. The signs are,
- Having a dull hearing, as if there’s water in your ear.
- Continuously ask others to repeat themselves or slow down.
- Turning up the volume of TV or loudspeakers excessively.
- Have trouble understanding others in noisy areas.
- Have trouble talking to others on phones or mobiles.
- Have trouble listening to consonant sounds. The consonants have a higher pitch sound. And a primary sign of hearing loss often impacts higher pitch sounds.
Recognizing what’s happening to your hearing is very important. That way, you can receive treatment before it’s too late and prevent the inevitable.
Advantages of Regulatory Hearing Check
We cannot stress much about getting a regular hearing check. It creates a history of your baseline hearing. That record can help your audiologist or hearing specialist significantly if you ever need it. With a regular hearing test, hearing loss can be detected in the earliest stage. It will help early diagnosis. The mental and health conditions associated with hearing loss won’t be able to cause harm. Thus a healthy mental and physical condition will prevail in your body.
We highly depend upon our senses in our everyday life. If any of these senses is harmed in any way, our life can get pretty difficult. Hearing is a very crucial sense in terms of our balance and communication. So we should do our best to protect it. Otherwise, we will have to suffer greatly for our carelessness.