Is It Hard of Hearing or Hearing Loss?

Hear­ing Loss Can Hap­pen as We Age, but Health Con­di­tions Could Also Be to Blame

Hear­ing loss can sneak up on you over time and can seem­ing­ly hap­pen overnight. Either way, los­ing your hear­ing can send you on a down­ward spi­ral – but the good news is there’s no need to pan­ic. Thanks to advance­ments in hear­ing aids (both pre­scribed and over-the-counter) and hear­ing aug­men­ta­tion implant­ed devices such as cochlear implants, there are plen­ty of solu­tions available.

While hear­ing prob­lems can appear at any age, they are par­tic­u­lar­ly com­mon as you get older. 

Know­ing what’s caus­ing your hear­ing loss – whether it’s the nor­mal loss that comes with aging or a med­ical con­di­tion that needs atten­tion – helps your provider decide how to treat it. 

Com­mon Caus­es of Hear­ing Loss 

There are plen­ty of rea­sons besides aging why you might notice a change in hear­ing, including:

• Over­ex­po­sure to loud nois­es, like loud music in ear­buds or at con­certs, work envi­ron­ments, and shoot­ing firearms 

• Demen­tia, which can be linked to untreat­ed hear­ing loss 

• A buildup of ear­wax, an ear infec­tion, or flu­id in your ear

• Cer­tain med­ica­tions, like high dos­es of aspirin or chemotherapy

• A severe head injury, which can dam­age the del­i­cate struc­tures in your ear

How to Spot Hear­ing Loss Symptoms

The symp­toms of hear­ing loss can be sub­tle at first. Keep an ear out for signs like: 

• Ring­ing in your ears (tin­ni­tus)
• Trou­ble fol­low­ing con­ver­sa­tions, espe­cial­ly in noisy places 
• Need­ing to crank up the vol­ume on your TV or phone
• A sen­sa­tion of pres­sure or flu­id in one or both ears
• Fre­quent­ly ask­ing oth­ers to repeat themselves
• Fam­i­ly or friends telling you that you need your hear­ing evaluated

Get­ting Screened for Hear­ing Loss

Hear­ing loss screen­ing isn’t a rou­tine part of most med­ical check-ups. Providers often rely on patients to speak up if they’re expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms. It can be dif­fi­cult to start the con­ver­sa­tion, even with your provider. Hear­ing loss can bring up a mix of emo­tions, like anx­i­ety and depres­sion, and can even make some exist­ing men­tal health chal­lenges worse. But bring­ing it up with your provider is key so that they can fur­ther eval­u­ate your hear­ing loss and help you find the right solution. 

If you’re con­cerned about a change in your hear­ing, sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Quin­cy Med­ical Group audi­ol­o­gist today.

Improv­ing Your Hearing

There’s good news if you’re hav­ing trou­ble hear­ing: hear­ing loss isn’t always per­ma­nent. And even if it is, mod­ern treat­ments like hear­ing aids and even implant­ed devices such as cochlear implants can help you stay con­nect­ed to the peo­ple and moments that mat­ter most.

Treat­ing hear­ing loss depends on the cause and sever­i­ty. In some cas­es, a sim­ple ear­wax removal (per­formed by a provider, not with a Q‑tip), can do the trick. For hear­ing loss caused by repeat­ed infec­tions caus­ing flu­id buildup in your ear, you might ben­e­fit from a sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure where your provider implants small tubes to help your ears drain.

But in gen­er­al, there are two main types of treat­ments: hear­ing aids and implant­ed aug­ment­ed hear­ing devices, like cochlear implants. These treat­ments work very dif­fer­ent­ly. Hear­ing aids make cer­tain sound ranges loud­er, result­ing in them being eas­i­er to detect by dam­aged ears. They are espe­cial­ly help­ful if your hear­ing loss is able to be aid­ed as deter­mined by an audi­ol­o­gist after test­ing not only your pitch per­cep­tion but also your word recognition.

Hear­ing aids are con­ve­nient, small, and easy to use. While they won’t com­plete­ly restore your hear­ing, they’re an excel­lent way to get back into the con­ver­sa­tion. With options like invis­i­ble-in-the-canal, over-the-ear, or open-fit mod­els, there’s a style for every­one. You can even add fea­tures like:

• Recharge­able bat­ter­ies, so you’re not con­stant­ly swap­ping them out
• Noise reduc­tion, to focus on what you want to hear
• Blue­tooth con­nec­tiv­i­ty, for stream­ing audio direct­ly from your device
• Remote con­trols, for eas­i­er adjustments

If a hear­ing aid won’t help you very much – like if you have severe hear­ing loss or deaf­ness – you may ben­e­fit from a cochlear implant.. Cochlear implants are small elec­tron­ic devices that bypass the com­mon­ly dam­aged part of your inner ear. They cause your audi­to­ry nerve (the hear­ing nerve ) to send sig­nals direct­ly to your brain, where your brain rec­og­nizes the sound. 

Whether you choose a hear­ing aid or an implant­ed device like a cochlear implant, it will take time to adjust — some­times months. It is sim­i­lar to get­ting new eye­glass­es. You may need a few tweaks to get the per­fect fit or man­age side effects like headaches or irri­ta­tion. Keep­ing fol­low-up appoint­ments and being hon­est with your audi­ol­o­gist will help you tremen­dous­ly match your needs to your tech­nol­o­gy. But once you set­tle in, you’ll be back to enjoy­ing con­ver­sa­tions and laugh­ing at jokes you might have missed before.

Tak­ing Charge of Your Hear­ing Health

Pro­longed expo­sure to loud nois­es, aging, and cer­tain health con­di­tions can all con­tribute to hear­ing loss. Even if you haven’t expe­ri­enced symp­toms, tak­ing pre­ven­tive mea­sures can help keep your hear­ing sharp.

You can help pro­tect your ears and hear­ing by:

• Low­er­ing the vol­ume on your devices
• Avoid­ing long expo­sure to loud noises
• Wear­ing earplugs at con­certs, at work, and when shoot­ing firearms
• Not using cot­ton swabs to clean your ears (this can actu­al­ly push ear­wax back fur­ther and could even rup­ture your eardrum)
• Use a hat, scarf, or ear­muffs to keep your ears warm in cold weather

Hear­ing loss doesn’t have to hold you back. There are plen­ty of options to help you hear clear­ly and stay con­nect­ed to the world around you. From hear­ing aids to cochlear implants, mod­ern solu­tions are designed to fit your lifestyle and bring back the sounds you’ve been missing.

The first step? Speak up about your hear­ing con­cerns. Don’t let fear or frus­tra­tion keep you from get­ting the help you need. With the right care and sup­port, you can nav­i­gate hear­ing loss con­fi­dent­ly and get back to enjoy­ing life’s moments — loud and clear.

Ready to take the first step? Sched­ule an appoint­ment with our QMG Audi­ol­o­gist today and start your jour­ney to bet­ter hear­ing. Our goal is to part­ner with you to max­i­mize your com­plete ear and hear­ing health.