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5 Signs You Should Have Your Hearing Tested
Hearing is something we all need, but most don’t understand how important it is until they start losing it. This article from Prevention.com gives a tragic insight into the world of women who no longer hear. The experience of not hearing what a parent whispers into your ear, the exhaustion of trying to get by using lip reading, and asking people to repeat themselves is disheartening.
Without hearing, we lose a vital part of our world, and preserving it starts by looking for the signs of ear conditions that may need testing to confirm. Let’s examine the forms hearing loss takes, the risk factors, the signs you can experience, and how we can help.
West Midtown, Atlanta, residents dealing with hearing issues can get help from Dr. Shivan Amin and his experienced team at Midtown ENT.
Types of hearing loss
One in 100 people in America deals with some form of hearing loss, including two in 1,000 babies being born with it, 60,000 in one ear, one in three adults over 65, and around half of people over 75. Depending on the cause, hearing loss can occur in the outer, middle, or inner ear, making understanding people or distinguishing noises more difficult, to the point where you hear nothing. This condition comes in three main types:
- Conductive: prevention of sound passing through your outer or middle ear
- Sensorineural: gradual damage to your inner ear
- Mixed: loss of hearing in multiple parts of the ear
Hearing conditions include earwax buildup, upper respiratory fluid buildup, infections, swimmers’ ear, tumors, noise-induced loss, age-related loss, inherited conditions, and a ruptured eardrum. Rarely, inner ear hearing problems can happen in a few days or all at once, in a condition known as sudden sensorineural hearing loss or SSHL.
Common symptoms
Your hearing usually diminishes over a long period, so you won’t notice it’s occurring, making it harder to detect. This makes looking for the signs all the more critical, such as:
1. Tinnitus (ringing in the ear)
It can also be a clicking, pulsing, humming, or rushing noise no one else hears, and it frequently indicates age-related hearing loss or an ear injury.
2. Loss that interferes with your daily routine
When the loss is significant enough that you can’t hear what others are saying, audio cues like knocking, ringing, or other things are missed, making everything much harder.
3. Sudden or severe healing loss
When hearing loss occurs suddenly or you have major issues hearing sounds, it’s time to get help.
4. Ear pain
Earaches, or pain anywhere in the ear, can indicate injury, infection, or other problems.
5. Loss that worsens or doesn’t go away
When problems with hearing get worse or don’t improve, see us as soon as possible.
If hearing issues are accompanied by more severe symptoms, such as chills, weakness, quick breathing, mental agitation, light sensitivity, neck stiffness, and vomiting, go to the ER.
Treatment options
With so many types of hearing problems and numerous causes, several solutions can help manage hearing loss, including antibiotics to manage infections, earwax removal, hearing aids, cochlear implants, and surgery. We also treat many balance disorders that can affect hearing issues, like benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), vestibular neuritis, acoustic neuroma, migraine, and Meniere’s disease.
If you need help with ear problems, such as hearing loss, make an appointment with Dr. Amin and Midtown ENT today.