According to one recent survey, nearly 30% of people have gone more than ten years without getting a hearing test. One of those people is Sofia. She knows she has to get her oil changed every 3000 miles, she sees the dentist every six months, and she checks in dutifully for her annual medical exam. But she has no idea the last time she had a hearing exam or underwent any kind of accurate hearing assessment.
Hearing evaluations are essential for a wide variety of reasons, the most important of which is that it’s usually difficult for you to discover the initial signs of hearing loss if you don’t get one. Sophia will be able to keep her hearing healthy for a lot longer by recognizing how often to get her ears tested.
How Often Each Year Should my Hearing Get Tested?
If the last time Sofia had a hearing test was a decade ago, we may be alarmed. Or perhaps we don’t think anything of it. Our reaction, and the reaction of her hearing specialist, probably will vary depending on how old she is. This is because hearing professionals have different suggestions based on age.
- If you’re over fifty years old: The standard suggestion is that anybody older than fifty should get hearing checks annually. As you get older, the noise damage you’ve incurred over a lifetime can begin to speed up, meaning hearing loss is more likely to begin impacting your life. There are also numerous other factors that can affect your hearing.
- It’s usually recommended that you have a hearing test about every three years. There’s no harm in having your ears tested more frequently, of course! But once every three years is the bare minimum. If you are exposed to loud noise repeatedly or work at a job where noise is commonplace, you should decide to get screened more frequently. There’s no reason not to do it, it’s painless and simple.
If you would like to undergo hearing examinations or tests more frequently, there’s obviously no harm in that, at least when it comes to your hearing. Since the last time you had a hearing assessment, you may have new damage you should know about, so regular hearing exams may be practical.
You Should Get Your Hearing Checked if You Notice These Signs
There are certainly other occasions besides your annual hearing exam that you might want to make an appointment with your hearing specialist. Occasionally, you begin to notice some signs of hearing loss. And in those situations, it’s often a good plan to immediately get in touch with a hearing professional and schedule a hearing exam.
Some of the signs that might prompt you to get a hearing test could include:
- Phone conversations are always difficult to understand
- Turning your television or car stereo to extremely high volumes (if your neighbors start complaining, that’s a good indication you should see a hearing specialist soon).
- When you’re speaking with people, you repeatedly have to keep asking people to repeat themselves.
- Sounds seem muffled; it’s starting to sound as though you constantly have water in your ears.
- When you’re in a noisy environment, you have problems hearing conversations.
- Having a tough time hearing consonants (generally speaking, consonants are spoken in a higher pitch than vowels, and it’s those high-frequency sounds that are generally the first to go as hearing loss takes hold)
When these warning signs begin to add up, it’s a strong indication that the perfect time to get a hearing exam is right now. The more frequently you get your hearing checked, the sooner you’ll know what’s going on with your ears.
What Are The Benefits of Hearing Testing?
Sophia may be late for her hearing exam for several reasons. Maybe she hasn’t thought about it. Perhaps she’s just avoiding dealing with it. But there are tangible benefits to having your hearing checked per recommendations.
Even when your hearing is totally healthy, a hearing exam can help set a standard reading, which makes variances in the future simpler to detect. If you detect your loss of hearing before it becomes noticeable, you’ll be able to protect it better.
The reason for regular hearing assessment is that someone like Sofia will be able to recognize concerns before her hearing is impaired permanently. By catching your hearing loss early, by getting your hearing tested when you should, you’ll be giving your ears their best chance of staying healthy. Understanding the effects of hearing loss on your total health, that’s essential.
