Hearing loss issues aren’t always solved by cranking the volume up. Here’s something to think about: Many people are unable to understand conversations even though they are able to hear soft sounds. That’s because hearing loss is frequently irregular. You often lose specific frequencies but have no problem hearing others, and that can make voices sound garbled.
Types of Hearing Loss
- Conductive hearing loss happens when the ear has internal mechanical issues. It could be a congenital structural issue or due to an ear infection or excessive wax buildup. In most cases, hearing specialists can treat the root condition to improve your hearing, and if necessary, recommend hearing aids to make up for any remaining hearing loss.
- Sensorineural hearing loss develops when the tiny hairs in the inner ear, also called cilia, are damaged, and this condition is more prevalent. When sound is perceived, it moves these hairs which deliver chemical messages to the auditory nerve to be passed to the brain for translation. These delicate hairs do not heal when damaged or destroyed. This is why the ordinary aging process is frequently the cause of sensorineural hearing loss. Over the course of our lives, sensorineural hearing loss develops because we expose ourselves to loud noise, have underlying health problems, and take certain medications.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss Symptoms
Asking people to speak up when they talk to you will help to some extent, but it won’t fix your hearing problems. Specific sounds, such as consonant sounds, can become hard to hear for people who have sensorineural hearing loss. This could cause somebody who has hearing loss to the incorrect idea that people around them are mumbling when in fact, they are talking clearly.
When somebody is dealing with hearing loss, the frequency of consonants typically makes them hard to distinguish. The frequency of sound, or pitch, is calculated in hertz (hz) and the higher pitch of consonants is what makes them more difficult for some people to hear. For instance, a short “o” registers at 250 to 1,000 Hz, depending on the voice of the person speaking. But consonants including “f” or “s” will be anywhere from 1,500 to 6,000 hertz. People with sensorineural hearing loss have a hard time processing these higher-pitched sounds due to the damage to their inner ears.
This is why simply speaking louder doesn’t always help. It won’t help much when someone speaks louder if you don’t hear some of the letters in a word like “shift”.
How do Hearing Aids Help?
Hearing aids come with a component that goes in the ear, so sounds get to your auditory system without the interference you would typically hear in your environment. Hearing aids also help you by boosting the frequencies you can’t hear and balancing that with the frequencies you can hear. This makes what you hear much more clear. Modern hearing aids also make it easier to understand speech by blocking some of the unwanted background noise.
