Hearing loss is about pitch as much as volume. If you find it hard to comprehend the speech of a woman or a child, but you can still, mostly understand the men in the room, you might have some degree of high-frequency hearing loss. You’re not alone…this is the most common form of hearing loss.
Symptoms of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
With high-frequency hearing loss, consonant sounds that allow conversations to be understood, get muddled even though you might still be able to register the volume of a woman or a child’s voice. Usually the most difficult to differentiate are consonant sounds such as ch, th, t, soft s, c, sh, k, f, and h. So, it might sound like a woman or child is mumbling, even though they actually aren’t. Comprehending a child’s joke or your loved ones question about dinner plans becomes very difficult because you have lost the ability to differentiate these sounds. This can result in frustration, sadness and social isolation from your circle of friends and family.
Other sounds within the high-frequency hearing loss range (2000 Hz) are lost to people who have this condition. This includes high musical notes, birds chirping, and squeaks or sirens. Even at low volumes a man’s voice, thunder, and bass musical notes, might be fairly easy to discern.
Causes of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Usually imperceptible in the beginning, high-frequency hearing loss, the most prevalent type of hearing loss, can sneak up on you as you age. Besides growing older, too much noise exposure, certain medications and numerous medical issues such as cardiovascular disease can lead to high-frequency hearing loss.
These situations all harm to the little, hair-like sensory cells within the cochlea. It’s these tiny cells that pick up sound input and send it to the brain for processing. The higher pitched sounds are usually the first to become tough to understand because the high-frequency cells become injured more easily than the lower pitched cells.
high-frequency Hearing Loss, How to Avoid it
While you can’t prevent your ears from growing older, there are quite a few things you can do to prevent or at least slow down the progression of high-frequency hearing loss. Some of these include:
- In loud spaces, use hearing protection. If you need to shout to be heard in a noisy environment, this is a sure indication the noise could injure your hearing. Some instances of times when putting in ear protection are rock concerts, motorcycles revving, power tools running, and a loud stereo. Noise canceling headphone might not fit inside your pocket, but they can be the best solution in certain circumstances.
- Quieter things are better. Find the quietest product by checking the noise rating of the appliances. And don’t be reluctant to ask the restaurant manager to turn down the music if it’s difficult to hear your friends at dinner.
- If you take any medication, ask your doctor if it has any impact on hearing. high-frequency hearing loss can be triggered by at least 200 different kinds of medications. Even too much aspirin can damage your hearing. To discover if there are choices less likely to injure your hearing, consult your doctor. Stay in close touch with your hearing health care provider if you can’t avoid using a certain medication. Further hearing loss can be avoided by treatment.
- Taking good care of your general health. Your hearing can be injured by smoking. Your hearing can also be injured by poor health due to poor nutrition. Preserve your hearing by taking care of your overall health.
- When eliminating earwax, never use a swab or any other small object. Your ability to hear is blunted when you push old earwax against your eardrum. A hot shower is usually enough o drain exes earwax but if this doesn’t work ask your hearing professional for other methods of irrigating your ears.
high-frequency Hearing Loss Treatment
Presently, the most effective method for managing high-frequency hearing loss is hearing aids. And because this is the most widespread type of hearing loss, there are numerous different models a person can pick from. So that they are clearer to the listener, hearing aids can boost high pitched sounds. Several models are configurable and your hearing professional can help fine-tune them to increase your ability to hear those sounds at the right level, immediately addressing the level and extent of the hearing loss. For circumstances like talking on the phone, listening to children, having dinner at a restaurant, or business meetings many hearing aids can be manipulated by your phone and have directional microphones for fine-tuning.
Schedule a hearing test if you suspect you may have high-frequency hearing loss. Odds are, there are personally-tailored solutions that can enhance your ability to hear your grandchild’s precious one-liners.