- Symptoms of hearing loss
- The 4 main symptoms of hearing loss
- Degree of hearing loss
- Please contact us for more information
Do you have complaints or doubts about your hearing?
Don't keep walking around with it. Contact one of our stores near you. Our hearing specialists are ready to help you.
Symptoms of hearing loss
As you get older, your hearing slowly deteriorates. You don't always realize that you hear less well. In other words, hearing loss develops gradually. In retrospect, if you ask people with hearing loss, there were sufficient signals that indicated that their hearing was working less well.
The most common symptoms are:
Talk louder yourself
You cannot hear clearly high voices and tones in particular
You feel like you no longer hear as well as you used to
Feeling uncomfortable in a noisy environment
Not hearing the telephone or doorbell
The sound of the TV, radio and music has to get louder
You keep asking to repeat something
You find that other people are difficult to understand
Complains of ringing, ringing or buzzing in the ears
Gets tired easily in large groups
It is difficult to recognize hearing loss in yourself, because your brain automatically adapts and compensates for the hearing loss. You no longer hear loud sounds the way you used to hear them. The above symptoms are not immediately familiar to everyone. After a while your brain 'forgets' how to hear, while you don't realize it. That is why it is often the case that people around you have to point out that your hearing is impaired. This can lead to irritation and an insecure feeling. Here you can read more about the four main symptoms of hearing loss.
The 4 main symptoms of hearing loss
Tinnitus
Hearing damage is caused by exposure to loud noises for too long. If you suffer from ringing in the ear or tinnitus, this is the first symptom. A ringing in the ear after a night out indicates that you have heard too much noise. This usually subsides, but in the long term it can cause permanent damage - a constant audible ringing in the ears, called tinnitus - that is irreversible.
Different pitches
A normal, healthy ear can hear frequencies from 20 to 20,000 Hertz (Hz). The higher the tone, the higher the frequency. With hearing damage, someone can have a different degree of hearing loss at each frequency and experience sounds differently. Some sounds are too loud or too soft, while other sounds can be heard very clearly. You may not hear high tones well and you can hear low tones, or vice versa.
Localizing sound
When your ears are exposed to too much and prolonged noise, the cilia in the cochlea (the inner ear) are damaged. These hairs are tiny and are set in motion by sound waves. The cilia then send a signal via the auditory nerve to the brain, where it is perceived as sound. When overloaded by loud or prolonged noise, the cilia can break. This can happen to different degrees in both ears, causing loss of stereo sound reception. This makes it more difficult to determine where sound comes from.
Turning up the radio or television
If you start talking louder and turn up the volume of the radio or television, this may be a sign of hearing damage. The cilia in your ear need more stimulation to transmit a signal and the ear adapts to the loud sound level by becoming more insensitive. A healthy ear automatically adapts to a higher sensitivity after a while, but if the hearing is damaged, the ear will no longer recover. As a result, you start talking louder and turning up the volume of radio and television.
Degree of hearing loss
There are five different levels of hearing loss, ranging from:
- Normal
- Light
- Average
- Serious
- Very serious
Your hearing care professional measures the intensity of a sound and the degree of hearing loss in decibels (dB). Make an appointment or come by for a free extensive hearing test with your Oogwereld Hoorzorg hearing care professional. After this hearing test, you will receive a detailed explanation of the results and, if necessary, an offer to experience the latest hearing aids that match your needs and hearing loss, without any obligation and free of charge. Without any obligation.
You can now also get an indication of the health of your ear through our online hearing test.
Please contact us for more information
At Oogwereld Hoorzorg we are ready to support you in understanding and learning to deal with hearing loss. Contact us today for more information, expert advice and personal support. Together we can work to find effective solutions and improve your overall well-being.