Hearing loss is about pitch as much as volume. If you find it hard to understand the speech of a child or a woman, but you can still, mostly understand the men in the room, you might have some level of high-frequency hearing loss. This is a very common kind of hearing loss so you’re not alone.
high-frequency Hearing Loss Warning Signs
With high-frequency hearing loss, you may still be able to pick up the volume of a woman’s voice or a child’s voice, but consonant sounds that allow conversations to be easily understood, get muddled. Usually, consonant sounds such as t, th, ch, soft c, s, sh, f, k, and h are the most difficult to pick out. So, it may sound like a woman or child is mumbling, even though they actually aren’t. Losing the ability to differentiate these sounds makes it very hard to understand a child’s joke or your sister’s question about dinner plans. Separation from family and friends, sadness, and frustration can be the result.
Other sounds within the high-frequency hearing loss range (2000 Hz) are missed by people with this condition. This includes birds chirping, high musical notes, whistles or squeaks. Even at low volumes a man’s voice, thunder, and bass musical notes, may be fairly easy to discern.
Causes of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Often imperceptible at first, high-frequency hearing loss, the most widespread type of hearing loss, can sneak up on you as you grow older. high-frequency hearing loss can be caused by other things besides aging like particular medical disorders like cardiovascular disease, excessive noise exposure, and various medications.
The tiny hair-like sensors in the cochlea are injured by all of these situations. Sound input is picked up by these tiny cells and delivered to the brain for processing. The high-frequency sensory cells are more vulnerable to damage than the low-frequency sensory cells, which is why the higher-pitched sounds are often the first to be difficult to comprehend.
high-frequency Hearing Loss, How to Prevent it
Although you can’t stop your ears from aging, there are several things you can do to prevent or at least slow down the progress of high-frequency hearing loss. Some of these include:
- Seeking out quiet things. Find noise ratings on appliances and select the quietest versions. And don’t be afraid to ask the restaurant manager to turn the music down if it’s difficult to hear your friends at dinner.
- In loud spaces, wear hearing protection.A certain indication that your ears might be getting injured is if you have to shout to be heard in a loud setting. Heavy traffic, engines revving, power tools running, the loud stereo systems at movies or rock concerts are all examples of occasions when putting in the ear-plugs is a good idea. Noise-canceling earphones are also a good solution in some scenarios, but may not fit in your pocket as easily as ear-plugs.
- Never using a swab (or other small objects) to remove ear wax. This can push old ear wax into your ear canal and blunt your capacity to hear. A hot shower is usually enough o get rid of exes earwax but if this doesn’t work ask your hearing professional for other methods of irrigating your ears.
- Taking good care of your general health. Smoking can injury your hearing. Poor health, poor nutrition, or lack of exercise can also harm your hearing. Try to take good care of your health in all aspects and this can protect your hearing as well.
- If you take any medication, ask your doctor if it has any effect on hearing. high-frequency hearing loss can be triggered by at least 200 different kinds of medications. Your hearing can even be harmed by too much aspirin. Check with your doctor to find out if there are possibilities less likely to injure your hearing. If you can’t avoid using a particular medication, keep in close contact with your hearing care professional for regular hearing loss and balance testing. Further hearing loss can be prevented by treatment.
Treatment For High-Frequency Hearing Loss
At this time, the most effective technique for managing high-frequency hearing loss is hearing aids. And since this is the most widespread type of hearing loss, there are many different models a person can choose from. Hearing aids can augment high-pitched sounds so they are crisper to the user. You can immediately manage your level and extent of hearing loss by having your hearing care pro fine-tune your hearing aid to increase your ability to hear sounds at the right level. Some hearing aids can be controlled by your phone and come with directional microphones for fine-tuning in situations like business meetings, restaurant dinners, talking on the phone or listening to children.
Make an appointment for a hearing test if you suspect you might have high-frequency hearing loss. Odds are, there are individually-customized answers that can enhance your ability to hear your grandchild’s priceless one-liners.