When May rolls around, everyone in the field of communication disorders makes a special effort to raise awareness of those issues and how best to deal with them. Better Speech and Hearing Month is a perfect time to answer questions and eliminate stigmas around subjects ranging from stuttering to severe hearing loss, and everything in between.
You probably didn’t know we were in Better Speech and Hearing Month but, for those of us in hearing healthcare circles, it’s a pretty big deal. There’s a lot people don’t understand about hearing health, and we want to help them develop the understanding they need.
The first thing we’d like to clear up is the misconception of hearing loss as something that only affects the elderly. The fact is, some two-thirds of people with hearing loss are younger than 65. That’s why a comprehensive hearing evaluation is recommended for everyone over 55.
Another important thing to understand is that hearing loss tends to come on very slowly, over years. So, if you wait until it becomes an obvious impediment to your quality of life, it will be all the more difficult to come to terms with and all the more challenging to manage. That brings us back to the importance of hearing exams—not just the one mentioned above, but annual exams.
Think about it. You probably get a complete blood test every year. Odds are you have your eyes checked regularly, too. For some reason, however, the condition of our hearing has been largely left out of the mix when it comes to annual health maintenance. That’s unfortunate, especially because early detection of hearing loss goes a long way to lessening its very significant long-term effects.
Getting that first hearing test this year will establish a baseline your hearing heath professional can refer to when testing your hearing in subsequent years. That way, when a change is noticed, steps can be taken to deal with it right away.
Early intervention can spare you a lot of unhappiness, such as the possibility of social isolation because your undiagnosed hearing loss has you avoiding people. Such isolation can lead to depression and even potentially contribute to dementia. Early intervention can also help improve personal relationships. Many people who have tried hearing aids, following a hearing loss diagnosis, found that their relationships improved (for instance, they no longer frustrated their friends and family by asking them to repeat themselves).
We’ve only touched on a few of the many very important reasons to monitor your hearing as closely as you watch your cholesterol numbers. A comprehensive hearing exam is easy, absolutely painless and not at all time-consuming. Please contact us at Great Waterway Hearing and set up an appointment We’ll be happy to just talk you through everything an exam entails before you decide on doing it.
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