Why Routine Hearing Tests are Important for Everyone

A decline in hearing ability can impact one’s daily life, making ordinary activities like listening to the radio or watching TV challenging. Even a slight decrease in hearing can make conversations hard to follow, especially in noisy places, often leading to the need to repeatedly ask others to repeat themselves. Given the crucial role hearing plays in daily routines, understanding how to safeguard it becomes essential.

Routine hearing tests stand as one of the fundamental measures in preserving hearing health. It’s not just for those who notice changes in their hearing; scheduling routine hearing tests is vital for everyone.

Working from Your Baseline

A baseline hearing test serves as an initial assessment to establish an individual’s hearing at a specific point in time, often during early adulthood. It provides a reference point for future evaluations and helps detect any changes or declines in hearing health over time. This test is essential for creating a standard, aiding audiologists in distinguishing normal hearing changes due to aging from potential hearing conditions or damages caused by external factors like noise exposure or medical conditions. By establishing a baseline, audiologists can tailor appropriate interventions or treatments and monitor any alterations in hearing thresholds accurately. Conducting regular baseline hearing tests facilitates timely intervention, enabling better management and preservation of overall hearing health.

Hearing Can Decline Over Time

Over time, your hearing abilities may decline, often as a result of the potential gradual breakdown of delicate inner ear hair cells responsible for sensing and transmitting sound. This slow decline can make it challenging to notice the initial signs of hearing loss. Incorporating regular hearing tests into your yearly check-ups can detect these subtle changes in your hearing that might otherwise go unnoticed. Identifying hearing loss early on can significantly impact your quality of life by enabling interventions before it progresses further and significantly affects your ability to hear and communicate effectively.

Exposure to Loud Noise

There are various risk factors that could make you more likely to experience hearing loss, but none of them is quite as widespread as the impact of excessive levels of noise. All noises that are over 75 decibels can contribute to the risk of hearing damage. If you work in an environment where you’re exposed to those noise levels, or have any hobbies that are just as loud, it’s wise to go to the audiologist to see if they have impacted your hearing health. Your audiologist will be able to offer the best treatment for you, like earplugs or earmuffs if you work in a noisy environment.

Prevention

Aside from simply keeping on top of your hearing health and staying up-to-date and informed, your audiologist can also recommend ways to protect your hearing, especially if loud noise is a recurring risk factor in your life. For instance, your audiologist could recommend a range of different hearing protection options, such as earplugs and earmuffs, to reduce the level of noise that your ears are exposed to. If you want the highest-quality noise protection, your audiologist can also help you create a mold that can be used for reusable, custom earplugs. Your audiologist can also recommend hearing aids, to help with the prevention of hearing loss.

Treat Tinnitus and Other Hearing Issues

When you visit the audiologist for a routine hearing test, it may help you address other issues with your ear and balance health that you might be experiencing. For instance, your audiologist can recommend treatments for tinnitus, if you’ve been experiencing a ringing in your ear lately. Tinnitus is often linked to hearing loss, if you have one, you’re more likely to have the other. If your audiologist suggests hearing aids, they may also recommend a tinnitus masking feature to lessen your symptoms.

It’s Good for Your Health in General

Your hearing health can be linked to your overall well-being. Undiagnosed hearing loss can potentially contribute to other health concerns, such as heart conditions, cognitive challenges and may impact conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. Recognizing, diagnosing and addressing hearing loss will help in managing related conditions with hearing loss. Additionally, during ear examinations, your audiologist might detect symptoms associated with other health issues, offering an opportunity to better manage your overall health.

Contact Us Today

Staying on top of your hearing health is always a wise idea, and your audiologist is here to help you do just that. If you want to learn more or to take the important step of scheduling your next routine hearing test, then you should get in touch with Hearing Solutions of Northwest Michigan. Call us today at (231) 518-4422.