Do I Have a Hearing Loss?

Take this “Hearing Loss” Quiz:

Do you have difficulty hearing in restaurants, church or other crowded situations?

Do your family or friends complain or tell you that you seem to be having difficulty hearing?

Do you feel you can hear, but just can’t make out the words?

Do you having difficulty understanding female or children’s voices?

Do you have difficulty telling where sounds are coming from?

Have your worked around, or been exposed to loud noise?

Do you have ringing in one or both ears?

Do you have a history of hearing loss in your family?

Do your ears feel “plugged up”?

If you answered “yes” to even one of these questions, you may have a significant hearing loss.

Often people are surprised to discover the impact of hearing loss on speech perception.  Even a mild hearing loss can reduce your ability to hear many sounds in speech, particularly high pitched sounds such as “s”, “f”, ”sh”, “t”. These sounds can play a key role in our ability to understand speech clearly.  Hearing loss can drastically reduce the ability to understand speech.

If you or a family member suspect there is a hearing loss, the next thing to do is get an appointment with an Otolaryngologist, (Ear, Nose and Throat doctor). The doctor will examine your ears and an Audiologist will perform a complete hearing test to determine the nature of your hearing loss. Some hearing losses may be medically treatable.  Hearing losses called “nerve” or sensorineural, are permanent. This type of loss can often be helped with hearing aids.