Hearing Loss
In todays’ world of noise and stress, many people suffer from hearing loss.
Hearing Loss
Although not deafness in the accepted sense, it may be sufficiently bad enough to make you have to strain to hear what is being said, particularly in group conversations, in church, in restaurants or just watching TV.
The clarity of many words are lost and you are left trying to make out a confused jumble of sounds.
At Lytham Hearing Centre, we are here to help. We have a range of hearing aids and have access to the latest technology available to you to aid in helping with your hearing loss.
Main Types of Hearing Loss
There are two main types of deafness:
● CONDUCTIVE DEAFNESS
– which is caused by a fault or damage to the ear canal or middle ear
● NERVE DEAFNESS
– very common with advancing age or when the hearing nerves connected to the brain begin to lose their sensitivity due to the strain and stress of modern living. When this type of deafness occurs, people often say they can hear people talking but can’t always catch all the words. It’s usually the high-pitched sounds giving clarity to speech which are lost.
We all tend to take good hearing for granted, but often, as time goes on, our hearing can begin to fail – so gradually we are hardly aware of it. We persevere with poor, dull hearing because we feel we can hear most things.
For example, we may hear a car door close on the roadside, a dog barking two streets away, we may even hear the letterbox rattle as the post is delivered. All of these everyday sounds are telling your brain “I can hear, so my hearing must be okay.” The brain is tricked – although we pick up these everyday sounds, they do not compare with speech sounds.
WHAT ARE SPEECH SOUNDS?
Speech is a very complex pattern, involving a wide range of very different pure tones.
It is the tones/frequency patterns that we do not pick up and so we lose clarity of
a conversation.
We now have to listen to hear. We have to try and make sense of what we have heard,
filling in gaps, making sense of sentences that we have only partly heard and understood.
HOW TO TELL IF YOU MAY HAVE A HEARING LOSS
Only a professional can determine the exact nature and extent of hearing loss, however,
you can probably tell if hearing has become a problem in your life.
Ask yourself the following questions as these may indicate the early signs that may tell
if you are suffering a hearing loss:
● You ask people to speak up, or repeat what they have said, or it sounds like they are mumbling
● Family members or visitors complain that the TV volume is too high
● Difficulty hearing in noisy environments
● Trouble hearing the doorbell or telephone
● A family member or friend has expressed concern about your hearing
● If you experience any of these problems, it could be that you are suffering with
a hearing problem, and would benefit from a FREE Hearing assessment.