What are the signs of hearing loss?
You may notice a number of early warning signs and changes in
your behavior that may be related to hearing loss. You may begin to:
- Complain that people are mumbling
- Frequently ask people to repeat what they have said
- Have increased difficulty understanding what people are saying in background
- noise such as noisy rooms, social occasions, or family gatherings
- Prefer the television or radio louder than other people
- Have trouble understanding what is being said at the movies or theater,
your house of worship, or other public gatherings
- Have difficulty understanding conversations in a group
- Become more impatient, irritable, frustrated, or withdrawn
- Have difficulty understanding people when you cannot see their faces
Why can I hear people but not understand them?
A common type of hearing loss is one in which people have normal
or nearly normal hearing in the low- and mid-pitched sounds, but have hearing
loss in the high-pitched sounds. Some examples of low-pitched sounds in speech
are vowel sounds like "o, ooh, ah, a, e," etc. Some examples of high-pitched
sounds in speech are "s, f, th," etc. These high-pitched consonant sounds carry
the meaning of words so they help us understand speech, but tend to be very soft
in volume.
The low-pitched vowel sounds carry the volume of speech, but do
not have much meaning. Therefore, vowel sounds help us hear speech, but do not
help us understand what is said. In normal conversation, speech might sound loud
enough but not clear enough if a hearing loss is present. This problem is worse
in background noise, since background noise interferes with and covers up
speech. This problem is often associated with sensorineural hearing loss, which
results from damage in the inner ear and/or in the auditory nerve endings.
What can I expect from my hearing aids?
Unlike eyeglasses, hearing aids cannot provide complete
correction for the impairment. No hearing aid will restore your hearing to
normal or provide a perfect substitute for normal hearing. The benefits derived
from wearing hearing aids, even the most technologically advanced, will vary
from person to person. The greatest benefit will be experienced with consistent
use of hearing aids.
What hearing aids can do:
- Hearing aids make sounds louder (amplify sounds) so that you can hear
them. The goal is to make soft sounds audible, the sound of normal
conversation comfortable, and loud sounds loud, but not too loud.
- Hearing aids improve a person's ability to understand speech (such as
conversations) by amplifying the sounds (such as high-pitched consonants)
not audible to the individual. The extent a hearing aid can improve speech
understanding will depend on the degree of the person's hearing loss and how
much noise is present in the listening situations.
- Some hearing aids can amplify high-pitched consonant sounds more than
low-pitched vowel sounds to help you hear better in noisy situations. There
are no hearing aids, however, that can completely eliminate troublesome
background noise.
- Some advanced hearing aid systems use multiple microphone technology to
further enhance communication in noisy environments.
What hearing aids cannot do:
- Hearing aids cannot change how your ears and auditory system function.
Hearing aids will not restore your hearing to normal.
- Hearing aids cannot stop the progression of hearing loss.
- Hearing aids cannot distinguish between sounds you want to hear and
those you do not want to hear. It is the role of the brain to distinguish
and attend to the desirable signals and suppress the other sounds.
Do I need one or two hearing aids?
People with hearing loss in both ears benefit most from wearing
a hearing aid in each ear. When we use both ears, sounds are processed by the
central auditory system (brain) more efficiently. We are able to locate the
source of sounds and understand speech in background noise better with two ears.
Less fatigue is experienced at the end of the day because it is easier to listen
with both ears. Using hearing aid in both ears allows the auditory system to
function more like it did when your hearing was normal.
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Can't find the health information you’re looking for?
This information is provided by the Cleveland Clinic and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or health care provider. Please consult your health care provider for advice about a specific medical condition. This document was last reviewed on: 11/17/2007...#5269
