Do You Have A Hearing Loss?

Hearing loss occurs to most people as they age. Hearing loss can be due to aging, exposure to loud noise, medications, infections, head or ear trauma, congenital or hereditary factors, disease processes and many other causes. The vast majority of hearing problems do not require medical or surgical intervention. Some 90 to 95 percent of all cases of hearing loss can be corrected with hearing aids.

There are some 28 million people in the USA with hearing loss. Hearing loss is the single most common birth "defect" in America. Approximately one third of all seniors aged 75 years and older have significant hearing loss. About 14 percent of all people aged 45 to 64 years have demonstrable hearing loss. Hearing loss negatively impacts quality of life, personal relationships and of course, your ability to communicate.

It is typically 7 years from the time a person realizes they have a hearing loss, before a person seeks help. Additionally, it is typically a significant other who notices the loss first.

Please note that the checklist below is an exmple taken from Healthy Hearing Online Hearing Test. Please visit HealthyHearing.com for additional information.

Here is a quick "Hearing Check". Please answer yes or no to the following questions.

• Do you primarily have problems hearing in noise?
• Do other complain about the TV being too loud?
• Do you hear persons but cannot understand them?
• Do you have problems hearing on the telephone?
• Do you avoid noisy situations as you cannot hear well?
• Do you have to ask persons persons to repeat what they say often?
• Do you have problems hearing womens and/or children's voices?
• Do you have problems hearing persons from a distance, such as a minister/priest/rabbi during religious services?
• Do most people sound like they are mumbling?