Hearing loss isn’t just about volume, it’s also about pitch. If it’s hard to comprehend the speech of a child or a woman, but you can still, mostly understand the men in the room, you may have some amount of high-frequency hearing loss. This is a very common type of hearing loss so you’re not alone.
high-frequency Hearing Loss Symptoms
With high-frequency hearing loss, consonant sounds that allow conversations to be understood, get muddled even though you may still be able to register the volume of a woman or a child’s voice. Normally, consonant sounds such as t, th, ch, soft c, s, sh, f, k, and h are the hardest to pick out. So, it might sound like a woman or child is mumbling, even though they actually aren’t. Comprehending a child’s joke or a family member’s question about dinner plans becomes very difficult because you have lost the ability to differentiate these sounds. Separation from family and friends, sadness, and frustration can be the result.
Other sounds within the high-frequency hearing loss range (2000 Hz) are lost to people with this condition. This includes high musical notes, birds chirping, and squeaks or whistles. Even at low volumes a man’s voice, thunder, and bass musical notes, may be fairly easy to discern.
Causes of High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Often imperceptible in the beginning, high-frequency hearing loss, the most widespread type of hearing loss, can sneak up on you as you age. In addition to aging, excessive noise exposure, particular medications and a variety of medical issues like cardiovascular disease can result in high-frequency hearing loss.
These scenarios all do damage to the little, hair-like sensory cells inside of the cochlea. Sound input is received by these little cells and sent to the brain for processing. The higher pitched sounds are typically the first to be tough to understand because the high-frequency cells get injured more easily than the lower pitched cells.
high-frequency Hearing Loss, How to Prevent it
Even though you can’t prevent your ears from growing older, there are many things you can do to prevent or at least slow the progression of high-frequency hearing loss. Including these:
- Taking good care of your general health. Your hearing can be damaged by smoking. Poor health, poor nutrition, or lack of exercise can also hurt your hearing. Try to take good care of your health in all aspects and this will protect your hearing also.
- Quieter things are more ideal. Look for noise ratings on appliances and choose the quietest models. And don’t be reluctant to ask the restaurant manager to turn the music down if it’s hard to hear your dinner companions.
- Never using a swab (or other small objects) to take out ear wax. Your ability to hear becomes blunted when you jam old earwax against your eardrum. A hot shower is usually enough o get rid of exes earwax but if this doesn’t work ask your hearing care professional for other ways to irrigate your ears.
- Ask your doctor about medications you take. At least 200 different types of medications will cause or worsen high-frequency hearing loss. Even too much aspirin can injure your hearing. To discover if there are possibilities less likely to damage your hearing, consult your doctor. Stay in close touch with your hearing health care provider if you can’t avoid using a certain medication. Additional hearing loss can be prevented by treatment.
- In noisy settings, wear hearing protection. If you have to yell to be heard in a noisy setting, this is a sure sign the noise could hurt your hearing. Some instances of occasions when wearing ear-plugs are live music concerts, engines revving, power tools running, and a loud music system. Noise canceling earphone may not fit in your pocket, but they are the best option in some circumstances.
Treatment For High-Frequency Hearing Loss
Hearing aids are presently the most effective strategy for dealing with high-frequency hearing loss. And since this is the most widespread kind of hearing loss, there are various different designs a person can choose from. Hearing aids can enhance high-pitched sounds so they are clearer to the listener. You can directly manage your level and degree of hearing loss by having your hearing care pro fine-tune your hearing aid to improve your ability to hear sounds at the correct level. Some hearing aids can be controlled by your phone and come with directional microphones for fine-tuning in situations like business meetings, restaurant dinners, talking on the phone or listening to children.
Make an appointment for a hearing test if you suspect you may have high-frequency hearing loss. If you want to enhance your ability to hear your grandchild’s precious one-liner, odds are there are personally tailored solutions for you.