The Basics of your Hearing Health

Dear Readers,

As an Audiologist I feel it is my responsibility to help the public better understand their hearing health. I started this blog to educate people about hearing health and what an Audiologist can do for them. I will focus my first post on the basics: 1) protect the hearing you have, and 2) deal with a hearing loss when one is identified.


Protecting Your Hearing

earplugs-381261-m Premature hearing loss can be avoided by turning down the volume and using hearing protection for noisy jobs (did you use ear plugs the last time you used power tools?). I encourage everyone to turn down the volume on their devices (TVs, iPODs, etc.) and use hearing protection for noisy jobs. I cannot stress the importance of protecting your hearing enough. This is why I give away free hearing protection to anyone who needs it. Stop by the clinic to get yours today!

Dealing with Hearing Loss

Proper hearing is an important element of your overall health. Unfortunately, it is one thing that many people neglect until​ much later in life. We get our teeth and eyes checked regularly. So why don’t we get our ears checked more often? Routine hearing checks provide a history of your hearing health and help identify problems — sometimes before you are even aware they exist. The sooner you identify a problem, the sooner you can do something about it.

The fact is many people seem to avoid dealing with a hearing loss. They rely on coping mechanisms instead, like turning up the volume on the TV or avoiding conversations in loud settings such as restaurants. A person with a hearing loss may not even realize they are doing this, but their family, friends and co-workers certainty do.

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When we can’t see we get glasses, and when we have a cavity we get it filled. Just as neglecting these problems cause more trouble later on, so does neglecting your hearing. Hearing loss is consistent with aging, but there is no such thing as “normal hearing loss” for any age. You either have normal hearing or you don’t. If you don’t have normal hearing, the impact on your life may be significantly reduced through the use of hearing aids.

Thanks for reading!

Mahsa