When a person is dealing with hearing loss, they may wonder when they should start seeking hearing loss treatment. If you have hearing loss right now, it may just be mildly frustrated. You may have your television turned up a little bit louder than your children or grandchildren would like. But you may not think it is that serious.
What Is Mild Hearing Loss?
When talking about mild hearing loss, professionals define it based on the threshold on an audiogram. The thresholds are between 26 and 40 dB. These vary between frequency and pitches. This is an important factor to consider. Hearing loss does not mean that sounds are just quiet. At times, it can mean that sounds aren’t clear. So you may be dealing with hearing loss that could require hearing loss treatment if you find that sounds just aren’t clear enough. You may be able to hear everything that’s going on, but you can’t understand conversations clearly.
When a person is struggling with mild hearing loss, it’s usually not every sound they have problems with. Quite often, they have trouble with certain consonants, like the letters F, K, and P. The situation becomes worse if you are having a conversation with an individual who is soft-spoken. Or things could become challenging if you are in a room that has a lot of background noise or poor acoustics. In these circumstances mild hearing loss can make it difficult for you to understand what’s going on, to follow a conversation, or to feel included in what is going on around you.
Is Mild Hearing Loss a Handicap?
As you are reading through some of the symptoms of mild hearing loss, you realize that they apply to you. Still, the question is, does your hearing loss require hearing loss treatment, like a hearing aid? The answer to that question is not black and white. Two people can have almost identical issues with hearing. For one person the difficulty can cause a lot of problems in their life. For the other individual the interruption in life is little to none.
This underscores the role that self perception of hearing handicaps have in determining whether or not a person should pursue hearing loss treatment. Reasons for these differences vary, but they could include a person’s communication demands.
Would you like to know more about your mild hearing loss? Would you be interested in learning about the hearing loss treatments we offer at Advanced Ear, Nose, & Throat Associates and how they may be able to work for you? If so, feel free to visit us in Atlanta, GA. Contact us today to schedule your consultation!