According to one recent survey, nearly 30% of people have gone more than ten years without getting a hearing test. Sofia is one of them. She goes to her yearly doctor’s appointments, she visits a dentist every six months, and she gets the oil changed in her car every 3000 miles. But she can’t remember the last time she took a hearing exam or underwent any type of accurate hearing evaluation.
Hearing tests are important for a wide range of reasons, the most important of which is that it’s normally hard for you to discover the initial signs of hearing loss without one. Knowing how frequently she should get a hearing examination will help Sofia keep her ears (and hearing) as healthy as possible for as long as possible.
How Frequently Do You Need to Get a Hearing Assessment?
We might be alarmed if Sophia hadn’t had a hearing examination in a decade. Or we may think it’s perfectly normal. Our response, and the reaction of her hearing specialist, probably will vary depending on her age. This is because hearing specialists have different recommendations based on age.
- At least every three years, it’s recommended that you take a hearing test. Of course, if you feel you should get your hearing examined more often, there is no harm. The very least is every three years. If you are exposed to loud noise regularly or work at a job where noise is commonplace, you should decide to get screened more frequently. It’s easy and painless and there’s truly no reason not to get it done.
- If you are older than fifty: The standard recommendation is that anybody above the age of fifty should have hearing checks every year. As you get older, the noise damage you’ve sustained over a lifetime can begin to accelerate, meaning hearing loss is more likely to begin affecting your life. There are also several other variables that can impact your hearing.
If you want to have hearing examinations or tests more often, there’s certainly no harm in that, at least when it involves your hearing. Since the last time you had a hearing assessment, you might have new injury you should recognize, so regular hearing tests could be helpful.
Signs You Should Get Your Hearing Checked
There are certainly other times besides your annual hearing test that you might want to make an appointment with your hearing specialist. For example, if you recognize signs of hearing loss. And in those cases, it’s typically a good plan to promptly get in touch with a hearing professional and schedule a hearing test.
Some of the signs that might prompt you to get a hearing test could include:
- Turning your television or car stereo to extremely high volumes (if your neighbors start complaining, that’s a good sign you need to see a hearing specialist soon).
- When you’re speaking with people, you repeatedly need to keep asking people to speak up.
- Having a very hard time comprehending people when talking on the phone, mobile or otherwise
- Your hearing is dull like there is water in your ears.
- Difficulties hearing conversations in noisy situations.
- Having a hard time making out consonants (in general, consonants are spoken in a higher wavelength than vowels, and it’s those high-frequency sounds that are often the first to go as hearing loss takes hold)
When these warning signs begin to add up, it’s a good indication that the appropriate time to have a hearing test is right now. You need to recognize what’s happening with your ears and that means getting a hearing test as soon as possible.
What Are The Advantages of Hearing Testing?
There are plenty of excuses why Sofia might be late in getting her hearing test. Maybe she hasn’t thought about it. Possibly thinking about it is something she’s just avoiding. But there are tangible benefits to getting your hearing examined per recommendations.
Even when your hearing is completely healthy, a hearing test can help create a baseline reading, which makes variances in the future simpler to detect. You can safeguard your hearing better if you detect it before it becomes problematic.
That’s why Sophia needs to go to her scheduled hearing exams before any permanent damage happens. Early diagnosis by a hearing exam can help your hearing stay healthy for a long time. Thinking about the effects of hearing loss on your general health, that’s important.