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 sees a dentist every six months, and she gets the oil changed in her car every 3000 miles. But she has no idea the last time she took a hearing test or underwent any kind of accurate hearing evaluation.
Hearing exams are important for a wide variety of reasons, finding early symptoms of hearing loss is probably the most significant one. Knowing how regularly she should get a hearing examination will help Sofia keep her ears (and hearing) as healthy as she can for as long as possible.
How Often Each Year Should my Ears be Checked?
We might be alarmed if Sophia hadn’t had a hearing test in a decade. Or we might think it’s completely normal. Our reaction, and the reaction of her hearing specialist, probably will vary depending on her age. That’s because hearing professionals have different recommendations based on age.
- If you are over fifty years old: But if you’re over fifty, the suggestion is, you have a hearing test annually. As you age, the noise damage you’ve suffered over a lifetime can start to speed up, which means loss of hearing is more likely to start impacting your life. Plus, there are other health concerns that can impact your hearing.
- At least every three years, it’s recommended that you get a hearing assessment. There’s no issue having your ears examined more often, of course! The bare minimum is every three years. You should certainly get examined more frequently if you spend a lot of time in a noisy environment. It’s easy and painless and there’s really no reason not to do it.
When it comes to your hearing, more often is absolutely better. The sooner you identify any issues, the sooner you’ll be able to address whatever hearing loss that might have developed since your last hearing exam.
Signs You Should Get Your Hearing Checked
There are undoubtedly other times besides your annual hearing test that you might want to schedule an appointment with your hearing specialist. Sometimes, you start to notice some signs of hearing loss. And in those circumstances, it’s usually a good plan to promptly get in touch with a hearing professional and schedule a hearing exam.
Some of the signs that might prompt you to get a hearing test could include:
- Listening to your favorite tunes at excessively high volumes.
- When you’re talking to people, you repeatedly have to keep asking people to repeat themselves.
- Your hearing is muted like there is water in your ears.
- Phone interactions are always difficult to understand
- When you’re in a loud environment, you have trouble hearing conversations.
- Having a tough time hearing consonants (generally, consonants are spoken in a higher wavelength than vowels, and it’s those high-frequency sounds that are usually the first to go as hearing loss sets in)
A strong sign that right now is the best time to have a hearing test is when the warning signs begin to accumulate. The sooner you get your hearing examined, the more frequently you’ll know what’s going on with your ears.
What Are The Advantages of Hearing Testing?
Sophia may be late for her hearing exam for several reasons. Denial is a leading choice. It could be that she’s just avoiding dealing with it. But there are concrete benefits to getting your hearing examined per recommendations.
Even when your hearing is completely healthy, a hearing exam can help set a baseline reading, which makes deviations in the future simpler to detect. If you detect your loss of hearing before it becomes obvious, you’ll be able to protect it better.
That’s the reason why Sophia has to show up for scheduled hearing appointments before any permanent injury happens. By catching your hearing loss early, by having your hearing checked when you should, you’ll be giving your ears their best chance of staying healthy. It’s important to think about how hearing loss will affect your general health.