A person’s level of hearing loss can be described in one of the following categories:

• mild hearing loss,
• moderate hearing loss,
• severe hearing loss, or
• profound hearing loss

Causes Of Hearing Impairment

Hearing loss may be caused by any number of reasons.  These factors include, but are not limited to:

• injury or trauma to the ear
• excessive noise exposure
• genetics
• ageing, of course!
• birth complications
• certain medications
• infection during pregnancy (eg. Rubella), or
• bacterial infection (eg. Meningitis)

However, fifty percent of all hearing loss is totally preventable.  Give your hearing the best chance through:

• immunisation reduces risk of hearing impairment
• a healthy pregnancy
• avoidance of certain medications
• minimising exposure to excessive noise

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And sorry to sound like the fun police, but you should be aware that; in an effort to reduce the damage from excessive noise, the World Health Organisation recommends young people limit the use of personal audio players to only one hour per day!

Signs And Symptoms Of Deafness

What are the signs of a hearing problem? What are the symptoms of deafness?

Many signs and symptoms can alert you to a hearing problem. Here are a few:

• not hearing speech or other sounds clearly
• having trouble hearing certain pitched tones, especially higher ones such as your car indicator
• having difficulty understanding words, especially when in a crowd or in a room with background noise
• needing to ask others to speak slowly, clearly and loudly
• needing to ask others to repeat themselves
• needing to turn up the volume on the television or radio to hear properly
• withdrawing from conversations because you can’t hear what’s going on
• wanting to avoid social settings because you can’t hear properly.

Did you know?

Hearing problems are affecting more and more younger people. They’re no longer just ‘a senior’s problem’.

The longer you wait to have your hearing tested, the more challenging it can be to adapt to hearing aids.

Early intervention is one of the key elements to successful hearing aid use, as well as motivation, expectations, technology level and support.

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