According to one recent survey, nearly 30% of people have gone more than ten years without getting a hearing test. One of those people is Sofia. She goes to her annual 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 assessment.
Hearing tests are important for a wide variety of reasons, the most prominent of which is that it’s often hard for you to discover the earliest signs of hearing loss if you don’t get one. Knowing how frequently she should get a hearing test will help Sofia keep her ears (and hearing) as healthy as she can for as long as possible.
How Often Should You Get a Hearing Assessment?
If the last time Sofia took a hearing test was ten years ago, we could be worried. Or perhaps we don’t think anything of it. Depending on how old Sophia is, reactions might vary. This is because hearing specialists have different suggestions based on age.
- It’s usually recommended that you take a hearing test every three years or so. Certainly, if you think you should get your ears checked more frequently, that’s also fine. The bare minimum is every three years. If you are subjected to loud noise regularly or work in a field where noise is commonplace, you should decide to get checked more frequently. It’s easy and painless and there’s really no reason not to get it done.
- If you are older than fifty: The standard recommendation is that anybody older than fifty should have hearing checks yearly. As you age, the noise damage you’ve suffered over a lifetime can begin to speed up, meaning hearing loss is more likely to start impacting your life. There are also numerous other variables that can affect your hearing.
When it comes to your hearing, more often is absolutely better. Since you last had a hearing assessment, you might have new injury you should know about, so regular hearing tests might be helpful.
You Should Get Your Hearing Checked if You Notice These Signs
There are undoubtedly other occasions besides your yearly hearing test that you may want to make an appointment with your hearing professional. For instance, if you notice symptoms of hearing loss. And in those circumstances, it’s often a good idea to immediately 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:
- Turning your television or car stereo to extremely high volumes (if your neighbors start complaining, that’s a good indication you should see a hearing specialist right away).
- Having a tough time hearing consonants (in general, 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)
- Having a very hard time understanding people when talking on the phone, mobile or otherwise
- When you’re talking to people, you constantly need to ask people to repeat themselves.
- When you’re in a loud environment, you have problems hearing conversations.
- Your hearing is muted as if there is water in your ears.
When these warning signs start to accumulate, it’s a strong indication that the ideal time to have a hearing test is right now. You need to know what’s happening with your ears and that means having a hearing test sooner rather than later.
Hearing Exams, What Are The Benefits?
Sophia may be late for her hearing exam for many reasons. Maybe she hasn’t thought about it. Possibly thinking about it is something she’s just avoiding. But there are concrete benefits to having your hearing examined per recommendations.
Even when your hearing is completely healthy, a hearing test can help set a standard reading, which makes variances in the future simpler to detect. If you identify your loss of hearing before it becomes noticeable, you’ll be able to protect it better.
That’s the reason why Sophia needs to show up for regular hearing exams before any permanent damage happens. Early diagnosis by a hearing test can help your hearing stay healthy for a long time. It’s important to think about how hearing loss will affect your overall health.