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More Than Loss of Hearing Can be Discovered by a Hearing Test

Image of woman getting hearing test with the results superimposed.

Invaluable insight into your state of health is offered by a hearing test. Hearing tests can sometimes uncover other health problems because the ears are so sensitive. What will a hearing assessment tell you about your health.

What is a Hearing Exam?

Out of the many varieties of hearing exams, putting on headphones and listening to a series of tones is the standard assessment. The hearing specialist will play these tones at various volumes and pitches to determine if you have hearing loss, and if so the depth of the loss.

Another typical hearing test involves listening to words in one ear and repeating them back to make certain you were able to interpret sounds accurately. To see what kind of sounds affect your hearing, background noise is often added to this test. In order to get an accurate measurement for each side, tests are done on each ear individually.

What is The Meaning of Hearing Test Results?

Ultimately, an ordinary hearing test pinpoints whether a person has hearing loss and how bad it is. Normal hearing in adults with minor hearing loss is 25 decibels or less. At this point, hearing experts gauge hearing loss as:

  • Moderate to severe
  • Severe
  • Moderate
  • Mild
  • Profound

The degree of impairment is based on the decibel level of the hearing loss.

Do Hearing Tests Evaluate Anything Else?

There are also test which can evaluate the viability of structures of the middle ear such as the eardrum, how clearly someone hears with background noise, the threshold of air and bone conduction, and the type of hearing loss.

Other health issues can also be revealed by a hearing test such as:

  • Rheumatoid arthritis. Research reveals that people with RA are as much as 300 percent more likely to have hearing loss.
  • Paget’s disease, which can cause extreme headaches and pain in the joints and bones.
  • Otosclerosis, which if diagnosed early can sometimes be reversed.
  • Heart and circulation problems. The inner ear has one blood vessel, which makes it more sensitive to fluctuations in blood pressure and cholesterol.
  • Diabetes. Injured blood vessels, like the ones in the inner ear, can theoretically be damaged by too much sugar in the blood.
  • Meniere’s disease and other issues with dizziness and vertigo.

The hearing expert will take all the insight uncovered by hearing tests and use it to figure out if you are suffering from:

  • Damage from trauma
  • Another medical issue causing the hearing loss like high blood pressure
  • Injury from chronic disease or infections
  • Age related hearing loss
  • Irregular bone growths
  • Injury caused by exposure to loud noises, ototoxic chemicals or medications
  • Tumors

When you understand why you have hearing loss, you can try to find ways to deal with it and to take care of your general health.

A preemptive plan to decrease the risks caused by hearing loss will be developed by the specialist after examining the results of the test.

What Are The Risk Factors of Neglecting Hearing Loss?

Medical science is beginning to comprehend how hearing loss impacts a person’s health and quality of life. Researchers from Johns Hopkins examined 636 individuals over 12 years. They found that people with loss of hearing have an increased risk of dementia. The more significant the hearing loss, the greater the risk.

Double the risk of dementia comes with moderate loss of hearing, based on this study. A moderate loss means three times the risk, and severe hearing impairment raises the risk by five.

Also, social decline is apparent in those with hearing loss. People who have trouble hearing conversations will avoid engaging in them. That can lead to more time alone and less time with friends and family.

A recent bout of fatigue may also be explained by a hearing test. In order to comprehend what you hear, the brain needs to do work. It has to work harder to detect and translate sound when there is loss of hearing. Your left feeling tired all the time because your other senses are robbed of energy.

Finally, the National Council on Aging states there is a clear correlation between loss of hearing and depression, especially age-related hearing loss when it is left untreated.

Treating hearing loss, with hearing aids or other hearing technology, can eliminate or minimize these risks, and the first step for proper treatment is a hearing test.

An expert hearing test is a painless and safe way to determine a lot about your hearing and your health, so why are you waiting to schedule your appointment?

 
 
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