Hearing Assessments

Make Your Hearing Health a Priority with a Comprehensive Hearing Assessment

The gradual onset of hearing loss makes it nearly impossible to notice day-to-day changes. While your hearing loss continues to go undetected and untreated, the damage to your hearing continues and additional negative mental and physical health conditions begin to show up.

More than identifying a hearing challenge, a hearing test should be the first step toward finding solutions to improve your overall health and quality of life. Sadly, most people don’t recognize hearing health as a priority and rarely include a hearing test in their health screening regimen.

Since hearing loss is the third most common physical health condition in America and impacts approximately 1 in 8 individuals worldwide, hearing test hesitancy is a major concern. The WHO predicts that the number of hearing loss cases will double over the next 30 years, making regular hearing assessments a critical part of monitoring your health.

There are a number of reasons why scheduling regular hearing tests is not a priority for most people, and most of them are the result of misconceptions about hearing loss and the value of early detection and treatment.

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Hearing assessment in Burien, WA at Highline Audiology and Hearing Aids

6 Myths and Misconceptions of Hearing Loss and Hearing Tests

#1 - “My hearing loss doesn’t harm anybody."

Hearing loss harms you the most, because leaving it untreated reduces your quality of life. Unaddressed hearing loss puts you at a higher risk of developing mental health issues like depression, anxiety and isolation as well as contributing to physical health problems such as balance issues and cognitive decline.

In addition to damaging your health, your greater dependence on others to make up for your hearing deficiency and your decreased capacity to communicate clearly strains your relationships with family, friends and coworkers, which can cause a great deal of harm to all involved.

#2 - “If I was losing my hearing, I’d be the first to know."

Can you see the grass growing in your yard? You may know when it is time to cut it, but you can’t actually see it growing day by day. Similarly, hearing loss comes on so slowly that you can’t tell it is happening until hearing and communication become a struggle.

In reality, friends, family, and coworkers are more apt to recognize your hearing problem before you do. If they’re telling you to “get your ears checked,” it’s because they recognize your situation and want to help you get the help you need.

#3 - “I’ll just turn up the volume if I can’t hear something."

Though volume is one of the issues associated with hearing loss, most hearing challenges result from a decrease in hearing clarity. Difficulty hearing with background noise, problems distinguishing various consonants from others, struggling to understand a phone conversation, or difficulty hearing women and children stem from clarity-related issues.

Amplifying distorted sound only amplifies the distortion, making the issue worse. Our hearing assessments diagnose clarity issues in order to provide solutions that overcome distortion and improve hearing clarity so that you can hear clearly at normal volume levels.

#4 - “Only old people have hearing problems."

In reality, about 20% of the adult population in the US, including individuals between the ages of 18 and 44, experience some form of hearing loss. Though age deterioration is among the leading causes of hearing loss, hearing loss can affect individuals of all ages due to various circumstances such as:

• Congenital disabilities
• Ongoing exposure to loud noise (work, nightclubs, music in your headphones)
• Head injuries
• Various types of illnesses and diseases
• Ototoxic medications

Regardless of your age or the cause of your hearing challenges, frequent hearing assessments allow your audiologist to track the type and severity of your hearing issues and develop a treatment plan that fits your unique circumstances.

#5 - “A hearing test won’t tell me anything to fix my hearing."

As your hearing deteriorates, your brain tries to compensate for lost hearing, making it difficult to determine its severity until it becomes a significant problem. Hearing tests identify the level of hearing loss and its cause, allowing your audiologist to track the damage and prescribe treatment before it impacts your quality of life.

Hearing tests also provide the data our hearing professionals use to develop a treatment plan that addresses your specific needs and establish the parameters for custom programming a device to produce the best results. A hearing test, when your hearing is normal, also establishes a baseline against which future hearing loss can be identified.

#6 - “Hearing tests are complicated and painful."

A hearing assessment at Highline Audiology and Hearing Aids is quick, easy, and non-invasive. Our audiologists work with you in a comfortable, caring atmosphere, using state-of-the-art technology and audiology’s recognized best practices to provide the most comprehensive assessment of your hearing available.

The 4 Steps of Your Hearing

Assessment

#1 – An Initial Conversation About You

Besides having a genuine interest in getting to know your, our initial conversation will address any concerns or questions you might have about hearing loss. We’ll discuss any early signs you are experiencing, like difficulty communicating with others, a ringing sound in your ears, a feeling of stuffiness or fullness in your ears, problems with your balance and other issues.

In addition, your audiologist will ask some questions about your medical history, the history of hearing loss in your family, medications you are taking, work and social activities you frequently engage in. Answers to our questions not only help pin-point the severity and cause of your hearing challenges, but also help us develop an appropriate treatment plan that meets all of your needs.

#2 – A Physical Examination of Your Ears

Before moving on to any of the tests we perform, your audiologist will physically exam your ears, looking for damage to the structures of the ear or blockages in the ear canal.

Some of our patients with hearing challenges discover that their condition is caused by inflammation from an infection, a growth in the ear canal, a bug, earwax or a bit of fluff, all of which are easy to correct.

#3 – Hearing Tests

Typical hearing tests include tru-tone and speech threshold tests. For these tests you will be seated in a soundproof booth and fitted with a set of earphones. Your audiologist will conduct a variety of tests using tones or spoken words at different frequencies and volume levels to help establish what you can and cannot hear.

A bone conduction test, which uses a different type of headset designed to bypass the conductive structures of the hearing pathway to test the responsiveness of the inner ear. This test allows us to determine whether your hearing loss is conductive or sensorinueral.

A tympanometry test measures how the structures of the middle ear and the eardrum respond to sound. Results from this test will identify hearing loss associated with damage to these structural components.

In some severe cases, your audiologist may use additional tests in order to further pinpoint the source and severity of your hearing loss.

#4 – Reviewing of Your Test Results

Most healthcare tests require patients to wait for the results to come back from a lab. However, the results of your hearing test are available during the same office visit.

Because educating our patients rather than just ordering a treatment is part of our commitment to the best practices of audiology, your audiologist will present you with your printed test results and explain what each aspect means.

If treatment is necessary, your audiologist will present the range of options available to correct your hearing issues, which may include hearing aids, surgical procedures, changes to medication and ototoxic medication monitoring, tinnitus management or various other options.

Those with normal hearing will have baseline results against which all future hearing loss can be measured as well as an opportunity to make lifestyle changes to prevent damage to your hearing, such as curbing destructive habits, altering medications, the use of ear protection at work or during certain activities, and other preventive measures.

Scheduling a Hearing
Assessment Is Critical

So much damage to your hearing, your mental and physical health as well as relationships can be done when hearing loss is left untreated. Identifying the type and severity of hearing loss in order to customize a plan of treatment or preventive measures makes a hearing assessment a critical element in your overall health and quality of life.

To ensure your hearing health, or that of a loved one, don’t continue to put off having a hearing test. Take the first step on the journey to better hearing by scheduling a hearing assessment.

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