For World Hearing Day on March 3rd, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging everyone to check their hearing and practice safe listening.
Here’s a free, clinically validated hearing test – developed by leading Melbourne scientists – that you can take online, right now.
All you need is a good pair of speakers set to a comfortable level, a quiet environment, and about 10 minutes.
Audiological scientist Dr Elaine Saunders, co-founder of Blamey Saunders Hears – an award-winning Australian hearing company, shares her advice below.
Hearing loss is the second most common health condition experienced by Australians, ahead of asthma, heart disease, cancer and diabetes. In fact, 1 in 6 Australians adults has hearing loss.
Untreated, hearing loss can cause a broad range of issues, including poorer mental health and brain function, reduced employment, and relationship breakdowns. That’s why it’s important to find a solution sooner rather than later.
But hearing loss is a silent thief – it usually happens so gradually that you don’t notice any change to your hearing at first.
These are the common signs of hearing loss:
- You mix up consonants. Not too many people realise that a hearing problem is first noticed as a loss of clarity rather than volume. Your first clue might be mixing up consonants; you’ll hear ‘tear’ instead of ‘beer’.
- You find it hard to follow a conversation in a crowded room or restaurant. The ear and the brain work together to understand conversation in difficult places, but if your hearing has declined, you may first notice it when you’re in a noisy setting and you’re trying to listen.
- You feel like people are always mumbling. If people you speak to seem to be mumbling more often than not, it can be a sign of hearing loss, which makes normal speech sound muffled.
- You get lots of complaints about the volume. When people around you claim that your preferred TV or radio volume is uncomfortably loud, it’s worth paying attention. They could be picking up a gradual change in your hearing that isn’t obvious to you.
- You find it easier to understand men’s voices. Finding deeper voices easier to detect means your hearing is likely deteriorating in the upper registers of sound. Speech is generated by the vibration of the vocal cords and the frequency at which they vibrate is known as the ‘fundamental frequency’. Women tend to speak with a fundamental frequency that’s about an octave higher than men and thus harder to hear for people with certain kinds of hearing loss.
- You hear buzzing or ringing in your ears. This is called ‘tinnitus’, and is usually a sign of hearing damage caused by too much exposure to loud sound.
What to do if you think your hearing has worsened:
Once you’ve seen your GP to make sure your ears aren’t blocked with wax or that your hearing loss isn’t a secondary complication of an undiagnosed illness, you should take a hearing test.
These days there are hearing tests you can take online, in the comfort of home, without a specialist appointment.
Blamey Saunders Hears offers a hearing test on their website, which you can take at any time to put to rest any concerns about your hearing.
Depending on your results, the solution may involve hearing aids, or it may be as simple as having built-up wax removed by a hearing care professional.
What to do to reduce your risk of further hearing damage:
- Take frequent breaks away from the source if you have to be around loud sound
- Use hearing protection when you know you’re going to be around loud sound – you can get custom-made earplugs for concerts
- Reduce the volume that comes through your headphones, the radio or TV
- Treat any ear infections promptly because they can damage hearing
Dr Saunders regularly posts about hearing at www.elainesaunders.com.au. You can learn more about her company Blamey Saunders Hears on their website: www.blameysaunders.com.au.
Add Comment