Hearing Loss

Common Symptoms of Hearing Loss

  • Do the people around you seem to mumble and not speak clearly?
  • Has anyone ever told you that they often have to repeat things for you?
  • Is it hard for you to understand when someone talks to you from behind or from another room?
  • Does it take a lot of effort for you to understand someone if they speak quietly or whisper?
  • Do you have trouble hearing high-pitched tones (i.e. music, birdsong, children’s or women’s voices, etc…)?
  • Is it difficult for you to follow conversations in loud/noisy environments (i.e. parties, restaurants, etc…)?
  • Do you tend to go out less because it is hard for you to follow other people’s conversations?
  • Has anyone ever asked you to turn down the volume of your television or radio?
  • Do you have difficulties hearing someone at the other end of the telephone?
  • Do you have trouble recognizing the direction from which a car, for example, is approaching?

If you have answered “yes” to three or more of these questions, we recommend that you consider having your hearing assessed. Contact our Hearing Health Care Professionals at the Halton Hearing Centre to obtain a baseline of your hearing levels. To learn about the common causes of hearing loss, click here.

Possible Impacts of Hearing Loss

  • Decreased attention
  • Diminished understanding of speech
  • Trouble communicating with others
  • Diminished memory and linked with dementia (Lin, et al., 2011)
  • Less willing to embrace the unknown
  • Declining job performance
  • Lack of acknowledgement by others
  • Irritability, stress, depression
  • Withdrawal from social life, isolation

Take a proactive approach! The earlier you make a decision to improve your hearing, the better. A hearing aid will help to maintain neural pathways responsible for hearing all sounds around you, and continued stimulation can prevent a degradation of speech understanding! The longer you delay, the more difficult it can be to adjust to hearing aids, and the less you will interact with the world around you! Let’s face it, exhibiting the symptoms of hearing loss is much more visible to others than most hearing aids available today. Take the first step in contacting the Halton Hearing Centre to obtain a baseline of your hearing levels! Schedule your hearing assessment today.

Facts about Hearing Loss & Hearing Aids

  • One in six people have some degree of hearing loss1
  • Having hearing aids has been shown to improve communication, intimacy and warmth in family relationships which greatly impact quality of life2
  • More than 700 million people around the world have a hearing impairment3
  • Only 5-10% of all cases of hearing loss in adults can be treated medically or surgically. This means that the majority of individuals with hearing loss can benefit from wearing hearing aids4
  • Worldwide, 8.5% of all people between the ages of 20 and 30 suffer from hearing loss5
  • Many people with hearing loss wait as long as 10 years before they do something about their hearing loss6

Sources:

  1. Siemens Hearing Instruments, 2013
  2. Marketrak: The Impact of Treated Hearing Loss on Quality of Life
  3. Global Burden of Hearing Loss in the Year 2000, World Health Organization (WHO, 2003); Deafness and Hearing Impairment, World Health Organization (WHO, 2006)
  4. Better Hearing Institute
  5. Medical News Today, 2008
  6. hear-it.org

Resources about Hearing Health

For a comprehensive list of resources about hearing loss and hearing health, see our list of hearing loss resources.

If you are interested in learning about funding available for hearing aids at the Halton Hearing Centre in Oakville, Click Here.