Hearing loss isn’t just about volume, it’s about pitch. If you find it hard to comprehend the speech of a child or a woman, but you can still, for the most part, understand the men in the room, you may have some degree of high-frequency hearing loss. This is a very prevalent form of hearing loss so you’re not alone.

high-frequency Hearing Loss Symptoms

With high-frequency hearing loss, consonant sounds that allow conversations to be understood, get muddled even though you may still be able to pick up on the volume of a woman or a child’s voice. Normally the most difficult to differentiate are consonant sounds such as ch, th, t, soft s, c, sh, k, f, and h. So, it might sound like a woman or child is mumbling, even though they actually aren’t. Understanding a child’s joke or your loved ones question about dinner plans becomes very difficult because you have lost the ability to differentiate these sounds. This can lead to frustration, sadness and social isolation from your circle of friends and family.

People who have high-frequency hearing loss also miss other sounds that are within the high-frequency range (2000 Hz and higher). This includes high musical notes, birds chirping, and squeaks or whistles. Low-frequency sounds like bass musical notes, the rumble of thunder or a man’s voice might still be quite easy to discern, even if the volume isn’t very loud.

Reasons For High-Frequency Hearing Loss

Usually imperceptible in the beginning, high-frequency hearing loss, the most common type of hearing loss, can sneak up on you as you grow older. high-frequency hearing loss can be induced by other things in addition to aging such as some medical problems like cardiovascular disease, excessive noise exposure, and some medications.

These situations all harm to the tiny, hair-like sensory cells inside the cochlea. It’s these little cells that pick up sound input and send it to the brain for processing. The higher pitched sounds are usually the first to become hard to understand because the high-frequency cells become injured more easily than the lower pitched cells.

How to Avoid High-Frequency Hearing Loss

You can take several steps to slow or stop the development of high-frequency hearing loss despite the fact that you can’t stop your ears from growing older. Including these:

• In loud environments, wear hearing protection. If you have to shout to be heard in a loud setting, this is a sure indication the noise could damage your hearing. Some instances of times when putting in ear-plugs are rock concerts, motorcycles revving, running power tools, and a loud stereo. Noise-canceling headphones are also a good option in some scenarios, but might not fit inside your pocket as easily as ear-plugs.
• Never utilizing a swab (or other small objects) to get rid of ear wax. This can push old ear wax into your ear canal and dull your capacity to hear. A hot shower is usually enough o drain exes earwax but if this doesn’t work ask your hearing professional for other methods of irrigating your ears.
• Quieter things are more ideal. Find noise ratings on appliances and choose the quietest models. If it’s hard to hear your dinner companions, don’t be afraid to ask the manager to turn down the music.
• Ask your doctor about medications you take. At least 200 different types of medications can cause or worsen high-frequency hearing loss. Even too much aspirin can injure your hearing. To find out if there are possibilities less likely to damage your hearing, check with your doctor. If you can’t avoid taking a specific medication, stay in close communication with your hearing care specialist for regular hearing loss and balance testing. Treating hearing loss early can help avoid further loss.
• Taking good care of your overall health. Your hearing can be damaged by smoking. Your hearing can also be injured from poor health due to poor nutrition. Maintain your hearing by taking care of your overall health.

high-frequency Hearing Loss Treatment

Presently, the most reliable method for managing high-frequency hearing loss is hearing aids. And there are numerous designs to choose from since this is the most prevalent type of hearing loss. So that they are crisper to the listener, hearing aids can augment high pitched sounds. You can immediately address your level and degree of hearing loss by having your hearing care expert fine-tune your hearing aid to improve your ability to hear sounds at the correct level. For circumstances such as talking on the phone, listening to children, having dinner at a restaurant, or business meetings several hearing aids can be manipulated by your phone and have directional microphones for fine-tuning.

Schedule a hearing test if you suspect you might have high-frequency hearing loss. If you would like to enhance your capacity to hear your grandchild’s precious one-liner, odds are there are individually designed solutions for you.