Your Healthy Family: The importance of having your hearing check - KOAA.com | Continuous News | Colorado Springs and Pueblo

Your Healthy Family: The importance of having your hearing checked


Often as people age do not notice subtle changes or hearing loss.  Dr. Michael Iliff with Hearing Consultants of Colorado Springs says, "As we age, things can change, and we need to be more proactive because hearing can decrease over time.  It tends to be slow, and we don't notice it as much. As we age and it’s more advisable to [have your hearing checked] every 2 or 3 years unless there is an indication that there is a decrease in hearing. And once that is noticed we recommend [having your hearing checked] every year or two."

According to Dr. Iliff, there are several early indicators of hearing loss.  "One of them is someone asking for regular repetition. Or if your neighbors can tell you what you were watching on TV, it'ss a clear indication that perhaps the volume is going up too loud.  If you’re finding yourself avoiding environments where it's too noisy or you're not understanding and you’re starting to withdraw, those are the things that we are trying to avoid because now people are so active these days and we want to give them a high quality of enjoyment in their life."

If your kids think enjoying life is blasting their favorite music in their ear buds, that's something you will want to be aware of, too, according to Dr. Iliff.   "If you can hear the music they are listening to, it's too loud. Many of them can be set so there is a preset limit so you can take control over how loud they will get. But if your child is in band or around an activity that is very loud, you can purchase an app that will check the noise level to see if it's at a damaging level.  Even at 85 to 90 decibels, if it' sustained, it can cause a decrease in hearing "

Dr. Iliff suggests young adults should be getting their hearing checked every 5 years.  As you get older, every 2 years is more appropriate.  One option is a simple hearing screening that you can find many places that will only indicate if you have hearing loss or not.  Another option that is far more effective is to seek out an Audiologist for a full diagnostic.  Doctors of Audiology can work with your insurance and give you a full diagnostic exam that will provide specific details of your hearing, the specific frequencies that might be a problem for you and if there is not problem a diagnostic can provide a baseline for the future if do you begin to have hearing loss so it can be diagnosed and dealt with precisely,    

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