It is not the roar of the ocean that we hear when a
seashell
is placed next to our ear, but rather the sound of blood
surging
through the veins in the ear.
*
The human ear is the envy of even the
most sophisticated acoustic engineer. Without a moment’s thought or the
slightest pause, you can hear the difference between a violin and a clarinet,
you can tell if a sound is coming from your left or right, and if it’s distant
or near. And you can discriminate between words as similar as hear and near,
sound and pound.
Nearly everyone experiences trouble
hearing from time to time. Common causes include a buildup of ear wax or fluid
in the ear, ear infections, or the change in air pressure when taking off in an
airplane. And a mild degree of permanent hearing loss is an inevitable part of
the aging process. Unfortunately, major hearing loss that makes communication
difficult becomes more common with increasing age, particularly after age 65.
Testing, 1, 2, 3
How do you know if you need a hearing
test? If you answer yes to the questions below, talk with your doctor about
having your hearing tested:
Are you always turning up the volume
on your TV or radio?
Do you shy away from social situations
or meeting new people because you’re worried about understanding them?
Do you get confused or feel “out of
it” at restaurants or dinner parties?
Do you ask people to repeat
themselves?
Do you miss telephone calls — or have
trouble hearing on the phone when you do pick up the receiver?
Do the people in your world complain
that you never listen to them (even when you’re really trying)?
You can also ask a friend to test you
by whispering a series of words or numbers. After all this, if you think you
have a hearing problem, you should have a test.
What does a hearing test involve?
Thorough hearing evaluations start
with a medical history and examination of your ears, nose, and throat, followed
by a few simple office hearing tests. An audiogram is the next step.
For an audiogram, you sit in a
soundproof booth wearing earphones that allow each ear to be tested separately.
A series of tones at various frequencies are piped to your ear. The audiologist
will ask you to indicate the softest tone you can hear in the low-, mid-, and
high-frequency ranges. People with excellent hearing can generally hear tones
as soft as 20 decibels (dB) or less. If you can’t hear sounds softer than 45 to
60 dB, you have moderate hearing loss, and if you don’t hear sound until it’s
ramped up to 76 to 90 dB, you have severe hearing loss.
Hearing tones is nice, but hearing and
understanding words is crucial. The audiologist plays tape-recorded words at
various volumes to find your speech reception threshold, the lowest dB level at
which you can hear and repeat half the words. Finally, you’ll be tested with a
series of similar sounding words to evaluate your speech discrimination.
For more on diagnosing and treating
hearing loss, check out Hearing Loss by Harvard Medical School.
* * *
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