Regular hearing tests: are they necessary?
Jul
Our hearing is a very important sense. It allows us to communicate with loved ones, appreciate our favourite sounds and process the world around us. Your ears and brain work together to provide a soundscape of every environment, even when you’re asleep. Your ears collect the sound but it’s your brain’s job to interpret it. If our hearing changes, then our ears aren’t collecting all the sound that our brain needs to work properly.
Do you have a regular hearing test?
Hearing loss is a major public health issue; it is the third most common physical condition after arthritis and heart disease and currently there are more than 10 million people in the UK with some form of hearing loss. However, because hearing deterioration can be gradual, it takes the average person 10 years to recognise that they have a problem and finally do something about it. This time lapse can have some severe health and social consequences.
Gradual hearing loss can affect people of all ages and depending on the cause, it can be mild to severe, temporary or permanent. There are many causes of hearing loss such as genetics, ageing, noise exposure, medications, illness, viruses (including COVID) and many more. The most common form of hearing loss is Presbiacusis and it relates to ageing.
What are the effects of hearing loss?
When hearing deteriorates, understanding speech becomes difficult. We lose clarity, voices become muffled and we can begin to muddle the beginning and ends of words. We might then start to make mistakes, get the wrong end of the stick or ask people to repeat themselves.
It can also become difficult to hear in restaurants, work, meetings, social situations, or watching television. This can cause frustration, upset and reluctance to socialise in those ‘difficult’ environments. But if hearing loss is caught early on, there is a lot that we can do to eradicate these problems; the longer it’s ignored, the more difficult this becomes.
Treating hearing loss will not only help you to hear better but it also helps with balance, the ability to tell which direction sounds are coming from, short-term memory processing and the icing on the cake – it helps to slow the deterioration preventing cognitive changes.
We get our eyes and teeth checked on a regular basis to flag up any underlying issues. We need to add hearing to that maintenance list.
Most types of hearing loss can be corrected with the use of hearing aids. Hearing aids should, put simply, help you to hear all you need, and comfortably. We understand that it is essential to give your brain as much sound information as possible in order to hear properly.
Research has demonstrated that the brain needs access to a full sound scene in order to focus and hear clearly. By helping the brain to process sound in the most natural way, we will better help reduce the health and life problems associated with untreated hearing loss.
We need to do a better job of looking after our hearing, and in turn, keep our brains and balance healthy. It takes less than an hour to assess your hearing health.
If you would like to arrange a free hearing assessment, please call Viney Hearing on 02920 250121 or call into our Whitchurch branch
New at Viney Hearing!
We need YOU!
We are looking for 20 volunteers to trial a new innovative invisible hearing device proven to mimic the way our brain naturally hears.
More TM is the world’s first hearing aid to give the brain the full perspective. This is thanks to a breakthrough in hearing aid technology like nothing before.
The trial will include full audiometric testing, FREE microsuction wax removal, aid calibration and progressive monitoring to review the hearing performance. If you decide following the trial to keep the instruments, there will be a 10% discount off the cost as a thank you for taking part.
Recommend a friend reward
If you feel that any of your friends or family would benefit from our help, we also have a ‘recommend a friend’ reward.
When they choose to have hearing aids with us, you both get a choice of the following:
• A FREE year’s supply of hearing aid batteries (2 boxes)
• £30 Marks & Spencer’s vouchers
• £30 donated to a charity of your choice.
A: 66 Merthyr Rd, Cardiff CF14 1DJ
T: 02920 250121
