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About Hearing Loss

Have you noticed that it is harder to hear people talk in noisy places or that it is harder to decipher familiar sounds, such as water running? After years of hearing normally, you may be experiencing age-related hearing loss, known medically as “presbycusis.”

As you age, your middle ear also ages. The cochlear hair cells in the ear may become damaged or the nerve pathways leading to the brain may become altered, resulting in “sensorineural” hearing loss. Along with aging, other factors can contribute to sensorineural hearing loss, including:

• Heredity
• various health conditions such as heart disease
• diabetes
• high blood pressure
• side effects of certain medications
• repeated exposure to loud noise or music.

About one-third of adults aged 65 to 75 years, and fully half of persons older than 75, have some degree of hearing loss, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.  This process begins gradually, possibly in middle age, so you may not even realize your hearing is diminishing.

Sounds often become less clear and lower in volume, contributing to difficulties such as the following:

• The speech of others seems mumbled or slurred.
• High-pitched sounds are difficult to hear and tell apart.
• Conversations are hard to understand, especially when there is background noise.
• Certain sounds seem annoying or overly loud.
• Tinnitus (ringing, roaring, or hissing in one or both ears) may occur.

What can be done about age-related hearing loss?

First, prevention. 

Be aware of potential sources of damaging noises, such as lawn mowers, leaf blowers, woodworking machinery, loud appliances and loud music.  Earplugs or special fluid-filled earmuffs can give protection against them.

Next, assistive listening devices, like a hearing aid or built-in telephone amplifier, can improve your ability to hear in certain situations.

If you have a hearing loss or know someone who does, share these tips:

• When speaking, face the person who has the hearing loss.
• During conversations, turn off background noise such as the television.
• Avoid speaking while chewing food or covering your mouth.
• Speak slightly louder than normal, but don’t shout, which distorts speech.
• Speak at your normal rate, don’t exaggerate sounds, and lower the pitch of your voice.
• Clue the person with the hearing loss about the topic of conversation.
• Rephrase statements into shorter, simpler sentences when you are not being understood.
• In social gatherings, choose seats away from crowded or noisy areas.

For an appointment, call:

The Jewish Hospital Audiology Department
4777 E. Galbraith Road
Cincinnati, OH  45236
513-686-5165