Do you think that mild hearing loss is just an inability to hear whispers and has no effect on daily communication?

Do you think you don’t need hearing aids for mild hearing loss?

Do you think mild hearing loss can’t be prevented in advance?

How much do you really know about the causes, effects, treatment, and prevention of mild hearing loss?

What is mild hearing loss?

Mild hearing loss is the inability to hear sounds below 25dB. This includes whispering (whispering), rustling leaves, birds, and water dripping.

We know that according to WHO in 1997, the degree of hearing loss can be divided into normal, mild, moderate, severe, very severe hearing loss.

On t he audiogram, mild hearing loss showed that the average threshold of hearing at 500Hz, 1000Hz 2000Hz and 4000Hz ranged from 26-40dB.

What causes mild hearing loss?

The most common causes of mild hearing loss are noise exposure and aging.

In addition, there are many other causes that may cause mild hearing loss, some of which may restore hearing after prompt treatment.

Such as cerumen embolism, ear infection (otitis media), when found ear swelling, pain, discharge and other conditions, it is recommended to seek medical attention in time to avoid unnecessary or even irreversible hearing loss.

What are the effects of mild hearing loss?

Here we list two main influences

1. Impact on everyday communication 

People with mild hearing loss often do not notice that they have hearing loss, because they tend to be better in daily life and life with people face to face conversation, in quiet environment is very good, almost no difference with normal hearing.

However, when the environment changes slightly, the negative effects of mild hearing loss can follow.

For example.

If you talk to people at a distance of more than 2 meters, it may be diffcult to listen to the normal volume of speech sounds.  

For example

In a noisy environment, or when many people are talking, the situation any become audible but not clear

The effect of h2 on brain cognitive function

In recent years, more and more research has shown that there are various associations between hearing loss and cognitive impairment.

Among them, one of the most eye-catching research report is that the elderly with hearing loss, the probability of suffering from dementia is greater, and the degree of hearing loss increased, the sickness rate was increased.

The most intuitive data is that even the elderly with mild hearing loss are twice as likely to develop dementia as those with normal hearing.

In addition, recent research shows that even as young as teenagers, having mild, near-normal hearing loss can also affect brain activity during speech recognition, potentially increasing the risk of cognitive impairment, dementia and other disorders.

Does mild hearing loss required intervention?

Looking at the effects of mild hearing loss on daily communication and cognitive ability, believe the answer to this question is obvious.

In addition, if mild hearing loss is left unaddressed and allowed to develop over time, plus factors such as environment, age, etc., mild hearing loss may progress to moderate or severe hearing loss, and speech discrimination will become increasingly poor, and then seek interventions, the results are not satisfactory.

Can i wear hearing aids for mild hearing loss?

According to the world healthy website for mild hearing loss description, for children, even with mild hearing loss need dry preparation, it is recommended to match hearing aids., for adults, professional counseling is required, and hearing aids may be required on demand (e.g business people in meeting, teachers giving lectures).

Today, hearing aid technology has come a long way, the market in front of the eyes. The mainstream hearing aids have beautiful fashion, natural sound quality, noise reduction comfort and so on.

For mild hearing loss can be targeted to amplify low and medium sounds, less or not amplify large sounds, it can suppress all kinds of noise in noisy environment and improve speech intelligibility and listening comfort of hearing aid users.

Therefore, for those with mild hearing loss, if there is a need for listening, it is recommended that they should choose a suitable hearing aid through the guidance of professional examiners.

How to prevent mild hearing loss?

As we mentioned earlier, one of the main causes of mild hearing loss is noise exposure, which is the most likely and easiest to prevent.

The prevention point is to reduce high-intensity noise exposure, such as daily use of headphones to listen to, adhere to the 6060 principle, that is, the volume dose not exceed 60% of the playing equipment, listening time is not more than 60 minutes.,

If you need to be exposed to high intensity noise, it is recommended to wear hearing protection devices, such as anti-noise earplugs, noise reduction headphones.

So before hearing loss hits you, you can’t stress enough the importance of protecting your ears and hearing.

don’t wait until your hearing loss is irreversible.

If you find your hearing loss, even if you are young as a teenager, or even if it is mild, early diagnosis, early intervention, early recovery.