Understanding Your Options For Dealing With High Frequency Hearing Loss

For some people, the mention of hearing loss conjures thoughts of a complete inability to hear. The fact is, sometimes hearing loss is only partial, or restricted to only specific tones or frequencies. That's why most audiologists test your hearing on a wide spectrum of tones and frequencies. If your hearing test shows that you are struggling to hear only on high frequency transmissions, that's an indication that you might have high frequency hearing loss. Here are some of the things you should know about this type of hearing problem.

Why Is It a Concern?

Losing your ability to hear on any frequency can make it challenging to converse with others. High audio frequencies are usually the ones that transmit sounds like those associated with the letters F, S and H. When you suffer hearing loss in this high frequency range, you'll often struggle to hear those letter sounds.

How Does It Happen?

In most cases, hearing loss is the result of physical trauma to your ear. Whether you've been in an environment with prolonged, repeated exposure to loud noises or you've suffered a physical blow that's damaged your ears, anything of the sort can interfere with your ability to process those high-frequency sounds. Excessively loud music is a particular concern for this type of damage. Loss of high frequency sounds can also be the result of aging or side effects of medication.

What Can You Do For It?

Once you're diagnosed with high frequency hearing loss, you'll need to work with an audiologist to find the perfect hearing aid for your situation. Many hearing aid models allow you to adjust only specific frequencies, which will let you address only the noises on the problematic frequencies without interfering with the sounds that you can hear readily.

These hearing aids use a process called transposition. The high frequency sounds are actually altered within the hearing aid to change them to a lower frequency. This makes it easier for you to hear them clearly. There are other hearing aids that compress sound to change the frequency at which it's heard. Your audiologist will know which one is best for your situation.

Hearing loss is never an easy thing to deal with, but it doesn't have to be intimidating. Reclaim your ability to communicate effectively by talking with an audiologist or Abingdon Falls Plaza Hearing Center today about your hearing problems. Whether you're suffering from high frequency hearing loss or another type of problem, he or she can help you get the support that you need.

 


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