Can Seniors Lower Their Risk of Hearing Loss?

If you find it more challenging to hear as you get older, you are not alone. Hearing healthcare professionals may diagnose you with age-related hearing loss (presbycusis). Approximately one-third of adults over the age of 65 have hearing loss, and more than half of people 75 and older suffer from hearing loss.

People with hearing loss can find it hard to understand a doctor’s advice, to react to warnings, and hear doorbells due to noise, aging, disease, and heredity. They may also find it hard to converse with friends and family.

As you get older, hearing loss is a normal part of growing old, but treatments like hearing aids can help you overcome the symptoms and live a full life.

Age-Related Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is often caused by the degeneration of tiny hair cells within the inner ear and along the nerve pathways to the brain as we age. These changes are usually caused by changes in the health of those tiny hair cells within the ear that allow us to hear.

We experience hearing loss due to damage to these hair cells since they don’t regenerate. Since they don’t renew, any hearing loss caused by damage to these hair cells is permanent.

In medical terms, presbycusis means age-related loss of hearing. It is one of the most common types of sensorineural hearing loss, meaning loss of hearing from sensory and nerve cells. In addition to these more common forms, a few less common forms differ slightly in how and when they affect people, and a person may have multiple types.

The most common type of hearing loss in the elderly occurs gradually over a long time and primarily affects both ears simultaneously (known as “bilateral hearing loss”). It is characterized by high-frequency hearing loss, which means higher-pitched sounds become more difficult to hear. It means that certain consonants are more difficult to hear, making words like “that” and “sat” sound similar.

Are You at Risk?

The possibility of losing your hearing as you grow older depends on your genetics, health history, and the amount of noise you’ve exposed yourself to. For instance, a firearms enthusiast faces higher hearing loss risks than a gardener.

Veterans may be at the most significant risk for hearing loss (and tinnitus) as they grow older due to the nature of their work. Factors contributing to presbycusis include noise-induced hearing loss, genetic factors relating to hearing loss, certain medical conditions that could affect the blood supply to the ear, or medications taken for certain conditions.

Signs You Have Hearing Loss

People who have presbycusis don’t realize they have hearing problems because it occurs gradually. If you are older and experiencing hearing problems, there are some signs that you may have presbycusis:

• Other people’s speech seems mumbled or slurred. In other words, you sometimes have difficulty understanding what is being said, especially if background noise is present.
• You have difficulty hearing high-pitched sounds, such as the telephone ringing or birds chirping.
• Difficulty understanding men’s voices compared with women’s or children’s voices.

You may want to consider getting your hearing tested if you have any of the above conditions.

Also, if you are experiencing a buzzing, ringing, or humming in your ears, you may have tinnitus – which can be a symptom of hearing loss.

Is There a Cure?

The most common cause of sensorineural hearing loss, presbycusis, does not have a cure. Fortunately, most people who have sensorineural hearing loss can be treated.

With mild-to-moderate hearing loss, hearing aids may be helpful. After a thorough hearing evaluation, a hearing healthcare professional will recommend the type of hearing aid that would be most suitable for you based on your personal preferences as well as your budget.

A cochlear implant is a medical device that implants behind the ear and helps the person hear and understand speech. If you have profound or severe hearing loss, it may be beneficial to use one. Cochlear implants are surgically implanted behind the ear to enable you to hear and understand speech.

Using assistive listening devices (ALDs), you can amplify the sound from your television, telephone, and other electronic devices. Depending on your hearing loss, you can use ALDs with or without hearing aids.

The longer you let your hearing go untreated, the more difficult it will be to improve your hearing with hearing aids. This is because auditory deprivation affects more than just your hearing.

How Hearing Aids Can Help You

Hearing aids can delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease among older people whose hearing loss has not been treated. Untreated hearing loss puts people at higher risk for cognitive disorders like dementia and Alzheimer’s and emotional and physical problems.

In addition to improving your mental health, today’s hearing aids will contribute to an overall better quality of life. This quality-of-life boost applies to anyone with hearing loss, including those in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

If you are experiencing any symptoms of hearing loss, making an appointment with one of our hearing healthcare professionals for a hearing evaluation as soon as possible can help you. Your hearing loss will be assessed to determine the cause and extent of the problem and the most effective treatment.