Should You Worry About Mild Hearing Loss

Mild hearing loss sounds like a benign condition that can be ignored because the word mild is equated with harmless. Not hearing every word someone says is inconvenient or annoying but not earth-shattering. If a person with mild hearing loss can not hear something, they use strategies such as asking someone to repeat words or reading context clues to interpret meaning.  

They adapt and cope, so why should they worry about missing a few words in a conversation?  They don’t realize that, despite its name, mild hearing loss can harm their mental and physical health. Hearing Associates of Las Vegas can evaluate hearing loss and help understand treatment options.

What Causes Mild Hearing Loss?

The most common causes of mild hearing loss are exposure to loud noises and aging. Other causes include illness, congenital disabilities, and head trauma. 

How is Hearing Loss Measured?

There are five levels of hearing loss, mild, moderate, moderate-severe, severe, and profound, based on how loud you need to be for you to hear them. The loudness of the sounds is measured in decibels (dB). 

Being able to hear sounds at lower decibel levels means you have better hearing. As the decibel levels you need to hear sounds rise, the greater the hearing loss. 

• Normal Hearing- A person with normal hearing can hear sounds from 0 to 25 decibels. They can hear regular conversation, even background noise, and someone whispering.
• Mild Hearing Loss– With mild hearing loss, a person can hear sounds ranging from 26 to 40 decibels.  They can generally understand a conversation but may have difficulty with soft sounds such as consonants. They may struggle to understand quiet discussions, especially in situations such as restaurants that have noisy backgrounds. They may be unable to hear birds chirping or the sound of water in a stream.  
• Moderate Hearing Loss- A person with moderate hearing loss can hear in the 41 to 55-decibel range and has difficulty understanding speech. They cannot hear speech at a normal level and may need others to increase their volume to be heard significantly. Volume on electronics needs to be increased to be heard.
• Moderate to severe Hearing Loss– Ranging from 56 to 70 decibels, moderately severe requires assisted devices such as hearing aids to amplify speech.
• Severe Hearing Loss- Severe hearing loss, with a hearing range threshold of 71 to 90 decibels, requires strong hearing aids to hear speech.
• Profound Hearing Loss- Profound hearing loss is rated above 90  to 100 decibels. A person with this hearing loss can usually only hear very loud sounds.

What are the Symptoms of Mild Hearing Loss?

A person with mild hearing loss may not realize that they have it because symptoms appear gradually. At first, they may ask people to repeat themselves more frequently. When trying to converse, they may avoid places with background noises. 

Hearing loss may be suspected when symptoms become more pronounced, such as hearing muffled speech and sounds or needing to increase the volume on electronics. Many people choose not to acknowledge it because it seems minor or makes them feel old. Mild hearing loss can be easier to hide than higher levels because the sufferer uses coping skills to mask deficits.

The term “mild,” however, is deceptive.  Untreated hearing loss can have health consequences since the hearing process affects people physically. Mild hearing loss can also have a strong effect on quality of life. 

Why Seek Treatment If You Only Have Mild Hearing Loss?

There are several reasons to seek treatment if you only have mild hearing loss:

• Boost confidence. Hearing loss causes people to be tentative and uncertain in dealing with others at work or at home. They are afraid that they have missed verbal cues or not fully understood work assignment requirements. Eliminating these uncertainties can create confidence in approaching family and co-workers.
• Stave off depression. Hearing loss frequently leads to social isolation. Feeling awkward about needing to ask their friends to repeat words or phrases, those with hearing loss withdraw from their social groups due to difficulties participating in conversations. Treatment can help those with hearing loss rejoin their social groups.
• Prevent cognitive decline. Even mild hearing loss can lead to brain changes. MRIs have shown brain atrophy of the auditory cortex due to hearing loss. A medical journal recently identified hearing loss as one of twelve dementia risk factors that could be modified to decrease the incidence of the disease—the greater the hearing loss, the more significant the reduction in cognition. The same study found that hearing aid usage protected wearers from cognitive decline and was the most important protective factor in the study.
• Improve physical safety. Mild hearing loss can increase risks to physical security. One study found that people with even mild hearing loss had a nearly three-times increased risk of falling.  As levels of hearing loss increase, so does the risk of falling. Using assistive devices decreases these risks.
• Have peace of mind.  A hearing evaluation can determine if there is an underlying cause of hearing loss, such as Meniere’s disease, which also impacts other body systems or requires treatment. 

Evaluating hearing loss and seeking treatment is vital to overall health.

Is Treatment Really Necessary Right Now?

Waiting for treatment can reduce its effectiveness. Medical studies have shown that if hearing is not used, the brain forgets sounds over time. This means that it is important to treat even mild hearing loss as soon as possible. 

Using hearing technology to improve hearing is the smart way to improve mental and physical health.  Contact Hearing Associates of Las Vegas to help you improve your quality of life.