WHY YOU SHOULDN’T IGNORE MILD HEARING LOSS

Many people assume mild hearing loss doesn’t need treatment, that it’s more of a mild inconvenience than anything. Not so. Even mild hearing loss can benefit from correction. Here’s why.

Hearing loss is measured in decibels.

A mild hearing loss is considered to be from 26 to 40 decibels on the sound intensity scale. With mild hearing loss, you might have problems hearing what people say to you in an environment with background noise, but you probably don’t have difficulty hearing loud noises. When you have a conversation with someone, you might miss or misinterpret portions of words, creating confusion or misinterpretation of what that person is saying. Soft, high-pitched sounds are particularly challenging to hear when you have mild hearing loss.

If your hearing loss is mild, you shouldn’t ignore it. Hearing loss is linked with more serious health problems, including a higher risk for dementia. One study showed every 10 decibels of hearing loss was correlated with a 20% increase in dementia risk. It’s not clear how dementia and hearing loss are linked. It’s possible constantly straining to listen stresses and overloads the brain. There’s also evidence that the portion of the brain involved in processing sound information, the auditory cortex, loses volume when hearing loss is untreated. Hopefully, more research will show why and the two are linked and whether treating hearing loss early reduces the risk of

dementia.

Secondly, correcting mild hearing loss with a hearing aid helps you get a handle on those high-pitched words and sounds you couldn’t hear before.

As a result, speech will have more clarity, and communicating with others will be less of a strain. When you can’t hear well, you expend extra energy straining to make sense of conversation rather than letting a hearing aid do the work. That can be tiring and a bit stressful, too.

The bottom line? Don’t ignore hearing loss, even if it’s mild. Doing so can cause you to miss out on conversation and force you to work harder to hear what people are saying. Even more concerning is the link between hearing loss and cognitive problems. Talk to a hearing care professional about your options.