Do you need hearing aids for a mild hearing loss? This is an excellent question and I am
so excited to answer it in today's video. If you're new to my channel welcome my name is Emily.
I was born with a congenital sensorineural hearing loss. I wear hearing aids in both ears and boy
do I love them! I love them so much! I created Definite Hearing as a way to increase awareness
for the deaf and hard of hearing and for today's video it's perfect that we're going to talk about
the question of "do I need hearing aids for a mild hearing loss?" Let's start off by talking about what
a mild hearing loss is. Everyone could chart their hearing on a little graph called an audiogram
a mild hearing loss is defined by professionals as a hearing loss between 26 and 40 decibels on the
audiogram. If you're wondering if you have a mild hearing loss the best way to figure this out is
to go to an audiologist. They can perform a hearing test on this test, called an audiogram, little lines
will chart your hearing a blue line with x's for the left ear and a red line with circles for the
right ear. But if these lines are between the 26 and 40-decibel range you have a mild hearing loss.
Have no fear! To give you some context, I have a moderate to severe hearing loss my hearing
loss is between 65 to 85 decibels this is pretty significant. This means that I cannot hear anything
that is quieter than the sound of a vacuum cleaner. Wow! Well if I can't hear all those sounds blow
that of a vacuum cleaner, what can a person with a mild hearing loss not hear? Typically a person with
a mild hearing loss cannot hear or has difficulty hearing birds water dripping leaves wrestling
shuffling on carpets now you might be thinking Emily, "Why does it matter if I hear these things
anyway? Well, because it can play into understanding speech. People with mild hearing losses often feel
like people are mumbling or not speaking clearly. They might feel "Why is everyone talking to me, like
I can tell they're talking, but I can't understand what they're saying." These are indicators that
someone could be struggling with a mild hearing loss. Also, people with mild hearing losses struggle
to understand in noisy environments it's easy for them to understand what's going on in a
quiet environment with one person talking but when they're in a busy room or an environment
with loud fans it's hard to distinguish what's going on because sounds are relatively
softer. People with mild hearing losses have difficulty understanding soft consonants such as /s/, /sh/, /th/
consonants that just are softer and don't have the kick like the /k/, /t/ sounds because people with
mild hearing losses are missing out on these soft consonants it sounds like people have holes in
their words hence the fact they can hear but they can't understand what they're hearing so though
mild hearing losses are mild they still cause hearing issues so you may be wondering "If I think
I have a mild loss what should I do?" Go talk to a licensed audiologist, not just a hearing (aid) dispenser,
not just an ear nose and throat doctor but a licensed audiologist. An audiologist is a doctor
of sound in the ear and they can understand how to map your hearing and they can recommend the best
treatment for you. It is important to talk to an audiologist because they will recommend treatment
options such as hearing devices. I wear hearing aids for my moderate to severe loss and anyone
with a mild loss could wear hearing aids as well. It is important to treat hearing loss even a mild
hearing loss, because hearing aids help sound get to the brain what I mean by this is they analyze
the sound boost it according to the person's hearing loss and send it to the brain this
minimizes hearing atrophy. What this is is like muscle atrophy, so if you don't use your muscles
they shrink they become small and they don't work as well, they're not as strong. The same is
for the auditory pathway from your ears to your brain. If you don't use it you lose it studies
have also shown that addressing hearing loss can slow cognitive decline. That means that addressing
hearing loss can decrease or delay the onset of dementia. Does that sound tempting ? Definitely!
Hearing is such a wonderful, overlooked sense. If you think you're struggling with mild hearing loss
at all, now you know what it is and now you know how to treat it. If you have any questions, please
let me know in the comments below. If you haven't already, please like this video and subscribe to
my channel. I look forward to making more great content for you. I hope you have a great day! Bye!