Hearing loss isn’t exclusively about volume, it’s about pitch. If you find it hard to comprehend the speech of a child or a woman, but you can still, for the most part, understand the men in the room, you may have some degree of high-frequency hearing loss. This is a very common kind of hearing loss so you’re not alone.

Symptoms of High-Frequency Hearing Loss

With high-frequency hearing loss, consonant sounds that make conversations understandable, get muddled even though you may still be able to pick up on the volume of a woman or a child’s voice. Normally the most difficult to pick up are consonant sounds such as ch, th, t, soft s, c, sh, k, f, and h. Even though a woman or a child is not mumbling, it might sound like they are. Understanding a child’s joke or a family member’s question about dinner plans becomes very difficult because you have lost the ability to differentiate these sounds. Isolation from friends and family, sadness, and frustration can be the result.

Other sounds within the high-frequency hearing loss range (2000 Hz) are missed by people who have this problem. This includes birds chirping, high musical notes, sirens or squeaks. Low-frequency sounds such as bass musical notes, the rumble of thunder or a man’s voice may still be quite easy to discern, even if the volume isn’t very loud.

Reasons For High-Frequency Hearing Loss

Usually imperceptible at first, high-frequency hearing loss, the most prevalent type of hearing loss, can sneak up on you as you grow older. high-frequency hearing loss can be caused by other things besides aging such as specific medical problems like cardiovascular disease, too much noise exposure, and several medications.

The little hair-like sensors within the cochlea are damaged by all of these scenarios. Sound input is picked up by these tiny cells and sent to the brain for processing. The higher pitched sounds are usually the first to be tough to understand because the high-frequency cells become injured more easily than the lower pitched cells.

How to Prevent High-Frequency Hearing Loss

You can take several steps to slow or stop the progression of high-frequency hearing loss despite the fact that you can’t stop your ears from aging. Some of these include:

• Seeking out quiet things. Find noise ratings on appliances and select the quietest versions. If it’s difficult to hear your dinner companions, don’t be hesitant to ask the manager to turn down the music.
• Ask your doctor about medications you take. high-frequency hearing loss can be caused by at least 200 different kinds of medications. Your hearing can even be injured by too much aspirin. To discover if there are options less likely to harm your hearing, consult your doctor. If you can’t avoid using a specific medication, keep in close communication with your hearing professional for regular hearing loss and balance testing. Getting treatment for hearing loss early can help avoid further loss.
• Your health is important so take care of it. Your hearing can be damaged by smoking. Poor health, poor nutrition, or not enough exercise can also hurt your hearing. Try to take good care of your health in all aspects and this will safeguard your hearing also.
• Never using a swab (or other small objects) to get rid of ear wax. This can jam old ear wax into your ear canal and blunt your capacity to hear. Gently clean out excess earwax with a rag when you’re done showering, or ask your hearing professional about other ear irrigation techniques for getting rid of earwax without damaging your hearing.
• In noisy situations, put in hearing protection. If you have to shout to be heard in a noisy setting, this is a definite signal the noise could injure your hearing. Some instances of occasions when wearing ear-plugs are live music concerts, motorcycles revving, power tools running, and a loud music system. Noise canceling earphone may not fit inside your pocket, but they are the best option in certain circumstances.

Treatment For High-Frequency Hearing Loss

Presently, the most effective technique for managing high-frequency hearing loss is hearing aids. And because this is the most common kind of hearing loss, there are many different models a person can choose from. So that they are crisper to the listener, hearing aids can increase high pitched sounds. Several models are configurable and your hearing care expert can help fine-tune them to enhance your ability to hear those sounds at the right level, immediately addressing the level and extent of the hearing loss. Many hearing aids can be manipulated by your phone and come with directional microphones for fine-tuning in situations such as business meetings, restaurant dinners, talking on the phone or listening to children.

Make an appointment for a hearing test if you think you might have high-frequency hearing loss. If you want to increase your ability to hear your grandchild’s priceless one-liner, chances are there are personally tailored answers for you.