March 3rd is World Hearing Day! Launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), this year’s theme is Ear and Hearing Care for All. This global campaign emphasizes raising awareness about the wide range of hearing healthcare e services and resources you can access to best support your hearing health.
World Hearing Day is a great reminder to commit to your hearing health by scheduling an appointment for a hearing test!
Common Hearing Health Related Issues
There is a range of hearing healthcare services that are invested in transforming hearing and ear care. Common hearing health related issues that people experience that require hearing healthcare include:
- Hearing loss: one of the most common medical conditions that people experience is hearing loss. Nearly 1 in 5 people have some degree of impaired hearing, impacting over 48 million people. There are several factors that can contribute to the development of hearing loss including: exposure to loud noise, aging, existing medical conditions, head injuries, and inner ear disorders.
- Tinnitus: this describes hearing a sound in one or both ears that no one else can hear. This sound is most often described as a ringing or buzzing like noise that can range from being intermittent or chronic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 50 million people experience some degree of tinnitus and that 20 million deal with chronic tinnitus. Tinnitus can contribute to hearing challenges, disrupt sleep, prevent concentration, impact communication, and much more.
- Impacted Earwax: earwax can accumulate in the ears and become difficult to remove. According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology, 12 million people seek medical care for impacted earwax.
These issues not only impact hearing but also communication, health, adn wellness. Untreated symptoms can strain various aspects of everyday life, highlighting the importance of seeking hearing healthcare services.
Accessing Hearing Healthcare Services
There is an array of hearing healthcare services, resources, and solutions that are invested in transforming hearing health. This includes:
- Hearing Evaluations: to diagnose hearing loss and identify hearing needs, hearing tests are used to comprehensively assess your hearing health. There are a few types of hearing tests, one of the most common being pure tone audiometry testing. This involves wearing headphones while sounds are played at different pitches and indicating which you are able to hear. Hearing tests are a painless and non-invasive way to measure your hearing capacities in both ears and identify any hearing loss you are experiencing as well as the degree of impairment in each ear.
- Tinnitus Management: tinnitus can be overwhelming and stressful to experience. Fortunately, there are effective ways it can be managed. Approaches include tinnitus retraining therapy which is a type of sound therapy that involves training the brain to interpret tinnitus differently. Through a series of exercises the brain can learn to de-emphasize and deprioritize tinnitus, reducing it to mundane background noise which provides significant relief.
- Earwax Removal: when earwax builds up in the ear canal it can cause a few issues like ear infections and hearing challenges. Hearing healthcare specialists are trained to carefully and thoroughly remove earwax. There are different ways to do this including ear irrigation as well as using specific tools to gently scrape earwax out of the ears.
- Hearing Aid Repair: hearing aids, like most items that are used daily, can be impacted by daily wear and tear so they may need repair work over time. Hearing healthcare specialists are able to perform in-house repairs, allowing you to conveniently have your hearing aids fixed and even professionally cleaned.
- Hearing Protection: One time or consistent exposure to loud noise is a common cause of hearing loss. Noise induced hearing loss is a totally preventable and effective way to protect your ears by wearing hearing protection. Custom earplugs are the best options for this. They are made using molds taken off your ears which guarantees a perfect and comfortable fit, providing the maximum level of protection.
These services comprehensively address common hearing health issues as well as provide preventative care.
Prioritize Your Hearing Health this March
World Hearing Day is a great reminder to prioritize your hearing health. You can do this with one simple step: contact us to schedule an appointment for a hearing consultation!