Your Hearing Loss Could Be Hiding in Plain Sight

Many people assume their hearing is healthy if they pass a standard hearing screening. But Campbell County Health (CCH) wants to raise awareness this April about hidden hearing loss, in which someone experiences real hearing difficulties, but their hearing screening doesn’t show it.

“A patient will tell me they can hear people just fine — until there’s background noise,” said Kimberly Schaeffer, AuD at CCH. “They start thinking others are mumbling or that they just can’t focus. In many cases, it may be early damage in the hearing system that a traditional screening doesn’t detect.”

When a Hearing Screening Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story

To see how that’s possible, consider how a hearing screening works: It measures how well tiny cells in your inner ear perceive and transmit simple sounds (called pure tones) to your brain via your hearing nerve.

But sometimes the connections between those cells and that nerve deteriorate. The tiny cells still transmit pure tones well, but they have trouble transmitting more complicated sounds, like speech in background noise. It’s sort of like a phone charger with a frayed cable: It still connects to your phone, but now the charge is unreliable.

Protecting Hearing Early

One big culprit is repeated noise exposure, and our world is filled with it: Think loud workplaces, concerts, power tools, city streets, and high-volume headphone use.

Kimberly encourages people of all ages to think about hearing protection the same way they think about sunscreen. “Your ears don’t have a warning system for damage. By the time ringing or muffled hearing appears, the injury has already happened.”

To protect against hidden hearing loss:

• Use hearing protection at concerts and loud events
• Keep personal audio devices at 60% volume or lower
• Take listening breaks during long headphone use
• Wear hearing protection when using power tools or lawn equipment

Establish a Baseline

The perfect complement to hearing protection is getting a yearly hearing exam. If you don’t have a hearing loss, it will help you establish a baseline, so you understand how your hearing is changing over time. And if you do discover a hearing loss, you’ll be able to catch and treat it early.

“Being proactive about your hearing health isn’t about avoiding fun,” Kimberly added. “It’s about making sure you can keep enjoying conversations, music, and the sounds of life for decades to come.”