Your workplace has chosen to promote teamwork and cooperation by opening up the office floor plan. But this new arrangement has become challenging for you. It’s because the elevated noise is making it challenging to follow along with conversation and not because you miss the privacy of cubical walls.
Even if standard hearing tests indicate completely normal hearing, the inability to hear conversations in loud settings is frequently an early sign of hearing loss. This suggests that having “normal” hearing doesn’t guarantee the ability to comprehend speech effectively.
Substantial brain power is required to carry out the complex task of speech comprehension. Optimal hearing abilities are required to differentiate voices in loud environments.
As hearing begins to decline, the brain encounters challenges in isolating and processing speech signals amidst competing sounds. Because of this, it becomes mentally fatiguing to be in loud settings like restaurants and busy offices.
How to identify the early signs of hearing loss
Here are a number of ways that early hearing loss can manifest:
- Social isolation.
- The brain needs to work overtime to comprehend speech leading to increased mental tiredness.
- When in noisy settings, conversations are difficult to understand.
Hearing loss tests
Detecting such challenges can be challenging, particularly when traditional diagnostics suggest normal hearing. Here are a couple of tests being developed by researchers to identify hearing loss in its early stages:
- The Eye Test: For this diagnostics, you put on a special set of glasses. The movement and dilation of your pupils can be tracked with these glasses. If your pupils react in a certain way, it suggests that you’re concentrating a little harder than usual. So if this tends to occur in crowded or loud areas, it could be a sign that you’re having to strain to hear.
- Monitoring Electrical Signals: The electrical signal transmitted from your ears to your brain is tracked by an EEG in this test. It will be a strong sign that you’re having some hearing trouble if these signals fluctuate in a particular way when you’re in a crowded location.
These tests, in conjunction with personal observations, attempt to detect hearing problems at their emergent phases, aiding early intervention.
What are the advantages of early detection?
There are two important benefits to early detection.
- It offers clarity regarding challenges faced in environments like open offices, alleviating potential frustrations.
- Dealing with hearing loss quickly prevents mental decline associated with neglected hearing impairments.
If you’re experiencing difficulty following conversations in spite of “normal” hearing, consider finding a professional assessment.
Total mental function and auditory health will be improved by early detection. Give us a call today and let us help you with any hearing loss you might have.