Are You Too Young to Have a Hearing Loss?

If you’re reading this, chances are that you’ve noticed some difficulty hearing recently.

Turning the TV up louder, asking people to repeat themselves, feeling alone in a crowded room because you can’t quite understand what’s going on… There are a few hidden clues to hearing loss, and those are some of them.

But perhaps you’re wondering to yourself, “Am I too young to have hearing loss challenges?”

We often have people ask us that; patients of all ages come in to see us about comprehensive hearing care, and it’s not all people ages 70 plus!

Nobody is too young, or too old, to experience the isolating and frustrating consequences of hearing loss. However, there’s a silver lining: hearing loss is incredibly easy to treat with the help of a professional audiologist.

How Did I Get a Hearing Loss?

According to a CDC National Health Survey from 2014, approximately 15% of all American adults over the age of 18 experience some trouble hearing.

Hearing loss causes include genetic predisposition, noise exposure, pre-existing medical conditions, and aging. While age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis, is the most common form of hearing loss, there are plenty of reasons how or why hearing loss can affect younger people, too.

Genetics can be involved in your likelihood of developing a hearing loss; if an individual’s parents or grandparents wore hearing aids, there’s a high chance that they will have some degree of hearing loss as well.

Infections or diseases like Meniere’s disease can cause hearing loss, and some medications can lead to hearing loss as a side effect due to a negative reaction.

One form of hearing loss that is becoming more and more common is noise-induced hearing loss, a form of hearing loss that we see most often in young people. From busy nightclubs to loud concerts, and even personal music players that can reach up to 120 decibels, noise-induced hearing loss has jumped to become the second most common form of hearing loss.

Nobody is too young to struggle with a hearing loss. What matters is how you treat it.

How Professional Hearing Care Can Help

Regular hearing assessments can help address incoming issues that hearing loss is often the predecessor for, including cognitive decline, social isolation, dementia, and more.

Hearing care has proven to help avoid those negative consequences – and a recent study noted that regular use of hearing aids could help you live longer.

Our team at Aim Hearing is more than able to answer any questions you may have about your unique situation. Every person we see is unique in what they need out of hearing care, but nobody wants to feel isolated in the middle of a busy conversation with loved ones.