Do you find it difficult to hear or understand your loved ones when they talk to you? Do you have a family history of hearing impairment? Have you worked in loud environments? Hearing loss typically comes on gradually, and friends and family will often be aware of it before you are. Hearing loss can take many different forms, and impacts a wide range of people.
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone; 1 in 6 people suffer from hearing loss.
Hearing loss typically comes on gradually, and friends and family will often be aware of it before you are. Hearing loss can take many different forms, and it's not just older people who have hearing difficulties. The most common hearing problems include:
Binaural hearing means hearing with both ears. It refers to the ability to determine the direction of a sound source. It is also known as directional or spatial hearing. An acoustic signal or sound reaches the left and right ears at different times. Depending on the direction it’s coming from, it reaches one ear a fraction of a second sooner and more loudly than the other. This delay is sufficient for the brain. It uses the timespan between the arrival of the sound wave in the two ears to calculate the direction of the sound. Our brain can only determine the direction a sound is coming from with two healthy ears. If you’re finding it difficult to work out where the sound of a ringing phone or crying child is coming from, it may be the first indication of hearing loss. If you are struggling in one ear, or both, or just aren’t feeling like your hearing is as good as it used to be, take our Online Hearing Test, or give our Hearing Care Specialists a call on 0800 45 45 43 to book an appointment at your local hearing clinic.