Mild Hearing Loss

A few weeks ago I had a bout of garden-variety external otitis, or “swimmer’s ear.”  I ignored it for about a week, and when my home remedies did not help, I sought treatment by an otologist.   It resolved quickly after that, and now I’m back in the pool and hearing fine.  But I learned a lesson during the time that my hearing was muffled.  While my hearing was off I had perfectly normal hearing in my left ear, and a mild conductive (plugged-up) hearing loss in my right ear.  That doesn’t sound bad, does it?  But, it was more tiring than I would have anticipated.

These are some of the problems I noticed:

I had trouble telling where sounds were coming from, as the hearing symmetry was off-kilter.

I was missing some of the soft high frequency consonant sounds that define words – I found myself almost reflexively asking “what?”

When the pace of the conversation was fast, I had even more trouble.

As an audiologist I speak with different people all day long – it is important to me that I hear my patients accurately so that communication is accurate, and I don’t need to interrupt the conversation to ask for clarification.  Even with this little degree of hearing loss I was guessing and straining.  I found my brow was wrinkling up as I worked to hear.

Soft and distant sounds were challenging to hear.  By the end of the work day I was ready for the quiet of my home.

If you doubt this degree of difficulty, you can try this at home.  Insert one (or two) foam ear plugs, and ask someone to recite a list of short words: fish, dish, six, fist, fifth, sits, sit, etc.  How did you do? Try it again with the radio or TV on. More challenging?  Next, try it without the visual help you get from looking at the speaker.  Now with another speaker also reading some words… this can be really difficult. 

Imagine you are listening like this all day long, every day.  It can be done, but you would be using effort better spent on enjoying and responding to what you are hearing.

My lesson is that even what I think of as a mild hearing loss can significantly interfere with ease of communication.  Some patients with mild hearing loss may not perceive day-to-day challenges. But many do, as I did,  and they are real.  Each patient is unique, and for many people with even mild hearing loss, there is a simple appropriate solution to make every day communication easier, more accurate, and fun.