The early signs of hearing loss can be hard to pinpoint because they often develop slowly. Thus, it’s a good idea to get a hearing check as early as possible during adult life. Here are 3 early signs that it may be time to get your hearing checked right away.

1. Difficulty to understand speech especially in noise

People with hearing loss usually feel like it is difficult to understand what others are saying and often complain of following conversations especially in background noise or in crowds. On top of that, they will always ask others to repeat themselves during conversation 

2. Children and women voices sound muffled. 

The first part of hearing to fail with age is the ability to detect hight-pitched sounds like children’s and women’s voices. It’s also the reason they may complain that speech sound is muffled and unclear. High-pitched sounds like car signals, phone ringing, or birds chirping are also the most common sounds they claim to overlook.

3. Keeps turning up the volume for TV and radio  

TV and radio shows tend to have a mix of character’s speech, sound effects, and music. Since the early signs of hearing loss are mostly unable to hear high-pitched sounds clearly, they often need to turn up the volume to make out what the characters are saying in the show.

Nabila Norzali, Senior Audiologist at 20dB Hearing Sungai Petani