Everything About Your Hearing
Understand how your hearing works, recognize signs of hearing loss early, and learn how to protect your hearing.
15 Million People in Germany suffer from hearing loss. The trend is rising. Hearing aids effectively help regain quality of life.
Recognizing Signs of Hearing Loss
Do these situations seem familiar?
High Volume on TV and Radio
Do you often turn the volume up very high? With reduced hearing, audibility in the mid to high frequencies decreases. These are responsible for clear speech intelligibility.
Problems in Restaurants and Noisy Environments
Do you have problems understanding conversation partners in restaurants? A sign of mild hearing loss is when you don't understand individual words or sentences correctly and often have to ask for repetition.
General Difficulties with Speech Understanding
High-frequency consonants (F, C, S, Z, SH) are often not understood compared to low-frequency vowels (A, E, I, O, U). As a result, speech is perceived as unclear.
Difficulties in Conversations with Children
Hearing impairments become especially noticeable in conversation with children. The higher pitches of children's voices are generally harder to understand.
How Does Our Hearing Work?
As small as our ear may be, it is full of helpful functions and is a true wonder. It supports us in everyday life and makes it easier for us to perceive sounds and spatial structures.
First there is a sound source that emits sound, which spreads in the form of a wave. The sound signal is picked up by the pinna, which transmits it via the ear canal to the eardrum. From here, the path continues to the inner ear and the hair cells, which transmit the vibrations as electrical impulses to the brain.
The area of best hearing is between 500 and 4,000 Hertz and forms the so-called speech range. In this range we perceive hearing most pleasantly and understanding most clearly.
Types of Hearing Impairment
Conductive Hearing Loss
This term refers to hearing damage affecting the outer and middle ear. The cause of about 20% of all hearing impairments lies in sound conduction. A blockage of the ear canal prevents sound transmission.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
This describes hearing impairments whose cause is found in the inner ear or at the auditory nerve. Often there is permanent damage to the hair cells behind it, which reduces the hearing range.
Preventing Hearing Loss
How to Protect Your Hearing
Avoid Noise
Avoid environments with elevated volume. At about 120 decibels we feel pain, but even at lower values our hearing is already in danger.
Wear Hearing Protection
Use hearing protection in loud environments, preferably custom-made for optimal protection. We offer individual hearing protection.
Regular Hearing Tests
Regular check-ups through a free hearing test give you the security of healthy hearing. We recommend repeating the hearing test once a year.
Early Treatment
With hearing aids, the deterioration of hearing loss is slowed and physical and mental activity is increased.
Free Hearing Test
Schedule a free hearing test at Elbe-Akustik. Our hearing specialists help you detect hearing problems early and find the optimal solution.
Book Hearing Test