Worried about your hearing or curious as to whether you should get your hearing tested? This guide is here to help, exploring how often you should book a hearing consultation and what this will consist of. 

It’s all too common that people neglect their hearing when considering their overall health and wellbeing. Let’s face it; most of us take our hearing for granted, only really considering its importance when things start going wrong. And when your hearing does show signs of problems, it can be incredibly alarming.

Just like your eyes, your ears and hearing should be assessed by a professional. Having a regular hearing test with an audiologist will ensure healthy ears and hearing, and point to any underlying issues that can potentially be remedied before they worsen.

But just how often should you have your hearing tested? Well, the London hearing specialists group recommend having your hearing tested every 2 years if you’re aged over 50, though sometimes you’ll need and sometimes, you’ll need less than this.

Once you have completed the initial consultation, your audiologist can determine how frequently you should return for a hearing consultation. This could be every 6-12 months or every 2 years depending upon your hearing results and wax management.  

Though you can get a hearing test for free on the NHS, it may take a few weeks to see a specialist. As such, they recommend visiting a large pharmacy or opticians to get tested. Though the test in such places will often be free, you will likely have to pay for any subsequent treatment.

WHAT DOES A HEARING CONSULTATION CONSIST OF?

If you have been delaying your hearing test for some time now, you may be curious or slightly anxious as to what this includes. Well, we asked Verified Hearing what to expect when visiting an audiologist for a complete hearing consultation, you can expect the following: 

• Your audiologist will discuss your medical history, and will focus on any underlying concerns that may be affecting your hearing. 
• They will review, with you, areas or situations where you may feel you have difficulty in hearing, such as struggling to hear conversations in busy environments or when listening to the TV. 
• Your audiologist will then usually carry out an otoscopy. This includes looking inside the ear with an otoscope, which helps them examine the health of the ear canal and ear drum. 
• Some audiologists will also complete a video otoscopy. This is a live video that shows the inside of your ear including the most important points such as the ear canal and ear drum. Whilst doing this, your audiologist will explain everything as you watch the video. 
• They will then complete your hearing assessment by using air-conduction testing and bone-conduction testing. This covers a range of frequencies to analyse the complete hearing ability and the location of any hearing loss. 

Once your hearing consultation is complete, your audiologist will be able to provide a full explanation of your results in a calm and collected way. If there are any hearing concerns or issues you would like to address as a result of your consultation, the audiologist will be able to provide some recommendations and solutions. This may include a demonstration of a set of hearing aids. 

SIGNS YOU SHOULD GET YOUR HEARING TESTED 

If you are experiencing any of the following signs, you may need to book a hearing test sooner than you thought. This could indicate a gradual change in your hearing which requires an assessment from an audiologist to determine a cause and find a solution or design a treatment plan:

• You or your loved ones have noticed you are struggling to hear general day to day sounds and conversations. For example, you are struggling to hear the TV or needing it to be turned up louder than is normal, engaging in group conversation, or missing high pitched sounds such as alarms, your ringing phone or the doorbell. 
• Tinnitus – this describes an onset of ringing, buzzing, or humming within your ears. Tinnitus can be caused by prolonged exposure to loud sounds, with many musicians and engineers suffering from tinnitus later on in their career. It may be a sign of hearing loss or other conditions, so it is important you get this checked by a hearing professional. 
• If you have a sudden pain in your ear which is difficult to treat, your audiologist will hopefully be able to locate the cause of this pain and offer a treatment or make a referral to someone who can carry out further diagnosis.

FEELINGS OF DIZZINESS AND HEARING 

If you are experiencing dizziness or feeling lightheaded and off-balance, with no explanation, this may be related to our ears. It is important you get signs like this checked as soon as you can, as you could suffer an accident if such dizziness is left untreated.

Visiting a specially trained audiologist when an issue like this arises allows them to check for any hearing concerns which may be causing this feeling and offer a treatment plan or solution, which may well involve getting a modern hearing aid fitted in more serious circumstances.