Could You Have Mild Hearing Loss?

Technically speaking, adults are classified as having normal hearing ability if their responses indicate they heard sound below 25 decibels (dB) across the frequency range. For children, normal hearing ability is considered when they can hear below 15 dB across the frequency range. While this is helpful for a clinical assessment, it doesn’t mean much to the consumer. In this blog HeardThat will break down what this means in everyday scenarios. 

What you can hear with “normal” hearing

For adults and children without any form of hearing loss (or less than 25 dB of hearing loss), people can hear conversations in most environments (unless you’re at a rock concert or somewhere unusually loud) and whispering. It’s also possible to hear more subtle sounds like people or pets breathing, insects buzzing or leaves rustling in the wind. 

As hearing loss progresses, what you can and cannot hear changes. 

Even mild hearing loss is noticeable 

It doesn’t take much hearing loss to impact your ability to hear conversations in social settings, like restaurants and shops. In fact, this is typically the first ability we lose with mild hearing loss. Hearing loss between 26 - 40 dB in the speech frequencies defines mild hearing loss. With this, we also lose the ability to hear the more subtle sounds we mentioned above. 

Hearing Health reports the most common symptom of mild hearing loss is that people feel like they can “hear, but not understand the conversation.” This can leave those with hearing loss feeling left out and isolated. 

From mild to moderate hearing loss

Once you find yourself asking people to repeat themselves often, you may have moderate hearing loss. This is classified as hearing loss that cannot hear sounds lower than 40-69 dB. This can  significantly affect overall, long-term health. For instance, a 12-year study at Johns Hopkins found links between hearing loss and walking problems, falls and even dementia.

Unsure if you have a form of hearing loss? 

While these are just some examples of what’s “normal” to hear and what might be an indicator of  hearing loss, the truth is, hearing loss is gradual. This makes it hard to determine how severe it is or has become. If you’re unsure if you have hearing loss, there are helpful self-assessments available to determine if a meeting with a healthcare professional may be warranted for further testing and treatment. One such assessment we found to be comprehensive is from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. 

Hearing health is incredibly important. While there are assistive technologies, like HeardThat, available to help hear speech in noise more clearly, if you or someone you love notices any changes in hearing, please seek advice from a healthcare professional.