According to one recent survey, nearly 30% of people have gone more than ten years without getting a hearing test. Sofia is one of those people. She goes to her yearly doctor’s appointments, she sees a dentist every six months, and she gets the oil changed in her car every 3000 miles. But she has no idea the last time she had a hearing test or underwent any type of accurate hearing assessment.

There are a number of reasons why it’s essential to get hearing exams, detecting first symptoms of hearing loss is perhaps the most essential one. Knowing how frequently she should get a hearing test will help Sofia keep her ears (and hearing) as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

How Many Times Per Year Should my Ears Get Checked?

We might be alarmed if Sophia hadn’t had a hearing examination in ten years. Or perhaps it doesn’t phase us. Our reaction, and the reaction of her hearing specialist, probably will vary depending on her age. That’s because hearing specialists have different guidelines based on age.

• It’s normally suggested that you take a hearing exam about every three years. There’s no problem having your ears examined more frequently, of course! The bare minimum is every three years. You should definitely get evaluated more frequently if you are frequently in a noisy environment. There’s no reason not to get it done, it’s painless and simple.
• If you’re older than fifty: The general recommendation is that anyone over the age of fifty should have hearing checks annually. As you get older, the noise damage you’ve sustained over a lifetime can start to speed up, meaning hearing loss is more likely to start affecting your life. Also, there are other health concerns that can affect your hearing.

If you want to undergo hearing screenings or tests more frequently, there’s obviously no harm in that, at least in terms of your hearing. Since the last time you had a hearing test, you may have new injury you should know about, so more frequent hearing tests might be practical.

Signs You Should Get Your Hearing Checked

There are definitely other times besides your yearly hearing exam that you might want to make an appointment with your hearing professional. Occasionally, you begin to notice some symptoms of hearing loss. And in those cases, it’s typically a good idea to promptly get in touch with a hearing professional and schedule a hearing test.

Some of the signs that might prompt you to get a hearing test could include:

• Phone interactions are always tough to understand
• It’s common for hearing loss in the high pitched register to fail first and since consonants are in a higher pitched register than vowels, they normally go first.
• Your hearing is dull as if there is water in your ears.
• When you’re in a loud situation, you have problems hearing conversations.
• When you’re speaking with people, you repeatedly need to keep asking people to repeat themselves.
• Turning your music to excessively high volumes (if your neighbors start complaining, that’s a good sign you should see a hearing specialist soon).

A good sign that right now is the best time to get a hearing test is when the warning signs begin to add up. You need to know what’s going on with your ears and that means getting a hearing exam as soon as possible.

What Are The Advantages of Hearing Testing?

There are plenty of reasons why Sofia could be late in getting her hearing exam. Perhaps she hasn’t thought about it. Potentially she’s just avoiding dealing with it. But there are tangible benefits to getting your hearing examined per recommendations.

And it will be simpler to identify hearing deviations in the future if you have your hearing tested by forming a baseline reading even if it seems like everything is normal. You can safeguard your hearing better if you catch it before it becomes a problem.

The reason for regular hearing testing is that someone like Sofia will be in a position to identify problems before her hearing is diminished permanently. By catching your hearing loss early, by getting your hearing checked when you’re supposed to, you’ll be giving your ears their best chance of staying healthy. It’s important to think about how hearing loss will impact your overall health.