The most common symptoms of hearing loss are:

• Difficulty maintaining conversations, starting to miss certain words. Beginning to ask people to repeat themselves. This is more pronounced in noisy environments.
• Difficulty hearing common household sounds: Doorbell, telephone, etc.
• Difficulty hearing the television, often needing to turn the volume up high.
• Difficulty understanding telephone conversations.

10% of the total population suffers from hearing loss. This condition is associated with age, but nowadays it is increasing in younger people due to certain habits, such as listening to music through headphones. This is damaging to our ears.

We know that this condition is more pronounced from 50-60 years of age. Thus, 25% of people over 65 suffer from Presbycusis.

Although many people exhibit symptoms of hearing loss, they rarely recognise them themselves. It is usually family members or friends who detect the problem and encourage them to seek help. It is important to make it clear that, given these signs, they should go directly to a specialised audiology centre, where they will receive an appropriate evaluation and a personalised solution.

Different causes lead to hearing loss:

• Presbycusis: The origin of the loss is due to ageing, therefore it is a degenerative cause related to age. It is more pronounced from 50-60 years of age.
• Ear diseases: Otitis leading to hearing problems, Tumours, and Otosclerosis.
• Acoustic Trauma: Loss caused by exposure of the ear to noisy environments. This is closely linked to professions that involve contact with noise.
• Congenital Malformations: Malformations present at birth, linked to a hereditary component.

It affects their social relationships, worsening their communication with family and friends, and their professional communication.

It is also important in situations requiring attention and safety, such as on the street with car horns, sirens, and alarms. At home, sounds like the doorbell, telephone, television, etc.

These situations can influence an individual’s personality, potentially leading to insecurity, isolation, and introversion.

To resolve hearing loss, the patient must first recognise their problem. There are stages where their environment—friends, family—recognise their problem, but they themselves do not.

Once the patient recognises the symptoms, the ideal is to go directly to a specialised audiology centre, where they can receive a professional and personalised assessment. At Oír Vital, we are trained to detect, evaluate, and treat hearing problems from the outset. The sooner action is taken, the better the patient’s adaptation and quality of life will be.

At Oír Vital, we will be responsible for indicating the best solution to your hearing problem to improve: your self-esteem, your living environment (family, meetings, TV, music, etc.), and your safety.