Hearing Loss

Of the whole of the UK's population one in ten people suffer from some form of hearing loss. It amounts to one in five people over 50 and one in seven over 70. Only one in six people who need help with hearing do anything about it.

Wear and tear over the years on the inner ear brings a deterioration of the hair cells in the cochlea and causes a loss of hearing sensitivity.

If you suffer from one of the following symptoms, do not fool yourself that you are not losing your hearing:

• You keep asking people to repeat what they say to you.
• You have difficulty in hearing high-pitched sounds.
• You may not have noticed that you don't hear birds singing anymore.
• You have difficulty hearing sounds in the distance.
• You can't distinguish where sounds are coming from.
• You don't notice you are raising your voice.

It's not all doom and gloom, a hearing loss could be due to a build up of wax, get your GP when you are next in the surgery to establish if it is wax, if not you could have a genuine hearing problem.