How Often Should Your Hearing be Tested?

We all know that hearing tests are an important health measure that needs to be carried out every once in a while. In fact, audiologists across the world are finding that people are going in for hearing tests more and more frequently, and at all ages, too. If you are wondering about your own hearing, then it’s definitely important that you keep on top of it as best as you can, primarily by getting your hearing tested at regular intervals. But how regular? Let’s look at how often your hearing should ideally be tested to help look after it.

If You Already Have Hearing Loss

If it has already been determined that you have hearing loss, then that will affect how often you need to ideally get your hearing tested. In general, you’ll need to have it tested much more frequently than someone who doesn’t already know to have hearing loss. You might want it checked out once a year or once every two years, for instance. Your audiologist will inform you of the proper amount of time before having each hearing test, so it’s important that you work to that schedule as closely as possible.

If You Need to Determine Whether You Have Hearing Loss

If you just want to get screened to see whether or not you have hearing loss, then you should get your hearing tested every few years, roughly. However, this will depend on your age as well. Those over 65 or so should ideally have their hearing fully tested once a year. Whereas for any younger adults, that might be more than is strictly necessary, and you might find that once every five or even ten years is sufficient, if no evidence of hearing loss is found at any of these sessions.

Children and Hearing Loss

Children don’t generally need their hearing tested as much as adults, because the risk to them of losing their hearing is just so much lower and so significant that it is unlikely to make a huge difference. So, you should consider perhaps taking your child for a hearing test once or twice throughout their childhood, and of course if any hearing loss is found then this might need to be a bit more frequent, but other than that it’s not a great worry with kids.

Workers in Noisy Environments

If you happen to work in a noisy environment such as a construction site, then it’s a good idea to have your hearing tested every couple of years or so, just to check that it is not being damaged by the exposure to loud sounds. This is particularly important if you are regularly in the vicinity of sounds over around 85 decibels (dBs) or so. It’s just a way of making sure you keep on top of your health, and in fact your employer should be encouraging this as well.

As you can see, when to get your hearing tested and how often depends on a number of factors – but you should certainly get it checked soon.