The aging process alone will rob us of a percentage of our hearing by genetics alone. Trauma to the mechanical processes of the middle ear or sensory-neural components of the inner ear can accelerate the event. Documented studies have repeatedly shown clear evidence of this. In an audiogram, a precipitous drop around 4kHz is text book classic sign of noise exposure. It’s higher frequencies that help provide clues to speech discrimination
The temporary threshold shift that occurs a few hours after exposure may gradually return to normal but again can elicit periods of tinnitus. Ever put your head on a pillow at night and you just hear tones or white noise? Repeated shifts can cause further damage and bring about speech discrimination issues. " I can hear it, but I can’t understand what was said"…unlike frequency adjustment in gain, nothing really improves those conditions. Mix this in with some mild background noise from a restaurant or bar and you have some very frustrating situations for this person. Even digital hearing aids are only that. AIDS and Not your own ears. If you do need this route, consider the fact that your hearing is binaural…one hearing aid cannot do that, you’ll need one for each ear for the all important speech discrimination
It just sucks getting old…told to me by my dr. Also about my age
It may look odd but I wear earplugs or sound muffs in anything above ambient noise levels