Hearing Test: Why the Fall Season is the Best Time to Get Checked

Fall serves as an ideal season to prioritize your hearing health for several compelling reasons. The transitional nature of this time, with its milder temperatures and lower humidity levels, provides a stable environment for accurate assessments. Additionally, fall precedes the busy holiday season, allowing for timely intervention and adjustments if necessary.

By addressing any potential hearing concerns now, you can enter the festive season with confidence, ensuring you won’t miss out on the joys of shared conversations and cherished moments. Moreover, taking proactive steps towards your auditory wellbeing in the fall sets a positive tone for the year ahead, promoting overall wellness and a higher quality of life.

A Peak Time for Seasonal Allergies

As we move from the summer to the fall, we can experience a number of seasonal allergies that affect our ears and hearing health. Irritants can induce symptoms very similar to those of an ear infection. If you are feeling congested or are potentially on the way to experiencing ear infections, as well as other symptoms like itchiness, pain, or a feeling of your ears being full, you need to rule out any hearing problems caused by allergies.

Minimizing the Impact of the Change in Temperature

Going from summer to fall means a major dip in the temperature. In fact, colder weather can have a greater effect on our ears than we realize. Our ears have very little protection, like the rest of our body, making them more susceptible to the cold. This means a potential for earwax to harden, which can trap moisture inside the ear canal.

This can contribute to impacted earwax and other hearing issues such as tinnitus and ear infections. An ear infection can clear itself out, but if you are someone who experiences repeated ear infections, this may contribute to hearing loss.

An Opportunity to Prepare Yourself for the Winter Months

The fall is the perfect opportunity to get your ears checked because as the temperatures drop, we spend more time indoors and can naturally fall into environments with more background noise. The summer can be less impactful on our hearing, and as we congregate inside, this can potentially contribute to highlighting hearing difficulties. Changing our daily routines, where we spend more time indoors, can highlight certain problems that we just didn’t notice before.

If you get your hearing checked by an audiologist in the fall months, this is now a great opportunity to address any hearing issues before they become more pronounced during the winter months. With major drops in temperature during the winter, you can now utilize the fall months to identify or manage any hearing loss that could impact your ability to enjoy the colder holiday season and family gatherings.

Addressing Hearing Loss in Conjunction with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

SAD is a type of depression that can occur during the fall and winter months. While it may not be directly linked with hearing, individuals with SAD are prone to more feelings of withdrawal or isolation. This can increase communication problems associated with hearing loss. Those who struggle in social settings can find it easier to withdraw rather than to get their hearing checked.

Using the fall months to address the extent of any hearing loss before the onset of seasonal affective disorder can help people become more proactive with these challenges, resulting in a better quality of life as we go into the holiday season. As people’s calendars fill up with family gatherings, social events, and so much more, these occasions include lots of conversations in noisy settings. Getting your hearing checked during the fall months helps you prepare for the holiday season with more confidence and clarity.

An Ideal Environment to Test Your Hearing

Hearing tests are conducted in an audiologist’s office and can provide an ideal acoustic environment. This is not cut and dry because it depends on where you are; however, the fall season tends to bring quieter surroundings, allowing audiologists to conduct more accurate hearing assessments.

Ensuring that you have a hearing test during the fall months can result in precise diagnoses and tailored treatment options, from hearing aids to lifestyle changes.

If you are considering getting your hearing checked by an audiologist, these fall months are the ideal opportunity to check the status of your hearing. When you schedule a hearing test during the fall months, you can prepare for the winter and address any hearing issues right now to guarantee you get the most out of the upcoming holidays.

Your hearing health should be a year-round concern, but if you want to take the initiative now, schedule a hearing assessment with one of our audiologists. Get in contact with Hearing & Balance Services of Reston at 703-260-6192, and we can schedule an appointment to check out your hearing!