As we get older, our hearing is likely to deteriorate. Usually, it happens so gradually that we learn to accommodate its effects by becoming very good at things like recognising facial expressions, understanding body language or lip reading. Later, we may well begin to avoid certain situations where, for example, there is a lot of background noise. As a result, it can often be several years between first noticing a hearing difficulty, and doing something about it. But sometimes a hearing loss goes completely unnoticed, so other people have the difficult task of drawing attention to it.

As with most difficulties, though, it is best to talk about it, particularly since it might be that the hearing loss is treatable, in which case the sooner you identify whether there is a problem, the better. If the problem is permanent, at least it is worth discussing how it might affect your every day life, quantifying the difficulty and then talking about what might be done.

Hearing loss is usually measured in units known as dBHL, where dB stands for decibels and HL stands for hearing levels. The Hearing Assessment finds the softest sounds a person can hear across a range of frequencies. If a significant degree of hearing loss is identified, it might be that you feel a hearing instrument would help.

Many people fear that it will make them look older and be unsuitable for the active, busy lifestyles they are probably enjoying. But today's hearing instruments are amazingly small, light, stylish and clever. Just like the human brain, they can identify those sounds we want to hear, whilst filtering our unwanted sounds like background noise.