HEALTH

Protect Your Hearing

The average person waits seven to 10 years after noticing hearing loss before getting help. Don’t wait. Have an audio test now.

By Wendy Haaf

Merrilyn Patterson put it off for four years. Phil Landry resisted his kids’ prompting much longer than that – the widower finally gave in when the woman he was seeing also suggested he get tested.

Judging by this kind of reluctance, you might guess the procedure in question was unmedicated root canal surgery, not a painless, non-invasive hearing test that typically takes less than half an hour.

“I’m very proactive about my health – this is not the norm for me,” Patterson, 51, says a little sheepishly. As national sales manager for good times and Le Bel Age, she noticed some time ago that she was having difficulty hearing over background noise, and became concerned about her ability to function at group meetings. Nonetheless, about a year elapsed before she mentioned the problem to her doctor, and still more time slipped by before she followed his advice and underwent testing.

“It’s very interesting, the kind of stigmas that seem to be attached to hearing loss and hearing testing,” Patterson observes. (In fact, studies suggest the average person waits seven to 10 years after noticing hearing changes before getting help.)
Spurred on by good times’ upcoming story on hearing loss, Patterson arranged an appointment with an audiologist at the Canadian Hearing Society (CHS). After ensuring her eardrum was functioning normally and that no fluid was trapped behind it (a simple procedure that involves bouncing sound waves off the eardrum while air pressure in the canal is slowly changed), the audiologist asked Patterson to listen for tones through a set of headphones.

“It took about 15 minutes for the actual hearing test,” says Patterson. “There was no wait, it took almost no time, and it’s painless. There’s really no reason not to go.”

In fact, the test put Patterson’s fears to rest. It turns out that while her hearing dips towards the low end of normal at certain frequencies, she doesn’t have a measurable loss. “It may have more to do with listening and focusing than my actual hearing,” she says of her difficulties picking out a conversation in a crowded room. However, she doesn’t regret going for the test. “At least we’ll have a benchmark,” she says. Now, any changes can be detected promptly and, if needed, she’ll quickly be able to begin reaping the benefits of a hearing aid and rehabilitation training.

“I wish I’d gone much sooner,” says Phil Landry. The Sudbury resident, who’s in his 70s, was fitted with his first hearing aid a month ago. Landry lost most of the hearing in one ear 30 years ago, probably as a result of noisy working conditions. (Very loud noises or chronic exposure to lower-level noise can irreversibly damage tiny hair cells in the ear, thus impairing a person’s ability to hear certain frequencies.) As the hearing in his other ear declined, it became more and more difficult for him to carry on a conversation.

“If I was sitting in the wrong place, I couldn’t hear what people were saying,” he remembers. “My kids were after me – ‘why don’t you go, why don’t you go?’” for a hearing test.

Even after acknowledging his hearing difficulty, Landry was concerned about how the cost of a hearing aid would fit into his budget. “That was the first thing that scared me. Everybody was telling me it might cost two or three thousand dollars.”
Eventually, Landry decided it couldn’t hurt to find out what his options were. He made an appointment with an audiologist at his local branch of the CHS. She helped him select an affordable device that would meet his needs – a tiny hearing aid that fits completely in the ear canal. (The price tag: about $1,400 – less the $500 covered by the Ontario government’s Assistive Devices Program. Your private health insurance or, if you’re eligible, Veterans Affairs, may also help offset the cost.)

“You can hardly see it. There’s a tiny little thread that you use to take it out – you have to make sure when you go for a haircut to remind the barber not to cut it off by mistake,” he jokes.

While it takes time to become accustomed to using a hearing aid (for starters, it can be distracting to suddenly find yourself buffeted by the hundreds of sounds in our environment), Landry adapted very quickly. He initially experienced some unwanted sounds – including hissing noises that occurred when he was watching television or handling papers – but a follow-up visit and further fine-tuning of the hearing aid took care of the problem. He can’t say enough about the service he received at the CHS and the difference the tiny piece of technology has made in his life.

“I’m amazed at it,” he says. “I’m very satisfied. I can hear everything – even the signal light in my car. I would tell anybody who has a hearing problem that they should go (for testing).”