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Melanie Cole (Host): If you have good ears, good hearing, you take it for granted. You really do. But when people start to lose their hearing, their whole life changes and the quality of their life changes. To talk about hearing loss today, is my guest Dr. Deborah Touchette. She’s a Doctor of Audiology at Oroville Hospital. Dr. Touchette, before we talk about hearing loss and the prevalence of it; tell us a little bit about the field of audiology. What is it?

Deborah Touchette, Au. D. (Guest): Well, an audiologist is a hearing healthcare provider who specializes in the diagnosis of different ear-related conditions and the non-medical treatment of those conditions.

Host: Tell us about the prevalence of hearing loss in this country.

Dr. Touchette: Well, about 40 million Americans are affected by hearing loss and so, it’s actually a lot more people than you would imagine.

Host: Well it certainly is and personally, I know so many people who are starting to lose their hearing or you notice little things including my husband. So, tell us a little bit about the conditions and common factors that contribute to hearing loss. I mean kids are walking around with these ear pods in their ears all the time. Tell us about some of the things that put us at risk.

Dr. Touchette: Well, there are many things that put your hearing at risk. And what you mentioned is one of the ones that’s very preventable and that is noise exposure. And by noise, I don’t mean to berate music or to say that it has anything to do with the quality of what you’re listening to; but it has everything to do with the volume of what your ears are exposed to and the length of time that you are exposed to it. So, it could be beautiful music, but if the music that you’re listening to is loud and if you’re listening to it for an extended period of time; it can be just as harmful as many types of industrial noise.

So, noise exposure is probably the number one cause or one of the main causes that people experience hearing loss. There is definitely a correlation between hearing loss and age. And oftentimes it’s not just the age itself, but again, what your body has been exposed to over time. So, things like noise, medical conditions, even your genetics, how your body ages affects whether or not hearing loss is something that you might be concerned about.

There are many things that can be toxic to ears. Ears are pretty sensitive. So, there are over 1000 medications that might be used for a variety of medical conditions that could put your hearing or other ear-related functions at risk. So, ears are pretty important, but they also are very, very sensitive.

Host: Well they are sensitive and as you say, it could come with aging but there are those factors and things that we’re doing to ourselves. Are there signs even when we are younger that would signal that this is starting to happen? Who notices it? Is it our loved ones or is it the individual themselves? Because I hear people saying what and I say what’s going on with your hearing? But yet they don’t notice it themselves.

Dr. Touchette: You know it’s interesting you asked because in my experience, it is often a loved one, a friend or a family member who will begin to notice that hearing is a problem before the individual who actually has the hearing loss. And many times, it’s because that significant other has begun to accommodate for the hearing loss, perhaps they are repeating themselves or having to raise their voice. Perhaps they’re realizing that things are not happening as spontaneously and hearing loss can happen so very gradually over time, that the individual who is experiencing it, may not really fully realize it until someone mentions those changes or until it becomes significant enough to affect their quality of life.

Host: Dr. Touchette, one thing I find interesting about hearing loss. Do you think there’s a stigma attached to it? So, some people are hesitant to go seek help and get hearing aids, they don’t want to look old with hearing aids in. You’d never make fun or yell at a blind person and say well why can’t you see. But I’ve seen numerous times where people go why aren’t you hearing me, I’m trying to speak loud or soft or you know slow. Why aren’t you hearing what I’m saying. Do you see that too?

Dr. Touchette: Oh absolutely. I think that hearing loss seems to have the stigma of an age-related problem. That’s not exactly true. But that is definitely what people think. It also is something that is not quite as common that you notice visibly on people whereas many, many people wear glasses, it has become a fashion statement. There are lots of different ways to use that in a positive way whereas hearing aids don’t have that same benefit of people looking at it, noticing that you look cool or that it’s dressing you up or dressing you down. It just seems to be an appliance that’s required because of a loss of something. And so, that stigma is still very real even with today’s technology.

Host: It is amazing, isn’t it? So, if somebody notices that their loved one or even in themselves that they are starting to repeat themselves with their loved ones or maybe they’re turning up the volume a little bit higher on the television; what do you do? What’s your evaluation like and then tell us about some of the treatment options that are available today.

Dr. Touchette: Well, if somebody begins to notice that there are changes in communication or behavior that might indicate that hearing loss is a concern; the first thing that they need to do is have the hearing evaluated. It’s always good to have a baseline even if no loss is found. So, the first thing you’re going to do is you’re going to make that appointment and during that appointment, especially here at Oroville Hospital, what we do is we look at all of the different parts of the hearing mechanism. So, we look at the mechanical part of hearing, we look at all of the different neurologic systems and then of course, we look for the acuity of how someone is able to hear and even how clearly, they are able to hear and understand speech.

So, the first thing that we want to make sure is that the ears are healthy. And that there’s nothing that we would want to address medically, any kind of medical or surgical treatment. If the ears are healthy, and if there’s nothing that we can do medically to help the individual hear better; then in most cases, hearing aids are the most appropriate treatment for hearing loss.

Now, in addition to hearing aids, there are lots of other technologies that can also be beneficial and because we are not a sales clinic here; all of those options will be discussed with the patient. Anything from specialized telephones to TV listening devices. Often, I spend time talking with the patient and the family about communication skills and listening strategies.

But if hearing technology, if hearing aids are recommended, I strongly recommend that the individual have a demonstration or a trial with hearing devices before any decision is made to actually purchase technology. It’s a big decision and it’s something that can be life changing. So, I like to make sure that patients feel very confident about their benefit and having that demonstration also helps us to make sure that the individual is being fitted with the correct level of technology and something that they are going to be comfortable wearing and handling for long term.

Host: So, what’s that technology like today? I mean it must be a pretty exciting time to be in the field of audiology. What’s going on with hearing aids today and what kinds are available? How do people adjust to them?

Dr. Touchette: Well, it is a very exciting time for audiology and hearing aid technology in general. Hearing aids are now actually computers. So, in those tiny little things that you see on people’s ears, you have the processing capability similar to most laptops or other computer systems. And those hearing aids are able to fit someone’s hearing prescription very precisely. They’re oftentimes able to distinguish between speech patterns and certain types of noise. We know that the majority of people with hearing loss, one of their biggest struggles is their ability to understand when they are in a more complicated or challenging environment like a restaurant or a group of people.

So, many hearing aids have special processing capabilities and technology that’s designed to enhance speech understanding and comfort in those challenging environments. Hearing aids these days are much more cosmetically appealing than people realize. Often, it’s not something that you fully understand until you put it on your ear and then you realize that it’s not invasive. It’s not very visible to the eye. And yet, all of the hearing benefits are there.

Some of our newest technology is really exciting because they’re rechargeable. So, we are no longer having to change batteries frequently. You put them in a docking station at night and in the morning, you take them off and you’re going to get at least a full day’s use without having to change batteries. So, that’s a wonderful thing for patients who maybe have some visual or dexterity issues or just for convenience. And some of our newest hearing aids are also able to connect with Bluetooth, to cell phones and other types of transmitters. So, you can now talk on your phone through your hearing aids. You can listen to your TV through your hearing aids. And it can all be done through Bluetooth wireless technology.

So, there’s a lot of amazing things that hearing aids are capable of doing these days in addition to helping you hear better.

Host: Isn’t that amazing? And anything has got to better than trying to change those tiny little batteries with the little piece of tape on them which is very difficult especially for older people. I’m forever helping older people that I know put those little batteries in and they are even hard for me. So, before we wrap up, Dr. Touchette, tell us just quickly about some of the newer implantable hearing devices and cochlear implants. What’s exciting in the field now besides hearing aids?

Dr. Touchette: Well, just as hearing aid technology has improved, implantable technology has improved. So, the transducers that transmit sounds for cochlear implants and bone anchored hearing aids is also now fully digital with all of the similar noise reduction capabilities and Bluetooth capabilities so that the criteria of people who qualify for those implantable systems has increased dramatically. So, that is something that more and more people are benefitting from. We are able to treat much more severe hearing loss and get a much better response in hearing. And the surgical techniques are becoming less invasive. So, the recovery time is improved and again, a wider range of patients can benefit from implantable technology.

Host: It’s great information and tell us just a little bit about your team and what you do for Oroville Hospital.

Dr. Touchette: Well we have a pretty amazing team here with Dr. Charles Stewart and Angela Bushy. Those are our two medical professionals and along with myself, we see all ages of patients here. This facility is capable of seeing everything from very young infants to advanced ages. And the benefit of coming here is that we do very much work as a team. They are able to get full diagnostics and if there’s anything that can be addressed medically; we have those providers right here in the house. It can be done efficiently and effectively. And then we can refer out for hearing aids if that is also an appropriate treatment for our patients. So, we have a really great cooperative effort here at Oroville Hospital.

Host: Dr. Touchette, tell us about the hearing aid dispensary.

Dr. Touchette: Well currently our hearing aid dispensary is done and performed by Paradise Hearing and Balance Clinic. And this is an office that has been in practice for 19 years. It has joined Oroville Hospital since the Campfire. They were gracious enough to give us a home here. And so, again, we work in really nice cooperation with Oroville Hospital when it’s appropriate for those patients to come to Paradise Hearing. We also refer out to other providers in the community especially depending on what their insurance coverage is or if they are already established with other providers.

Host: Thank you so much for joining us today and telling us about hearing loss and the field of audiology. As you said, it’s so prevalent and so many people are suffering from hearing loss and really things that we can do now to hopefully prevent it or stave it off a little bit in the future. Thanks again for joining us. You’re listening to Growing Healthy Together a podcast by Oroville Hospital. For more information please visit www.orovillehospital.com, that’s www.orovillehospital.com. I’m Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for tuning in.