Audiometry
Right 125 AC
30
250
500
750
1k
1.5k 2k
3k
4k
6k
8k
20
30
30
35
50
60
60
65
75
60
Left 125
250
AC 25
20
500
750
25
20
Listen to Your Brother (if you can hear him) BC 1 2 3 4 5
15
BC
Air Conduction, AI=30%, PTA=42, HFA=52 Uncomfortable level Air Conduction, AI=48%, PTA=32, HFA=42 Bone Conduction, PTA=30, HFA=47 Uncomfortable level
Audiometry Legend
Right
AC
SRT
WR
Left
25dB
96% at 70dB
Right
35dB
Both
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1.5k 2k
3k
25
30
55
25
WR, Aided
92% at 80dB
96% at 75/75dB
Left
Air Conduction
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BY TODD AB R AMS
Uncomfortable Level
F H O E A M LET H
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F I T N E S S
or too long I had ignored all those telling me I should do something about my hearing. I prided myself on the fact that when I was upstairs in our house, I could still hear the coffeemaker down in the kitchen. Boy did I have a lot to learn.
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A good friend finally convinced me that it was time to have my hearing tested professionally. I had heard (and read) good things about the locally owned Miracle-Ear clinics, so that is where I went. And I really did learn a lot. First, I was not in a “hearing aid store” but it was a medical clinic fully equipped to diagnose my hearing deficiency. One of the first things I learned is that not all sounds are created equal. Low tones, like the sounds of the coffeemaker, actually travel farther than higher pitched sounds, which I guess is why the “whomp, whomp” is all you hear from those cars next to you with the huge speakers blasting music. The cochlea, the spiral part of the inner ear that transfers sound vibrations to the brain, actually hears low frequencies more easily. And as we age, the part of the cochlea that hears higher pitched sounds is the first area that wears away. After this explanation and showing me the model of the inner ear and how sound
is transferred to the brain, it was time for my hearing test. But not quite yet. First, to make sure nothing was interfering with my hearing, I got a thorough ear cleaning and gentle removal of wax, which I learned is actually skin particles that flake off in the ear canal. They had a tiny video camera that let me see the difference before and after the cleaning, and for the first time in my life I actually saw what my ear drum looks like. Once I was in the sound-proof booth, I was asked to respond for each ear to a series of tones high and low, as well as calibrated spoken words. The chart on this page shows the printout from the test. My hearing loss is in the higher frequencies (on the right), where the red line (right ear) and blue line (left) dip down below the acceptable range. In that higher frequency range is where much of spoken conversation is. But the most compelling hearing test for me was when my auditory instructor simply
45 50
4k
6k
8k
55
50
70
65
held a folder up to her face so I couldn’t MCL UCL read her lips. She spoke a series of ten 70dB words very clearly and asked me to repeat 80dB 75/75dB them. Words like “teeth”, “cable” and “fake.” To me they sounded like “chief ”, “table” and “cake.” I only got five of them right! As shown on the hearing chart, specific consonant sounds like k, t, f, s and ch are lower in volume than vowels, and especially hard to hear correctly for those (like me) with hearing loss in the higher register. The good news was that my hearing loss is still in the mild to moderate band, which is a good time to correct hearing because that is where there are the most options and potential savings for hearing correction. There was more important learning. Below this hearing loss range is auditory deprivation, in which the brain actually loses the ability to distinguish certain sounds because it has been so long since they were heard that they are forgotten. And these changes are not just perceptions. In a recent study published by Johns Hopkins Medical School, brain scans show that hearing loss may contribute to a faster rate of atrophy in the brain than would normally be seen due to aging. So now, equipped with the evidence of my hearing loss, and convinced that I should do something about it, it was time to look at the options for correcting it. We will pick up the story there in the Fall issue of County Living.
If you would like a free, no-obligation hearing test like the one described here, you can schedule a thorough examination at any one of the 13 locally owned Miracle-Ear clinics in the St. Louis metro area. Just call 314-789-5202
