Listen to Your Brother (If You Can Hear Him

Right 125 250 500 750 1k 1.5k 2k 3k 4k 6k 8k Left 125 250 500 750 1k 1.5k 2k 3k 4k 6k 8k

AC 30 20 30 30 35 50 60 60 60 65 75 AC 25 20 25 20 25 30 45 55 55 50 70 Listen to Your Brother (if you can hear him) BC BC 15 25 1 Air Conduction, AI=30%, PTA=42, HFA=52 2 Uncomfortable level 3 Air Conduction, AI=48%, PTA=32, HFA=42 4 Bone Conduction, PTA=30, HFA=47 5 Uncomfortable level AC SRT WR WR, Aided Left 25dB 96% at 70dB Right 35dB 92% at 80dB Both 96% at 75/75dB 50 held a folder up to her face so I couldn’t read her lips. She spoke a series of ten words very clearly and asked me to repeat them. Words like “teeth”, “cable” and “fake.” To me they sounded like “chief”, “table” 65 MCL UCL 70dB 80dB 75/75dB Audiometry Legend Right Left and “cake.” I only got five of them right! As OR YOUR WIFE. OR YOUR KIDS. OR OTHERS TRYING TO Air Conduction Air Conduction, Masked shown on the hearing chart, specific conHELP YOU BETTER ENGAGE WITH THOSE YOU LOVE AND Bone Conduction Bone Conduction, Masked sonant sounds like k, t, f, s and ch are lower ACTIVITIES YOU ENJOY. Sound Field Sound Field, Aided in volume than vowels, and especially hard BY TODD ABRAMS Comfortable Level Uncomfortable Level to hear correctly for those (like me) with hearing loss in the higher register.

For too long I had ignored is transferred to the brain, it was time for The good news was that my hearing loss is all those telling me I my hearing test. But not quite yet. First, to still in the mild to moderate band, which is should do something make sure nothing was interfering with my a good time to correct hearing because that about my hearing. I prided hearing, I got a thorough ear cleaning and is where there are the most options and myself on the fact that gentle removal of wax, which I learned is potential savings for hearing correction. when I was upstairs in our house, I could actually skin particles that flake off in the There was more important learning. Below still hear the coffeemaker down in the ear canal. They had a tiny video camera this hearing loss range is auditory deprikitchen. Boy did I have a lot to learn. that let me see the difference before and vation, in which the brain actually loses A good friend finally convinced me that after the cleaning, and for the first time in the ability to distinguish certain sounds it was time to have my hearing tested my life I actually saw what my ear drum because it has been so long since they were professionally. I had heard (and read) good looks like. heard that they are forgotten. And these things about the locally owned Miracle-Ear Once I was in the sound-proof booth, I changes are not just perceptions. In a recent clinics, so that is where I went. And I really was asked to respond for each ear to a study published by Johns Hopkins Medical did learn a lot. First, I was not in a “hearing series of tones high and low, as well as School, brain scans show that hearing loss aid store” but it was a medical clinic fully calibrated spoken words. The chart on this may contribute to a faster rate of atrophy in equipped to diagnose my hearing deficiency. page shows the printout from the test. My the brain than would normally be seen due One of the first things I learned is that not hearing loss is in the higher frequencies (on to aging. all sounds are created equal. Low tones, the right), where the red line (right ear) and So now, equipped with the evidence of my like the sounds of the coffeemaker, actually blue line (left) dip down below the accept- hearing loss, and convinced that I should travel farther than higher pitched sounds, able range. In that higher frequency range do something about it, it was time to look which I guess is why the “whomp, whomp” is where much of spoken conversation is. at the options for correcting it. We will is all you hear from those cars next to you But the most compelling hearing test for pick up the story there in the Fall issue of with the huge speakers blasting music. The me was when my auditory instructor simply County Living. cochlea, the spiral part of the inner ear that transfers sound vibrations to the brain, actually hears low frequen- If you would like a free, no-obligation cies more easily. And as we hearing test like the one described age, the part of the cochlea here, you can schedule a thorough that hears higher pitched examination at any one of the 13 sounds is the first area that locally owned Miracle-Ear clinics in wears away. the St. Louis metro area. Just call

314-789-5202

After this explanation and showing me the model of the inner ear and how sound