Mayday Mayday! Dr. Swander's Anniversary!

Mayday! Mayday!

Hi ,
The term May Day can have multiple connotations. It can be a celebration around the ancient festival of Spring, highlighted by pretty gift baskets. “Mayday, Mayday” can also be a distress call signaling something is wrong!

This newsletter is going to have a little of both - some celebration as well as a signal of warning!

May 1st happens to signify my 21st anniversary of practicing audiology at Hearing HealthCare Centers! (It also happens to be my 17th wedding anniversary, so I joke with my husband that I have been married to my work longer than I have been married to him. 😁 )

This issue will celebrate some of the history of Hearing HealthCare Centers, the history of Hearing Aid Dispensing and Audiology, as well as my personal history. Hint, the history of all of the above focuses strongly on relationships with patients and reconnecting them to their loved ones through helping them with their hearing. Enjoy the timeline we created with lots of fun tidbits of history and a few different hairstyles, too.

The warning we are sounding is about some of the methods of treating hearing loss that are trying to remove the relationship element. There is a focus in the hearing industry to do things via mail, internet and even telehealth, but there are some key reasons why that often doesn’t provide optimum outcomes. Online hearing tests may seem convenient, but they have not been deemed accurate and are not enough to make a diagnosis of hearing loss. What if your problem is just wax? Or what if it is a medical condition that, if detected, could be treated?

There is a temptation for people to take shortcuts in treating hearing loss, either to save money or to be more convenient, and there are a lot of companies offering to send ‘customized’ products through the mail. Read on to hear from Dr. Shawna Beasley why true best practices can only be performed in person.

One thing I know is that Hearing HealthCare Centers has been open since 1984 because of you! We exist because of our relationships with the patients, family members, caretakers, and physicians we serve and that is never going to change.

Ch’ears'!
Whitney Swander, Au.D.
Owner, Doctor of Audiology

P.S. When were you first introduced to Hearing HealthCare Centers? Hit reply and let me know. Your responses will come directly to me and I’ll personally reply to each of them!

by Dr. Shawna Beasley

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a huge shift in how hearing healthcare services are being offered. Some retailers, and even insurance companies, are mailing hearing devices directly to the consumer and then attempting to provide care online through videos and virtual appointments.

To the average person just looking to correct their hearing, this can seem acceptable. To the online retailers who have read the statistics about the increasing numbers of aging people with hearing loss, it can be tempting. And to the insurance companies who are trying to increase the number of benefits they provide to their customers without bringing on a lot of cost to themselves, it is certainly appealing. However, what this trend does not take into account is that there is no way to follow best practices in the treatment of hearing loss without having in-person professional care.

Hearing Evaluation
There is currently no FDA-approved online hearing evaluation available. The current online hearing tests might get you
in the ballpark, but cannot determine if you have earwax or any other medically treatable issue.

Wax removal
Since we can’t look in our own ears, and we are not supposed to use anything smaller than our elbow to clean our ears, how on earth do we know if we have wax build up? Earwax can easily distort hearing test results and it is often responsible for plugging up hearing aids and causing them to malfunction. Maintaining clean ears and hearing aids is best done in person.

Appropriate physical fitting of hearing aids
Obviously the physical fit of devices is critical in order to be comfortable, but did you know it can also dramatically affect the acoustics of sound? Fitting the right physical components can only be done in person. Sometimes customized ear molds are necessary and this is impossible to do remotely.

Real Ear Measurements
Many of these companies claim to program the devices to your hearing test before mailing them, but that is rarely enough. The software used to do this calculates averages to estimate what might be appropriate, but is only accurate a small percentage of the time.

The Gold Standard of fitting hearing aids to prescription levels is determined using Real Ear Measurements.The devices are measured and programmed while in your ears to ensure you are not getting too much or too little amplification across the frequency range.

Sound field verification
You may feel like you hear better with devices in than with them out, but how do you know if it’s enough? Audiologists can perform testing in a sound booth with hearing devices in your ears and simulate how the aids will help you hear in various settings including background noise. From there, adjustments can be made to ensure you are getting the best results you deserve.

In-person care from a well trained audiologist is very important, but this model of hands-off approach is not all bad. Sometimes people are intimidated by the thought of coming to an audiologist and having a recommendation made. These options provide a convenient, anonymous way to determine if amplification could be helpful. We often find that once patients learn that hearing treatment is beneficial, they want to seek the solution that is best for them. These hands-off solutions are often stepping stones to good care.

And we believe that everyone deserves good care!

After 21 years as an audiologist, tell us about what changes you’ve seen for the good and for the bad.

The improvements in hearing aid technology have been amazing to behold. Twenty years ago most hearing aids were analog and being able to program them on computers was brand new. We used to fit hearing aids based on what sounded good to the patient because often the sound quality was not good enough to optimize fittings any other way. Now that hearing aids sound as good as they do, and now that we know how critical optimized hearing is to prevent issues to the brain, we can use best practices to make sure hearing aids are set to an individual’s ideal prescription.

"On the other hand, I think some of the trends we are seeing in audiology are dangerous."

Due to the increased numbers of patients developing hearing loss as they age, there has been an aim to get more people to adopt hearing treatment, from all sorts of new channels. In general this is a great thing! But at the same time, we are seeing loads of new research about all of the ways hearing loss can impact people’s overall health as well as cognition. My concern is that if people are taking shortcuts to treat their hearing loss through Over-the-Counter products or mail order hearing aids, we will see the negative effects of improper treatment in the years to come. My passion is to see everyone treat their hearing loss to the very best degree possible. Their future may depend on it.

Where do you see Audiology going in the future?

I believe we live in an age of disruptions. Netflix put Blockbuster out of business for the sake of convenience. Uber has created a disruption for the taxi services. Because hearing aids are treated like a consumer device, it seems that treating hearing loss should be disrupted as well. However, the more complex hearing technology gets, and the more critical it becomes to treat hearing loss accurately and using best practices, the less likely people will be able to do an accurate job via a disruptive pathway. I believe in the short-term there will be a swing of the pendulum toward online hearing tests, mail order hearing aids, telehealth/web services while they appear new and innovative, but then I believe more and more people will return to Audiologists to provide them the help they need. Just like a race car doesn’t win races without a great driver or a guitar doesn’t make beautiful music by itself, hearing devices require a skilled professional to make them music to your ears.