You must know this to read your audiogram

Back to school time is here! You can feel the excitement as kids rush back into school with their learning caps on. At Hearing HealthCare Centers, we understand the importance of continuing education. Changes in hearing technology keep us on our toes as we continue to learn and share all of the latest advances in our industry.

In this newsletter, Dr. Ellyn Kuehne will get back to the basics and teach you a thing or two about a basic technique that we use in the hearing healthcare industry; how to read an audiogram.

There are a lot of new products popping up that claim to treat hearing loss. Some of them claim to work without requiring a hearing evaluation. It is still best practice to treat hearing loss to prescriptive targets which are calculated based on a properly obtained audiogram so be suspicious of any product that says it can help with your hearing loss without an audiogram.

We believe educated patients are the best kind! They understand the importance of treating hearing loss and treating it properly. They also understand the risks of doing nothing or compromising their care.

It is our privilege to write these articles monthly and keep you informed about ear and hearing related things. If there is a topic you would like to see covered in a future article, please hit reply to this email and share that with me!

This audiogram shows an example of the most typical hearing loss we see - a high frequency hearing loss. High frequencies are usually the first type of sounds we lose the ability to hear as we age. Often, this is due to exposure to loud noises.

O = Right ear X = Left ear

The X Axis (running horizontal across the bottom of the graph) is frequency, or, pitch

Low pitches = left side of the graph
High pitches = right side of the graph

The Y Axis (running along the side of the graph) is decibel or loudness level

Soft sounds = top of the the graph
Loud sounds = bottom of the graph

The further down the symbols are on the graph, the more hearing loss there is at that pitch.

In this example, the symbols on the right side of the graph are the furthest towards the bottom. This means there is a more severe hearing loss in the highest pitches.

It would be difficult for this individual to detect high frequency information.

Examples of high frequency information are Consonant sounds (the beginning/end of words), female speakers, children speakers, or understanding speech in background noise

Understanding (“repeat these words back”)

We test understanding by raising the volume to a patient’s level of hearing loss and having the patient repeat back words from a recording.

We use word recognition as a way to establish realistic expectations. Hearing aids correct detection; they cannot correct understanding. This is because a deficit in understanding is due to natural distortion in the auditory system. Typically this natural distortion occurs deep in the auditory system, where a hearing aid cannot reach.

This chart is an example of poor word recognition. This patient achieved only 8% understanding in their right ear. Although we turned up the volume loud enough to hear the words, the patient has a lot of natural distortion. This is common in severe hearing loss and indicates that the hearing loss has grown deeper in the auditory system.

With these scores the patient will still hear much better with a hearing aid than without one. However, they should not expect to understand 100% of what is being said, even with their hearing aid on, due to the severity of their hearing loss.

Hopefully, you now have more insight into your own hearing loss. Call us for an updated hearing test, and test your knowledge on your own!

Name a skill you have, or had, that would surprise people
When I was in grad school my boyfriend (at the time) and I did a lot of country swing dancing. We taught lessons at the Gambler in Greeley. We even won a dance contest during the Greeley Stampede and the prize was a giant belt buckle!

What is something you like to do “the old fashioned” way?
Cooking- I would rather use a crock pot than an instant pot and a skillet than a microwave. I tend to do a lot of things from scratch instead of using store bought short cuts.

What takes up too much of your time?
Cooking! See above!

What is the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?
Grown a business from 2 locations to its current size! Running a business ain’t for sissies!