My friend, lets call her Ann, had a bit of a problem trying to log on to the Hearing Tracker Forum, so I am posting this for Ann. She is hopeful of receiving some answers that follow from a recent hearing test - her first.
Reason she went for a hearing test: She was curious as I wear them, but reports no trouble hearing and I haven’t noticed anything either when communicating with her, but is learning a new language and thought since she never had one, it might be worth checking out.
The doctor doing the hearing test verbally told her that she was not a candidate for hearing aides at the time. Is this accurate based on the hearing test she received? (see test image in the reply area below). But in the doctor’s written assessment, they said Ann was a borderline candidate and that the doctor had shared the benefits and limitations of amplification (this didn’t happen). I happened to be there and what Ann says is true.
The doctor stated that she had “non-occluding but significant hard wax” in both ears. Could this affect the hearing test? The doctor said this wasn’t an issue and if there was a pin hole open she would test as well with the ear wax as with it removed. Should she have the test redone after wax removal?
Regarding the ear wax, it it worth her time to try Ear Wax MD or some thing else before rather than an ENT? She has never had an issue with ear wax, however, she has been wearing Apple Pods recently for listening to podcasts and music this might have contributed to the issue.
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions she should consider.
I am not a professional audiologist, but the bone conduction test is in perfect accordance with air conduction, which suggests outer hair cell damage in the cochlea and organ of Corti. Occlusion with cerumen should not interfere with bone conduction testing. It could impact air conduction, but on the graph above, air ideally coincides with the bone graph.
Ann has quite excellent word recognition in quiet, which may suggest THEORETICALLY (and misleadingly) a hearing aid isn’t necessary, but we do not know how she manages with speech in noise.
A hearing aid could help, making life easier by decreasing the cognitive overload that occurs when the brain is forced to fill the unheard gaps between properly heard words.
I have no experience with Ear Wax MD; perhaps someone else could help. Of course, ENT consult is recommended.
If she uses AirPods, she must consider whether she sets them too loud, damaging her hearing.
I’m certainly not an expert, but it seems to me that she is missing out on a whole lot. Baffling that the doctor (audiologist??) seems to think that nothing over 2k matters?
When I take on new languages, I want all the help I can get from my hearing aids. There are plenty of speech sounds in the 2khz to 4khz zone that she isn’t hearing very well. Each language has its own distinct way of pronouncing consonants within those frequency ranges. She’ll have an easier time hearing those distinctions with hearing aids.
I agree, I have much problem with comprehension of English speech without closed captions. 10 years ago I hadn’t even been able to coincide English speech with subtitles. I trained by, for example, watching a 1-hour episode of “Game of Thrones” for 2–3 hours because of rewinding and listening again.
That loss isn’t caused by wax. It’s a highly aidable high frequency (mod/severe) loss that most hearing aids are designed to accommodate with relative ease.
I don’t like calling out a ‘professional’, but that doctor seems to be talking rubbish.
she would probably love hearing aids that are programmed correctly. Since the person who did the test says she’s not a candidate (which is BS), she needs to go somewhere else.
no, based on what they put here wax is not affecting the test. The eardrum is moving normally, so the wax is not impeding the sound from getting to the cochlea (hearing organ).
sure, you can get OTC ear drops, such as Debrox, and then flush the ears with a bulb and warm water. It might be easier to just go to an ENT and make sure it’s done correctly anyway.
But big yikes on the “doctor” who told her she doesn’t need hearing aids. She should definitely trial some, and again, should be fit by an actual audiologist who does verification of the programming.
Everyone including the two audiologists - many, many thanks - all of your answers have been very helpful. Ann is going to try the Ear Wax MD drops and followup with an audiologist to trial hearing devices. Do you think Costco is an option for her? Has anyone had any experience with Ear Wax MD drops or similar?
No expert here, but that looks an awful lot like my audiogram, near normal in the low frequencies, dropping down to moderate to severe in the high frequencies, with an excellent word recognition score in the high 90s. Hearing aids have helped me a lot. Speech is much clearer, not to mention I can hear things like birds. I don’t have to ask people repeat themselves nearly as much. They’ve made a huge difference. I didn’t know what I was missing, and now I can’t live without them. Even alone in my apartment I feel like my head is under a pillow if I’m not wearing my aids. (A complication if you look at my audiogram is that I have “no useful hearing” in one ear due to acoustic neuroma, so I’m talking about my “good” ear.)
Costco would definitely be an option just make sure her ears are cleaned first. Costco doesn’t clean ears and will not do testing if they find wax buildup in her ears.
In my experience, doctors of audiology don’t really know about hearing aid technology and fittings. That’s why I rely on Hearing Instrument Specialists (HIS).
I agree i too have high frequency hearing loss due to my job as helicopter mechanic i also have tinnitus. I wear hearing aid. As for wax her ent should remove it. Maybe she should go to another ent.
