Audiologists work with more than ears

Audiologists work with patients who are suffering hearing loss, but there is much more involved in the care of their patients. 

“Yes, audiologists look in your ears. We do a whole lot more than that, though,” said Jacqueline Kim, Au.D., CCC-A. She is one of three audiologists in Northside Hospital Rehabilitation Services. 

Kim and her colleagues test hearing of patients from newborns to adults, including the volume and clarity of understanding. 

“We help you figure out how you can hear and function in noisy situations and just kind of help with figuring out where your hearing levels and capabilities are,” she said.

After a hearing test, an audiologist can determine how to help a patient with amplification. Usually that’s through a hearing aid, but there are other options like cochlear implants and bone conduction implants.

“At the end of the day, we are involved with the entirety of your hearing system,” Kim said, “so that’s ensuring that your hearing and balance systems are healthy and not impacting your daily life.”

She said that goes beyond the ears and even the eardrums.

“A lot of people will hear you saying something but won’t really be listening,” she said. “And that kind of helps you visualize or imagine the difference between just physically hearing something versus processing it with your brain and taking the information that you receive from your ears and integrating it.”

Audiologists help with auditory processing disorder and with the vestibular system, a set of 10 organs attached to the inner ear.

“They work to tell you if you are tilting your head, turning your head, if you are accelerating on a horizontal plane, or if you’re accelerating on a vertical plane,” Kim said. “If those don’t work well or something goes wrong, you might end up seeing an ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) for dizziness who might refer you to an audiologist for something called vestibular evaluations.”

Audiologists can help with hearing conservation — that is, maintaining the hearing they have.

“I tell all my friends all the time, I love you. I ideally never want to have to treat you for hearing loss that you get from blasting your ears out with having earbuds in (playing) too loud, or going to music venues without your earplugs,” Kim said.

“So one of the most important jobs an audiologist can do is to encourage safe hearing and remind people that the hearing you have is the hearing you have. Once you lose it, you’ve lost it.”

Here are other facts Kim wants people to know about her work:

• Hearing loss is common: Kim said people often think of their grandparents or “someone who might be old and grouchy” when considering someone with hearing loss, but hearing loss often is one of the most prevalent problems occurring at birth, affecting about 1 in every 500 to 1,000 newborns.
  • “A lot of people with hearing aids and a lot of people with hearing loss are still health-conscious and are still concerned about what is going on and making sure that they are living those healthy lives,” Kim said, with many of her clients saying they don’t want an employer to know they have hearing loss.
  • “Hearing loss is pretty insidious. … It’s a lot like trying to piece together a puzzle when you have a third of the pieces or only half of the pieces, and you’re trying to figure out what people are saying,” Kim said. “And by the time you figure that out, the people have already moved on. So you’re constantly playing catch-up.”
• Hearing loss can be delayed: Damage to hearing may accumulate over time, injuring cells in the hearing organs. “You know the sorts of situations where you leave a noisy place, you get into a quiet area and your ears are ringing? You feel like you can’t hear? Well, that’s the slow accumulation of hearing loss, even though it does for the most part recover the next day or in the next couple of days,” Kim said. “That hearing loss and that damage is still there. So with hearing loss creeping up slowly, people might not always realize or recognize when it’s happening.”
  • Kim said many people with hearing loss report they can hear but struggle to understand, or report people seem to be mumbling.
• Tinnitus is a common issue: Kim said she often works with patients who suffer tinnitus, the sensation of ringing, roaring, buzzing, chirping or hissing noises in the ears. People who experience it can find it difficult to fall asleep or focus and may experience depression.
  • Kim said hearing aids can’t solve tinnitus, but they can give the wearer access to more sounds and more awareness.
• Strategies are changing: Kim said technology has brought about new ways of helping people not only hear better but understand better. “These aren’t your grandpa’s hearing aids,” she said. They are not these big clunky things. They have chips in them that help with processing the sound. They’ve got Bluetooth connectivity and a lot of them are rechargeable. You’ve got the option of rechargeable versus battery options and it doesn’t really change the price.”
  • It’s also important, she said, to be considerate of the people around you with hearing loss. “Giving your conversation partner some context will typically help them clear things up a whole lot faster,” Kim said. “If your loved one has hearing loss and you do not, the biggest thing you need to remember is that they can see your face. Don’t go calling to them when they’re in the other room. That’s not going to work.”