UPMC On Topic Transcript
Center for Audiology : Complete hearing health care
Catherine Palmer, PhD
Director, Center for Audiology and Hearing Aids
Here at the Center for Audiology at UPMC we think it’s really critical that when people come they have complete hearing health care. And the way you have complete hearing health care is by having two professions. You have the otologists who take care of medically treatable hearing loss, and you have the audiologists who do the testing and take care of non-medically treatable hearing loss. When you come here, you’re going to find you have treatment from both professionals, and for some people they need both, for some people they’ll need one or the other.
If a patient calls in saying they have hearing loss or ear pain or some kind of problems with their ears, they’re going to come in and the first thing we’re going to do is a full diagnostic hearing test.
Part of that is to figure out, is this a permanent loss or is this a hearing loss that can be treated by our otologists, our physicians. About 10 percent of people who are going to come to us have a hearing loss that can be treated medically. Or is this really a permanent hearing loss and are they going to work with our audiologists. Because if you’re someone who’s going to need amplification and assistive devices, that’s a relationship you’re going to have lifelong. You’re going to continue to need those services.
The audiologists, once they have those data, are going to start to find out about the person. What’s their lifestyle? What are their communication needs? Where are they having difficulty? And by having this whole picture of the person, we can figure out what’s the best solution. Our job is to match technology to people’s needs.
Offering many solutions
The audiology center provides services in a range of areas. We work with hearing protection, we work with diagnosing hearing loss in terms of measuring hearing loss, providing solutions for hearing loss. For some people, they may only need something for their telephone. We want to make sure people can hear their smoke detectors. Some people are going to need hearing aids for their day-to-day activities. If someone is without any hearing, then a cochlear implant, which is a surgical procedure, may be the solution for them. We work with people who have tinnitus or ringing in their ears. We work with people with balance problems.
We started the Musicians’ Hearing Center in 2003 to target preventing hearing loss. The reality is, noise-induced hearing loss is 100 percent preventable. There are quite a few occupations where you become at risk: musicians, dentists because of the drills, hairdressers because of the hair drying, the hair dryers. Those people need to think about what they’re exposed to day-to-day. But those are also people who need to communicate while they’re protecting their hearing. So the advent of musicians’ earplugs has made a big difference for these people. We can actually make things quieter, but they can still hear naturally.
It’s never too late
One of the mistakes people make is having a feeling like, oh, I already have hearing loss, I can’t do anything about it, and that’s a real mistake because hearing loss comes gradually and we can help hearing loss a lot easier in the earlier stages. People can get used to hearing aids easier at that stage. So you really want to go ahead and do something about hearing well, and at the same time, you want to protect what you’ve got, because that can continue to change. You’re never too late to protect your hearing.
For more information, contact us at 1-855-UPMC-ENT.