Minnesota Department of Health Stresses the Importance of Seeing a Hearing Health Practitioner Regarding Hearing Loss

 
Released: 10/26/2011
Source: Minnesota Department of Health

 

Not seeing a health professional before purchasing hearing aids skirts state and federal protections and could result in harm.

Officials from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) are stressing the importance of seeing a hearing health practitioner if consumers have concerns about hearing loss. A hearing health practitioner will take a case history, visually inspect the ear, conduct hearing tests, recommend a hearing aid, or determine if the consumer should be seen by a medical specialist.

MDH has noted the increasing availability of options for purchasing hearing aids. These include using online hearing tests and purchasing hearing aids online. While consumers may be tempted to buy a hearing aid using the internet, it is not in their best health interest, and in Minnesota, only a hearing health practitioner can test hearing and recommend and fit a hearing instrument.

Hearing aids are medical devices regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and must be recommended, sold and fit by qualified health professionals. This is because not all persons are assumed to be good candidates for a hearing aid. Before hearing aids can be sold to consumers, MDH and FDA laws require health practitioners to:

 

• Complete a case history of the consumer's hearing.
• Conduct specific hearing tests with specialized equipment.
• Visually inspect the consumer's ears and ear canal.
• Document if the consumer has recent hearing problems such as dizziness, sudden hearing loss in one or both ears and pain or drainage from the ear, and then refer to a physician when the consumer reports these conditions.

 

These hearing tests and evaluations are used by hearing health professionals to determine if the consumer needs to be referred to a medical doctor specializing in ear diseases.
The health professionals authorized to test human hearing and recommend and fit hearing aids in Minnesota are regulated by MDH and include:

 

• Licensed audiologists who have completed at least a master's degree and a supervised professional internship experience in audiology. They provide diagnostic hearing evaluations; specialize in the evaluation and rehabilitation of individuals with hearing loss; and recommend, fit and/or dispense hearing instruments.
• Certified hearing instrument dispensers who have passed a written and practical examination. They provide hearing testing and evaluations for the purpose of hearing aid recommendation, selection and fitting; and recommend, select and fit hearing instruments.

 

Minnesota laws also provide consumers of hearing instruments other protections, including:

 

• An MDH brochure describing the consumer's legal rights.
• A written purchase agreement specifying services, warranties and repair plans.
• A 45-calendar-day trial period.
• A cancellation fee of no more than $250.
• The right to take the hearing aid recommendation to an audiologist or hearing instrument dispenser of choice.
• A copy of the audiogram.
• Information from the FDA about a medical evaluation.

 

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Mild Hearing Loss Linked to Brain Atrophy in Older Adults

Released: 8/30/2011 7:25 PM EDT
Source: Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Early Intervention Could Prevent Slide toward Speech Comprehension Difficulties

Newswise — PHILADELPHIA - A new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows that declines in hearing ability may accelerate gray matter atrophy in auditory areas of the brain and increase the listening effort necessary for older adults to successfully comprehend speech.

When a sense (taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch) is altered, the brain reorganizes and adjusts. In the case of poor hearers, researchers found that the gray matter density of the auditory areas was lower in people with decreased hearing ability, suggesting a link between hearing ability and brain volume.

"As hearing ability declines with age, interventions such as hearing aids should be considered not only to improve hearing but to preserve the brain," said lead author Jonathan Peelle, PhD, research associate in the Department of Neurology. "People hear differently, and those with even moderate hearing loss may have to work harder to understand complex sentences."

In a pair of studies, researchers measured the relationship of hearing acuity to the brain, first measuring the brain's response to increasingly complex sentences and then measuring cortical brain volume in auditory cortex. Older adults (60-77 years of age) with normal hearing for their age were evaluated to determine whether normal variations in hearing ability impacted the structure or function of the network of areas in the brain supporting speech comprehension.

The studies found that people with hearing loss showed less brain activity on functional MRI scans when listening to complex sentences. Poorer hearers also had less gray matter in the auditory cortex, suggesting that areas of the brain related to auditory processing may show accelerated atrophy when hearing ability declines.

In general, research suggests that hearing sensitivity has cascading consequences for the neural processes supporting both perception and cognition. Although the research was conducted in older adults, the findings also have implications for younger adults, including those concerned about listening to music at loud volumes. "Your hearing ability directly affects how the brain processes sounds, including speech," says Dr. Peelle. "Preserving your hearing doesn't only protect your ears, but also helps your brain perform at its best."

The research appears in the latest edition of The Journal of Neuroscience and was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Physicians should monitor hearing in patients as they age, noting that individuals who still fall within normal hearing ability may have increasing complaints of speech comprehension issues. Patients should talk to their physician or an audiologist if they are experiencing any difficulty hearing or understanding speech.

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Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4 billion enterprise.