Listen to what you're not hearing

By Catherine Amos

Jun. 1, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Bertha "Bertie" Gilson, 55, cannot hear without the help of a tiny plastic device. Like many, she wears a hearing aid in order to communicate with the world around her.

Her 27-year-old daughter also wears one.

For Gilson and her daughter, Nicole Cassano, hearing loss doesn't just come with old age; it runs in the family. Both Gilson and Cassano first noticed problems with their ability to hear in their early teens.

Many think hearing loss is only for senior citizens, but according to the Better Hearing Institute, only 35 percent of people with hearing loss are older than 64. There are actually close to six million people in the United States between 18 and 44 with hearing loss and more than one million are school age.

"It's a pattern in our family," Cassano said. "We are normal hearing people and then we get to our teens and it just starts decreasing. In college, it got to the point where I even couldn't sit in the back of a lecture room because I couldn't hear anything."

Cassano and her husband have two kids, so dealing with her hearing was a necessity. The hearing aid she wears is almost invisible -- a small, skin-colored triangle hooked behind her ear, buried beneath her voluminous, dark brown hair.

"I have two small children and we'd be outside playing and they would go into my neighbors yard and that was it," Cassano said. "I couldn't hear them. The first time I had my hearing aids I went home and for the first time I was actually hearing them play behind my neighbor's house."

Hearing aids help tremendously, Cassano said, but they aren't perfect. She works as an assistant to her audiologist, Donna Mallory of Culpeper Hearing Center, who explained that Cassano's hearing loss began to occur when the hair cells within the inner ear begin to deteriorate. Those cells cannot regenerate, and thus hearing aids are an attempt to replace those natural amplifiers.

What is most critical in treating hearing loss is to continue the auditory stimulation of the brain, Mallory said. The ears play a small role in hearing; the work is done in the brain. Using hearing aids keeps the auditory areas of the brain functioning and prevents deterioration of those areas.

But Mallory said a big problem is that people's expectations are higher than what hearing aids can actually deliver. Hearing loss will continue to happen with or without the use of hearing aids, which are expensive and not often covered by insurance.

"It's a big out of pocket expense for many people," Mallory said, "and they're paying all this money and want to have normal hearing again. And we can't do that with hearing aids.

"You have to learn to accept the limitations of your hearing loss and what a hearing aid can deliver. People who adjust well have come to terms with that; they know it's not going to be 100 percent, but it's a huge improvement."

She said hearing aids help more than 85 percent of people who wear them and make the adjustment, but the percentage of people who seek help is only about 20 percent.

"They think hearing loss is associated with aging and Nikki is a perfect example," she said.

Cassano and Gilson's hearing loss is genetic and was inevitable, but hearing loss predominantly can be prevented because a lot of it is caused by noise exposure, Mallory said. People cannot prevent aging, but can control the amount of noise exposure on their ears.

"That's one of my pet peeves, that hearing is not taken seriously," she said. "In general when you're younger, you can't help but think that you're invincible in all areas of your health. It's not just people who listen to loud music; it's the hunting, it's the shooting, it's the factory work. People just don't think that it's going to be an issue."

Once someone is affected by hearing loss, there are tricks to compensate and improve quality of life. Informing others so they know to speak clearly is important, Mallory said, as well as lip reading.

But lip reading, or "speech reading," is more than watching another's mouth move. Cassano said she pays attention to everything when someone is talking, from their hand gestures to their mouth to their eye movements.

"I rely on that a lot," Gilson said. "I never realized I read lips before. Some people get real frustrated with you and when I tell them I wear a hearing aid, I almost embarrass them into becoming more patient."

Mallory encouraged anyone who thinks they might have a problem to get their hearing checked. In her office, she can test patients' hearing through special software that measures decibels and pitch.

"Don't be embarrassed by it," Cassano said. "If you think you aren't hearing right, come and see us because we can help you. It's better to get help sooner than later before the hearing deprivation occurs."

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or camos@starexponent.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0297-25671738