Ask your audiologist...

My father claims that he is "tone deaf" and hearing aids won't help him. Is this true?

I have had patients tell me that they were told by their doctors 10-20 years ago that hearing aids would not help "tone deafness". This is NOT true. Tone deafness is just a short way of saying high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss, which IS the type of hearing loss hearing aids are good for.

I would recommend that your father get a new opinion. If he is not willing to get a new evaluation with what is available today, he is hanging onto that one (tone deaf excuse) he was told years ago, and that is a shame because he could have enjoyed many years of hearing well.

Ten to 20 years ago, technology did not do a very good job of helping people with high-frequency hearing loss. Older conventional aids used to amplify everything in the room the same, but now we have quite a few models of hearing aids designed just for high-frequency hearing loss. We now have open-fit and receiver-in-the-canal hearing aids that are programmed just to bring in the high frequencies a person is missing, and not amplify the low frequencies and noise frequencies that a person doesn't need.

Technology has made great strides in this area, especially in the last five to 10 years. If you were ever told that hearing aids would not help you, you should have a new evaluation and get a new opinion because with today's technology, most hearing loss can be helped.

High-frequency hearing loss is very common with men who worked in noisy occupations. Most of my North Idaho male patients worked in noise at some point in their lives. The military, mining, logging and mill work were very damaging to the ears, so now they experience high-frequency hearing loss. When someone has high-frequency hearing loss, they will have trouble hearing women and children more than other men; whenever there is background noise, they will really have a hard time understanding who they are trying to hear.

Dr. Tia Flynn is a certified audiologist and has been in business for more than 14 years.

Every Tuesday morning from 9 a.m. to noon, Dr. Flynn provides free hearing screenings at 1601 Third St. in Coeur d'Alene. (208) 664-2767. Visit our newly updated website www.affordablehearinginc.com for an online hearing test and watch helpful videos.