Ascent Audiology Hearing Evaluations

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Friday, May 12 - 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM

ALL APPONTMENTS ARE TAKEN

IF YOU HAVE AN APPOINTMENT YOU  NEED TO CANCEL, CLICK THE LINK BELOW SO OTHERS CAN TAKE THAT TIME SLOT

Location: Tuscany Falls PALERMO Room

Hearing loss in adults has a number of contributing factors, including age, genetics, noise exposure, and chronic disease (e.g., diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and heart disease). Age-related hearing loss or presbycusis is generally a slow, progressive hearing loss that affects both ears equally. Presbycusis begins in the high frequencies and later affects the lower frequencies. One of the first signs of hearing loss is often an inability to hear and understand speech in noisy environments. Because of this slow progression, adults with presbycusis do not readily acknowledge their hearing loss, considering it a normal sign of aging. Audiologists are not surprised to hear that the spouse or significant other has been frustrated by the hearing loss long before the individual with the hearing loss even acknowledges it. It is this insidious nature of presbycusis that allows many adults to ignore their hearing loss for years or decades. Although these factors can be encountered at different periods across the life span, individuals are most susceptible to their effects during critical periods in life. (WHO, 2023)

When unaddressed, hearing loss impacts many aspects of life at individual level:

• Communication and speech
• Cognition
• Social isolation, loneliness and stigma – social withdrawal due to reduced access and communication difficulties with others
• Emotional problems: frustration, depression, social isolation, fatigue 

More recently, Johns Hopkins University found a strong link between degree of hearing loss and risk of developing dementia. Individuals with mild hearing loss were twice as likely to develop dementia as those with normal hearing, those with moderate hearing loss were three times more likely, and those with severe hearing loss had five times the risk. While this study could not definitively conclude that early treatment with hearing aids would reduce the risk of dementia, there was a positive correlation between degree of hearing loss and risk of dementia .

Mai Nacht   Director of Health & Wellness