Shelby Stockton is joined by audiologist Dr. Tressica August. They discuss the benefits of treating hearing loss with an audiologist, how hearing loss affects patients and their friends and family...and much more...
Shelby Stockton (00:00):
Welcome to the Texas ENT Audio Blog. I'm your host, Shelby Stockton. Today, I spoke with audiologist Dr. Tressica August about hearing loss. We discussed how hearing loss affects patients and their friends and family, the benefits of treating hearing loss with an audiologist, and how we can communicate more effectively with family members and friends who are experiencing hearing impairment. Dr. August gives a lot of great insight and advice in this episode, so don't miss it. Dr. August, thank you so much for spending some time with me today.
Dr. Tressica August (00:35):
Of course, Shelby. How are you doing?
Shelby Stockton (00:38):
I'm great, and even better because I get to talk to you. And I have a lot of questions I want to ask you about hearing loss. And my first one is, can you share how hearing loss affects the world around us?
Dr. Tressica August (00:50):
I definitely feel like I'm going through my own little transition here. Traditionally, I have a pediatric background where I work with kiddos. And working with children with hearing impairment for a majority of my career and now transitioning to adults, I feel like it's a little bit different because, with children, you're trying to give them access to something that they didn't have access to before. Because we want them to listen, we want them to speak, those kinds of things. With adults, it's a little bit different because we're trying to give them access to something that they know they had before.
So I definitely think that there are very two different paths that we're taking these different patients on. And so I've noticed with my adults in the world around me that the triggers and things like that that may not be an issue for children with hearing impairment, they definitely are for adults. Different things in your family members and things like that where they may not even notice that they have hearing loss. It's just, okay, well, I don't really want to go. I don't want to do that. And so noticing it in adults is definitely different than noticing it in children with hearing impairment around you. So I think that, I hope part of this little podcast is going to be to give other people key features they can look for because this is something that we can help you with.
Shelby Stockton (02:05):
Yes, exactly. That's very important. Sometimes as adults we can be really stubborn about maturing and things happening with our bodies. But what are-
Dr. Tressica August (02:14):
Exactly.
Shelby Stockton (02:14):
Yeah. What are the benefits of treating hearing loss and working with an audiologist?
Dr. Tressica August (02:21):
Well, I mean, we do go to school for like a hundred years. But no, we're really awesome people simply because I know that there are a lot of different options out there now as technology advances. Certain products and things are just easier for people to get their hands on. But I think what some of the over the counter things and amplifiers don't offer that we do as audiologists is really that hearing health counseling piece and the coaching piece, which I think is really important for our patients. And it's really going to give you the best advantage with using your device. I know a lot of people would say the hearing aid fitting is that magical moment. But for me, I think it's really that follow-up visit after I've got those devices on you. That fitting, it's super quiet in my office. I'm actually pretty loud. So you don't get a real life picture of how this is going to work in real life.
You step out of my office, I say, "You know what? Wear these for two weeks. Write down everything." I love the way they sound in HEB, but the restaurant was still hard. That follow-up visit is the magical moment where I start to tweak things and you tell me how you want them to sound because you had your ears before, I didn't. So I think having an audiologist is really just like having a relationship. It's kind of having that partner, that coach to go on this journey with you because, when you put hearing aids on, it doesn't necessarily fix everything. It is a little bit of a journey and it does take a little bit of work. So making sure you've got that partner right there next to you coaching you through this process, I think, gives maximum payoff for having hearing devices.
Shelby Stockton (03:48):
That's a really good point. It's like transition lenses with glasses. It takes you a while to get used to that.
Dr. Tressica August (03:55):
That's a really good way of thinking of it, yeah.
Shelby Stockton (03:58):
What communication strategies can I use to enhance my interactions with friends and family who have hearing loss?
Dr. Tressica August (04:06):
I love this question because I feel like it works for people that are ready to get hearing devices, but it also really works for those people that just aren't there yet. Because you need hearing aids and you're not ready to get them doesn't mean you should have to sacrifice communication all the time. There are things that can help in the meantime, whether you have hearing devices or not. Calling the person's name first, that always helps. If, hey, I know you want to get my attention. You say, "Mom," you say, "Bob," you say, "Jill," that person's going to turn to you. They're going to give you their attention. Facing the person. I talk with my face and my hands a lot, so it really helps determine mood. Talk about what you're... to listen about what you're talking about if you face that person and you can see their facial features and things like that.
Adding a tagline about what you're talking about. Hey, dad, can I talk to you really quick about going to the baseball game on Friday? So that tunes the person's ears in to, hey, we're about to talk about the baseball game. It gives them some context because sometimes when you have hearing impairment you miss those little tiny words and key things that you maybe didn't before. Also, putting your back to the noise in a restaurant or a busy environment always helps, and having people speak clearly and not loudly. I think a lot of the times we think, oh, this person may have hearing impairment, let me shout. Please don't do that. It's moreso making sure you're speaking clean and clear and crisp so that they can understand things trying not to mumble. So those are just a few communication strategies that I really like to rely on.
Shelby Stockton (05:37):
That's actually really great advice. Can we address hearing loss and its emotional impact over time?
Dr. Tressica August (05:45):
Definitely. Like I said, this in my transition from pediatrics to adults, it is definitely noticing that there is a lot of isolation sometimes attributed with having hearing impairment that I think the person who has the impairment doesn't even notice right away. They noticed that before maybe they liked family game night and now it's just bothersome, but they don't understand why it's bothersome. It's bothersome because it's really difficult to hear now that everybody's yelling and cheering and things like that. So they start to think maybe, oh, maybe I just don't have fun anymore. Or, oh, maybe I just don't get out as much as I used to. But sometimes they don't tie it back to the real reason on why they're having such a difficulty. Also, I think another emotional aspect is grief. I know that's not a fun word to want to talk about, but it's basically the feeling you feel when you feel like you've lost something, and when you've had great hearing for most of your life or some of your life to feel like you don't have that anymore.
Sometimes, as we get older, it makes us feel like we're losing independence. Or if there was a loss because of a surgery or a medical condition, it can definitely build some emotional strife and tension there. But that goes back to that have an audiologist for that coaching piece and that counseling piece of having someone to say, "You know what? It's okay to feel the way you're feeling right now." But then also be able to help them up and say, "Regardless of that loss, we have hope." And I turn into their biggest cheerleader, teaching them new and different ways to experience life and get them as close back to what they had before.
I want to be definitely that partner that helps them navigate all the emotions, which you're going to go through grief and maybe isolation. But then you're going to have some joy and you're going to have some excitement in those different things. So I think emotional impact is definitely something that can get overlooked or skipped over because everybody shows it different and [inaudible 00:07:39] stages in different times. So I think, as the professional, it's really important that we help them navigate that.
Shelby Stockton (07:45):
That's beautiful. How does treating hearing loss impact brain function?
Dr. Tressica August (07:51):
This I could go on forever about because there are [inaudible 00:07:55] and tons of research articles constantly being done around things, especially with the prevalence of other brain disorders. The brain is just being studied a lot, especially in our elderly population, because it's what does everything. So a really quick synopsis would be an active brain is a healthy brain, and a healthy brain is an active brain. And so when you have hearing loss parts of those brain, your brain, it's just not as active as it used to be. So we want to make sure that your brain has the maximum access it has to sound. I have some people that say, "Oh, I'm retired. I just sit at home. I don't need to hear anything." [inaudible 00:08:33]. I want you to hear the ice maker rattling in the fridge. I want you to hear your dog's claws across the floor. I want you to hear when the UPS truck pulls out outside.
Not necessarily because those sounds are really important, but because the fact that your brain has access to those sounds is important. It's kind of like if I sit at my desk all day, well, over the years I'm probably going to gain a little bit of weight if I just sit at my desk all day. But if I get up every 20 minutes, like most doctors recommend you take a walk every now and again, you're keeping those muscles nice and active. Same thing with your brain. So when your brain is not as active, for whatever reason, it's more susceptible to damage if there's injury or any kind of underlying disorder. So by far hearing aids are not a cure all for anything. But making sure that your brain has access to those sounds, it's making sure your brain still gets a really good workout.
Shelby Stockton (09:25):
That makes a-
Dr. Tressica August (09:26):
And stays in tip-top.
Shelby Stockton (09:26):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense. So out of sheer curiosity, why did you decide to go from pediatrics to adults?
Dr. Tressica August (09:36):
Really, I feel like it was moreso a transition of setting more than it was transition of population. I still love kids. I definitely feel like I'm peds at heart, but the ENT medical side was so interesting to me. I feel like being able to be a part of that was going to be a great career experience getting to see the medical side. Because a lot of times where places I used to work with peds, we refer out to ENT and then we don't know what happens if they don't come back and tell us. So getting to be a part of the full picture is something I really enjoy. But I do sneak as many pediatric patients in here as I can, so I get the best of both worlds still.
Shelby Stockton (10:21):
I love that. Well, Dr. August, I have to say, this has been very educational. You gave a lot of great tips, especially for somebody with aging parents.
Dr. Tressica August (10:29):
Thanks.
Shelby Stockton (10:29):
So I really appreciate your time.
