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Hearing Aids Help, But Not A Cure-All

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By JO-ANN JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 24, 2007

SHADY HILLS - Dana Schwanemann tells new patients she doesn't expect them to like their hearing aids immediately.

'You're going to hate me. You're going to hate them,' said Schwanemann, the community outreach specialist for St. John's Hearing Institute, based in New Port Richey and Pinellas County. 'Our goal is, that six months from now, for you to ask, 'How did I live without them?''

The company was one of the vendors participating in Pasco County's first Hearing Awareness & Health Fair held Saturday at Safety Town and organized by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services of Florida. About 300 people came to get free hearing screenings from St. John's, and to learn about recent medical advances and the legal rights of people who are deaf and hearing impaired.

The fair gave Schwanemann and her colleagues the chance to talk with people about what to expect from a hearing aid. There are many misconceptions, such as the notion that people can pop in a hearing aid and automatically adjust. People are more likely to be disturbed by the 'foreign object' at first and overwhelmed by the change, she said.

St. John's workers typically tell people to wear new hearing aids for a couple of hours a day for the first week and to stay out of noisy environments, such as shopping malls, for the first two weeks.

'The brain takes a while to adapt when a person gets a hearing instrument,' Schwanemann said. 'You spend years with hearing loss, progressing slowly, slowly, slowly. You really don't notice. Then all of a sudden, everything comes in.'

Some people find that so overwhelming they just stop wearing the hearing aids, she said.

St. John's, which focuses on seniors living in retirement facilities in Pasco, Hernando and Pinellas counties, finds many people need three to four weeks to adjust to hearing aids, said hearing specialist Michael Smith.

Even then, people find they still miss things said in noisy settings, such as their retirement centers' dining halls.
Technical adjustments can help with background noise. But a hearing aid won't completely restore many patients' hearing, Smith said. In some situations, people won't hear everything clearly or may mistake similar-sounding words.

People with hearing aids need to be counseled about ongoing needs and whether they might eventually need a hearing aid with more amplification or more subtle adjustment capabilities, Smith said.

The National Institutes of Health offers a tip sheet on hearing aids at www.nidcd .nih.gov/health/hearing/hear ingaid.asp.

FREE HEARING TESTS
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services of Florida offers free hearing tests once a week at its office at 8610 Galen Wilson Blvd., Port Richey. People needing further assistance are given referrals.

The nonprofit agency also dispenses free, specialized phones to Florida residents with hearing loss.

Hearing tests take about 15 minutes and are conducted on Tuesday mornings or Wednesday afternoons. To make an appointment, call (727) 853-1010 or 1-866-685-9477.

Reporter Jo-Ann Johnston can be reached at (352) 521-3062 or jfjohnston@tampatrib.com

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