Hearing
Dr. Michael Villano CASCADE ENT: Ear, Nose and Throat - Head and Neck Surgery
This website uses information supplied from the AAO-HNS.
Nearly 30 million Americans have impaired hearing. The most common cause of hearing loss in children is otitis media. For the elderly, the largest group affected, excessive noise, drugs, toxins, and heredity are the most frequent contributing factors.
Take this self test by answering all of the following questions.
- Do you have trouble on the phone?
- Do you have trouble in noisy environments such as restaurants, parties, or crowds of people?
- Do you have difficulty hearing normal conversation levels?
- Do you read people’s lips as they speak to you?
- Do you misunderstand people and/or have to ask people to repeat themselves?
- Do friends and family members complain of the T.V. and/or radio being too loud?
If you answered yes to any of these questions it is time to get a professional evaluation of your hearing sensitivity.
There are three different types of hearing loss; conductive, sensorineural, and mixed.
- Conductive hearing losses are often medically treated hearing losses such as ear infections, perforated eardrums, impacted ear wax, or fleshy or bony growths in the ear. Most of the time, certain medications can be prescribed or surgical procedures can be preformed to correct these issues.
- Sensorineural hearing losses are permanent hearing losses where the nerve has been damaged. These losses can be caused by noise exposure, ototoxic medications, chemotherapeutic agents, or simply the natural aging process. For sensorineural hearing losses the best solution is amplification through the use of hearing aids.
- Mixed hearing losses are a combination of the two. Even though you may be able to medically treat one aspect of the hearing loss, there will still be some permanent nerve damage. (INSERT DIAGRAM OF EAR)
Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are digital or analogue medical devices with a microphone, amplifier, and receiver that increase the volume of sounds to make them audible for the patient. You will be able to hear and understand speech better in many situations and hear important warning signals such as smoke alarms, sirens, or car horns.
Hearing aids improve many situations, but you must remain realistic about your expectations. Hearing aids will not restore your hearing to normal and you may not be able to hear ALL sounds. BUT, it will be an improvement.
Considerations when choosing hearing aids include size and level of technology.
Hearing Aid Services
- Diagnostic testing
- Hearing aids seection and fitting assistance
- Assistive listening devices
- Batteries
- Custom swim plugs
- Custom ear plugs
- Custom musician’s ear plugs.
Other Hearing Aid websites
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Our Audiologist
Julie Storie received her B.S. in Communication Disorders at Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C. in 2001. She then attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and received her M.A. in Audiology in 2004. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology. She moved to Bend in October of 2004.
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