Manage your precious hearing health with experts on your side

This is sponsored content for Hunter ENT Hearing

Anyone who has struggled to hear in certain situations knows the frustration. And it doesn't just affect the person trying to do the hearing - it can create problems for everyone involved.

Having to constantly ask people to repeat what they've said, not being able to easily follow group conversations, or finding yourself avoiding some social situations can impact on lots of aspects of daily life, from your work and family life, to friendships and travel.

Recently there's also been increased focus on how a person's hearing can affect their overall health and wellbeing. The role that hearing loss plays in the onset of dementia has been under the microscope with growing evidence it can be a key factor.

It highlights the importance of making sure you have your hearing health checked even before you notice any problems.

Over the last few years a lot more businesses offering hearing tests and hearing aids have sprung up with even a visit to the shopping centre providing the chance to get your hearing checked.

With so much choice how can you ensure that the audiology testing and the advice you're receiving is giving you the full picture of your hearing health and the solution? If you're told a hearing aid will help how can you be sure which is the right one for you and your situation?

Getting the right help

It was a concern about the shortage of comprehensive and complete hearing testing services in the Newcastle region that prompted five of the area's leading Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeons to address the issue.

Dr Daron Cope, Dr Robert Eisenberg, Associate Professor Kelvin Kong, Dr Toby Corlette and Dr Johnson Huang recruited some highly qualified audiologists, initially to support their work at their New Lambton-based Hunter ENT practice by providing them with the testing accuracy they needed to most effectively treat their patients.

So great was the demand the surgeons decided to extend the service, establishing Hunter ENT Hearing as a new arm to their practice to make the specialist audiology service more accessible to the broader community.

Since then Hunter ENT Hearing has continued to grow. In the last 12 months it's opened clinics at Maitland Private Hospital, Shoal Bay, and in Mayfield. Coming soon are additional services in Lake Macquarie and Newcastle.

Plus the surgeons have teamed up with the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in the launch of a new specialist ear, nose and throat centre that's set to open at Broadmeadow in 12 months time and will offer expanded Hunter ENT Hearing services.

Hearing aid just one option

Hunter ENT surgeon Dr Daron Cope said there were many different causes of hearing loss and conventional hearing aids were not always the solution.

"There can be various underlying problems that you need to first properly diagnose - just because you have hearing loss doesn't always mean you need to buy a hearing aid," Dr Cope said.

"It's so important to get the right advice at the start. There are some things a hearing aid won't address and the person affected wouldn't get a good result with a hearing aid. So what happens is it ends up in a drawer somewhere, never used.

"Some hearing loss causes can be addressed surgically, or there could be another kind of device that would be better suited."

Dr Cope said if a test reveals some hearing loss an experienced audiologist should analyse the results and consider all the possible causes before advising the patient on the solution.

At Hunter ENT Hearing patients who have a hearing test also have their ear drums photographed and all reports are reviewed by one of the five surgeons.

"People need to be given all the options and the alternatives," Dr Cope said.

"For us it's all about understanding what the hearing problem is, looking at what can be done to improve the person's hearing health and being able to demystify it for them.

"Even if a hearing aid is the answer, there are many different types, with different algorithms and different technology embedded in them.

"One might be suitable for one person's needs but not for someone else's. We have access to multiple hearing aid brands."

Who should have a hearing test

One of the certainties in life is that as you age your hearing will decline - almost everyone over the age 65 will have some level of hearing loss.

But if there's a family history of hearing loss or you start to notice some of the tell-tale signs it could be a good idea to check it out.

"Hearing loss can be such a frustrating problem for people, their families and friends, and can affect them in every aspect of daily life," Dr Cope said.

"People who say they can't really hear in noisy environments or when they're sitting with people in a social environment, or that their young grandchildren, especially the girls, are mumbling to me, they are the early signs that it's not a problem with the people doing the talking it's the people hearing.

"If you start to notice things, if it's impacting on your day-to-day life then you probably should have a test to see what's going on."

Hearing and cognitive decline

The links being identified between dementia and hearing loss also highlight the importance of looking after your hearing health, Dr Cope said.

"On of the latest studies found that 35 per cent of factors that contribute to cognitive decline are modifiable and out of those the greatest contributor, at nine per cent, was hearing loss," he said.

"Of other factors, social isolation was two per cent.

"Hearing loss actually often leads to social isolation so if you add those two together you have 11 per cent. That's an incredible number."

This is sponsored content for Hunter ENT Hearing.