While environmental factors play a part in the boomers' hearing difficulties, hereditary factors play a bigger role. There are simply more boomers these days, and they're at that age where they find themselving asking others to repeat their comments, turn up the volume or "stop mumbling" ... even when no mumbling is involved.

Younger patients are also more aware of their health and the sight-and-sound deficits that are beguiling them, thereby seeking help sooner than some previous generations, said audiologist Betty Stuefen of Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City, who also earned her master's in audiology from USD in 1988 and works at Mercy as an audiologist and speech therapist, certified in both areas.

Women generally seek help before men do, "Sometimes they're maybe more accepting of a problem and seeking help for it," Hadden added, though she has as many male as female patients.

"We hear a lot of people say, 'I hear but I don't understand,' which we definitely test for. Do they need volume stronger or do they really have understanding issues?" she said. "The majority do not. The majority just need things louder for them to understand it."

Hence the need for hearing aids, which have made significant technological advances the past few years, she said.

"With the new open-ear technology, it leaves the ear canal open so the sound is so much more natural and comfortable," Hadden said. "And you don't really feel you have to have a hearing aid on because it's not visible and it's not full and putting pressure in your itself. So its' very comfortable and more natural than any of the traditional hearing aids."

There are people, especially in the past, who have discrimination problems that couldn't be solved by the older aids.

"Those are usually more hereditary or noise-induced (problems) which don't do as well with hearing aids because even though it's loud, they still cannot discriminate sounds or speech. The breakdown is in the ear, so the brain doesn't get all the information. So they can't put it together and piece it and understand it well," she said. "But they prefer to use them over not (using them) because they need the sensitivity or volume even though they're still going to have trouble understanding people. So they help, but not the way they would like to."

Evaluation and diagnosis by an audiologist will determine what solution works best. If a medically treatable option is advisable, a patient will be referred to a medical doctor, she said. Her own client/patients are often referred to her by doctors. Others simply make appointments.

Stuefen does diagnostic evaluations but doesn't deal directly with hearing aids, referring her patients back to their doctors or elsewhere.

Sometimes the solution is as simple as earwax. A good cleaning and the ears work fine.

Some people have such serious earwax growth that they can't use hearing aids that are placed inside the ear because they clog up the hearing aids and cause them to break down. In such cases, a behind-the-ears hearing aid works. And the current ones are also open-ear models. These open-fit hearing aids forgo traditional methods such as earhooks and obvious controls in favor of small casing and comfortable and nearly invisible tubes. They are made to naturally blend in with hair and skin tones, with flexible tubes that leave the ear canal open. Newer models boast rechargeable batteries, she said.

The average price for a hearing aid is $1,800 to $2,000, with some cheaper, some more expensive, Hadden said.

The biggest problem some people have, Stuefen said, is accepting they have a problem and then adjusting to the hearing aid.

"Sometimes people wait too long and then to the point where the hearing loss is affecting their communication with the family or work or social life, as people become isolated," Stuefen said, "and then they try to do something about it and it's really hard to adjust. So it's better to get going on it soon so that you can adjust to it."

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/04/25/news/local/457ba4a2edc59af6862572c8000db26f.txt