The way we think about hearing loss simply doesn’t match the realities of hearing health. In many ways, hearing healthcare is caught in a dichotomy many are unaware of: there are plenty of options available for those who need urgent solutions for severe hearing loss but the options for those seeking to preserve their hearing, manage tinnitus, or with hidden hearing loss remain inaccessible.

Why Hidden Hearing Loss Goes Unnoticed

Like any gradually developing issue, hidden hearing loss can be hard to notice since it happens over such a long period of time. Many people don’t even know they are experiencing hearing difficulties until more severe symptoms appear.

Some of the most common signs of hidden hearing loss are

• Mishearing conversations or interpreting speech incorrectly
• Preferring quiet settings for conversations and avoiding loud environments
• Being easily distracted or unable to focus in a noisy environment
• Feeling that you have hearing loss even if you pass hearing tests

Hearing loss is usually caused by damaged auditory nerves or hair cells within the ear. But hidden hearing loss can be caused by a loss of the actual synapses between the hair cells and the auditory nerves. These synapses send electrical signals to your brain where you can make sense of them.

The reason this type of hearing loss is considered “hidden” is that it won’t show up on any normal hearing tests. Audiologists can observe hidden hearing loss only by stimulating certain synapses with sound. The good news? It can still be treated like traditional hearing loss and is caused by many of the same factors, like aging or noise exposure.

Without a range of options or acknowledgement that hearing loss can mean something different for each individual patient, hidden hearing loss can go untreated and unnoticed for years or possibly the entire lifetime if it is never spotted by a qualified audiologist.

Understanding the Scale of the Problem

As a patient, going to a hearing clinic to better understand the difficulties you’ve been experiencing should be a moment of relief and a step toward treatment. With hidden hearing loss, this is all too often not the case.

If you’re an audiologist, you’ve likely encountered this scenario: a patient comes in complaining of hearing problems or being unable to communicate with their family members. You run the regular tests and find their hearing falls within normal ranges or that the severity of their hearing damage is in a lower range than what could be expected from the patient’s complaints.

Today, the recommendation to these patients is that their hearing loss is not quite severe enough to warrant a hearing aid, and to come back in a year for another evaluation. One audiologist found that patients complaining of hearing difficulties often had results well within expected thresholds on pure tone audiometry tests or audiograms. Despite this, these patients still reported problems with speech perception and difficulties hearing over background noise.

In this scenario, audiologists may not see an option beyond sharing the ‘normal’ results and recommending that the patient return in a year. As most commercial insurers don’t cover further care, or due to the lack of devices on hand to deal with lesser hearing damage, audiologists’ hands are tied — despite the fact that audiologists know their expertise can still help these people.

This process, the old way of doing things, can be confusing and ultimately harmful to the patient’s well-being. Healthcare professionals should be able to treat their patients with the care they deserve, unrestricted by red tape. For patients, hearing aids can run anywhere between $1,000 to $6,000 and are not always the right choice for someone with hidden hearing loss.

While audiologists understand these problems, they haven’t found a way around them. That’s where Tuned comes in. Tuned provides a platform for audiologists to provide expertise across the full spectrum of hearing issues. By embracing this new approach to care with Tuned, audiology practices establish relationships with patients nearly thirty years sooner.

Tuned gives audiologists an opportunity to better care for patients with mild or hidden hearing loss. It provides both practices and patients with a choice. Not a choice between no help or an expensive device that is overkill for their needs but a choice to find new ways of approaching and treating hidden hearing loss.

The Tuned Advantage

Tuned creates a win-win situation for both audiologists and patients. Audiologists are free to pursue a new demographic of patients, and patients are finally able to gain access to the care they need, no matter their hearing profile.

Tuned’s telehealth platform allows patients to free themselves from the bounds of traditional hearing healthcare practices to gain access to audiologists. Tuned works on a self-pay system, connecting patients and practitioners while participating audiologists set their own consultation fees. Audiologists do not ever need to ‘sell’ a device to earn their consultation fees.

Tuned also functions as a marketplace for audiologist-approved hearing devices that won’t break the bank for patients with mild or hidden hearing loss. This marketplace includes solutions for problems from improving hearing during remote meetings (a common problem in today’s work-from-home world) to improving phone call clarity.

It’s not all about business though. The Tuned marketplace also features devices that improve the depth and nuance of music and television sounds. There’s no hearing issue too small to find a solution for if it affects a patient’s life. Of course, there are also options to assist with face-to-face conversations for those patients who want to focus on those scenarios..

Fight Hidden Hearing Loss With Tuned

In just one hour, patients can test their hearing on Tuned, connect with an audiologist, and get answers about hidden hearing loss. Audiologists who want to start working with Tuned to provide more precise care for a variety of hearing profiles simply need their audiology license and ID. Tuned conducts a robust vetting process for member audiologists to help ensure profiles comply with state and federal regulations.

Try Tuned for free by signing up for access. Don’t waste any more time participating in the old system of lackluster choices and incomplete care. Start your new journey with Tuned today.

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