Question: My mother is losing her hearing, but refuses to go for a test because she doesn’t want to wear a hearing aid. Is there anything she can do to improve her hearing?
Dr. Hibberd's answer:
Age-related hearing loss is always a difficult situation to deal with, especially when a hearing aid is not desired. Sometimes though hearing loss may be related to other conditions, infections, obstructions, noise induced damage and so on.
Have your mother examined to be sure there is no wax impaction, infection, or other blockage affecting her outer ear canal. If this is clear, a direct visualization of her eardrum can be performed by your doctor and the eardrum’s natural motion can be directly and painlessly evaluated.
If all appears normal, a hearing test with air and bone conduction should be done to help decide if further evaluation is indicated (such as MRI to exclude an inner ear tumor or acoustic neuroma.
She can request a referral to an ENT specialist if her primary physician is not comfortable evaluating this properly.
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