Hearing problems a masking side effect
A few months after the COVID19 pandemic began in early 2020 and things had opened up again slightly, Palos Park audiologist Kristen Conners noticed something unusual. She was testing more patients every week for hearing loss.
It didn’t take her long to discover why. People who hadn’t realized how bad their hearing had gotten were having trouble communicating with people who were wearing masks, both because of muffled voices and the lack of facial cues.
It was around mid-March 2020 “so everything kind of shut down. People spent time at home for a few weeks,” said Conners, who has been an audiologist since 1997.
“They started going to the grocery store and the doctor, and everyone was wearing a mask. So about three months later, they are having a hard time hearing. So even those mid-hearing losses were getting identified,” Conners said.
“It just made people more in touch with what was going on with their hearing. The benefit is that people were identifying hearing loss and addressing it before it got worse, because the masks were identifying that hearing difficulty.”
And that brought in a lot of new patients.
“I would probably say I did an average of four or five (more) hearing tests a week identifying that hearing loss,” Conners said. “It was a very, very busy June and July and August.”
She said audiologist friends noticed the same increase.
She said wearing a mask “significantly” affects communication.
“It depends on the type of mask people are wearing,” Conners said. “There are studies that show the simpler medical mask can reduce volume 3 to 4 decibels, from about 2,000 hertz to 7,000 hertz.”
“The issue with that is that frequency range is all the conso
nant sounds — so they can’t understand what people are saying, such as ‘chip’ or ‘ship.’ It’s a big problem.”
Then there’s the N95, “which can reduce those frequencies up to 12 decibels,” she added. “So those masks do significantly more than medical masks.”
And if you thought masks with the plastic inserts were the answer, you might be surprised. They can be hard to breathe in, “so the visual cues that you want to get you can’t see because they’re fogged up!” Conners exclaimed. “You’re kind of pulling the mask away from your face to clear it, but that defeats the purpose of wearing the mask.”
Losing the ability to see someone’s face has a huge impact, she said. “With the masks you lose a lot of the visual facial cues you can get reading from someone’s expression. So the masks that have the plastic can help that way but they’re still reducing the volume.”
In addition, when you are wearing a mask, “you aren’t hearing your voice as loud,” she said. “When you go to stores, you are seeing the Plexiglas and no sound travels through that. It’s really, really hard for people.”
She has found it best to use the simple blue surgical masks. “Those are the most comfortable to wear for eight or nine hours at a time,” she said.
Conners, who owns Orland Hearing Aid Center at 12910 S. LaGrange Road in Palos Park, is a member of the Speech, language & Hearing Association and a fellow of the American Academy of Audiology.
“If somebody is having difficulty hearing, you talk a little louder, you talk a little slower. Even face to face even with masks on, there are things you can do to make hearing optimal in those situations,” Conners said.
“It’s better to do both. You can’t shout at somebody because that doesn’t come in clear. If you talk a little louder, even if wearing a mask, because you’re limited on those visual cues. … Then if one word is coming at a time it’s easier for people to understand.”
Ralph Russatto of Orland Park knows all too well the problems with communicating when people are wearing masks. Russatto, one of Conners’ patients, described his own hearing loss as “severe,” adding that “At this point without hearing aids, I really can’t hear anything.”
In addition, his son was born being able to hear but eventually lost that ability, his daughter-in-law is hard of hearing, and both of his grandchildren also have poor hearing.
“To help them, we purchased masks that had a clear vinyl front so they could read our lips because not only do you rely on your ears, but helping to see somebody’s mouth is a big, big plus,” Russatto said. “When it’s hidden and muffled behind a mask, it’s very difficult for me with hearing aids, and my son and DIL, without a mask that was clear that they could see our lips, it would be very very hard.”
He added that his son is totally reliant on reading lips and his daughter-in-law uses hearing half the time and reads lips half the time.
“Needless to say, the pandemic has hampered all of us with hearing losses,” he said.
Interacting with people wearing masks has been a challenge, Russatto said.
“It is quieter, it’s muffled and it’s harder to make out the words than seeing somebody speak without a mask on,” he said. “Behind the mask, it does get muffled considerably and the words get jumbled up.
“It’s hard.” Conners is sensitive to the situation, thanks to her line of work.
“When we would go see her, we didn’t have that much difficulty communicating with the mask on. She knew once my hearing aids were off and she was cleaning them, she knew not to have a conversation with me because she knows how bad my hearing is,” Russatto said.
He said more medical professionals should accommodate patients with poor hearing.
“It would be nice if doctors of all types were to be able to wear masks that you can see their lips through the mask, especially if it’s someone (hard of hearing) or seniors like myself. It’s a benefit to have a doctor to wear that because it’s easier to see the conversation. Whoever came up with that was a genius.”
“Our son and DIL have made it very clear that they appreciate it when we bring the clear masks,” said Russatto’s wife, Janet. “Doing signing helps them as well as the clear masks. If we didn’t have clear masks, they would rely on signing, but they’re trying to teach their kids to handle themselves in both the hearing world and the hard of hearing world. So it’s important that they get the signing as well as reading lips.”
She said masks really have made communication harder for her family and friends.
“The bottom line is, hard of hearing people have to struggle as it is to communicate with the hearing world, and that one thing — the mask — is really detrimental to them. They’re exhausted at the end of the day. If you can imagine having to read lips all day long but then not being able to read lips, it’s exhausting.”
Conners urged anyone concerned about hearing loss to visit a local hearing provider to have their hearing checked, even just to get a baseline screening. Most ENTs also have an audiologist on staff so hearing can be checked there.
“They can identify it and then they’ve got a baseline even if it’s not enough to get a hearing aid,” she said, emphasizing there’s “not a set decibel level or set loss” to see an audiologist.
“You want to catch it early, put hearing aids on those people, the earlier the better,” because the less hearing loss the better — the easier it is for the person to adjust.”