My patient, Henry, is an interesting music industry veteran. He has been exposed to loud rock music since the 1960s while he managed the road tours of bands such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. He continues to work in the music industry today with the Yardbirds and other groups.
He wanted to hear better, so I fitted him with the same Starkey hearing aids that I wear. He loves these Starkey Wi110 aids because they can be finely tuned to his acute perception of sound quality. During one of his follow up visits he showed me how his hearing aids recovered sound with a smart phone App named Pano Tuner. I immediately downloaded this App. It reminds me of the technology that Starkey built into Henry’s aids. I used this type of technology to verify that the Wi110 aids recovered his ability to comfortably hear every day sounds.
I asked him if he thought that his 40 years of exposure to loud music caused his hearing loss. He replied that his hearing problem probably began earlier in life because of this, but overall his impairment was the result of many things, including age. I empathize with Henry, because I am also a product of the 60s. I am sure that some of my hearing loss can be blamed on loud Rock n’ Roll music. Just like him, my Starkey hearing aids enable me to comfortably hear the sounds that I lost because of that and other factors, such as age!
I asked him if his long time musician friends had hearing loss. He said yes, but many of them were in denial. Henry thinks that as more people embrace the benefits of new digital hearing aids, his friends will follow suit and be examined by an audiologist.
