The Lap Dance over Fluoride and Other Dubious Tales

Tango-not Lap Dance

I walk in on a discussion and ask, “What’s up?” The reply I get is, “Oh, we were just talking about this article in the paper The Lap Dance over Fluoride.”  Whaaa? First I try picturing it and immediately decide that’s not a good idea. I know there’s a big controversy in Oregon because we don’t fluoridate our water, but no matter how I try to rework it in my mind, I can’t figure out what point the author is trying to make. Is there some corruption around the decision by policy makers? I notice my friends are looking at me strangely, so I know my face must be reflecting my mental gyrations (ha!). Finally, I look over at the table and see the headline: “The Tap Dance over Fluoride”. Ooooh. Well. That’s different. And it actually makes sense.

Forcefeed/ Four-speed

A few days later, I was in the car with my partner and we were having our usual discussion about whether or not the car in front of us was going to be a slowpoke through town or not. Susan said, “I bet he’ll be speedy unless he’s a forcefeed.” A forcefeed? Is that a new type of fuel injection engine (that sounds like it could be forceful). It turns out the darned thing was a four speed, and we did have to cool our jets behind it.

And so it goes. When we don’t quite hear the message, we sometimes massage the story into something that could make sense, and other times we just end up completely lost. Small misinterpretations of the message can lead to misunderstandings, awkward pauses, and very often misattribution by the speaker for why the communication is not quite going as expected. This can happen even with seemingly minimal amounts of hearing loss or even a loss in just one ear.

It turns out these are the early signs of high frequency hearing loss, the most common form of hearing loss. People experiencing this may think others are mumbling or not speaking clearly. The reality is that those high frequency sounds carry meaning, and without them, sound becomes mushy and unclear. It is tempting to ignore these symptoms, but it can cause real problems in the classroom and on the job.

Demystifying Hearing Assistance Technology

You might be thinking you have experienced some of these things, but aren’t ready for hearing aids yet. There are often things you can do, and there are technologies you can use with or without hearing aids (or cochlear implants), to improve your hearing situation. If you are looking for more information about assistive listening devices (ALDs) or hearing assistance technology (HAT), try searching for either of these phrases in your favorite search engine. I also have a book posted on my website that covers many of the options: http://www.wou.edu/~davisc/Demystifying.pdf. The Hearing Loss Association of America http://www.hearingloss.org has a lot of great information posted there. The membership is very inexpensive, and the monthly magazine has GREAT articles in it. Local meetings are a great way to find out what others are doing to cope. There are also on-line support groups like the Say What Club www.saywhatclub.com. The PEPNet 2 website http://www.pepnet.org (Postsecondary Programs Network) also has a great deal of info posted there that is useful to students, employees, employers and service providers. Finally, a shout-out to Becky Morris’ wonderfully informative website http://www.beyondhearingaids.com.

Pay attention to the circumstances around when you have trouble hearing. Is it at home, work, out in public, or all of the above? What is the common denominator? Can you understand conversations fine without the TV on, but once the volume is up you lose clarity? Do people tell you you missed their phone call or doorbell when you have the TV on or when you aren’t near the sound source? Do you have more trouble hearing people with higher pitched voices than lower pitched voices? Do you hear “fine” in your office, but when you go to lunch at the noisy diner, you notice you have more problems? Do you have trouble hearing in the car? Background noise and distance from the sound source are to real problems for people experiencing hearing loss.

The last time I had my hearing tested a few years ago I did not have any measurable hearing loss in the speech frequencies (mine dropped off at 8 kHz; generally our hearing range is from 20 Hz to 18 kHz). I do, however have a constant high-pitched tone ringing through my head. This is called tinnitus and if you want to know what it sounds like for me (different people experience different sounds), listen to this: http://www.hear-it.org/external_files/Hylendetinitus.mp3 (although I don’t listen to this kind of music that often!). I am noticing more and more that if I am in a noisy setting or if I am in a poor acoustic environment with noise, I have trouble understanding the message (and clearly I’m not very skilled with filling in the blanks!). And by the way, if you can’t hear the high-pitch tone being played in the example above, you may have a high frequency hearing loss, yourself.

Mild is a misnomer. Even “having a little trouble hearing” can have a devastating impact in poor acoustical environments for people who are accustomed to hearing and getting information auditorily. While the impact starts off subtly, people react by slowly withdrawing from situations that challenge their ability to communicate (often without realizing it). If you think you might be experiencing hearing loss…don’t lap dance around the issue!

photo credit: Tango Couple Silhouette http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/tango-couple-silhouette_18203.htm

Other photos: Sound waveform using Camtasia of Cheryl saying forcefeed and four-speed; Cover of Demystifying Hearing Assistance Technology book.