A major tech company is stepping up to detect mild hearing loss before it worsens.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hearing health often takes a backseat to regular check-ups, but medical experts warn that hearing loss is linked to cognition, balance, and mental health.
Dr. Goutham Gosu at Hearing and Balance Solutions in Charlotte recommends adults in their mid-40s to early 50s get a baseline hearing test, even if they don’t have hearing loss but struggle in certain situations.
“You do have to check for any kind of wax issues in the ear canal or anything like that. You do have to check how their middle ear is. If there’s any kind of pressure, build up, any past ear infections that are causing issues,” he explained. “If you’re struggling to watch TV just cranking up the volume, you still can’t understand it clearly — it’s not all the volume problem. It’s the frequency issues.”
Dr. Gosu said new technology allows users to perform their own hearing tests.
“Apple has this new technology and you can do your own hearing test. It does give a pretty basic hearing threshold which will tell you where you are,” Dr. Gosu explained. “I’m actually excited about the process because of the awareness it’s going to create.”
He said the simple test provides only basic hearing thresholds, but is a good starting point.
“Before they use the AirPods as hearing devices, [getting] over-the-counter hearing devices, I would strongly recommend getting a hearing test done by an audiologist,” Gosu said.
The hearing specialist added that since AirPods are not prescription hearing devices, they’re not for everybody.
“We still are waiting on a lot of information on these things, because we don’t know what the electroacoustic measurements are, what the frequency bandwidth is,” he said. “We don’t know what the MPO – the maximum power output – of the device is. We don’t want somebody cranking the volume up and hurting their ears.”
Beyond technology, Dr. Gosu noted another potential benefit.
“There’s a lot less stigma right now than what it used to be. And these AirPods and stuff like that are going to make it a regular thing, just like glasses. If you have an issue, you use glasses. If you have a hearing issue, you use a hearing device or something like that. That’s where we need to be.”
Kimberly Mackie, a patient of Dr. Gosu’s, shared with WCNC Charlotte that reducing stigma is something that can help potential patients.
“I would always wear my hair down because I never wanted anybody to know that I couldn’t hear,” she said.
Mackie contracted meningitis when she was a young girl and said she used to associate hearing aids with elderly adults.
“Actually, I didn’t notice that I had a hearing problem. My friends or my family noticed first because they would call me, and then I wouldn’t hear them,” she recalled. “So now I just wanna hear. And I guess it comes with age.”
She also said using AirPods as a way to get younger adults more cognizant about their hearing health could be part of this new push.
“I think that it would be great simply because you have someone in their 20s or their 30s, they would probably rather have that in their ear versus having a hearing device,” she said.
Contact Jane Monreal at jmonreal@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
