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Summary
In this episode of Care Lab, audiologist Dr. Hope Lanter discusses the importance of hearing health, early intervention, and the impact of hearing loss on overall well-being. She explains how hearing loss is linked to cognitive decline, social isolation, and other health issues like diabetes and heart disease. Dr. Lanter also highlights the importance of hearing aids, strategies for auditory rehabilitation, and practical ways to protect hearing.
Key Takeaway
- Hearing Loss Affects Overall Health – Untreated hearing loss is linked to cognitive decline, social isolation, depression, and even increased fall risk due to its connection with balance.
- Early Intervention is Crucial – A baseline hearing test at age 50 can help track hearing health and prevent long-term consequences from untreated hearing loss.
- Hearing Aids Work Best When Used Consistently – The brain adapts to hearing loss over time, making early adoption of hearing aids more effective for long-term auditory processing.
- Hearing and Balance are Closely Connected – The inner ear is responsible for both hearing and balance, meaning hearing loss can contribute to dizziness and instability.
- Everyday Hearing Protection Matters – Simple habits like wearing earplugs at concerts, keeping headphone volume at safe levels, and reducing background noise can protect long-term hearing health.
Transcript
Emilia Bourland
Hi everyone, welcome to Care Lab.
The Whole Care Network
Welcome to Care Lab, everybody. I am really excited because today we have Dr. Hope Lanter here, who's an audiologist, and I'm so excited to talk about this. And especially with a leading expert in audiology and hearing loss, she's also the founder of Dr. Hope for Hearing, an advocacy platform, which I'm sure we'll hear more about, dedicated to raising awareness about hearing health and the life-changing impact of hearing aids.
So with over 15 years of experience working directly with patients, she has become a prominent voice in the hearing aid industry. So we're so lucky to have her on the show today. Dr. Lanter advocates for better access to audiological services, promotes early intervention, and speaks to the challenges faced by individuals with hearing loss. And after earning her doctorate of audiology from AT Steel University and her master's,
from the University of Iowa. She is passionate about empowering those with hearing loss to seek help and embrace technologies that can significantly enhance their quality of life. And more and more are coming out every day. So I'm so excited to talk about that. Thanks for coming on the show.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Thank you for having me.
The Whole Care Network
Okay now, we gotta start. We talked about all nice stuff about you, that's good. Now we gotta start with the icebreaker question, which is usually rude. Amelia, what you got?
Emilia Bourland
So this one, this is actually, this is not a rude icebreaker question. It's kind of a fun one. And I can't believe my luck in planning this actually for an episode with an audiologist. Like just, this just fell in my lap. So I was actually just going to ask when the last time was that you went to listen to live music, which is of course totally related to hearing, also really related to hearing protection because it's loud in there.
The Whole Care Network
Okay.
Emilia Bourland
So last time that you went to see live music and who did you go see?
Hope Lanter, AuD
That's a great question that I that the sad part is I have to think about it So I'm trying to think of that. have kids playing Travel sports all kinds of things like that. So summer, you know concerts that kind of thing have been a little bit harder I think I'm trying to remember I think the last concert was bare-naked ladies. We've been around for a bazillion years. I think I saw them probably
20 plus years ago for the first time. So, but super exciting, but yeah, great concert, great show. Outdoor, obviously you tend to have a lot less of the loudness aspect of it that you're gonna get with, unless you're sitting obviously in the first few rows kind of thing that the outdoor experience at least makes it so that you're not.
feeling like you have some kind of hearing impact as a result. yeah, you know, that's something that I'm actually planning to cover in the next few weeks is that impact of hearing when you're going to concerts and listening to your iPad. Let me try this again. When you're listening to things like your earbuds or your headphones or things like that, that's obviously something that a lot of people are getting way more noise exposure now than we would have ever seen in the past.
Emilia Bourland
All right, Brandy.
The Whole Care Network
Did you say how long ago that was? That you would just see it?
Hope Lanter, AuD
I would say probably maybe two to three years ago, somewhere in that range. So it's been a long time since I've saw like a big band. In terms of saying, you seen like live music as far as like a small, maybe restaurant or that maybe, that's probably a lot sooner. But the big concert is going to be a couple of years at least.
Emilia Bourland
Okay.
Emilia Bourland
Yeah.
The Whole Care Network
you
Emilia Bourland
Well, you know, it does get really hard, especially when you have kids at this age where they have to be like carted around from one activity to another. And it seems like I have a son who plays club soccer. So that rules our life a lot of the time. And, you know, I totally, totally get that. Yeah.
The Whole Care Network
not even into the club sports yet, just the regular boys and girls club sports and that's already killing me. I'm like not even ready for this life. That's no judgment about how long ago it's been because I was thinking the same thing and I was like, man, how long ago has been to a concert? And one that has been in Kansas City has been a few years ago, but I forgot that last year we went to Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.
Emilia Bourland
Oof. Yeah.
Emilia Bourland
Mm-mm.
The Whole Care Network
So that was last summer, so was less than a year ago, and we got to see so many live acts because it's three days worth of concerts. So everything from Frank of Beverly Mays to Lil Wayne. So it was really awesome.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Well, nice.
Emilia Bourland
Nice. Yeah, think that so live music is something that my husband and I really enjoy. Full disclosure, I picked this question as the easiest possible one for me to answer this morning.
The Whole Care Network
Why? Because you just went to a concert last week or something?
Emilia Bourland
or last night.
Hope Lanter, AuD
That works for you.
Emilia Bourland
That's why I was up too late. Yeah. No. So live music is one of like my me and my husband's what it's one of our favorite things to do. if we have a date night a lot of times and Dallas is actually a great city for live music. And we happen to live within walking distance of this like wonderful small venue that has like the best soundboard in Dallas. So we'll honestly like on a on a date night, we won't even know who's playing. We'll just get tickets and we'll go and show up. And it's almost always
The Whole Care Network
You
The Whole Care Network
Mmm.
Emilia Bourland
amazing and we like have discovered really incredible artists that way. And yeah, yeah. So, but last night we went to see one of our favorite bands to see live. I think we've seen them like five or six times now, Shovels and Rope. They are like so incredible. You know, not like a huge, widely known band, but man, they can put on a show. It's a husband and wife and they both play
The Whole Care Network
That's cool.
Emilia Bourland
all of the instruments, like they get up and they switch around, like who's gonna play what instrument between, they're incredible. And it, well, it's not like a like big, know, flashy, but yeah, they're really, really great performers. And last night we actually, also, my apologies to my son's teachers, he's a little tired this morning.
The Whole Care Network
So it's a show show.
The Whole Care Network
But no, like that's entertaining to watch them jump from instrument to instrument.
Emilia Bourland
We took him with us. We took one of our kids because he wanted to go and he had the best time. Like got to stand right up at the stage and all that stuff. But we did. He had little ear protectors in, which we probably all should have had, but he had some in. I didn't want to get in trouble.
Hope Lanter, AuD
It's Friday.
The Whole Care Network
Nice.
Hope Lanter, AuD
That's impressive. No, it's impressive, especially that young, to actually remember it, because it is. so important that you don't, and that a lot of parents especially, don't think about it, because it's kind of like you have that idea that your kids are kind of invincible at those ages as well, that things like that aren't going to hurt them or cause those issues.
Emilia Bourland
Mm.
The Whole Care Network
The bounce.
The Whole Care Network
But how important is it? So listen, I have never put no earplugs in my kids' ears for any loud event. And not that there's been that many, but I'm always like, how important is that? So tell me, Dr. Lanter, how important is that? What kinds of things can happen, especially for young ears?
Emilia Bourland
Well, I feel, yeah.
Hope Lanter, AuD
So I compare wearing earplugs to wearing sunscreen, meaning that we don't always put sunscreen on our kids as much as we probably should. And then realistically, you go, OK, well, have they gotten burned as young children? Well, yeah, we've all made that mistake as moms. it happens. But realistically, it's kind of one of those things where you say, well, there's never a harm in putting sunscreen on your child. You're protecting them from potential skin cancer down the road. And we all have experienced either ourselves or a friend who's had that.
kind of thing of as much as you can kind of thing. If the general rule of saying well when is it a good time to wear earplugs? Well it's something where you have to raise your voice to be able to talk to someone who's nearby then that's where a very long you know if you're talking about hours upon hours of exposure then yeah probably a good idea to have earplugs in those times. But you know obviously you know things like you may not think about things like okay they're mowing the lawn or you know something like that but also how
much are they putting their headphones on? There's a new little rule that says 60-60, which is basically that if you're going to be wearing your headphones for 60 minutes that you want it to be at about 60 % of the highest volume it would go to. It's kind of that general rule of thumb. And so that can kind of help to prevent any damage. But there is obviously, it's so tempting with the noise canceling headphones now to turn it way up, know, and really kind of, and there is something, there's pleasure in listening to things very, very loudly. And we know that, but obviously
in terms of saying, how do you protect the hearing? Well, it's something you to be kind of careful with. And kind of choose your battles of saying, is it worth it? Because that's why I say with the sunscreen analogy, it's like, well, if you put the sunscreen on when you first got to the beach, did it help? Well, sure. You forgot to put it on later, and that's when the burn happened. But that first hour that you had it on didn't really necessarily mean that it wasn't helping at all. It's just that it has cumulative effect, meaning that if you can wear them a little bit, great.
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm.
The Whole Care Network
Mm.
Emilia Bourland
So hearing is one of those things. I think this is a nice way to segue into the conversation because hearing and protecting your hearing is one of those things that maybe we think of like, well, I'm having a good time right now or it's OK right now. And, you know, maybe I can deal with this later. But actually, hearing loss can be really, really debilitating and it can have big impacts on your overall health as well. Would you talk a little bit about that?
Hope Lanter, AuD
Maybe, can you ask it to me again and making sure that I understand what you're asking here?
Emilia Bourland
Yeah, yeah. So hearing loss is one of those things that can be incredibly debilitating, right? Like it affects not just your ability to have a one-to-one conversation or understand what's going on, but it can also affect people socially, right? It can affect, and my own father has actually really terrible hearing loss. And even with hearing aids, like going out to noisy restaurants is hard because all the background noise, it makes it hard for him to converse. So.
It can be debilitating in a ton of different ways. think that's just one example. Can you talk a little bit about that and the overall impacts to health that it might have?
Hope Lanter, AuD
Yeah, think that hearing loss in general can be connected to so many different things. We think about you want hearing to be isolated to, you just can't hear, and that being all that it means. But what we know is that it obviously can be connected to a faster progression of things like dementia and cognitive decline.
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm.
Hope Lanter, AuD
obviously those kind of factors can also be impactful for things like social isolation, depression, the feeling of why go if I'm not going to hear anything or that feeling of being that you're sort of pushed to the outside of the circle. You don't know the punchline to the joke, all those kind of feelings. We also know that anxiety can be increased, obviously because of those things, but also we see relations to balance and fall risk, which I think obviously circles directly
The Whole Care Network
Mm-hmm
Hope Lanter, AuD
into the physical and occupational therapy sides of this, of saying, if somebody is having falls and balance issues and also has not treated hearing loss, then obviously they're not necessarily helping themselves as far as being able to have the best overall health picture. But we do know that hearing loss is connected to a lot of different things, even things like diabetes and heart disease and those kind of factors that can also be areas where hearing loss will be more prevalent.
The Whole Care Network
I think we're both making the same face because like, how is it connected to diabetes?
Emilia Bourland
Yeah.
Yeah, I did not know that.
Hope Lanter, AuD
So diabetes is basically, yeah, you're have up to about three times more hearing loss in that population because of blood flow. So the cochlea, which is the hearing nerve, is so dependent on consistent blood flow. And even just a fraction of a second of that being disrupted can cause sudden hearing loss. And so it is something where we will see hearing loss over time, but also just that wear and tear of it not being as healthy as it could be. Same impact with heart disease as well.
The Whole Care Network
So would it be fair to say that not just diabetes, but unmanaged or uncontrolled diabetes when people's blood sugar is continuing to remain high, put you at a higher risk for poor blood flow, which can impact, among other things, your hearing.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Exactly. then, and that's where I had done a video about this a few weeks ago where it was basically saying that, you know, how can you manage your diabetes as well if you are not hearing the instructions that are being given to you? So, you know, it's a kind of a, there is a relationship there saying, are you taking the best control if you're not able to have the very fluid conversation with your doctor?
Emilia Bourland
Yeah, I think that's such an important point. One of the things that I have noticed over my years of practice is that often when people have hearing loss, the assumption from the people around them might be that they have sometimes a cognitive impairment that they don't actually have. When in fact, if you just find the proper way to communicate with that person, then
then you'll see that they don't necessarily have a cognitive impact. But then, of course, that sort of spirals into if someone isn't getting stimulated, if they're not having that social interaction, then that risk of real cognitive impairment actually grows. And to me, that's one of the most important reasons why, as you're such a big advocate for getting early intervention, can you talk about what are some of the early interventions that can be provided?
you know, hearing aids, that kind of thing.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Yeah, so I mean, I think the thing about it is, my sister just turned 50 and she's not necessarily wanting to believe that that's a time that, you know, you start wanting to really monitor so much of your overall health. But, you know, what we know is that at 50, you really do want to have a baseline hearing test. So absolutely, that's a good time to say, okay, do you have it on file? So as we just talked about, so many health conditions are impacted by, you know, essentially, you're hearing, you know, this converse relationship of saying, it hearing or is it
is the condition causing more hearing loss. But nonetheless, if you, let's say for example, you do have heart disease or diabetes and those kinds of things. If you have that baseline, you'll start knowing if you're seeing an impact from these other chronic issues. And also then, you know, regular checkups of your hearing may start indicating that there are other things happening to you in the overall health picture. I have seen people, obviously this is very rare, but people who I tested one time, this patient and she came in and she was screaming, you ruined my hearing aids, I was just here.
last week and now they're not working and everything's terrible. And said, we need to get you tested, tested and found out that she actually, it led to a referral that found out that she had an aneurysm. So you're not a hearing aid issue, not a hearing, you know, it was one of those things where we started seeing that, okay, it's a picture of saying it might point to other things that need to be investigated or looked at further. Yes, there are intervention strategies of things like obviously hearing aids. You know, it may be that if you have vertigo or balance or any of those kinds of things going on, that it may be that it's
also helping to create interventional strategies for that as well.
The Whole Care Network
I still have a question about that. how would, if I'm understanding this correctly, how would having a hearing aid impact your vertigo and like the crystals in your ears and your balance? Are you saying that those two things are connected?
Hope Lanter, AuD
So it is. So what we know is that obviously being able to know your orientation in space. So are you able to hear what's coming from one direction, that awareness of what's going on around you, how close are you to something, are you going to bump into, let's say that it's.
and this is example coming to mind, probably not my best example, but let's say something like a running refrigerator that maybe you would, you in terms of just orientation. And if you also have visual impairment going along with that, where hearing can really keep you more where you're focused in space. The same fluid that is in the cochlea, the hearing nerve there, also is in the balance system as well. And so obviously if we start to see decline or deterioration in those areas, you can start to see an issue with both, you know, in terms of things
moving and working the way that's supposed to.
The Whole Care Network
Mm-hmm.
Emilia Bourland
That's really, that's really interesting. And for, for folks out there who might not know what we're talking about, and partly I'm doing this very selfishly because I think this is one of the coolest things about the human body. So totally fascinating. The way that your vestibular system, which is those little canals in your ears that tell you where you are in space, the way it works is there's three like little circles in there, basically, they're oriented different ways.
And the way it tells you where you are in space, and there's these tiny, tiny crystals. There's little crystals. They're in those, I think this is amazing. You have crystals in your ears, in these little semi-circular canals. And based on where they fall with gravity is how your body knows where your head is in space, how fast you're moving, if there's any acceleration, or if you're turning or something like that.
The Whole Care Network
You're so valuable you have crystals in your ears
Hope Lanter, AuD
Thank
Emilia Bourland
That is so crazy fascinating. And anyway, those crystals can get all messed up and go all over the place. But that's probably a topic for a different time. But totally fascinating. And I didn't know, though. I didn't understand before this exactly how I knew that there was a relationship between hearing and balance. But I didn't quite understand what was it about how the cochlea and the vestibular system were connected that
Hope Lanter, AuD
Exactly.
Emilia Bourland
interact that way. So that was really helpful. Thank you so much.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Yeah, one quick thing to throw in there that I think do think a lot of people find interesting is that if you're spinning, you know, when you're a little kid or in general, most of us as adults don't want to have that feeling. if you just, you know,
Emilia Bourland
Not since I was 24.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Yeah, and like as a little kid, you start saying, you know what, I'm going to spin in a circle and then make myself dizzy so that I feel like everything's spinning. That's happening because the fluid in those canals is basically moving. And then it's continuing to want to move and then the brain says, well, we must be spinning. And so it sends the wrong message to the brain of where the body is in space. But that's why, obviously, figure skaters who spin and things like that can't.
The Whole Care Network
Specifically.
The Whole Care Network
huh.
Hope Lanter, AuD
focus on one area and the brain can override what the fluid is telling it in terms of how its movement is happening.
The Whole Care Network
Mmm.
Emilia Bourland
So fascinating. So fa- I'm endlessly fascinated by all ways that the body works, but particularly, I think that's just so cool and fun. Little crystals spinning around.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Yeah.
And that's one of those things where even as, if you are dizzy, and so my daughter had a, you she was sick the last couple of weeks and she had a, it was a, we've gone through a couple of different things, but essentially she'd say, I'm a little dizzy and I was like, don't close your eyes. And I think, you know, as we generally, that's our immediate go-to is, I'm dizzy, so I'm going to close my eyes. What we know is that if you'll focus on one thing, so find, you know, and find something specific, not just the whole window, but find maybe, you know, the one spot in the blind that you're going to look at or something like that.
that will help to stop you from that sensation of spinning quicker than anything else.
Emilia Bourland
Very interesting, great and excellent tip too. wanna go back to, sorry, I kind of got a sub topic there with my excitement about how the vestibular system works per usual, that's my MO. I do wanna go back and talk more about hearing aids and how important they are, but also if you could talk a little bit about like, do you, how do people know when it's the right time? How do you find the right fit, find the right one? Cause I think it can be really confusing and overwhelming.
The Whole Care Network
Per usual, it's fine though.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Yeah, it is. mean, that's why early is better. You know, it's one of those things where you think, well, maybe there, you know, can wait, I'll put it off. And I had patients do that over and over where they say, well, I'm going to wait and see, you know, until it gets worse, until it gets to a point where, you know, I absolutely have to, I'm not going to do anything. And so what we know is that, you know, the longer you wait, the worse your benefit or your outcome with hearing aids may end up being. Reason being is the brain is a use it or lose it place. And so
that constant stimulation is so critical. And so the first time you start saying, you know what, I out to dinner with my friends and I didn't really hear, you know, I actually missed the joke several times or, you know, it's this one person because it's easy to kind of put it off on, well, it was because this was happening. If this hadn't happened, that wouldn't have happened kind of feeling. And so it's one of the things where if you do notice it, though, you say, you know what, it just didn't go well. I went to, you know,
party or I went to a meeting and I just felt like I was missing every single you know thing they kept bringing up that's a good time to say okay we'll get your hearing tested and check it out. I think the other side of this is mild hearing loss is really really easy to downplay and say well it's not not necessary to do anything about.
What we know is that even things like when we talk about that relation to, is there a relation to cognitive decline and those kinds of things is that the brain is a use it or lose it place. And that if we keep the brain stimulated with hearing that we are able to use it in much more effective and successful ways long-term than if we wait. So the more of that deprivation effect, so dimming the light kind of feeling, know, the more, if you think about it, if you...
dim the light a little bit and we turn the light back on, you're not going to be as impacted as if you're sitting there in a pretty dark room. Light comes back on. The brain has to say, okay, now, not only is this shocking the sense of hearing, but now I've got to get used to using it. And so because of that, hearing aids work in a rehabilitation way. So it's about 30 or 45 days before your brain really will rewire itself to work with new hearing. And so that's why getting them so much earlier, you don't really have that light off feeling. You're already kind of always sitting in the bright room.
The Whole Care Network
Yeah, that makes a ton of sense because if your brain doesn't have the opportunity to use the information coming in, because the information is not coming in, then it just gets rusty at it. And I think sometimes we think way more simplistically about how our senses work and that, okay, sound comes in, I hear it and I do things. Well, actually sound comes in as waves and then it has to be translated and your brain has to then like apply it. And then you gotta know.
what those words actually mean that you heard, right? And like it's multiple systems and complex things happening very quickly. And so it makes total sense to be like, let's not lose any of that. And as soon as you start to notice a change, let's deal with that. And so my question is, because this has been on my mind, because it's been just recently happening, how do you feel about AirPods and their ability to provide some level of mild hearing loss help?
And is that like a good idea? Who is a good idea for? Have you worked with anybody who's been using them in that way?
Hope Lanter, AuD
So I think that there is actually, there's positivity with this. It's not something where I'm gonna say, no, it's terrible, whatever. Realistically, are people going to want to go in and have their hearing tested or go through, you know.
saying, okay, I think I have hearing loss and what do I do? I love the fact that this allows people to be aware of where their hearing really is. We know that the the airpod tests are actually pretty accurate. So it's not to say that it's like, okay, it's so far off the charts that it wouldn't be accurate. No, they're very well tested. And I do think that there is a lot of accuracy there. So if you do see that there is a lot of loss, is something worth checking out. The reason hearing is so tricky is hearing works obviously. So we're looking at all the different pitches.
How well do you hear each one of those? And realistically, you may hear low pitches well for your entire lifespan, you know, in some cases. And then it's the high pitches that are what you're talking about before, where it's the consonant that make or break of did they say what time or what kind. And missing that first syllable or first consonant will make you may mean that you didn't hear the word or you hear something completely off there.
So with that, you do want to make sure that, you know, if there's, there's a use it or lose it here, that we, are absolutely keeping the brain stimulated because without it, you know, that you do start to forget really. you know, I think one thing to kind of touch on what you were saying there as well with that use or lose it is if you think about, we relate better to things like if I tied your arm behind your back for a year and said, okay, now go and pick up, you know, something very light even you're going to have a lot of trouble doing.
that because basically obviously you know you know it's even kind of like when you carry something around for a while and your arm feels kind of you know it starts to hurt just because it stayed in one position we know that there would be a lot of rehabilitation with that same thing is actually happening with the ear where basically if we're not stimulating the brain in that way it forgets how to use that information and it's not something that gets back immediately and the longer we wait to stimulate it again less likely the brain will remember how to use that information
Emilia Bourland
Okay, I have a question and I'm not sure if there's a good answer to it, but if anyone's gonna have the answer, it's you. So you really got me thinking about neuroplasticity and neurorehabilitation, which I think Brandy and I have both spent a lot of time working with and doing as clinicians. I can't tell you the amount of like stroke survivor and folks with traumatic brain injuries that I've worked with over the years.
The Whole Care Network
You
Emilia Bourland
Obviously key to that is working with the fact that the brain can continue to evolve. It's neuroplastic, so it can change over time. And we use that to our advantage in recovery by sort of, for example, with an arm, we're trying to force that arm to move and do functional things as much as we possibly can. We're trying to force someone who's having trouble walking to do that walking so that the brain is rewiring itself. Do you?
But I'm like so shocked now listening to you thinking about the fact that we don't necessarily do that as part of a neuro rehab process for people with hearing loss or people who have hearing loss that's related to brain injury or stroke because that can and does happen. Can you talk a little bit about that? Is that something that happens and maybe we're just not aware of it or it's way underutilized?
Hope Lanter, AuD
I would say the way underutilized is absolutely a big part of this. There are what's called oral rehabilitation programs out there. But then I think realistically the question is, will people use them? Will clinicians use them? But also would the patient be open to it? I know even for me it was a graduate school kind of thing. We did a lot with those programs and we would offer it as people coming in for classes and things like that. And they loved it. But that's a lot of why I started
The Whole Care Network
Mm-hmm.
Hope Lanter, AuD
the whole Dr. for Hearing platform was really to help with all those details. The things that people may not necessarily want to go and ask somebody or may not even know to ask. But there's a lot that could be told out there that ultimately isn't really utilized. the oral rehabilitation things are really also helping the brain exercise in a way to say, okay, I'm really heavily focused on how well can I hear and how do I use
the information that I'm getting now to make more sense. And we see a lot more of that being utilized in things like cochlear implants, but with hearing aids, people tend to say, well, I want to put it on here better and move on. And it's similar to if you went and bought a pair of glasses and they said, OK, but you can come in and have a class where we teach you how to see again. You're going, I'm seeing. It's hard for people to relate that they need that additional support, but it absolutely would make a huge impact if it was used.
Emilia Bourland
That makes so much sense. Sorry, go ahead, Brandy.
The Whole Care Network
Can you, it does. Can you describe a little bit about like what that rehabilitation looks like? Like what are those exercises or activities that you're doing?
Hope Lanter, AuD
So some of it is things as simple as being assertive about what you need. So in other words, saying to somebody, if you go into a business and somebody's talking to you and maybe they're covering their mouth or they're kind of looking away from you and just saying, hey, I have hearing loss. It would be helpful for me if you could just face me when you're talking or maybe speak a little louder or whatever is there. Also utilizing things like saying, okay, well, if you're having a holiday gathering,
that if you're trying to have that conversation, you said, you know, know that this person's gonna be here and I really wanna talk to them about this one thing. It's an in-person conversation, that you're not trying to do that in the midst of everybody in the kitchen cooking and the dishwasher running and the blender going and all these kind of things, but it's really kind of using those skills of saying, what can I do to make this better for me, but also to help other people communicate with you better? And so it's a thing like saying, if the TV's going,
watching it. know, if the TV's up.
louder than it needs to be. Do you have a light on in the room when you're trying to talk to people so that you can see the visual cues of what they're trying to say? But it also works on things like saying read out loud so that way if you haven't been hearing the T sound for a while, for example, so the time example of time and kind, that if you are listening to, actively listening to something and you hear that sound, your brain then can relate, okay well I'm hearing that T and I can actually remember what that is, how to
use it and then it gives you more success. So it is about you know learning those learning the fact that wearing your hearing aid only if it's a special event is not the best way to hear that the consistent wear is important and so there's a lot of those things. A lot of people I've had a lot of people ask me you know should I do lip reading generally not super
Hope Lanter, AuD
Necessary in most cases, it's all everybody does it whether they realize it or not But it's a matter you're going to be more reliant on it if the hearing loss is present and especially not treated So, you know, there's a lot of factors there, but there are multiple You know areas we can go into to help you to not only say, okay Let's relate what I'm hearing to specifically how I'm using it also some exercises and being able to tolerate background noise because you know, obviously if you're hearing sound better you're hearing everything
The Whole Care Network
Mm-hmm.
Hope Lanter, AuD
better. So it's not just speech, you're also hearing some noise. A lot of people think, well, the hearing aid's not working. A lot of it's just that you're not used to hearing the noise again. So even recommending things like going out for a walk, you know, and just listening to things, kind of the sounds of nature kind of thing, whether it's crunching grass under your feet or leaves rustling or whatever it might sound like, there's a lot of really good ways to kind of stimulate yourself. But it's things like that that give you kind of these helpful tips, similar to, you occupational therapy. mean, like where you're saying, okay, go home and do this.
exercise. It's a matter of giving exercises and strategies that help you to basically be more successful with hearing aids.
Emilia Bourland
This is all incredibly fascinating. I realized though, as you were talking, that, I mean, it's clear that like your expertise and the way that audiologists can work with people is probably really underutilized in our healthcare system. And part of that is probably because a lot of people don't understand what an audiologist does, like, and why you do it and like what your background and expertise are. Would you just...
I know we're kind of going back to the beginning here, but would you spend a couple of minutes just talking about like, what is an audiologist? Why should people use them? And how can you find one? And how can you find you?
Hope Lanter, AuD
Yeah, so I will say that a lot of times if you were to go on to do the hundred people on a street poll kind of thing, that most people would say, well, an audiologist, they deal with hearing or hearing aids. Maybe they'll understand that. Our degree is actually hearing and balance. Obviously, as we talked about, same system. So hearing and balance is the specialty there. A lot of people may not realize that connection part of it, but it is something where there's a lot of applications. audiologists can be in industrial type settings as far as helping
with noise prevention, noise-induced hearing loss, those kind of things. They can be in surgical type settings for their surgeries where the ear needs to be monitored to prevent loss of hearing. There's balance, there's cochlear implants, there's all these other areas. And so as far as saying, well, where are they? Well, generally it's going to depend. If you're looking for somebody who specializes in hearing aids, they may be in a private practice kind of scenario. You may have somebody who's working in a hospital or in ear, nose, and throat.
office all kinds of places but you know the audiologist in terms of saying if you're looking for somebody who is a specialist in hearing that that's going to be it. They're also hearing instrument specialist. know audiologists at this point are going to school. It's an eight-year total so it's a doctorate program you know and that's something where obviously a lot of specialty as far as the what you're doing and everything. Hearing instrument specialist while they in most states only require a high school diploma
will also be a certificate program where they're looking at just studying, bidding hearing aids only. And so that's really the basic difference. I don't think that it's necessary to say that that's not as good in any way, but it is something that there are some differences. If you have a more complicated hearing loss or something that's a little more specialized in terms of the treatment approach, there may be where the audiologist is going to be a better fit for you.
The Whole Care Network
And also, where can people connect with you? Tell us a little bit about your platform.
Hope Lanter, AuD
So my platform started, I was actually a spokesperson for a different company a few years back and I had a friend who reached out to me last year and said, you know, you did that and it was really super fun, super awesome in terms of the reach. Why are you not still doing it? And I thought, you know what, you're right. And so that was kind of how it all was born. And then we asked, it turned into, I had to sit down and think, okay, well, what is the why behind this? And really what I sat down and said is, you know what, if I can help,
one person to actually move forward and do something about their hearing, then it made it worth it. And that sounds a little cheesy and a little too easy as far as the approach. But realistically, what we know is that only about one in four people who need hearing aids are actually wearing them. And that's absolutely tragic for us as a society because basically we know that there's so many benefits to wearing hearing aids that if we're not wearing them, then we're failing as a group and for ourselves. So with that, one
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm.
Hope Lanter, AuD
for that means I have a huge number of people who are not either not aware or in denial or all sorts of things in between and that's where you know Dr. Hope for Hearing was born. I do have a website as well as I'm on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. There we go. I knew there were five. just had to get some. We got this. But nonetheless there I'm on social platforms really
The Whole Care Network
He
.
Hope Lanter, AuD
for that whole awareness and advocacy piece of this and really trying to just say, okay, is there a way to spread the word? And that's something where I was in clinical work for about 16 years and then went into the industry side of things for the last six and really have now been able to say, okay, well, I feel like with the voice piece of this, that there's a way to reach and help more people than I've done in the past.
Emilia Bourland
And of course, we will make sure and link to your website in the show notes. So if you're listening to this or you're watching this, you can just scroll down to the show notes and you'll be able to find that website for Dr. Lanter as well. If you made it all the way to the end of this episode, first of all, actually, wait, hold on, let me back up for a second. Thank you so much, Dr. Lanter, for being on this episode of Care Lab. was absolutely just really, really fascinating. And we so appreciate you sharing.
The Whole Care Network
Thank you.
Hope Lanter, AuD
Thank you.
Emilia Bourland
your wisdom and your knowledge with us and the audience. Now to you, dear listener, if you made it to the end of this episode, then please make sure that you are subscribing. Go ahead and download a couple of episodes, leave a comment, maybe ask for something that you would like to hear about. Because that helps us to make sure that we are putting out great episodes for you and other people to get access to the information that we need. We will see you right back here next time on Care Lab.
The Whole Care Network
Bye everybody.
Emilia Bourland
Okay.
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