By Nicole Anzalone, Au.D.
As an audiologist, I have the wonderful job of changing lives every day.
Audiology is a very rewarding healthcare profession that may not be considered as well-known as some other health professions. An audiologist is a licensed professional who specializes in diagnosing and treating hearing and balance disorders.
The field of audiology is a fairly young health profession that began around the time of World War II due to the high prevalence of hearing loss amongst veterans who came out of the war. The first university that taught a course in audiology was Northwestern University in 1946. Today, there are only approximately about 14,000 to 15,000 audiologists in the US and about 75 accredited Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) schools in the US.
The profession has evolved over the years, paired with speech and language as part of the communication science and disorders programs. For many years, it required a master’s level degree which evolved into to the doctorate level degree in the early 2000s due to the growth and complexity of the scope of practice.
The field of audiology has evolved from not only communication science but also treating and understanding hearing nerve damage and other consequences of hearing loss that also affect cognition and balance, overall health and well-being. Hearing loss is considered a sensory disorder or neurodegenerative disorder, so treating hearing loss is not exactly analogous to wearing glasses to reshape a lens to see better but more analogous to macular degeneration.
Hearing aids may be the best way to treat hearing loss in 85% of cases but treatment may be more complicated than just making sounds louder. In more severe cases of hearing loss, cochlear implants may be a better option to restore sense of sound through electrical stimulation of hearing nerves.
There are so many interesting facets of audiology to explore such as balance disorders and vertigo. Vertigo is commonly a symptom of a problem with your ears which is what makes it part of an audiologist’s role to diagnose and treat. The inner ear’s primary job is to control and stabilize us in relation to gravity and how fast we are moving. That’s actually the ear’s primary job and hearing may be considered its secondary job.
And a lot what an audiologist does involves many aspects of patient’s lives, not only communication with family and friends. We are also counselors, saving marriages and repairing relationships from the frustrations of not being able to communicate well amongst family and friends. What we do as audiologists involves counseling because of the frustration, depression and the grief that can stem from having a hearing loss. Many people go through stages of grief. Hearing loss is not just age related. There is a myth that that hearing loss is a stigma of age. It is not just a problem of the elderly. Hearing loss can be due to other things like noise exposure, other health disorders that can cause diseases of the ear and there are even viruses that can cause hearing loss at any age. Hearing loss can also be due to genetic and familial history, which would put you more or less at risk for hearing loss.
The great thing about audiology is that there are so many avenues within the profession that you can explore. There are audiologists that specialize in private practice. Some specialize in educational audiology for children with hearing loss in the school system because the development of speech and language is so important for learning and vocational abilities. Some audiologists decide to work in an ENT practice or hospital setting and are more closely involved with the medical side of audiology. Some audiologists decide to specialize in balance disorders and may only perform vestibular testing and treatment. Some audiologists decide to only work with hearing aids to help treat patients with hearing loss. Some audiologists decide to only work in a VA type setting or consider industrial audiology to study more of the effects of noise and our environment on our hearing. Some audiologists get a research Ph.D. rather than a clinical Au.D. to be directly involved in the research of hearing and balance.
Some people may not know about the profession or may not think about it as a possible career avenue because it’s so small, so niche, but surprisingly it is in significantly high demand. Because of the Baby Boomers and an aging population, we see more and more people with hearing loss and more people at a younger age with hearing loss due to more noise and loud devices in our ears and in our environments.
If you are interested in the professional field of audiology, look into some of our national associations such as the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association, the American Academy of Audiology and the American Doctors of Audiology for more information.
Nicole Anzalone is an audiologist and the owner of Syracuse Hearing Solutions. She received her Doctorate in Audiology in 2007 and holds a Master of Science Degree in neuroscience and a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University. She is licensed to practice audiology and dispense hearing aids in New York state. For more information, visit https://syracusehearingsolutions.com