David & Gwen Coffin (djcoffin at LINKNET.NET) wrote:
> I would like opinions regarding percentage of hearing loss. Many of my
> patients have been told by other health care providers (usually their ENT)
> that they have XX% of hearing loss. This determination appears to be based
> on dB, not a formula (i.e., 50dB loss = 50% loss.) I would like to hear how
> others discuss this with their patients.
I have a question too, wouldn't you want to separate their hearing loss
into a low frequency and high frequency component and then explain the
importance of each band for speech information ??
Or what about a severe high frequency SNHL with basically normal
thresholds up to 1500/2000 compared to a flat loss of 45 dB,
depending on which way you look at it it could be a 40-50% loss
(based on the 50dB = 50% loss) but they are different.
I know it is a counselling issue but would like some feedback!
Also instead of explaining the decibel and explaining what a
log scale is to your patient do many of you use some sort of
percentage scale or, do you explain it in terms of severe profound,
etc.
Thank you for your support,
Paul
CCCD
