MIDLAND, Texas — Audiologists are trying to bring attention to effects that COVID-19 could be having on patient's hearing.
Dr. Garrett Morgan at Beltone Hearing Care Center, has noticed an increase in patients noticing hearing loss during the pandemic, "through the pandemic, what we’ve seen throughout our locations are a lot of people have realized that they’re not hearing well. They’re not hearing the TV well, their Zoom calls or Facetime calls. There’s not a lot to face-to-face interaction that has taken place so people are much more aware of the hearing problems that they may have and so we’re seeing that influx of people coming in to address the hearing loss they’ve noticed.”
According to hearing doctors, hearing loss and tinnitus; ringing of the ears and balance issues have all been persistent problems that they're seen among patients.
“More commonly what we see and what we read about is hearing loss, tinnitus; which is the ringing in your ears and balance issues, post-COVID," said Dr. Morgan. "Not so much initial diagnosis of COVID, but during the infection period, post- COVID."
A study released last month by the International Journal of Audiology is looking at the effect COVID-19 could have. The report results were 7.6% of people studied reported hearing loss, 14.8% reported tinnitus and 7.2% vertigo.
However, these symptoms haven't shown up until the person is in recovery.
"Many patients in the beginning of COVID-19 were not reporting hearing loss it’s something that we’re seeing a lot more after people have recovered and as time goes on and the virus mutates, some people have the infection for long periods of time,” said Dr. Joceylin Lopez at All About Hearing.
She went on to say, "what we do know is many patients who’ve had COVID, given some time, days or weeks, post recovery from the infection they are reporting, the vast majority are reporting tinnitus.”
With this study being out, Dr. Garrett Morgan also really emphasizes the importance of getting your hearing checked, “a third of the patients by the time they turn 65 years old have a treatable hearing loss. So everybody from their 30s 40s and up should get hearing evaluations. It’s said by the time we’re 40 years old we should start annual hearing evaluations to get a good baseline of your hearing”