Ear Health Care
Treatment of Hearing Loss and Deafness in The Elderly
When to visit the ENT specialist referral?
Although the primary care consultation can be a diagnostic approach to the problem, they are often accurate than other diagnostic techniques are not available to the family physician and must be performed by the ENT specialist:
- Audiometry: basic examination the specialist to do as a first step functional diagnosis.
- Verbal or logoaudiometry Audiometry: provides data on the elderly has the ability to understand spoken language.
- Other more complex tests. Read the rest of this entry »
Hearing Loss and Deafness in The Elderly: Diagnostic Tests
What diagnostic tests will the doctor use?
To perform various diagnostic tests requires the collaboration of the immediate family, because, as mentioned earlier, the elderly do not recognize this problem and tend to denial.
There are simple shapes and rudimentary that can be used initially in the primary care consultation, such as finger snapping, lower the tone of speech, etc.., That they should never replace a thorough and careful examination. Tests to be conducted in an environment without noise, talking to the patient directly to the face and giving instructions in simple sentences, and even repeat them in several ways if necessary.
The basic diagnostic tests that family physicians can perform in your query would be: Read the rest of this entry »
Hearing Loss and Deafness in The Elderly: Clinical Manifestations
What are the clinical manifestations of these processes?
The family doctor can make a first approach to the problem by performing a few questions and a medical examination including otoscopy, exploration is the examination of the ears with an instrument called an otoscope, which incorporates a light that shows the structures of and external ear canal and middle ear.
In the ear canal cerumen impaction are more common in elderly than in young adults. They generally cause conductive hearing loss (hearing loss due to interference of sound transmission through the air), sensation of blockage and ringing in the ears, or deterioration of an existing deficiency. Are easily diagnosed with an otoscope. Extraction, which should be careful and be done with instruments such as forceps or by flushing with warm water half. Sometimes you may need softening earwax prior to instillation of hydrogen peroxide drops or softeners. Read the rest of this entry »
Hearing Loss and Deafness in The Elderly
Hearing impairment in the elderly is very common in highly industrialized societies, where age and loud noise favor the occurrence of such an impairment. It is estimated that 30% of the geriatric population has hearing impairment, which is, by its frequency, the third condition after chronic joint disorders and heart and blood vessels.
There are some intrinsic factors that cause sensory deficits of the elderly do not have proper relevance:
- In the early stages there is no decrease in the capacity of the elderly.
- It is considered a natural thing for both the elder and his family.
- There are no programs to detect these disabilities in primary health care. Read the rest of this entry »