North Columbus News

Eric Bielefeld began wearing hearing aids around a year and a half ago. Like many people, he was not excited about them.

“I had the same reluctance as any middle-aged person does to make that leap,” he said.

What surprised Bielefeld, professor and chair of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at The Ohio State University, was just how much the hearing aids improved his life.

“I can say now that if you haven’t interacted with someone who’s gotten their hearing aids in the last three years, you don’t know what hearing aids look like anymore,” he said. “The technology has improved so much. The quality of the product has improved so much. There are options for almost any kind of hearing loss.”

The Ohio State University Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic recently acquired a piece of this new, improved technology: an Otoscan, a device that creates digital impressions of patient ear canals that are then used to create hearing aids and hearing protection devices like earplugs.

Previously, these impressions were made in three dimensions with putty that was inserted into the ear canal and then left to harden. While this is a standard procedure, Bielefeld said some patients find it uncomfortable. Unusually shaped ear canals, ear canals that have undergone surgeries, ear sensitivity and excessive ear hair (which can be pulled out and cause bleeding when the putty is removed) can all lead to patients opting out of the impressions.

“A lot of patients don’t get the ear impression made in the first place,” he said. “We have one such patient who we’ve used the Otoscan on. He’s used hearing aids for decades and only had one or two physical impressions made because it was prohibitively difficult for him.”

The scanner also reduces wait time for new devices. While physical molds must be mailed to the manufacturer, the scans can be emailed.

“From the day we take the scan, it will reduce the time you wait before we can put the device in your ear and get you ready to go,” Bielefeld said.

Physical discomfort and wait times are just two obstacles that patients can face, he said. The goal of audiologists in the clinic is to remove those and more.

“The Otoscan is responsive to the needs of the hearing aid market,” he said. “Anything we can do to ease people’s anxiety about the hearing aid process – this isn’t something people are excited to buy like a new car – there are long-range benefits to that.”

While patients will benefit from the scanner, students will too. Ohio State is one of just a handful of educational institutions that have an Otoscan. This puts Ohio State’s Doctor of Audiology students at an advantage, Bielefeld said.

“Anything we can do to help prepare students for not only what the profession is today but what the profession will be tomorrow is great,” he said. “Students will enter the job market with skills and experiences that their peers don’t have. They can offer patients and offer employers something their peers don’t have.”

In fact, patients have been excited to be a part of this new educational experience, Bielefeld said. Watching this unfold has been uplifting for him.

“I think that’s the dream of what a place like Ohio State can offer,” he said. “We’re a place that people can go to for education or health care. They can get something that is world-class. They get an opportunity that they won’t at other places.”

A donation from The Foster Family Foundation made possible purchasing Otoscan.

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