NEW YORK (AP) — Sara Mearns was missing her cues.
She couldn't hear what her dance partner was saying from across the studio. She was late for her entrances because the music sounded too soft.
Without telling anyone, she finally made an appointment to get her hearing checked.
Mearns learned that she had hearing loss. After years of isolation, she got the tools to make sense of a world that had gotten muffled.
Now, she's one of the first dancers with the New York City Ballet to wear hearing aids during performances.
“I feel like it's a whole new chapter of my life,” Mearns, 40, said in an interview with the AP.
While hearing loss is common in older adults, it can happen at any age and can be caused by things like nerve damage, infection or head trauma. For Mearns, it may have been a blend of factors including genetics, medical conditions and exposure to loud noise.
Signs and symptoms of hearing loss
According to the National Institutes of Health, less than a fifth of American adults aged 20 to 69 who could benefit from wearing hearing aids have ever used them. That's due to lack of access, shame or embarrassment and just not knowing the symptoms.
“Hearing loss is often not detected by the person because what they can't hear, they don't know,” said Dr. Anil Lalwani, a hearing expert with Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Still, “there are a lot of symptoms of hearing loss that are not hearing less,” said Dr. Maura Cosetti with Mount Sinai’s New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.
One thing to look out for is saying “what” more often, and not being able to hear friends and family in noisy settings like restaurants. Other symptoms include ringing, a sensation like something is stuck in the ears or conversations sounding muffled.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mearns couldn't hear conversations when people were wearing masks.
“I realized that I was reading everybody’s lips to understand what they were saying,” she said.
If experiencing hearing loss, you have options
Experts say to let a doctor know if you think you may be experiencing symptoms of hearing loss. They can help you connect with an audiologist or an ear, nose and throat specialist to get a hearing test.
Cosetti with Mount Sinai said the Mimi Hearing Test app can be useful resource to get a sense of your hearing. Seeing a professional is the best way to figure out what's actually going on — like whether your ears are just plugged up with wax or fluid.
Hearing aids fine-tune the sound signal that enters the brain, enhancing speech while lowering background noise. They can be expensive, but many are now available over the counter. Some Apple AirPods also can be used as hearing aids.
For more severe forms of hearing loss, doctors may recommend a device called a cochlear implant, which converts sounds into electrical signals that are sent to the brain. These include a surgically inserted component and can take months to get used to.
Hearing aids are an adjustment, but can be worth it
Mearns initially felt embarrassed to step into the booth for her hearing test, knowing she wouldn't be able to hear all the words. Her audiologist, Marta Gielarowiec, helped her understand what she was missing and guided her to appropriate hearing aids.
“It's definitely not a one size fits all. There is a lot of adjustment, tuning and calibration involved,” said Gielarowiec, who runs a practice in New York. “Overall, the goal is to maximize the hearing that’s left.”
Addressing hearing loss can help boost mental health, improve communication and slow cognitive decline for people at high risk of dementia.
When Mearns walked out of her audiologist's office wearing her aids for the first time, she felt overwhelmed. She could hear the pattering of shoes on the ground, the chirping of birds across the street and the billowing of a flag a block behind her. Returning to her dressing room, she cried.
She can now hear the full might of the orchestra when she performs — and take phone calls in her ears.
The life she was living before, she said, was exhausting. At the end of every day she was spent from the strain of asking people to repeat themselves and missing out on conversations and the punch lines of jokes.
“I don’t want people to feel what I felt, where I was embarrassed and I was quiet about it,” she said. “Because now that I’m on the other side, I’m so happy.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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