By Heather Morgan

A middle-aged woman sits in a restaurant with a group of her friends, swirling in a mix of laughter and talk with the muffled sounds of a football game on TV.

At first, she joins her friends as they joke and tease and share grandbaby stories. But she strains to catch the punch lines, and realizes she cannot tell if a friend is saying her granddaughter is 6 or 16 months old. Gradually, she tires of saying "Huh?" and "What's that?" and resigns herself to sitting back and laughing when others laugh and gasping in delight when the faces of others cue her to do so.

Seven years later ­ seven long years of deteriorating hearing ­ and the woman finally seeks help.

The scenario is tragic yet typical, say hearing specialists, who anticipate hearing loss will become an increasingly widespread societal problem as baby boomers age.

In fact, it does take people with hearing loss an average of seven years to seek help. Now, experts are becoming increasingly hopeful that an abundance of new high-tech hearing aids and assistive devices, coupled with diminishing stigma over hearing loss, will save the boomers and their loved ones years of frustration and isolation.

If you don't think hearing loss will happen to you, think again. Assuming you will grow old, hearing loss is as sure a bet as wrinkles around the eyes. "It's a rare person in their 90s who doesn't have a hearing aid," says Dr. Michael Becker, an ear specialist at UW Health/Physicians Plus.

But hearing loss isn't reserved for the elderly. Sensory-neural hearing loss, the type typically associated with aging, often begins in the 50s and 60s. Higher-frequency sounds, such as softer women's and children's voices, are often the first to go.

Most notable among the advancements is the refinement of digital hearing aids. Until recently, hearing aids were limited to amplifiers with volume and tone controls, which worked well for some in quiet rooms but failed miserably in complex listening situations. Digital technology allows for much finer sound differentiation and selectivity. For instance, digital technology can tell the difference between speech and background noise, allowing one in while filtering out the other.

"Now we have [hearing aids] that work, but sometimes people are skeptical because they've been disappointed before," says Veronica Heide, Ph.D., an audiologist at Audible Difference, an independent hearing clinic in Madison. Digital hearing aids come in a wide variety of models, ranging from the simple to the highly complex. "There's something for everyone," says Heide, noting that prices range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Hearing aids are usually not covered by health insurance.

Cochlear implants, which have been around for years, are now an increasingly popular technology available for hearing loss that no longer responds to conventional aids. A cochlear implant is essentially an artificial inner ear, intended to take over the job of the cochlea, the snail-shaped organ that translates sound energy into nerve impulses and sends those impulses to the brain. Electrodes are surgically implanted into the cochlea and connected to an outer device through the skin by a magnet. The hefty price tag, which can run up to $45,000, also is typically not covered by insurance.

Despite technological progress, human-made instruments won't bring back normal hearing, and having realistic expectations can help avoid disappointment.

A wide variety of assistive devices, which are becoming increasingly accessible even in public places, provide additional help. Closed captioning, for instance, is a mainstay in any crowded bar or fitness club. Other assistive devices include visual signalers for doorbells and vibrating alarm clocks. "Whether it is listening through wireless headphones at the Civic Center or receiving text messages on your cell phone or pager, getting connected is a popular thing to do," Heide says.

The medical outlook for seniors with hearing loss is not as promising, at least for now. Sensory-neural hearing loss, which is associated with noise trauma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and aging itself, is not reparable. Once nerve cells in the inner ear are damaged, "The cow's out of the barn, so to speak," says UW's Becker. "It's all in prevention, and it may be too late for some baby boomers who listened to a lot of loud music," says Becker, who quickly adds that he himself attended Woodstock ­ and that rock 'n' roll isn't the primary culprit. Loud machines, whether industrial or military, can be much more damaging than loud music.

Power to change

As baby boomers age and more of the society becomes hard of hearing, there'll be increasing pressure to sink old stigmas and push legislation to force insurance companies to cover hearing devices such as digital hearing aids and cochlear implants.

While the stigma of hearing loss has lessened a bit in recent years, many still try to hide or deny their hearing loss for fear of being treated differently, says Wendy Wolfgram, president of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH), a non-profit support and advocacy group. Employees fear being viewed as less competent, and others just don't want to "make an issueof be" ing hearing impaired.

Technological advances such as "in-the-canal" hearing aids, which hide the device from clear view, have helped reduce the stigma somewhat. But they don't solve the problem. "We somehow think we are not as handicapped or are less handicapped if our hearing aids are not as visible ... and other people don't know we are wearing them," Wolfgram says. In 2000, SHHH launched a national Day of Hearing screening program, which aims, in part, to reduce the stigma associated with hearing loss.

SHHH and other advocacy groups are also hard at work trying to convince legislators that insurance companies should pay for hearing devices. The cochlear implant, even at $45,000, still costs equal to or less than an artificial hip or pacemaker, which are also considered prosthesis, Wolfgram says.

While insurance companies have for years gotten away with not paying for hearing instruments, the power and number of aging baby boomers will surely add pressure. "People are really starting to complain," says Heide of Audible Difference.

Perhaps, armed with new technologies and the knowledge that they are not alone, baby boomers will move straight to action and waste less time in denial about their hearing loss than previous generations.

After all, Heide says, people don't wait years before getting eyeglasses.

"Can you imagine seven years of not seeing the newspaper?" she says. "I mean, nobody would put up with that."

Heather Morgan is freelance writer based in Madison.