Transparent masks bring many benefits to audiologists and speech-language pathologists
A July 2021 white paper written by Dr. A.U. Bankaitis, PhD investigated the importance of transparent face masks for audiologists, speech language pathologists, and other healthcare providers who work with those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have other communication disorders.
The white paper noted that transparent masks pose many benefits for both patients and their providers, including:
Preservation of Visual Cues
Minimal Negative Impact on Delivery of Services
Increased Patient-Perceived Rapport with Providers
Preservation of Visual Cues
Traditional masks block faces and prevent our ability to see facial expressions and emotions, catch visual cues, and communicate. Without visual access to the face, it can greatly impact the ability for one to understand speech.
According to the white paper, “elimination of visual speech cues degrades speech intelligibility by as much as 20% in the presence of a moderate sensorineural hearing loss.” Because of this, many advocates and healthcare professionals requested the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to issue guidance on the use of transparent face masks.
Minimal Negative Impact on Delivery of Services
For healthcare providers, especially speech therapists and audiologists, visual access to the face and mouth is very important for optimal communication and rehabilitation. With traditional masks covering much of the face, it can impact the quality of care and services.
Simply put, “solid masks inherently preclude speech-language pathologists [and other providers] from executing traditional treatment options whereas transparent masks do not.” Clear face masks restore access to facial movements, thus enabling speech language pathologists and therapists to safely resume face-to-face services.
““Access to visual cues via a transparent mask provides a significant advantage to the listener with normal hearing or hearing loss, yielding significantly better speech recognition accuracy in quiet or noise as compared to solid masks.””
Increased Patient-Perceived Rapport with Providers
Not only do transparent face masks restore access to the face, they can significantly impact patient-perceived rapport with their healthcare providers. In a first-of-its-kind study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery, results showed that providers who wore the ClearMask™ Transparent Surgical Mask are not only better communicators, they are also perceived as having more empathy and elicit greater trust, compared to standard, covered masks.
To read the full white paper by Dr. A.U. Bankaitis, PhD and for the full list of citations and sources, please visit here.