Hearing Rehabilitation Center

What Can You Expect to Learn From a Hearing Test?

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 16:50:00 GMT

The majority of people aren’t proactive about the health of their hearing and probably haven’t had a hearing screening since grade school because it’s generally not part of a routine adult physical. Luckily, a professional hearing specialist can uncover a wealth of information from a hearing test which can be used to both identify any hearing loss and help determine whether utilizing treatments like hearing aids is effective.

A complete audiometry test is more involved than what you might recall from childhood, and you won’t get a lollipop or a sticker when it’s done, but you’ll gain a much clearer understanding of your hearing. Here are three of the most prevalent kinds of hearing tests and what they’ll tell you.

Pure tone testing

We usually think of sound as measured in decibels, but decibels only express the loudness of a sound. Another important factor is pitch or tone which assesses the frequency of sound. At the lower end of the tone spectrum, a low bass sound clocks in between 50 and 60 Hertz (Hertz, or Hz for short, is the unit of measurement associated with tone or pitch), with normal speech ranging between 500 and 3,000 Hz. 20 to 20,000 Hz is the range of frequencies that a healthy human ear is able to hear.

With a pure tone hearing test, your hearing specialist will have you put on a set of headphones which are hooked up to an audiometer. You may also wear a device called a bone oscillator which seems alarming but just measures how well your bones conduct sound. Pure tones are presented to one ear at a time, and you signal (by pushing a button or raising a hand) when you hear a sound.

The lowest volume that you can hear the tones will then be monitored. Whether your hearing loss is more pronounced in one ear than the other, what frequency of sound you have the most difficulty hearing, and generally how well your ears are working, will be gauged by this test.

Speech audiometry

This test also uses headphones, but instead tracks your ability to hear words being spoken. In some cases, you’ll be asked to repeat recorded words that are spoken along with background noise. In other situations, the person carrying out the test will say words to you, but there’s a catch, you can’t see the person’s mouth.

Hearing individual words means you can’t rely on context to comprehend what’s being said, and being unable to see the speaker keeps you from lip reading (something you may not even know you’ve been doing). For people who have hearing loss in the higher frequencies, rhyming words, like climb, time, dime, and crime, are hard to distinguish.

Instead of just looking at the volume or threshold required for hearing, as tone testing does, speech audiometry tracks your ability to make sense of the sounds you hear. Word recognition testing can also help in determining whether hearing aids could help.

Immittance audiometry

Alright, these can be a little uncomfortable, but shouldn’t cause pain. Tympanometry artificially alters the pressure within your ear by pushing air in with a little inserted probe. Your hearing specialist will get a graph readout that shows how well your eardrum is working, which can identify whether there’s a potential problem like impacted earwax or a perforation.

Your ears have reflexes that are checked by a similar probe. When you hear a loud noise, muscles in your middle ear involuntarily contract. Identifying the noise level needed for this reflex can help a hearing specialist determine the extent of hearing loss. People with profound hearing loss don’t demonstrate any reflex.

It’s important to include immittance testing because it helps diagnose conductive hearing loss, which is when problems occur in the small bones inside of the ears and can occur at the same time as age-related or noise-related hearing loss.

If you’re having difficulty hearing, contact us and schedule a hearing test! We can help you better understand your hearing health, inform you on what you can do to maintain healthy hearing, and let you know what your treatment options are if you have hearing loss or tinnitus.

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Understanding the Link Between Nutrition and Hearing Health

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 19:32:00 GMT

When we were younger, we often ignored the long-term health consequences of what we ate, we were more interested in taste and instant gratification. However, as older people, we’ve come to realize that what we eat significantly affects our well-being in surprising ways. One surprising way poor nutrition can have negative consequences, according to recent research, is its impact on hearing health.

Fresh research vs. established views

Extended exposure to loud sound, or genetic predisposition, are the traditionally acknowledged causes of hearing loss. It probably won’t come as a surprise to most individuals that exposure to loud noise can result in hearing loss. However, recent research has widened this understanding by exploring the less apparent yet significant role of nutrition in hearing health.

Research has produced new insights

The connection between hearing sensitivity and diet has been the focus of recent research. Hearing can be affected in a number of ways by insufficient nutrition, according to this research. For example, insufficient nutrition during pregnancy may impede the formation of the inner ear, possibly resulting in hearing loss in newborns. Also, particular demographic’s vulnerability to hearing loss has been connected to nutrient deficiencies including iron and others.

Additionally, people who have diets high in fats, cholesterol, or salt have shown increased rates of hearing loss, often linked to associated health conditions such as hypertension, which can affect auditory function.

Factors that correlate hearing health with nutrition

The relationship between nutrition and hearing health surpasses direct causation, socioeconomic factors also play a role. Socioeconomic status often correlates with dietary routines and access to healthcare. People with modest financial resources might face obstacles in maintaining a nutritious diet, indirectly affecting their hearing health over time.

Caring for your hearing by promoting better nutrition

Your overall physical health isn’t the only reason for good nutrition, it’s also an important facet of maintaining healthy hearing. Mitigating the risks to your hearing health means making educated dietary choices. For instance, prioritizing fresh vegetables, which are usually more affordable than processed foods, can provide essential vitamins crucial for maintaining ear health. You can decrease the amount of unhealthy salts and fats that can play a role in hearing loss by preparing foods at home where you have better control over ingredients. Total well-being, including the health of your hearing, can be encouraged by drinking healthier and less sugary beverages.

Sustainable dietary changes

Practical adjustments that work well with your lifestyle are necessary for attaining lasting dietary improvements. In spite of budget and time limitations, small modifications can yield substantial benefits for both general health and hearing preservation. By prioritizing nutritious eating habits, individuals can proactively protect their hearing against potential risks associated with poor nutrition.

The connection between hearing and nutrition, while maybe not directly apparent, is highlighted by ongoing research which demonstrates the significance of a nutritious diet on hearing health. Overall health, including hearing health, can be improved by making some practical adjustments to diet that encourage balanced nutrition.

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Avoiding Noise-Related Hearing Loss

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 16:38:00 GMT

The average summer day is usually filled with fun experiences and happenings, from motorcycle rides to family outings to fireworks to sporting events. The majority of these activities are completely safe and healthy, but some do come with a risk of noise-related hearing loss. That’s because loud noises, over time, can harm your ability to hear. A loud motorcycle engine or a roaring crowd could be causing long-term, noise-related hearing loss.

Over time, really loud noises can cause damage to your ears. As a result, you experience hearing loss. Noise-induced hearing loss is effectively irreversible.

There is no cure, but this form of hearing loss can be effectively controlled. Over the long run, you can safeguard your hearing and avoid damage by being aware of prevalent sources of loud noise and formulating prevention strategies. With a few simple adjustments, you can enjoy your summer fun and safeguard your hearing health.

Is summer really that noisy?

It can be really easy to overlook noise risks during the summer months. Some of the most prevalent dangerously loud noises include the following:

The volume level that’s considered to be where damage begins to occur is around 85 dB. A typical hair dryer, blender, or lawnmower is about this volume. These sounds may not seem especially loud so this is important to note. But the volume of these devices can cause hearing damage over time.

How can I prevent noise-induced hearing loss?

Noise-related hearing loss impacts millions of individuals each year. And, unlike age-related hearing loss, noise-related hearing loss can happen at any age. Prevention is significant for this exact reason. Here are a few of the most practical prevention strategies:

You don’t need to resign yourself to having noise-related hearing loss. You’re hearing can be preserved by utilizing prevention strategies. You can protect your hearing and enjoy fun activities in any season with the correct approach.

Begin your journey towards better hearing by giving us a call for an appointment.

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Why Are Motorcyclists at an Increased Risk for Hearing Loss?

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 17:19:00 GMT

Motorcycle enthusiasts often cite the thrill of speed and the love for the open road as the driving force behind their passion. But this exciting hobby comes at a high risk of permanent hearing damage for individuals who ride a lot.

A comprehensive study done by a notable German automobile association in collaboration with a manufacturer of hearing protection solutions examined the effect of riding duration and motorcycle speed on hearing health. The conclusions were startling: bikers can suffer permanent hearing damage after only 15 minutes of riding without earplugs at a speed of 62 mph.

Why do motorcycle riders get hearing loss?

While the concept of hearing loss may not be surprising, the main culprit might. In spite of what many believe, it isn’t the motorcycle’s roaring engine but rather, the wind that poses the biggest hazard. The research emphasized that although helmets provide critical protection during accidents, they fall short in protecting a biker’s hearing. The wind noise whipping around the rider’s head isn’t decreased much even when a helmet has added padding, vents, or other modifications.

Bikers are often affected by a condition known as temporary threshold shift (TTS), which results from frequent exposure to excessive noise levels. The more often you’re exposed to loud noise, the worse your TTS symptoms will be with this progressive condition. Initially, TTS sufferers may notice minor symptoms like a temporary reduction in hearing clarity. However, over time, this condition can advance to permanent and irreversible hearing loss.

Comparing wind volume with other noise levels

To understand the severity of wind noise while riding, the German study’s conclusions are illuminating. The wind noise around a rider’s head can be as high as 95 (dB) at 62 mph. For context, European Union (EU) law mandates that workers need to protect their ears if exposed to noise levels exceeding 80 dB. Bikers are experiencing noise levels up to 19% higher than safe working environments when traveling at this speed.

As the speed increases, so does the noise level. At 74 mph, wind noise can reach 98 dB, a level that can cause hearing damage after only 7 minutes of exposure. Other studies corroborate these findings, indicating that bikers are indeed at a significant risk of hearing loss.

How to safeguard your hearing

Luckily, it’s simple to protect your hearing with earplugs. Most individuals are familiar with the old basic earplugs, but hearing specialists recommend the filtered versions instead. These sophisticated earplugs are manufactured to protect your eardrums from high-pitched noises like wind while still allowing lower frequency sounds to penetrate. This means you can hear essential sounds like sirens, horns, and human speech, which are critical for a biker’s safety.

Bikers are also able to get the total experience of riding without feeling isolated or cut off from the outside world which can’t be said for the old conventional style. You can safeguard your ears from harmful wind noise while still experiencing the thrill of the ride by using filtered earplugs.

It is possible to enjoy the excitement of speed and the freedom of the open road while still keeping your hearing safe from wind noise. The wind noise created at high speeds can cause significant and irreversible hearing damage in a very short time. But bikers can safeguard their long-term hearing while still enjoying the ride by simply using a pair of quality earplugs.

Call today to learn more about hearing protection so you can stay on top of your hearing health.

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Preparing For Your Hearing Test

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 18:10:00 GMT

You’re a pretty busy person, so it’s reasonable that you totally forgot about the hearing exam you have scheduled. Thankfully, you just received that reminder text from the clinic, and you still have time to get ready. So… what should you do?

While it might not call for an all-night study session like in your scholastic days, a bit of preparation can make a significant difference in maximizing the value of your appointment.

Prepare for your hearing exam with these 7 tips

In order to be completely prepared, follow these 7 steps:

Document your symptoms

Hearing loss manifests differently for everyone and across a variety of situations. Take some time to jot down when you notice your hearing difficulties the most. Are there certain times when you have a hard time hearing the television, for instance? When you’re in crowded locations like restaurants, is it hard for you to follow conversations? If you take note of these situations, it will help us get a deeper look into your particular hearing situation.

Hearing aids can be really helpful

Understanding the landscape of hearing aids can enable you to make educated choices during your appointment. Research different types of hearing aids, their features, and how they align with your needs and lifestyle. Being knowledgeable about available options can expedite discussions with your specialist and make sure that any recommendations are tailored to your needs.

Assess your medical history

Share the detailed outline of your medical history that you previously compiled. Include details like past surgeries, current medications, notable illnesses or diseases, and any existing medical devices you utilize. Individualizing our treatment recommendations by determining any factors that may be contributing to your hearing loss will be that much easier when we have a holistic understanding of your health.

Utilize hearing protection

In the days leading up to your hearing exam, take proactive measures to protect your ears from loud noises. Exposure to too much noise can skew the results of your test, so avoid environments with high noise levels, such as concerts or construction sites. By safeguarding your hearing before the test, you help guarantee the accuracy of the results and get a clear comprehension of your hearing health.

Look into your insurance

Explore your health insurance coverage with regard to hearing assessments and related services. By getting a heads-up on your coverage, you will be better able to answer any associated questions and avoid unexpected costs. If you’re uncertain about your coverage, consider reaching out to your insurance provider or consulting with your hearing specialist for clarification.

Bring along a companion

You can come to your appointment alone but if you bring a friend it can be really helpful. Bringing someone with you can offer added support and perspective whether it’s a friend, family member, or caregiver. They can help recall important information discussed during the appointment and give insights into your hearing experiences that you might not have noted yourself.

Be ready for a talk about results

Unlike some medical tests where you might have to wait days or weeks for results, hearing exam results are typically available immediately. Be ready for an in-depth discussion when you get the results of your test on the same day. Whether the end result involves suggestions for hearing aids, lifestyle modifications, or hearing protection tips, be prepared to explore next steps in cooperation with your specialist.

You will get maximum benefit from your appointment and you will come in with confidence if you follow these seven steps.

If you haven’t scheduled your hearing test yet, contact us today to get your appointment on the books.

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Even With Hearing Loss, You Can Still Enjoy Summer Social Events

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 18:36:00 GMT

Summer is synonymous with sunshine, relaxation, and an abundance of social events. However, for those with hearing loss, managing these seasonal get-togethers can sometimes present distinct difficulties. Fear not, as with a little planning and consideration, you can ensure that your summer experiences are still enjoyable.

Get the most out of summer with these essential tips

Deal with your summer social activities, even if you have hearing loss, with these seven tips:

Communicate about your concerns

When planning summer events, it’s essential that you communicate with friends and family. When planning activities and venues, don’t be afraid to present your concerns and preferences. You can help your friends and family better grasp your unique requirements by sharing your past experiences with them.

Keep yourself well-informed

Gather up any information about a venue’s hearing impairment accessibility features before going to any event. Inquire about the accessibility of assistive listening devices, such as hearing loop systems or Bluetooth-compatible technologies. By advocating for inclusive accommodations, you contribute to a more welcoming environment for people who have hearing loss.

Make hearing protection a priority

Summer frequently brings opportunities for outdoor concerts, fireworks displays, and other loud festivities. Keep a pair of earplugs in your pocket and use them when the volume starts to get too high. By taking practical steps to preserve your hearing health, you can enjoy these activities without diminishing your long-term auditory health.

Make concrete plans

Make sure that you’re ready for any unforeseen obstacles by carrying spare batteries for your hearing aids. During extended social events, particularly when it’s very humid, batteries can drain faster than usual. By staying proactive about your hearing aid maintenance, you can avoid interruptions and remain completely engaged in conversations.

Optimize seating

Choose seating arrangements that optimize your ability to hear and communicate successfully. When attending performances or presentations, aim to sit closer to the speaker or stage to reduce background noise. Also, think about the lighting conditions, as proper illumination can enable lip-reading and visual communication cues.

Environmental considerations are important

During summer events, look at a venue’s acoustic attributes. Settings with hard surfaces, such as open-air pavilions or outdoor patios, may exacerbate background noise, making it challenging to discern speech. A more advantageous acoustic environment will be produced in venues with softer furnishings like carpets or drapes which will tend to absorb some background noise.

Take advantage of your hearing aids

Optimize your participation in summer events by utilizing the capabilities of your hearing aids. Whether you’re enjoying a day at the beach or attending a poolside barbecue, think about utilizing water-resistant or waterproof hearing aid models manufactured for outside use. Make an appointment with us to explore the latest assistive technologies that can improve your hearing experience in various social settings.

Navigating summer social events with hearing loss requires proactive planning and a willingness to advocate for your needs. You can make sure that your summer fun is accessible to individuals of all hearing levels by using these seven tips. Remember, hearing loss should never curtail your ability to savor the joys of the season. You can safeguard the health and well-being of your hearing and with some practical planning, still spend quality summer months with friends and loved ones.

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Hypertension and Hearing Loss

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:11:00 GMT

Did you realize that high blood pressure can also increase your risk of developing age-related hearing loss?

From around 40 years old and up, you might start to detect that your hearing is beginning to fail. You most likely won’t even detect your progressing hearing loss even though it’s an irreversible condition. Years of noise damage is typically the cause. So how does hypertension cause hearing loss? The blood vessels in your ears and your blood vessels in general can be damaged by high blood pressure.

Blood pressure and why it’s so significant

Blood pressure is a measure of how rapidly blood moves through your circulatory system. High blood pressure means that this blood moves more quickly than normal. Over time, this can cause damage to your blood vessels. These damaged vessels grow less flexible and more prone to blockages. A blockage can contribute to a stroke or other cardiovascular issues. Healthcare professionals have a tendency to pay very close attention to a patient’s blood pressure because of this.

So, what is considered to be high blood pressure?

The basic ratings for blood pressure include the following:

When your blood pressure goes as high as 180/120, it’s regarded as a hypertensive emergency. This type of event should be addressed immediately.

How can hypertension cause hearing loss?

Hypertension can cause widespread damage to your blood vessels, including the blood vessels inside of your ear. Usually, the nerves in your ear will also be damaged along with these blood vessels. Likewise, high blood pressure can negatively affect the stereocilia in your ear (the tiny hairs responsible for picking up vibrations). These stereocilia are not capable of self-regeneration, so any damage they incur is permanent.

This means that damage to the ears, regardless of the cause, can cause irreversible hearing loss. Studies found that people with normal blood pressure readings tend to have a much lower prevalence of hearing loss. People who have hearing loss are more likely to have higher blood pressure. The impacts of hearing loss, in other words, can be decreased by keeping blood pressure under control.

What does high blood pressure make your ears feel like?

In the vast majority of cases, high blood pressure is a symptomless condition. High blood pressure isn’t the cause of “hot ears”. What are hot ears? It’s a symptom in which your ears feel warm and grow red. Normally, it’s a sign of changes in blood flow related to emotions, hormones, and other non-blood pressure-associated issues.

In some cases, high blood pressure can worsen tinnitus symptoms. But if your tinnitus was a result of high blood pressure, how would you know? It’s impossible to definitively tell without speaking to a doctor or hearing specialist. In general, however, tinnitus is not a symptom of high blood pressure. High blood pressure is sometimes referred to as “the silent killer” for a good reason.

Usually, it’s not until you get your vitals taken at your annual exam that high blood pressure is discovered. This is one good reason to be certain that you go to your yearly appointments.

How can you lower your blood pressure?

Typically, there are many factors that contribute to high blood pressure. As a result, you may have to take numerous different measures and use a variety of methods to effectively lower your blood pressure. In general, you should talk with your primary care doctor to lower your blood pressure. Here’s what that management might entail:

A treatment plan to manage your blood pressure can be formulated by your primary care physician. Can hearing loss from high blood pressure be reversed? In some circumstances the answer is yes and in others not so much. You may be able to rejuvenate your hearing to some degree by lowering your blood pressure, according to some evidence. But it’s also likely that at least some of the damage incurred will be irreversible.

The sooner your high blood pressure is lowered, the more likely it will be that your hearing will get better.

Safeguarding your hearing

You can safeguard your hearing in other ways besides reducing your blood pressure. This could include:

If you have high blood pressure and are noticing symptoms of hearing loss, be certain to make an appointment with us so we can help you address your hearing loss and protect your hearing health.

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Could Hearing Loss be Making You Forgetful?

Wed, 29 May 2024 14:33:00 GMT

Your whole life can be affected by age-related hearing loss. Not only is your ability to hear impacted, but so too are your social connections, your professional networks, and even your mental abilities. Over time, hearing loss can intensely impact how your brain works in ways that immediately impact your mood, your memory, and more.

Sometimes, the link between hearing loss and cognition is elusive. For example, one of the earliest symptoms of hearing loss could be forgetfulness, but individuals rarely think that their memory issues are linked to a loss of hearing. Unfortunately, the reality is that memory loss and hearing loss are closely linked.

What does loss of hearing have to do with memory? Well, hearing loss puts a distinctive strain on your brain and that’s, at least in part, the link. Your cognitive abilities will normally improve when you manage your hearing loss.

How memory is Affected by hearing loss

Noticing hearing loss can often be difficult. It isn’t unusual for people to miss the more discreet and early signs. For these individuals hearing loss may only become obvious once it has become moderate or severe. The development of hearing loss is often gradual over time and that’s partly why it’s initially difficult to detect. People often begin increasing the volume on their devices more and more and tend to dismiss their symptoms.

In addition, the human brain is quite good at compensating for intermittent loss of sounds. As a result, you might not notice that people are more difficult to understand. This is beneficial in that you will likely experience fewer disruptions to your daily life. However, compensating like this requires significant brain power. Requiring your brain to work at this level for long periods can lead to:

We will be able to help you determine whether these symptoms are due to hearing loss or not. In situations where hearing loss is present, we’ll work with you to formulate a treatment plan.

Can hearing loss cause memory issues?

Of course, this mental fatigue isn’t the only way that hearing loss can affect your brain. Forgetfulness is frequently a notable presentation. This is particularly true of neglected hearing loss. Though scientists aren’t perfectly clear as to the cause and effect relationship, hearing loss has been well connected to the following problems.:

These problems are not unrelated, of course. Mental health problems, including depression, can be intensified by social isolation. And your risk of dementia also goes up with social solitude.

Can mental decline be caused by hearing loss?

Your risk of cognitive decline and dementia is increased by neglected hearing loss, and that’s one of the more serious consequences of neglecting your hearing issues. It’s very clear that management of the symptoms helps significantly and scientists have a few theories as to why. In other words, treating your hearing loss has been shown to slow down mental decline and lower your risk of developing dementia later in life.

How to deal with your forgetfulness (and hearing loss)

The good news is, treating untreated hearing loss, if your forgetfulness is a result of hearing loss, will certainly help. Here are a few things we may suggest if hearing loss is detected:

You can improve your memory

You can restore strength of memory even if hearing loss is presently causing a little forgetfulness. In many cases, mental functions will come back once your brain doesn’t need to strain so hard. When your brain doesn’t have to work as hard to hear, the rest can be really helpful.

Make an appointment with us so that we can help you significantly improve your outlook and reduce your risk of other problems.

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Is Your Tinnitus Stemming From Your Environment?

Thu, 23 May 2024 14:56:00 GMT

Tinnitus is an incredibly common condition of the ear. Some estimates indicate that 10 percent of people have tinnitus at one time or another, making it one of the most prevalent health conditions in the world. The condition is experienced as a sound in the ear that isn’t actually there, usually, it’s a buzzing or ringing, but tinnitus can manifest as other sounds also.

While the preponderance of tinnitus may be evident, the causes are frequently more opaque. Some of the wide array of tinnitus causes are temporary, while others can be more long term.

That’s why your environment can be critically important. After all, every environment has a soundscape, and when that soundscape is noisy, you may be doing damage to your ears. This environmental tinnitus may sometimes be long lasting or it may sometimes react to changes to make your environment quieter.

Why do so many individuals experience tinnitus?

Tinnitus is a condition in which you hear a sound that isn’t really there. For most people, tinnitus manifests as a ringing or buzzing, but it may possibly also present as rumbling, humming, screeching, or other sounds as well. The sounds are usually rhythmic in nature. Tinnitus will usually clear itself up after a short time period. Though not as common, chronic tinnitus is effectively permanent.

There are a couple of reasons why tinnitus is so common. The first is that the environmental factors that contribute to tinnitus are also quite common (more on that soon). Root conditions and injuries can bring about tinnitus symptoms and that accounts for the second reason. Put simply, there are many such injuries or conditions that can trigger tinnitus. Tinnitus is rather prevalent for these reasons.

How can the environment affect tinnitus?

Other things can also cause tinnitus, including ototoxic medications and chemicals. But when it comes to “environmental” triggers, noise is the biggest offender. Some settings, such as noisy city streets, can get quite loud. Likewise, anybody who works around industrial equipment all day would be at risk of their environment worsening their tinnitus.

These environmental factors can be incredibly significant when considering your hearing health.

Noise induced damage, as with hearing loss, can activate tinnitus symptoms. In these circumstances, the resulting tinnitus tends to be chronic in nature. Here are a few of the most common noise-related causes of tinnitus:

Damage to the ears can occur at a much lower volume than people generally expect. As a result, it’s important to wear hearing protection before you think you may need it. Noise induced tinnitus symptoms can frequently be avoided altogether by doing this.

If I’m experiencing tinnitus, what should I do?

Will tinnitus go away on its own? Well, in some instances it might. But your symptoms might be irreversible in some cases. There’s no way to know which is which at the beginning. If you have tinnitus caused by noise damage, even if your tinnitus does go away, your chance of having your tinnitus come back and become chronic is much more likely.

Individuals often underestimate the minimum volume that damage begins to occur, which is the most significant contributing factor to its advancement. Damage has likely already happened if you’re experiencing tinnitus. This means that there are a number of things that you should do to change your environment so as to prevent more irreparable damage.

For instance, you could try:

How to manage your symptoms

The symptoms of tinnitus are frequently a big distraction and are really unpleasant for the majority of individuals who deal with them. This prompts them to attempt to find a way to ease the intensity of their symptoms.

If you hear a ringing or buzzing sound, it’s essential to schedule an appointment, especially if the sound won’t go away. We can help you determine the best way to regulate your particular situation. There’s no cure for the majority of types of chronic tinnitus. Here are a few ways to manage the symptoms:

Tinnitus has no cure. A good first step would be to protect your hearing by controlling your environment.

But addressing and managing tinnitus is possible. We’ll be able to develop a specific treatment plan according to your hearing, your tinnitus, and your lifestyle. A white noise machine, for many people, may be all that’s necessary. For others, management might be more intense.

Make an appointment to learn how to address your tinnitus symptoms.

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It’s a Mistake to Hold Off Hearing Loss Treatment – Here’s Why

Wed, 15 May 2024 16:18:00 GMT

Between hectic schedules and the distractions of events, it’s all too simple to put off important appointments, such as those with a hearing specialist or for fitting hearing aids. You might even find yourself hesitating to order hearing aids altogether. However, delaying treatment for hearing loss is far more than just a mistake concerning your ears alone.

Neglected hearing loss can result in a higher risk of cognitive decline

Scientists have established a clear link between untreated hearing loss and cognitive decline. This underscores the crucial importance of not holding off on treatment, as it can have adverse effects on your mental function too.

Hearing loss will get worse if it’s neglected

If you care about the health of your hearing, it’s essential to never ignore any symptoms of hearing loss. By avoiding appointments with a hearing specialist or delaying the purchase of hearing aids, you unintentionally subject your ears to additional damage.

The development of your hearing loss will be quickened if you continuously need to crank up the volume on your devices. Hearing aids can increase specific frequencies of sound thereby slowing down the development of hearing loss.

The link between untreated hearing loss and mental function

There’s a direct connection between your sense of hearing and your brain. Mental function can be severely impacted by untreated hearing loss according to some significant research. Over time, mental decline can be worsened by depression and anxiety caused by social separation.

Moreover, long-term neglected hearing loss causes the brain to adapt by reallocating resources from auditory processing to other functions, such as visual processing, potentially complicating the restoration of normal hearing function later on.

Navigating neuroplasticity

The brain’s phenomenal ability to adapt, known as neuroplasticity, is both a friend and a foe in this scenario. While it allows for flexibility and recovery, sustained neglected hearing loss can result in considerable rewiring of the brain, making it challenging to revert to previous functionality.

However, it isn’t impossible to undo these effects. Despite previous delays in getting treatment, using hearing aids as prescribed by a specialist can still deliver significant benefits in both the short and long term.

Call us for an appointment

You should obviously find treatment as soon as possible, but even if you’ve put off for a while, it’s not too late to seek help. Making an appointment with us as soon as you can is crucial, ensuring you can enjoy improved hearing and mental function going forward. Call today!

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Protect Your Hearing With These 4 Practices

Tue, 07 May 2024 16:58:00 GMT

Our ears are often what carry the load of unintentional harm from neglect in our hectic daily lives. From the allure of ear candling to the apparently harmless act of using cotton swabs, our auditory health can suffer from these common yet hazardous practices. Below, we delve into four essential methods to safeguard your sense of hearing and keep your ears protected.

Ear candling is a no-no

Ear candling, an ancient technique purported to extract earwax and improve ear health, has gained popularity in spite of lacking scientific merit. The process involves inserting a hollow candle into the ear canal and igniting the opposite end, with the idea that a vacuum is created, pulling out impurities. However, numerous studies have debunked this practice, highlighting its ineffectiveness and potential risks.

Not only does ear candling fail to eliminate earwax efficiently, but it also poses considerable risks. The application of heat near the delicate structures of the ear can lead to burns, perforated eardrums, and even exacerbate existing problems. Usually, if you notice any wax after ear candling, it will be from the candle itself rather than your ears.

In light of these findings, medical experts universally discourage the use of ear candling. Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Academy of Otolaryngology (AAO) warn against this practice, emphasizing safer alternatives for ear hygiene.

Banish the cotton swabs

It’s true that many individuals turn to these seemingly innocuous tools to clean earwax out of their ears. But there are more dangers than benefits to inserting a cotton swab into your ear canal. Rather than effectively eliminating earwax, swabs can unintentionally jam wax deeper into the ear canal, resulting in impaction and possible injury.

The sensitive nature of the eardrum makes it vulnerable to damage from foreign objects, including cotton swabs. Pain, infection, and hearing impairment can all be the results of perforations or abrasions of the eardrum. To avoid these complications, it is beneficial to refrain from inserting any objects into the ear canal and instead rely on the ear’s self-cleaning systems or seek professional assistance if needed.

Keep volumes to a minimum

In an increasingly noisy world, our ears are constantly bombarded by sounds of varying intensities. Exposure to loud noise is unavoidable, from going to sporting events and concerts to strolling down busy city streets to mowing your lawn. Over-exposure to loud sounds like these can have negative effects on your hearing health leading to tinnitus and noise-related hearing loss.

To mitigate the risk of hearing damage, it is essential to be conscious of noise levels and take proactive measures to safeguard your ears. Whenever you can’t steer clear of really loud noise, protection like earplugs and earmuffs should be utilized.

Also, take regular breaks and moderate the volume when you’re utilizing personal listening devices such as headphones and earpods.

Listen to your ears: act promptly on symptoms

Taking quick action when your ears begin to tell you that you’re starting to experience some degree of hearing loss is critical to protect your ears from harm. If you hold off on getting your hearing loss treated you will most likely exacerbate the issue.

If you have symptoms like ringing in the ears, trouble understanding speech, or pain or pressure in your ears, it’s important that you recognize it. If any of these symptoms are experienced, seek evaluation from a qualified hearing specialist or otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist) immediately. Your hearing outcomes as well as your quality of life will be substantially enhanced by early detection and intervention.

In conclusion, the health and well-being of our ears are vital in navigating the sensory landscape of our lives. We can preserve our healthy hearing by avoiding cotton swabs and ear candles, safeguarding our ears against loud noise, and identifying early warning symptoms.

Call us immediately for an evaluation if you are suffering from ear damage or hearing loss.

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Why Does Earwax Build Up?

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 21:23:00 GMT

You most likely don’t give much thought to earwax accumulation unless you’re in the process of cleaning it out. Still, it’s crucial to have an understanding of its purpose and how it forms.

So why does earwax build-up?

Earwax, technically known as cerumen, is a thick combination of debris, hair, skin particles, sweat, and ceruminous gland secretions. This earwax presents with a waxy consistency and can exhibit shades of orange, yellow, gray, or brown.

While the production amount of earwax differs from individual to individual, adults typically generate less earwax than kids. Moreover, adult earwax tends to be darker and denser compared to that of children.

Earwax passes the outer ear canal leisurely, ultimately reaching the ear opening, where it either self-expels or gets washed out when you bathe.

Why do we need earwax?

Earwax serves several crucial functions, such as:

Obstructions caused by earwax

Impacted earwax is a prevalent issue, but it’s usually the only time you need to worry about it. Sometimes, earwax is unable to easily get to the opening of the ear due to narrow or unusually shaped ear canals.

Improper ear hygiene practices, such as using cotton swabs or bobby pins, can unintentionally force wax deeper into the ear canal.

People wrestling with hearing loss who use earplugs or hearing aids are also susceptible to experiencing ear canal obstructions.

How is hearing affected by excessive earwax?

The occurrence of earwax blockages might yield slight discomfort and dampen auditory health.
In addition, substantial accumulations of earwax can induce tinnitus, a feeling of ringing in the ears.

Acoustic trauma may lead to long-term hearing loss, perforated eardrums, and long-term hearing loss if earwax blockages go neglected.

Dealing with impacted earwax

It’s essential that you contact us as soon as possible if you think your ears may be blocked by earwax. Depending on the extent of the obstruction, you might be advised to make use of over-the-counter wax softening drops or a bulb syringe for gentle irrigation to relieve the condition.

Give us a call right away if you need some assistance with an earwax blockage.

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Love and Hearing Loss: Communication Tips for Couples

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 15:56:00 GMT

Many facets of your day-to-day life can be impacted by Hearing Loss. Your pastimes, your professional life, and even your love life can be impacted by hearing loss, for example. For couples who are coping with hearing loss, communication can become strained. This can cause increased tension, more disputes, and even the development of animosity. In other words, left uncontrolled, hearing loss can negatively affect your relationship in substantial ways.

So how are relationships affected by hearing loss? These challenges arise, in part, because people are usually not aware that they even have hearing loss. After all, hearing loss is typically a slow-moving and hard to recognize condition. As a result, you (and your partner) may not recognize that hearing loss is the base cause of your communication issues. Workable solutions may be hard to find as both partners feel more and more alienated.

Relationships can be helped and communication can begin to be repaired when hearing loss is diagnosed and couples get practical solutions from us.

Can relationships be affected by hearing loss?

When hearing loss is in the early stages, it’s difficult to detect. This can result in substantial misunderstandings between couples. The following common problems can develop as a result:

These problems will frequently start before anyone is diagnosed with hearing loss. Feelings of bitterness might be worse when parties don’t suspect hearing loss is the core issue (or when the partner with hearing loss insists on disregarding their symptoms).

Living with a person who is dealing with loss of hearing

How do you live with a person who has hearing loss when hearing loss can result in so much conflict? For couples who are willing to establish new communication strategies, this usually is not a problem. Here are some of those strategies:

After you get diagnosed, then what?

A hearing examination is a fairly simple, non-invasive experience. In most circumstances, people who undergo tests will do little more than put on specialized headphones and raise a hand when they hear a tone. But a hearing loss diagnosis can be an important step to more successfully managing symptoms and relationships.

Take the hearing loss related tension out of your relationship by encouraging your partner to come see us for a hearing test.

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You Should Get Your Hearing Assessed Regularly For These Four Reasons

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 22:02:00 GMT

Why is it worthwhile to get your hearing examined on a regular basis? That’s because your general health can be significantly affected by hearing loss. Getting your hearing examined regularly can help you identify hearing loss early, get care quicker, and, improve your health, wellness, and quality of life.

Who should get a hearing test?

Your health and well-being can be significantly impacted by neglected hearing loss. Social isolation, for example, can be a consequence of neglected hearing loss. Conversations with family and friends can become more difficult, and people who suffer from hearing loss might be less likely to reach out to other people, even during normal activities like shopping or going to work. It may not be shocking that this type of social isolation can lead to mental health problems, but it may come as a surprise to learn that it can be harmful to your physical health too.

Other health concerns can be the result of untreated hearing loss also. For instance, neglected hearing loss has been associated with many chronic conditions, including cognitive decline and depression. Comorbidities, like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease have also been associated with hearing loss.

So scheduling a routine hearing test will be a good strategy for pretty much everybody.

Four reasons to check your hearing

There are four noteworthy reasons why keeping an eye on your hearing can be beneficial to your overall health.

1. Establishing a baseline for your hearing is important

It may seem foolish to take a hearing test while your hearing is still healthy, right? Well, getting a hearing test early is a good plan for a number of reasons. The most significant is that a hearing exam will give us an accurate picture of your present hearing health. If your hearing changes in the future, this will make it easier to detect. Early symptoms of hearing loss usually go undetected because hearing loss usually develops gradually over time.

Before you notice any symptoms, a hearing test will help detect hearing loss in its early stages.

2. Early diagnosis and treatment is important

Hearing loss is typically a progressive condition, meaning it often gets worse over time. You’ll have a better prognosis, as a result, if you recognize your hearing loss early. If you treat the condition as early as possible, you will have more positive results.

When you get treatment early it will mean doing things like using hearing protection or possibly wearing hearing aids. Treatment can help prevent many of the related issues listed above, including dementia, depression, and social isolation.

3. Future changes will be easier to measure

Even if you’re diagnosed with hearing loss, that doesn’t mean your hearing won’t continue to get worse as you get older. Regular hearing assessments can help you identify changes as you go along, and make changes to your treatment plan as necessary.

4. Additional damage can be avoided

Hearing loss that develops gradually over time is normally caused by damage. Your hearing specialist is a considerable resource and visiting us regularly will help you identify any hearing loss as early as possible. We can provide you with information, treatments, and best practices that can help keep your hearing as healthy as possible.

For instance, we can help you figure out ways to safeguard your ears from day-to-day damage or establish strategies created to help you keep sounds around you quieter.

How often should I get my hearing examined?

In general, it’s recommended that adults get a hearing test sometime in their 20s or 30s, on the earlier side. It’s usually ordinary best practice to get a hearing test every ten years thereafter unless you observe signs of hearing loss or we suggest something more often.

But perhaps you’re thinking: what should I expect at my hearing exam? Hearing tests are generally totally non-invasive. Often, all you do is wear special headphones and listen for a specific sound.

We will be able to help you get the treatment you need, whether you need a set of hearing aids or you simply need to protect your ears. And we can help you determine what your hearing exam schedule should be.

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What is the Expected Lifespan of a Contemporary Hearing Aid?

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 16:12:00 GMT

With proper care, hearing aids can last for a number of years, but their effectiveness depends on whether they’re programmed to your present level of hearing loss. Comparable to prescription glasses, hearing aids are customized to support your specific auditory needs, necessitating regular reassessment. Assuming appropriate programming and fitting, here’s a guideline for their longevity.

Do hearing aids have a lifespan?

Just like most commodities, hearing aids have a lifespan. Hearing aids will have a period of optimum performance much like any device will. Even sophisticated electronics, like your state-of-the-art TV, will eventually warrant an upgrade. It’s not surprising, then, that hearing aids also function within a lifespan.

Typically, hearing aids last anywhere from 2 to 5 years, although technological advancements might encourage earlier upgrades. Here are some of the most prominent factors affecting the lifespan of your hearing aids:

While the estimated lifespan is based on typical usage, failing to use or maintain your hearing aids might impact their efficiency. Professional check-ups and cleaning courses are essential to ensure proper fit and functionality, especially considering potential wax build-up.

Expecting when to replace your hearing aids

You might find that it’s time for an upgraded when, over time, you start to detect a drop in the performance of your hearing aid. Here are a few situations where you might need to upgrade sooner:

Predicting the precise time frame for hearing aid replacement proves a challenge, given the wide range of variables. But 2 to 5 years is generally a dependable guideline.

Think it might be time for an upgrade? Contact us today to schedule an appointment.

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Still Struggling to Follow Even With “Normal” Hearing

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 20:48:00 GMT

Your workplace has chosen to encourage teamwork and cooperation by opening up the office floor plan. However, you find yourself struggling in this new configuration. It’s because the increased noise is making it challenging to follow along with conversation and not because you miss the privacy of cubical walls.

Even if mainstream hearing tests indicate totally fine hearing, the inability to hear conversations in loud environments is often an early sign of hearing loss. This indicates that having “normal” hearing doesn’t guarantee the capacity to comprehend speech effectively.

Prevalent Medications That Can Trigger Hearing Loss

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 17:03:00 GMT

When you start on a course of medication, it’s normal to want to be educated about any possible side effects. Can it give you a stomach ache? Will it cause dehydration? Cause insomnia? There might also be a more serious potential side effect that you may not think of – hearing loss. Ototoxicity is the medical name professionals have given this condition and there are lots of drugs that are known to cause it.

Specifically how many medications are there that can result in this problem? Well, there are a number of medications recognized to cause an ototoxic reaction, but just how many is still somewhat uncertain. So which drugs do you personally need to know about?

What you need to know about ototoxicity

How can a medication cause problems with your ears after you take it? Your hearing can be damaged by medication in three distinct places:

Do different drugs have different risk levels?

You might be surprised by the list of drugs that can cause an ototoxic reaction. Several of them you likely have in your medicine cabinet even now, and chances are you take them before you go to bed or when you’re dealing with a headache.

Topping the list of ototoxic medications are over-the-counter pain killers including:

You can add salicylates to the list, which is aspirin. When you stop using these drugs, your hearing will typically go back to normal.

Antibiotics are a close second for well-known ototoxic drugs. Some of these might be familiar:

Tinnitus can also be induced by several common compounds

Hearing loss can be the outcome of some medications and others might cause tinnitus. If you hear phantom sounds, that may be tinnitus and it typically shows up as:

Specific diuretics will also trigger tinnitus, here are some of the main offenders:

Each and every time you drink your coffee or black tea in the morning, you are subjecting your body to something that could make your ears ring. Here’s the good news, it should improve once the chemical is out of your system. Ironically, some medications doctors prescribe to manage tinnitus are also on the list of possible causes such as:

After you discontinue the medication, the symptoms should go away, and your doctor will be there to help you with anything you may need to know.

Ototoxicity has specific symptoms

The signs or symptoms of tinnitus vary based on your hearing health and which medication you get.

Be on guard for:

Make sure you ask your doctor about any side effects the medication they prescribed may have, including ototoxicity. Get in touch with your doctor right away if you experience any tinnitus symptoms that may have been caused by an ototoxic response.

Also, call us today to set up a hearing test to establish a baseline of your hearing health.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7985331

Muffled Hearing: Causes and Remedies

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 15:36:00 GMT

Muffled hearing can present for a wide variety of reasons. In the majority of instances, this condition is temporary. In other instances, muffled hearing can be a harbinger of more substantial hearing-related problems. That’s because, in general, hearing loss is a gradually progressing condition. Symptoms appear gradually over a long time period.

Typically, one of the first recognizable symptoms is a sense that sounds feel muffled, distorted, or quieter. However, it’s essential to mention that muffled hearing in and of itself is not always an indication of permanent hearing loss. Every year millions of individuals experience muffled hearing.

You might be wondering: when should I be worried about muffled hearing? Generally, the answer varies. Finding the right treatment for your muffled hearing depends on recognizing the underlying cause. Timely solutions can sometimes help get your hearing back to normal, or, at least reduce possible harm. You will be able to go back to enjoying the sounds of your life after you get us to assist you with some successful treatments.

Muffled Hearing – what exactly is it?

Muffled hearing happens when sound is not able to travel through your outer, middle, and inner ear in the way that it ordinarily does. A very noticeable decrease in sound fidelity is the outcome. Hearing won’t be completely gone with muffled hearing but things will sound garbled and quieter. Hearing speech and language can be particularly tough.

In many instances, and depending on the root cause, muffled hearing can be associated with a sense of fullness or stuffiness in your ears. Many people have experienced this feeling temporarily, for example, when they have a cold or when they are flying. Muffled hearing isn’t always accompanied by this feeling, however.

What causes muffled hearing?

Muffled hearing can be caused by all kinds of problems. Determining the underlying cause of your muffled hearing can be essential in developing an effective treatment plan. Here are a few of the most prevalent causes:

Depending on the root cause, the exact symptoms of muffled hearing will differ.

Can muffled hearing be cured?

Not all forms of muffled hearing can be cured. The treatment for your muffled hearing will change depending on the base cause. We might use some specialized tools to help clear out your ear canal if, for example, earwax buildup is at the root of your muffled hearing. Muffled hearing caused by an ear infection will likely clear up once the infection has been addressed, so antibiotics are frequently prescribed.

Symptom management is generally the strategy when you have sensorineural hearing loss rather than a cure. That’s because there’s no cure for sensorineural hearing loss. But it is possible to control symptoms. There might be several strategies to this treatment including a set of hearing aids.

Hearing aids can help you remain connected to loved ones and go about your day-to-day activities without a substantially noticeable effect, particularly when this process is started quickly.

How to steer clear of muffled hearing in the first place

No matter what you do, certain kinds of muffled hearing can’t be avoided. For example, ear infections and sinus infections are hard to easily avoid.

Getting your hearing examined, however, can help identify any causes of muffled hearing and can help avoid any long-term hearing loss that may be developing. These examinations can help you stay on top of your hearing health and get treatment promptly.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Best Practices for Using the Phone with Hearing Aids

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:39:00 GMT

Nowadays, the cellular phone network is much more reliable (and there’s a lot less static involved). But in some cases, it will still be hard to hear what the person on the other end is saying. In fact, there’s one group for whom phone conversations aren’t always a reliable experience: those with hearing loss.

There must be an easy fix for that, right? Why not utilize a pair of hearing aids to make your phone conversations a little easier? Well, that isn’t… exactly… how it works. Even though hearing aids do help with conversations, with phone conversations it can be a bit more difficult. But there are certainly a few things you can do to make your phone calls more effective.

Why phone calls and hearing aids don’t always get along

Hearing loss generally isn’t sudden. It’s not like someone simply turns down the general volume on your ears. You have a tendency to lose bits and pieces over time. This can make it hard to even notice when you have hearing loss, especially because your brain tries really hard to fill in the gaps with contextual clues and other visual information.

When you have phone conversations, you no longer have these visual clues. There’s no added information for your brain to work with. There’s only a very distorted voice and you only hear bits and pieces of the range of the other individual’s voice.

How hearing aids can be helpful

This can be helped by wearing hearing aids. They’ll especially help your ears fill in many of those missing pieces. But there are some distinctive accessibility and communication troubles that happen from using hearing aids while talking on the phone.

For example, placing your hearing aids near a phone speaker can create some harsh speaker-to-speaker interference. This can make things difficult to hear and uncomfortable.

Tips to enhance the phone call experience

So what steps can be taken to help make your hearing aids function better with a phone? Well, there are a few tips that most hearing specialists will suggest:

Depending on your overall hearing needs, how often you use the phone, and what you use your phone for, the appropriate set of solutions will be available. With the right approach, you’ll have the tools you need to begin enjoying those phone conversations again.

Call us for some help and guidance on how to best utilize your phone and hearing aids together.

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Five Tips For Hearing Aid Care

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 21:48:00 GMT

Taking care of your hearing aids probably feels simple enough. After all, you were probably given a set of care instructions when you originally bought your devices. The majority of hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step how-to in regard to regular hearing aid maintenance. Still, getting that much information at once means you probably didn’t remember some of it. So you could still have questions like, how frequently should I clean my hearing aid? Or, how often should I have my hearing aid serviced? How can I make my hearing aids last as long as possible?

These five, simple-to-follow tips can help give you some answers, as well as simple ways to help in taking care of your hearing aids so they function better longer.

Tip #1: Try not to let your hearing aids get wet

Electronics usually don’t do well with wetness. Even though your hearing aids may provide a certain amount of water resistance, you typically want to keep moisture away from them. Here are a few ways to do just that:

Tip #2: Check (and clean) those earwax filters

Earwax production is a healthy and normal thing for the human body to do. Hearing aid makers are well aware of this. Consequently, most hearing aids are created to deal with a modest amount of earwax.

It’s up to you to be sure there’s not too much earwax on your hearing aids. So make changing out your wax guard, when needed, a regular element of your cleaning regimen. Depending on which model hearing aid you have, you can get specialized little tools for this and we can help you with that.

How often should wax guards be swapped? Well, for the majority of models, it will be about once every month or so.

Tip #3: care for the batteries

Your batteries keep your hearing aids going. Your hearing aid will last much longer if you keep your batteries fresh. So there are a few battery-care steps you can take:

Tip #4: Wash your hands before handling your hearing aids

Your hearing aids are going to be in your ears most of the time. But they depend on you to put them in. You use your hands to put your hearing aids in, and those hands could contain all types of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). Your hearing aids are delicate devices by design, so crumbs aren’t exactly very good for them.

It’s essential that you don’t handle your hearing aids with dirty hands. So before you put in or take out your hearing aids, give your hands a quick wash.

Tip #5 Keep us in the loop

It may feel like, once you have your hearing aids, you can leave your hearing specialist in the dust. Generally, though, this is not the situation. Here are several very good reasons why scheduling regular appointments with us is still significant.:

What should you do when something breaks?

Occasionally, despite your best efforts, something goes wrong with your hearing aids (maybe you accidentally step on them). You should call us as soon as possible in situations like this.

We will be able to help you fix your devices, or get new ones if necessary.

Want to talk to us about your next pair of hearing aids? Set up an appointment today!

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As We Get Older, Does Our Hearing Loss Worsen?

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 01:51:00 GMT

Is age a factor in the advancement of hearing loss? Hearing loss is one of the most common conditions impacting all adults as they get older, but it is a slow process. Actually, over one half of people 75 and older have trouble hearing.

Presbycusis

Presbycusis is defined as age-related hearing loss or the gradual process of hearing loss as we age. Typically, there will be a combination of factors contributing to this condition.

Changes happen in our inner ear as we grow older. There are little hair cells in our inner ear that help us to hear. They pick up sound waves and translate them into nerve signals that our brain utilizes to interpret sound.

When these tiny hair cells become damaged or destroyed, hearing loss is the consequence. Hearing loss that is the outcome of damage to these hairs is irreversible as these hairs never regenerate.

The following are a few causes of hearing loss:

Common symptoms of age-related hearing loss

Typical symptoms of presbycusis include lack of clarity when people talk, trouble hearing soft voices like kids, and trouble hearing when there’s background sound.

Additionally, increasing the TV volume, asking people to repeat what they said, and ringing in your ears can also be indications of hearing loss.

The importance of managing age-related hearing loss

Neglected hearing loss reduces quality of life. Anxiety, depression, despair, social isolation, jeopardized relationships, and an increased risk of developing dementia are all ways that neglected hearing loss can have a negative effect on your quality of life.

These issues can, to a great degree, be avoided by getting your hearing loss treated with solutions like hearing aids, telephone amplifiers, lip reading, a cochlear implant, or if your hearing loss is extreme, sign language.

No one should suffer with age-related hearing loss. You can still have a complete and enjoyable life.

Contact us today to schedule your hearing examination and to go over the best treatments for your hearing loss or for someone you love.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References
Older Adults — Hearing Health Foundation
Hearing Loss: A Common Problem for Older Adults | National Institute on Aging (nih.gov)
Seniors and Hearing Loss – American Academy of Audiology

Does Insomnia Impact Hearing Loss?

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 19:50:00 GMT

It’s not fun when you can’t sleep at night. And when it happens frequnetly, it’s particularly vexing. You toss and turn and maybe stare at the clock (or your phone) and stress about just how tired you’ll be the next day. When these types of sleepless nights persistently happen, medical professionals tend to use the term “insomnia”. With insomnia, the downsides of not sleeping will then begin to compound and can, after a while, have a negative affect on your overall health.

And the health of your hearing, not unexpectedly, is part of your general health. That’s correct, insomnia can have an affect on your ability to hear. Though the relationship between hearing loss and insomnia might not be a cause-and-effect scenario, there’s still a link there.

Can your hearing be affected by lack of sleep?

What could the connection between hearing loss and sleep be? According to considerable research, your cardiovascular system can be affected by insomnia over a long time period. It becomes harder for your blood to flow into all of the extremities of your body when you aren’t getting the renewing power of a good night’s sleep.

Insomnia also means an increase in stress and anxiety. Feeling stressed and anxious will impact you in physiological ways as well as mentally.

So how is that connected to hearing loss? Your ears work because they’re filled with fragile little hairs known as stereocilia. When waves of sound vibrate these little hairs, signals are sent to your brain which translates these signals into sound.

When your circulatory system isn’t working correctly, these hairs have a difficult time thriving. In some circumstances, poor circulation can damage these hairs, permanently. And once that takes place, your hearing will be permanently damaged. This can result in permanent hearing loss, especially the longer it continues.

Is the reverse true?

Is it possible for hearing loss to make you lose sleep? Yes, it can! Hearing loss can make the world very quiet, and some individuals like a little bit of noise when they sleep. For people in this group, that amount of quiet can make it very hard to get a good night’s sleep. Any kind of hearing loss anxiety (for example, if you’re worried about losing your hearing) can have a similar impact.

If you have hearing loss, what can you do to get a quality night’s sleep? Stress on your brain can be decreased by wearing your hearing aids every day because you won’t be wearing them while you sleep. Following other sleep-health tips can also be helpful.

How to get a quality night’s sleep

Be aware of the health of your hearing

Even if you have experienced some insomnia-associated symptoms in the past, and have some hearing loss, your symptoms can still be controlled.

If you’re concerned about your hearing, make an appointment with us today.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Your Risk of Hearing Loss is Raised by Diabetes

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 22:33:00 GMT

Genetic predisposition, aging, and extended exposure to loud sound are all familiar factors that can contribute to hearing loss. However, you might find it intriguing to discover the link between diabetes and hearing impairment. Let’s dig a little bit deeper into that.

How does diabetes increase your risk of hearing loss?

As per the CDC, 9% or 37 million people in the United States are diagnosed with diabetes, and this prevalence rises with age. Hearing loss is two times as prevalent in individuals with diabetes compared to people who don’t have the condition. Even in pre-diabetics, constituting 133 million Americans, the degree of hearing loss is 30% higher than in individuals with normal blood sugar levels.

Diabetes can result in nerve damage across various bodily regions, encompassing the hands, feet, eyes, kidneys, and ears. High blood sugar levels can lead to the degeneration of small blood vessels and nerves in the inner ears. In contrast, low blood sugar levels can disrupt the transmission of nerve signals from the inner ear to the brain. Worsened hearing loss can be the result of both situations.

The lack of diabetes management induces chronic high blood pressure, causing damage to the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, nerves, and eyes.

You might have hearing loss if you notice any of these signs

Hearing loss frequently happens gradually and can go unnoticed if you aren’t actively paying attention. It’s not unusual for people close to you to notice your hearing loss before you notice it.

Here are a few signs of hearing loss:

It’s essential to contact us for a consultation if you notice any of these signs or if somebody points out your hearing changes. We will conduct a hearing examination that will establish a baseline for future assessments and also deal with any balance-related challenges.

If you have diabetes, be proactive

Getting a yearly hearing exam is important, and that’s especially true for someone who has diabetes.

Keep control of your blood sugar levels.

Steer clear of loud noises and safeguard your ears by wearing earplugs.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Does Cold Weather Impact Hearing Aid Operation?

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 23:54:00 GMT

Lots of individuals really love winter! Well, if you have to go somewhere, it can definitely be difficult. Or if you’re not properly prepared. But there are lots of fun things to do in those chillier winter months.

Don’t believe it? Well, here are only a few instances of how cold weather can be fun: you could go skiing or sledding. You could have a good time on a snowmobile! Or you could grab a pair of ice skates and spend a little time out on the ice. You can enjoy being outdoors in the winter just as much as the summer, spring, or, fall if you have the proper gear.

But the secret here is using the right gear. You may be thinking: Does my hearing aid count as “the right gear”… and if so, will cold air impact my hearing aids? Can the cold damage my hearing aids?

Up to a point, most hearing aids will be fine in any weather

Hearing aids are designed to be worn on a daily basis. They’re constructed so you can wear them to the supermarket, out on a hike, or just around the house. Which means that hearing aid manufacturers understand that these devices might take a pounding. But just because hearing aids are designed to be worn all of the time doesn’t mean you should do anything drastic with them.

As a result, most hearing aids are designed to be somewhat “all-weather”. The safe temperature range for most hearing aids is from -13 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit. That covers the broad spectrum of temperature possibilities (although there are some places, especially up north, that will sometimes get colder than -13 degrees).

Which is a good thing! It means you’ll be capable of hearing in most settings. So why don’t my hearing aids seem to work as well when it’s very cold? Well, drops in temperature will put stress on your devices, so while they might function, they might not work optimally.

Tips for hearing aids in the winter

You can keep your hearing aids operating at near peak efficiency if you take a few measures.

So, if you’re wondering: how can I protect my hearing aids in the winter? That’s exactly what we’re going to explore.

If your hearing aid quits working, what should you do?

Occasionally, unfortunately, your hearing aid will stop working even when the weather is warm and dry. You can take a few basic steps to troubleshoot your device (be sure your device is dry and the batteries are charged, for example). If you still can’t figure out why they aren’t working, we should be able to help you with that.

You can still enjoy life even in the cold!

There are lots of reasons why you might want to stay indoors when it’s -10 degrees outside. Maybe you’re not a winter person. Maybe you’re going to cook yourself some nice warm soup. Perhaps you aren’t a big fan of snowmobiles. The essential thing is that it shouldn’t be your hearing aids that are stopping you from living your best winter life.

That’s particularly true if you take care of your devices, and follow the tips outlined above. If you have any questions about how cold weather may impact the performance of your hearing aids, talk to us today!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

The Truth About Ear Candling

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 17:52:00 GMT

Everybody loves a quick fix, particularly when the solution is also a DIY fix. Got a leaky sink? You can learn to fix that from a YouTube video. A plumber would most likely be a bit more efficient but then you wouldn’t get that sense of self-satisfaction that comes with doing it by yourself.

At least, until your sink begins leaking again. That’s because sometimes the skill and experience of a professional can’t be successfully substituted for a quick fix.

Sometimes, that’s hard to admit. And, in part, that’s why people will often continue to seek out “easy” DIY-fixes for intricate problems, which may help explain the popularity of something called ear candling (or, sometimes, earwax candling). It doesn’t really sound that pleasing, does it? Let’s dive into just what earwax candling is and its dangers.

Ear candling – what is it?

Everyone has had the feeling of a plugged ear now and then. On occasion, your ear will fill with mucus when you’re sick. An excessive amount of earwax can also cause this feeling and that can happen for a variety of reasons. This can sometimes be very uncomfortable. Your hearing may even temporarily go. It’s no fun!

Some individuals, as a result, believe that ear candling is just the cheap and novel fix they need. The concept is to place the non-burning end of a special, hollow candle inside of your ear. Somehow, the mix of heat and the hollow design of the candle changes the air pressure within your ear canal, pulling the earwax or mucus out.

Healthcare professionals absolutely don’t encourage this approach. If you’re looking for proof that ear candling actually works and pulls out wax, you won’t uncover any. Almost every single hearing healthcare professional, as a result, will strongly recommend against utilizing this practice ever. (Does ear candling help with sinus pressure? Also no.)

The FDA also firmly advocates against this practice.

What are the drawbacks of ear candling?

Ear candling might feel safe, initially. It’s just a tiny flame. And the “equipment” is specialized. And individuals on the internet claimed it was safe! So how could it be possible for ear candling to be harmful?

Ear candling can, regrettably, be really dangerous and there’s no way to get around that! What are the side effects of ear candling? Here are just some of the (potentially painful) ways that ear candling can affect your health:

So, do hearing healthcare professionals endorse ear candling? No… not even a little! Not only is ear candling not helpful, it’s actually really dangerous!

A better way to handle earwax

Ear wax is typically rather healthy. It’s helpful for your ears in normal quantities. It’s only when there’s too much earwax (or it isn’t draining well) that you begin to have issues. So what should you do if making use of a candle is a bad plan?

Consult a hearing specialist if you have a persistent earwax blockage. Usually, they will suggest that you try some at-home solutions, such as a saline wash, to soften the wax allowing it to run out on its own. But in some instances, they will perform a cleaning for you.

We can remove the wax safely with specialized tools and training.

It’s best to steer clear of things like ear candles and cotton swabs. Unless your hearing specialist says differently, it’s a good policy to never put anything smaller than your finger in your ear.

How to help your ears feel better

If excess earwax is causing you a little discomfort or distress, you should make an appointment with us. We can help you get back to normal by removing any stubborn earwax.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/health-fraud-scams/ear-candling-ineffective-and-risky

The Truth About Cheap “Hearing Aids”

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:45:00 GMT

There are a couple different ways to interpret the term “cheap hearing aids”. For anyone on a small budget, it means “affordability”. Conversely, it indicates low-quality, turning an apparently economical purchase into a not-so-smart decision, epitomized by the adage “You get what you pay for”.

Unfortunately, deciding if you’re getting a great value from whether you’re getting a very low-quality device can be challenging. This is especially relevant in the realm of hearing aids.

The adage “you get what you pay for” is especially relevant with hearing aids. This means weeding out the devices that are priced in the “too good to be true” range, not necessarily going for the most expensive option. Companies marketing cheap hearing devices often leave out important details about their products that customers should know about.

They typically just amplify sound

Cheap “hearing aids” typically offer limited functionality, mainly amplifying or decreasing overall volume. If you amplify the volume to hear the TV better, you’ll also get background noises including the dishwasher, a fan in a different room, a barking dog, or the sound of your house slippers moving across the floor.

The purpose of having a hearing aid is totally defeated if it also amplifies unwanted sound.

A contemporary state-of-the-art hearing aid, in contrast, does much more than just crank the volume up. It skillfully manages sound, maximizing the clarity of desired sounds while reducing background sound. Authentic hearing aids are tailored to your distinct hearing requirements, closely mimicking natural hearing with better accuracy.

PSAPs vs. Hearing Aids

There are stringent rules about what an advertiser can call a hearing aid as written by the Food and Drug Administration.

Unfortunately, many personal sound amplification products PSAPs are falsely marketed as hearing aids even though they only amplify sound.

There are many legitimate and reputable providers that comply with proper marketing. But you may find some uninformed salespeople or products on Amazon or eBay that deceive consumers into believing that these devices meet the definition of a hearing aid. You might even find some that claim that they are approved by the FDA when that’s actually not true.

They aren’t helpful for the majority of kinds of hearing loss

The majority of individuals who lose their hearing will slowly lose certain frequencies of sound before others. For instance, you may have no trouble hearing a man with a low voice, but struggle with a woman’s or child’s voice, finding it challenging to understand.

You get overall amplification with cheap hearing aids. But just cranking up the total volume will not be sufficient for people who have a difficult time hearing specific frequencies. And turning the overall volume up could result in added damage to your hearing because the frequencies you don’t struggle with will be roaring in your ears.

High-quality hearing aids can be programmed to increase selected frequencies providing a much better solution. They offer a more customized hearing experience by shifting frequencies you can’t hear very well to frequencies you hear better.

You might get a lot of feedback

You won’t get a custom fit with cheap hearing aids. Without that custom fit, you’ll generate a feedback loop. As the speaker in your ear wiggles around, the microphone picks up the sound. This will result in a deafening screech.

They normally don’t have cellphone support

When individuals are looking for a budget-friendly device, they often sacrifice functionality like Bluetooth capability. The absence of Bluetooth becomes critical when considering phone connectivity. Attempting to amplify a cheap hearing aid while on the phone leads to capturing not just the caller’s voice but also the sounds of your ear, lips, clothing, and hair brushing against the phone, making it even more difficult to hear the person on the other end.

More advanced hearing aids are digital and use Bluetooth connectivity to connect directly to your phone. This state-of-the-art feature ensures that when your daughter talks on the other end, her voice is sent directly into your hearing aids, improving clarity and overall communication.

They aren’t designed for people with hearing loss

This could come as a surprise because so many individuals think otherwise. PSAPs were never made for individuals with hearing loss . They were made to amplify sound for people who have relatively good hearing.

If you have very mild hearing loss then cheap devices may help a little. But individuals who actually need hearing aids won’t find these cheaper devices very helpful.

Where can you get quality affordable hearing aids?

Getting affordable quality hearing aids isn’t difficult. They may even be covered by insurance or other third parties. There are also affordable brands, leasing plans, and financing possibilities. The first step is to get a hearing test if you think you might have hearing loss. Schedule an appointment with us so we can help you get the best and most affordable hearing aids for your level and type of hearing loss.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Can You Develop Hearing Loss From Chemotherapy?

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 01:23:00 GMT

There’s nothing that’s good about cancer. As a result, patients receiving cancer treatment will sometimes feel compelled to disregard cancer treatment side effects, such as hearing loss, as trivial. But it’s essential to keep in mind that, for a great many cancer patients, there is life after your disease. And you want that life to be as meaningful and prosperous as possible.

Talking to your healthcare team about controlling and reducing side effects is so significant because of this. You’ll be able to enjoy life after cancer more fully, for instance, if you talk about possible balance and hearing problems that could develop post chemotherapy, with your care team.

Cancer treatment options

Cancer treatment has progressed significantly in the past couple of decades. There are even some vaccines that can stop the development of certain cancers in the first place! But, generally speaking, there are still three basic ways that doctors will fight this serious disease: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

Each treatment method has its own distinctive strengths and drawbacks, and none of them are mutually exclusive. Your care team will use your diagnosis and prognosis to establish the best course of treatment.

Do all cancer treatments lead to hearing and balance issues? Well, every patient is different, but in general, these side effects are limited to chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy – what is it?

Chemotherapy destroys cancer cells with a combination of strong chemicals. Because of its highly successful track record, chemotherapy is frequently the leading treatment option for a wide variety of cancers. But chemotherapy can bring on some really uncomfortable side effects because these chemicals are so powerful. Here are several of these side effects:

Every patient reacts to chemotherapy in their own way. Side effects may also change depending on the specific mix of chemicals used. Some of these side effects are often pretty visible and well known (hair loss, for instance). But not so many individuals are aware of chemotherapy induced hearing loss.

Does chemo bring about hearing loss?

Hearing loss is not the most well recognized chemotherapy side effect. But the reality is that chemotherapy can and does bring about hearing loss. Is related hearing loss irreversible? The answer is frequently yes.

So is there a specific type of chemo that is more likely to cause hearing loss? Platinum-based chemical protocols (also called cisplatin-based chemotherapy) are more commonly responsible for hearing loss side effects. This type of therapy can be used on numerous forms of cancers but is most frequently used to treat head, neck, and gynecological cancers.

Scientists believe that platinum-based chemotherapy chemicals attack and damage the little fragile stereocilia in the ears, but the precise cause-and-effect relationship is still unclear. Over time, this can cause hearing loss, and that hearing loss is usually permanent.

Even if you’re battling cancer, you should still pay attention to hearing loss

Hearing loss might not seem like that much of an issue when you’re battling cancer. But there are significant reasons why your hearing health is important, even in the midst of battling cancer:

Minimizing other health issues while you’re fighting cancer will most likely be a priority, and something you’ll want to speak with your care team about.

So what should you do?

You’re at the doctor’s a lot when you’re battling cancer. But it’s important to add one more appointment to your list: make an appointment with a hearing specialist.

Here are a number of things that seeing a hearing specialist will help with:

So, can hearing loss as a result of chemo be reversed? Regardless of the cause, sensorineural hearing loss has no cure, regrettably. But there are treatment options. Your hearing specialist will be able to help you address and manage your hearing loss. You might need hearing aids or you may simply need your hearing to be monitored.

It’s mostly frequencies in the higher range that go when your hearing loss is caused by chemo. It may not even have any impact on your day-to-day hearing.

Your hearing health is important

Taking good care of your hearing is crucial. If you’re worried about how chemotherapy may impact your hearing, talk to your care team. Your treatment may not be able to be altered but at least you’ll be better able to keep an eye on your symptoms and to get more rapid treatment.

Chemotherapy can trigger hearing loss. But with the correct plan, and a little assistance from your hearing specialist, you’ll be able to get effective treatments that keep you hearing better longer.

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How Can You Tell When it’s Time to Get Hearing Aids?

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 22:36:00 GMT

Recognizing when you require some medical advice is typically pretty easy. When you break your leg, for instance, you know you should go to the doctor (or the emergency room, depending on the scenario). With situations like this, simply “toughing it out” isn’t an option. At least, not for very long (particularly if you want your bones to mend themselves correctly).

It isn’t always that clear cut in terms of hearing aids, though. Hearing loss usually advances really slowly over time. This means it isn’t always easy to know when you may need to begin using hearing aids or to put off seeking treatment you know could be helpful.

So keeping an eye out for indications that your hearing may be going is a good plan. If you observe any, it might be time to talk to us about your first pair of hearing aids.

Hearing loss and hearing aids

Hearing aids are the main form of treatment for hearing loss. But everyone who has some level of hearing loss won’t automatically need hearing aids. In situations where patients have very minor hearing loss, hearing aids won’t always be useful. As a result, we may want you to wait before beginning to use them. It’s also feasible that we could direct you to only wear your hearing aids when you’re in certain situations.

This means that just because you’re diagnosed with hearing loss doesn’t mean you will automatically require hearing aids.

But in many situations hearing aids will be the best answer. Because hearing loss can be a sneaky and slow condition, lots of individuals don’t receive a diagnosis until there’s been considerable damage. Getting your hearing tested regularly is the key to catching hearing loss early and possibly mitigating the need for hearing aids.

And if that’s the case, you’re probably thinking: how can I tell if I require hearing aids?

Indications you need a hearing aid

Hearing loss is one of those conditions that can create instant communication problems. The funny thing, though, is that you don’t always comprehend that those communication obstacles are due to hearing loss. So, when is it time for a hearing aid?

Here are a few of the common signs you should look out for:

So what should you do?

Obviously, you know exactly what you have to do when you break a bone! But what do you do when you begin to detect the symptoms of hearing loss? What degree of hearing loss requires hearing aids? Well, that’s difficult to answer, but when you begin detecting these symptoms, it’s a good plan to schedule an appointment with us. We’ll be able to assess the health of your hearing and ascertain just how severe your hearing loss may or may not be.

And if you do end up needing hearing aids, a hearing assessment will help determine the best device for your hearing needs. Then you will be able to get back to taking pleasure in good conversations with your friends and family members and doing the things you love.

Call us for a hearing exam so we can help you improve your quality of life.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

How to Drive Safely When you’re dealing with Hearing Loss

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 18:52:00 GMT

Hearing loss is a common challenge for older individuals, but does it require giving up driving? Driving habits vary amongst different individuals so the response isn’t straightforward.

Even if some adjustments have to be made to the volume of the radio, hearing loss shouldn’t mean a skilled driver needs to stop driving.

For people who commute frequently the question of whether hearing loss creates a threat while driving is an important consideration. Is your driving becoming hazardous because of hearing loss?

Think beyond driving…

If you are detecting hearing loss, it won’t have a substantial impact on your ability to drive…yet. That day is coming, though, if you choose to just dismiss your decline.

There is a strong connection between hearing health and brain health, as reported by Johns Hopkins Medicine. The brain has to work overtime struggling to hear, which causes it to have fewer resources for other everyday activities. It has a detrimental effect on cognition and can contribute to the onset of dementia. A person suffering from dementia definitely can’t drive.

If you have hearing loss, can you still drive?

Driving requires robust observational skills and some of that is auditory, but that doesn’t mean you can’t drive if you have hearing loss. Among the approximately 48 million Americans who suffer from hearing loss, the majority of them still drive according to the Center for Hearing Communication.

Tips for driving if you have hearing loss

With a few adjustments, you can still stay safe on the road. Here are some tips.

Quit procrastinating

Visit us, have your hearing tested, and think about how hearing aids can help things for you. The question of whether you should be driving can be removed by using hearing aids.

Be a more aware driver

Even with hearing aids, you will still need to be a more aware driver to make sure you’re not missing anything in or surrounding your vehicle.

Don’t let it get too loud in your car

This will let you focus your listening on driving without being distracted. Ask your passengers to chat more quietly and keep the radio down or off.

Keep an eye on your dash lights

When you drive with hearing loss, the little things can add up. For instance, you won’t hear that clicking sound that tells you that your turn signal is blinking. You will have to rely on your eyes to compensate, so get used to checking your dashboard to see what your car is trying to tell you.

Keep your vehicle well maintained

Perhaps your car is making a weird noise in the engine but you can’t hear it. That is a significant safety risk, so make a point of getting your car serviced regularly. That’s a smart plan for most people but a necessity if you are driving with hearing loss.

Pay close attention to other vehicles around you

Obviously, you would do that anyway, but you want to watch for signs you might be missing something. If you see other cars pulling to the side of the road, you should do that as well because you may have missed the sirens. Use the actions of other drivers to get some visual clues about traffic patterns around you.

So is it possible to safely drive when you have hearing loss? It’s really a personal decision. Your other senses will typically adjust to help keep you safe, which means it is possible to drive safely even if your hearing has started to go. If the idea makes you uneasy, though, then it’s time to consult us and find a treatment to improve your situation, like using hearing aids.

Come in and let us help you improve your quality of life by looking at the hearing options that will be appropriate for your unique hearing situation.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Hearing Aids Can Fail in These Three Ways

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 21:18:00 GMT

Have you ever been watching your favorite Netflix show when your internet suddenly disappears? Instead of discovering who won the baking show, you have to watch an endless spinning circle. And so you just wait. Perhaps it’s your modem, could be your router, possibly it’s the internet provider, or maybe it’ll just fix itself. It’s not a great feeling.

Technology can be tremendously frustrating when it doesn’t work properly. The same is certainly true of your hearing aids. When they’re working properly, hearing aids can help you stay connected with the ones you love and better hear co-workers when they talk to you.

But your symptoms of hearing loss can suddenly become extremely frustrating when your hearing aids quit working. The technology you’re depending on has failed you. Why would your hearing aids just quit working? So what should you do? Well, there are three common ways that hearing aids can fail, here’s how you can begin to recognize and troubleshoot those problems.

Hearing aids can often have three common issues

Hearing aids are sophisticated devices. Even still, there are some common problems that individuals with hearing aids may encounter. Let’s have a look at possible causes of these issues and potential fixes.

Whistling and feedback

So, perhaps you’re trying to have a conversation with your family or watch your favorite show and you begin to notice a horrific whistling noise. Or maybe you detect a bit of feedback. And so you think, “Why do I hear whistling in my hearing aids? This is odd”.

Here are three possible issues that could be causing this feedback and whistling:

If these problems are not easily resolvable, it’s worth consulting with us about adjusting the fit or sending your device in for servicing (depending on what we determine the underlying cause of that whistling or feedback might be).

Hearing aids not generating sound

The main purpose of hearing aids is to produce sound. That’s their main function! Something has undoubtedly gone wrong if you can’t hear any sound coming out of your hearing aid. So what could be the explanation when hearing aids work but no sound comes through? Well, there are a couple of things:

If these steps don’t help with your problems, we might have the solution. Whether repair, maintenance, or replacement is your next step, we will be able to help you figure that out.

Painful ears while you’re wearing your hearing aids

Perhaps your hearing aids are fine functionally but they hurt when you put them in. And you’re probably wondering why your hearing aids would make your ears hurt. You’re not as likely to wear your hearing aids on a daily basis if they hurt your ears. So, what could be causing it?

Take your new hearing aid out for a test ride

One of the best ways to prevent possible issues with hearing aids is to take them for a bit of a test drive before you decide. In the majority of instances we’ll let you try out a pair of devices before you decide that’s the pair for you.

As a matter of fact, we can help you figure out the best type of hearing aid for your needs, adjust the fit to match your ears, and help you handle any extended issues you might have with your devices. We will be your resource for any help you need.

And that’s a lot more than you will get with an over-the-counter hearing aid!

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Is it Better to Visit a Hearing Specialist for Hearing Aids?

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 18:58:00 GMT

Individuals are becoming self-reliant more than they ever did. Does your car need some repairs? You can learn how to do that by watching a YouTube video. Is your sink clogged? Again with the YouTube. Want to learn how to do calligraphy? Yup…you guessed it…..YouTube.

You can find any information you might want to learn and self-learning has never been more available. Does that mean you’ll never require a specialist ever again?

Not always. Hearing aids are a practical example. Let’s envision that you develop a need for these handy little devices. Should you run out to Walmart and pick up a set of over-the-counter hearing aids? Although this may make you feel self-sufficient and sound like the easy solution, there are some real downsides. As a matter of fact, going to see a hearing specialist for hearing aids can help make your hearing aids more reliable and more comfortable.

What are the symptoms of hearing loss?

You may think that hearing loss symptoms are fairly self-evident. Things get harder to hear, right? While that may sometimes be the case, in other situations the symptoms can be less evident. Indeed, people frequently miss the symptoms of hearing loss because they’re unsure about what to look for.

Some of the most common symptoms of hearing loss include the following:

Of course, these symptoms are not necessarily the only signs of hearing loss. Everyone’s experience will be somewhat different. But if you are noticing any of these symptoms, it’s a good idea to visit us to get a diagnosis.

Can a diagnosis be useful?

So, you have hearing loss symptoms. Perhaps you should go out to your local box-store and purchase an over-the-counter hearing aid. Well, that would be sort of like buying some corrective glasses without knowing your prescription. It may work in some cases. But knowing more about your condition is really indispensable.

Everybody’s experience of hearing loss is unique and complex. It’s not as if the volume in your ear is merely turned down. Actually, individuals tend to lose their hearing in particular frequency ranges as the stereocilia in the ear become damaged.

And most people don’t even notice it. The brain is quite good at compensating for these things. That’s why a hearing test is often essential. You might not even recognize you have hearing loss but a hearing examination can uncover any you might have. You’ll also have the chance to correctly diagnose which frequencies tend to be fading the quickest (and as a result, you will be in a better position to manage symptoms.)

Visiting a hearing specialist has its advantages

Matching your hearing requirements to the available selection on the shelf will be something you’ll have to do on your own if you go with over-the-counter hearing aids.

But when you go see a hearing specialist, your hearing aids can be tailored to your requirements. We will help you choose the ideal device for your requirements and we will tune it to boost the particular frequency that you’re having difficulty hearing.

Your hearing specialist will also have the following advantages:

Even if you get lucky enough to pick the best hearing aids for you, if don’t have the benefit of a hearing specialist, your hearing experience will most likely be less than optimal.

You will also be better able to manage your hearing loss symptoms with the assistance of a hearing specialist. With the correct strategy, you’ll be much less likely to lose touch with friends or become distant with family because of your hearing loss symptoms. Those connections will be maintained. And that can be exceptionally important.

Not everything has to be DIY

Getting help with your hearing aid doesn’t mean you are in some way less self-sufficient. In fact, it’s actually the opposite. Your self-sufficiency and independence will be improved by using the correct hearing aids.

A hearing specialist can help you diagnose your hearing loss, manage your symptoms, and select the correct device for your requirements.

So call us so that we can help you address your hearing loss.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Understanding Hearing Loss During Pregnancy

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 04:24:00 GMT

It’s an awesome and wonderful experience, having a baby. But when it comes to how it can make you feel, it can be rather unpleasant, at least in some cases. There’s the morning sickness, the changes to your body, the health hazards, and all sorts of weird side effects. None of this takes away from the happiness of being a parent… but it’s a whole undertaking to get there.

And now there’s another potential small drawback to add to the list: hearing loss.

Pregnancy isn’t normally the first thing you think of when someone is talking about hearing loss. But pregnancy-related hearing loss is actually more common than most individuals might presume. It’s not a bad plan to watch out for these symptoms. In some cases, the source of pregnancy-induced hearing loss is innocuous and insignificant. In other cases, the cause is a serious issue and may call for immediate medical attention. Will pregnancy-related hearing loss clear up? Well, it could be, depending on how rapidly you treat it and what the root cause is.

Pregnancy-induced hearing loss symptoms

You generally won’t hear about pregnancy-related hearing loss in pop-culture. It isn’t nearly as cinematic as something like morning sickness. This means that, generally speaking, individuals may be less likely to anticipate pregnancy-related hearing loss. So, it may be useful to know what to look out for.

After all, the symptoms of pregnancy-related hearing loss go beyond cranking up the volume on your television. The most prevalent symptoms include the following:

None of these symptoms are inevitably universal. You will most likely experience some symptoms and not others depending on the underlying cause of your pregnancy-related hearing loss. Either way, it’s a good plan to talk to your doctor if experience any of these hearing loss symptoms. Because these symptoms may be an indication of a more serious issue.

The causes of pregnancy-induced hearing loss

Does being pregnant affect hearing? Sometimes, maybe. But other parts of your body are affected by pregnancy and those parts of your body can then affect your hearing.

So how can pregnancy-induced hearing loss possibly be caused? Well, the causes vary… but some of the most prevalent include:

Sometimes, the cause of your hearing loss could be difficult to determine. Regularly talking to your physician and keeping track of your symptoms is the key here.

How do you treat this form of hearing loss?

Treatment of this kind of hearing loss will likely depend on the root cause. Will my hearing go back to normal? This is the most prevalent question people will have. Once your pregnancy has ended, your hearing should go back to normal, or maybe even sooner.

But it’s also essential to get treatment for any symptoms you detect because getting your hearing back isn’t always certain. For example, if bone growth is obstructing your ear canal, you could require additional treatment. The results will also depend on how fast you get treatment in the case of abrupt sensorineural hearing loss.

For this reason, reporting any symptoms to your doctor is so essential. You may then undergo a comprehensive hearing screening or evaluation to help get to the bottom of your symptoms (or at least rule out any of the more dangerous possible impacts).

Protect your hearing

Safeguarding your hearing is something you should pay attention to especially when you’re pregnant. One of the best ways to do that is to stay in touch with us and with your care team. Schedule a hearing exam with us right away.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Hearing Aids Can Decrease the Danger of Falling

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:35:00 GMT

Kids tend to fall pretty much every day. Taking a tumble on your bicycle? That’s typical. Tripping over your own feet when you’re running outside? Happens every day. It isn’t really a concern because, well, kids are quite limber. They rebound quite easily.

As you grow older though, that becomes less and less true. The older you get, the more concerning a fall can be. One reason for this is that bones break easier and heal slower when you’re older. Older people tend to spend more time on the floor in pain because they have a more difficult time getting back up. Falling is the leading injury-related cause of death as a result.

That’s why tools and devices that can minimize falls are always being sought after by healthcare professionals. New research appears to indicate that we might have determined one such device: hearing aids.

Can falls be caused by hearing loss

If you want to fully grasp how hearing aids could potentially prevent a fall, you need to ask this relevant question: does hearing loss make a fall more likely to begin with? In some cases, it appears that the answer is a strong yes.

So you have to ask yourself, why would the danger of falling be increased by hearing loss?

That link isn’t really that intuitive. After all, hearing loss does not directly impact your ability to move or see. But it turns out there are a few symptoms of hearing loss that do have this kind of direct effect on your ability to move around, and these symptoms can result in an increased danger of falling. Here are a few of those symptoms:

Age is also a consideration when it comes to hearing loss-induced falls. You’re more likely to develop progressing and irreversible hearing loss. That will increase the chance of falling. Consequently, when you get older, falls are more likely to have severe consequences.

How can the risk of falling be reduced by using hearing aids?

It seems logical that hearing aids would be part of the solution when hearing loss is the problem. And new research has confirmed that. Your danger of falling could be decreased by as much as 50% based on one study.

The connection between staying on your feet and hearing loss wasn’t always this evident. In part, that’s because not everybody wears their hearing aids all of the time. So it was inconclusive how frequently hearing aid users were having a fall. This wasn’t because the hearing aids were malfunctioning, it was because individuals weren’t wearing them.

The approach of this study was conducted differently and maybe more accurately. Individuals who used their hearing aids now and then were separated from individuals who wore them all of the time.

So how can you prevent falls by wearing hearing aids? Generally speaking, they keep you more vigilant, more concentrated, and less exhausted. It doesn’t hurt that you have added situational awareness. Many hearing aids also include a feature that can alert the authorities and family members if a fall happens. This can mean you get help faster (this is critical for people 65 or older).

Regularly wearing your hearing aids is the trick here.

Invest in your fall prevention devices today

You will be able to remain close to your loved ones if you use hearing aids, not to mention catch up with friends.

They can also help prevent a fall!

Schedule an appointment with us today if you want to find out more about how your quality of life can be enhanced.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Delving into the Nature of Selective Hearing

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 17:29:00 GMT

You asked for help with one basic task: take out the trash. But, unfortunately, it never was accomplished. “I Didn’t hear you”, they state. Why aren’t you surprised that your partner failed to hear the one thing they needed done? The colloquial term for this is “selective hearing,” and it’s often a sign of failed communication.

This “selective hearing” is often viewed as a sort of character defect. It’s like you’re accusing somebody of purposely not listening. But selective hearing might actually be related to untreated hearing loss rather than a short attention span.

Selective hearing – what is it?

You’ve likely been accused of selective hearing at some point in your life, even if nobody used that particular name. When you miss all the stuff you don’t want to hear but hear everything else, that’s selective hearing. You hear the bit about the chocolate cake, but you don’t hear the part about the calories. That sort of thing.

As a behavior, selective hearing is very common. However, most research points to males failing to hear their partners more frequently than women.

It might be tempting to draw some social conclusions from that (and the way that individuals are socialized certainly does play into how this behavior is contextualized). But hearing health is probably another major factor. Let’s say your “selective hearing” starts to become more prominent or more common. That could actually be an early sign of hearing loss.

Communication can be impacted by hearing loss

Undiagnosed hearing loss can certainly make communication a great deal more difficult. You’re likely not shocked by that.

But here’s the thing: in many cases, communication problems are an indication of hearing loss.

When hearing loss is in those really early stages, there aren’t going to be very many obvious symptoms. Maybe you begin cranking the volume up on your tv. You can’t quite hear what your friend is saying when you go out for a drink at your local pub. It’s most likely because the music is so loud, right? And so, other than that, you could go through most of your everyday life without giving much notice to the volume of the world around you. This lets your hearing gradually deteriorate. You scarcely notice the problem until you’re at the point where you frequently have difficulty hearing conversations.

Your partner is becoming worried about the health of your hearing

You will notice some of the people close to you are starting to be concerned. Yes, selective hearing is a rather common annoyance (even more annoying when you already feel like nobody listens to you). But that frustration often becomes worry when they recognize that hearing loss could be the real culprit.

And your partner may want you to find out what’s going on by having you schedule a hearing test.

Your partner’s concern is relevant and it’s important for you to recognize that. Have an open conversation and consider that they are coming from a place of caring and not just annoyance.

Other early signs of hearing loss

If your selective hearing has become worse over time, it may be worth watching out for some of these other early indications of hearing loss. A few of those signs include:

If you experience any of these symptoms, you should call us for a hearing test.

Use ear protection

It’s essential that you take measures to safeguard your ears in order to prevent hearing loss. Reduce your exposure to noisy settings (or at least wear earmuffs or earplugs when you must be around noise). Hearing aids can also help you have more effective communication, which can smooth over many rough spots that your hearing loss might have caused in the first place.

In most situations throughout your life, selective hearing is going to be an artifact of a diminishing attention span. But when you (or somebody around you) observes your selective hearing becoming worse, you may want to take that as a sign that it’s time to have your hearing checked.

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Tinnitus: The Invisible Condition with a Huge Impact

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 18:21:00 GMT

Invisibility is a very useful power in the movies. Whether it’s a mud-covered hero, a cloaked spaceship, or a sneaky ninja, invisibility allows characters in movies to be more effective and, often, achieve the impossible.

Invisible health conditions, unfortunately, are equally as potent and much less enjoyable. Tinnitus, for example, is a really common condition that impacts the ears. Regardless of how good you might look, there are no outward symptoms.

But for individuals who experience tinnitus, though it may be invisible, the affect could be substantial.

Tinnitus – what is it?

One thing we know for certain about tinnitus is that it can’t be seen. Actually, tinnitus symptoms are auditory in nature, being a condition of the ears. You know that ringing in your ears you often hear after a rock concert or in a really quiet room? That’s tinnitus. Tinnitus is so prevalent that around 25 million individuals experience it daily.

There are many other presentations of tinnitus besides the typical ringing. Noises including humming, whirring, crackling, clicking, and lots of others can manifest. Here’s the common denominator, anyone who has tinnitus is hearing noises that aren’t really there.

For most individuals, tinnitus will be a short-lived affair, it will come and go very quickly. But for somewhere between 2-5 million people, tinnitus is a persistent, sometimes debilitating condition. Sure, it can be somewhat annoying to hear that ringing for a few minutes now and then. But what if that sound never goes away? it’s not hard to see how that might start to substantially impact your quality of life.

What causes tinnitus?

Have you ever had a headache and tried to figure out the cause? Are you getting a cold, are you stressed, or is it an allergic reaction? A number of things can trigger a headache and that’s the challenge. The same is also true of tinnitus, though the symptoms may be common, the causes are widespread.

The cause of your tinnitus symptoms may, in some cases, be obvious. But you may never really know in other cases. Generally speaking, however, tinnitus could be caused by the following:

Treatment will obviously be easier if you can pinpoint the source of your tinnitus symptoms. clearing away a blockage, for instance, will ease tinnitus symptoms if that’s what is causing them. But the cause of their tinnitus symptoms may never be known for some people.

How is tinnitus diagnosed?

If you have ringing in your ears for a few minutes and then it subsides, it’s not really something that needs to be diagnosed (unless it occurs frequently). That said, it’s never a bad strategy to come see us to schedule a hearing evaluation.

But you should absolutely make an appointment with us if your tinnitus won’t go away or if it keeps coming back. We will perform a hearing screening, talk to you about your symptoms and how they’re affecting your life, and perhaps even discuss your medical history. Your symptoms can then be diagnosed using this information.

How is tinnitus treated?

Tinnitus isn’t a condition that can be cured. But it can be addressed and it can be controlled.

If you’re taking a particular medication or have an underlying medical condition, your symptoms will improve when you deal with the underlying cause. But there will be no known root condition to treat if you’re dealing with chronic tinnitus.

For individuals with chronic tinnitus then, the goal is to manage your symptoms and help ensure your tinnitus doesn’t negatively impact your quality of life. There are lots of things that we can do to help. Among the most common are the following:

The treatment plan that we formulate will be custom-designed to your specific tinnitus needs. Helping you get back to enjoying your life by controlling your symptoms is the objective here.

What should you do if you’re dealing with tinnitus?

Even though tinnitus can’t be seen, it shouldn’t be ignored. Your symptoms will probably get worse if you do. It’s better to get ahead of your symptoms because you may be able to stop them from getting worse. At the very least, you should invest in hearing protection for your ears, make sure you’re wearing ear plugs or ear muffs whenever you are around loud noises.

If you’re struggling with tinnitus, contact us, we can help.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

4 Ways Hearing Loss Could Impact Your General Health

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 23:20:00 GMT

Aging is one of the most common indicators of hearing loss, and let’s face it, try as we may, we can’t avoid aging. You can do some things to look younger but you’re still aging. But you may not be aware that several treatable health conditions have also been related to hearing loss. Here’s a look at a few examples, #2 might come as a surprise.

1. Your hearing can be affected by diabetes

The fact that hearing loss and diabetes have a connection is fairly well recognized. But why would diabetes put you at an increased risk of suffering from hearing loss? Well, science doesn’t have all the answers here. Diabetes is linked to a wide range of health problems, and in particular, can cause physical damage to the eyes, kidneys, and extremities. Blood vessels in the inner ear might, theoretically, be getting damaged in a similar way. But overall health management might also be a consideration. A 2015 study that looked at U.S. military veterans underscored the link between hearing loss and diabetes, but specifically, it found that those with uncontrolled diabetes, in other words, individuals who are not controlling their blood sugar or alternatively treating the disease, suffered worse consequences. It’s important to get your blood sugar checked if you suspect you might have undiagnosed diabetes or are prediabetic. And, it’s a good plan to get in touch with us if you think your hearing might be compromised.

2. Increased risk of falling associated with hearing loss

Why would having a hard time hearing cause a fall? Our sense of balance is, to some degree, regulated by our ears. But there are other reasons why falls are more likely if you have hearing loss. Individuals with hearing loss who have had a fall were the subjects of a recent study. Although this study didn’t explore what had caused the subjects’ falls, the authors suspected that having difficulty hearing what’s around you (and missing important sounds such as a car honking) could be one issue. But it might also go the other way, if difficulty hearing means you’re paying more attention to sounds than to your surroundings, it could be easy to stumble and fall. The good news here is that managing hearing loss could potentially decrease your risk of having a fall.

3. Manage high blood pressure to protect your hearing

High blood pressure and hearing loss have been closely linked in some studies indicating that high blood pressure might accelerate hearing loss related to the aging process. Clearly, this isn’t the kind of comforting news that makes your blood pressure drop. Even when variables like noise exposure or smoking are taken into account, the link has persistently been found. (You should never smoke!) Gender seems to be the only significant variable: If you’re a man, the connection between high blood pressure and hearing loss is even stronger.

Your ears have a very close relation to your circulatory system. Along with the many tiny blood vessels inside of your ear, two of the body’s main arteries run right by it. This is one reason why people with high blood pressure often suffer from tinnitus, the pulsing they’re hearing is actually their own blood pumping. That’s why this kind of tinnitus is called pulsatile tinnitus; you hear your pulse. The primary theory why high blood pressure can bring about hearing loss is that it can actually do physical harm to the vessels in the ears. Every beat of your heart will have more pressure if it’s pumping blood harder. That could potentially damage the smaller blood arteries in your ears. Through medical intervention and lifestyle change, blood pressure can be managed. But if you suspect you’re experiencing hearing loss, even if you believe you’re not old enough for the age-related stuff, it’s a good idea to speak with us.

4. Hearing loss and dementia

It’s scary stuff, but it’s significant to mention that while the link between hearing loss and cognitive decline has been well documented, scientists have been less productive at figuring out why the two are so powerfully connected. A common theory is that having difficulty hearing can cause people to stay away from social situations and that social withdrawal, and lack of cognitive stimulation, can be debilitating. Another concept is that hearing loss overloads your brain. When your brain is working overtime to process sound, there might not be very much brainpower left for things like memory. Playing “brain games” and keeping your social life intact can be really helpful but the number one thing you can do is treat your hearing loss. If you’re able to hear clearly, social scenarios are easier to handle, and you’ll be able to focus on the important stuff instead of attempting to figure out what somebody just said.

Schedule an appointment with us as soon as possible if you suspect you may be experiencing hearing loss.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3889339/

AI and Hearing Aids – the Synergy

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 03:00:00 GMT

When someone talks about artificial intelligence (AI), it might arouse thoughts of your favorite sci-fi movie. But today, AI is a reality that we all need to get used to. This is particularly true with regard to hearing aids. Gone is the time of one-size-fits-all hearing aids that merely increase the volume of sounds around you. Modern-day, high-end hearing aids use AI.

Artificial intelligence – what exactly is it?

AI is a complex computer algorithm that utilizes data inputs to produce new results. AI is able to use an algorithm to take part in a type of learning known as “machine learning”. With AI the user doesn’t have to program every individual result because the algorithm does that by itself.

In the case of hearing aids, AI algorithms can help your hearing aids adapt to your personal needs based on your behaviors, lifestyle, habits, and degree of hearing loss. This makes your hearing aid more effective at improving your hearing.

How can AI help hearing aids work more effectively?

At first, this may seem a little abstract. Hearing aids do seem to have a basic function, after all. How can adding AI to the mix improve things? Well, you know that row of big dials and buttons that people use to mix music in recording studios? (Perhaps you’ve seen them in movies.) There’s a little tiny one of those inside of your hearing aid. Better audio quality can be attained by adjusting these settings. AI-powered hearing aids change these digital dials and switches automatically, enhancing how you hear without any effort by you.

These smart devices use a deep neural network to re-create human brain responses. As a result of this, these hearing aids react in real-time to conditions without being programmed to do so.

This may sound like space-age science, but it’s the same fundamental technology that allows streaming services to recommend programming according to your viewing history. Newer cars use this technology to help you drive more safely and your email supplier utilizes it to auto-sort emails into your inbox. The more you use these devices, the more reliable they become at making proper decisions.

New advances in AI hearing aids

Hearing aids nowadays are helping you hear even better with new advancements in AI technology. Here are a few of the best examples:

Hearing aid makers and scientists are continuously innovating new hearing aid technologies, so this may be just the beginning.

AI for the field of audiology

AI has become somewhat of a buzzword these days. Depending on the application, AI does different things, which can sometimes lead to confusion. So, what does AI mean for the discipline of audiology?

Making hearing aids even more helpful for patients is one of the first and most obvious things that researchers are working on. This research includes new technologies, like deep neural networks and machine learning. But hearing aids aren’t the whole story. Helping patients hear better and even diagnosing hearing loss are some things that AI will likely do in the future.

As the technology develops and becomes more reliable, patients can expect to see artificial intelligence in more of their devices.

The advantages of AI-assisted hearing aids

AI is being integrated into hearing aids not because it’s the hot new fad, in contrast to other industries. These machine learning algorithms offer some considerable advantages to patients. Among those benefits are the following:

What this means for patients

For individuals who use AI-assisted hearing aids these benefits frequently lead to real-world advantages. Imagine you are having a discussion at a party. An older hearing aid would raise the volume on everything. And sadly, background noise also gets boosted making it impossible to hear voices. An AI hearing aid is intelligent and will be capable of identifying and boosting a person’s voice while dulling undesired noise.

AI will create a location-by-location algorithm to address the various types of sounds it picks up. These algorithms help when you go back to a particular location or sound profile. Other hearing aids with AI are programmed with everyday sounds in order to better identify and amplify important sounds.

Some of the other practical advantages of AI-assisted hearing aids include the following:

In other words, it’ll be easier to hear your favorite shows, hang out with your favorite people, and take care of your favorite brain.

Cost vs. reward

Due to the costs, AI wasn’t available in the majority of hearing aids until recently. An algorithm is, after all, a complex math equation. But prices are decreasing, partly due to the prevalence of the technology.

This doesn’t mean that every hearing aid you want might have AI, or even that those hearing aids will necessarily be less costly in the near future. Clearly, patients will still have to make important decisions. However, it does mean that these AI-assisted features are becoming more common and more readily available.

Deciding what’s best for you

Hearing aids with AI may be overkill for someone who lives by themselves and stays put a lot. But AI makes a big difference for individuals who are socially involved and go out into noisy situations a lot.

Hearing aids with AI are also helpful for somebody who is rapidly worn out in social situations where the task of keeping up with conversations using a traditional hearing aid is fatiguing. AI-powered hearing aids decrease the listener’s fatigue and make social situations more enjoyable. AI technology can also send alerts to your phone when the doorbell rings, alert others that you have fallen, and track your steps. Hearing aids will continue to improve as AI technology improves.

Want to find out how AI hearing aids can work for you? Make an appointment with us right away.

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Maybe You’re Grumpy Because of Hearing Loss

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:52:00 GMT

You’re not quite sure why, but you’ve been feeling moody lately. Well, you did feel left out earlier today when no one bothered to pull you into the meeting discussion at the office and that was annoying. Your daughter got up and suddenly left the house after becoming irritated when you kept asking her to turn the TV volume up. Why would she do that?

Maybe the real problem is hearing loss!

Hearing loss is a problem for roughly 40 million people in the US and can sneak up on you with age. And the problem goes beyond only your ears. Research shows that even mild hearing loss puts you at risk for memory problems, dementia, and even depression. What you might think is merely a sign of age, may actually be a treatable medical condition. Maybe, your co-workers didn’t exclude you from the conversation after all, perhaps you missed critical conversational queues because you couldn’t hear them. Honestly, it can be very frustrating when you can’t hear during your day-to-day life.

Get the facts about hearing loss

A good place to start is discovering more about what you’re coping with. Hearing loss does happen to lots of people as a result of the aging process. But years of exposure to excessively loud sound can also be the cause for others. Noise-related hearing loss can be caused by many noise sources, such as mowing the lawn and leaf blowing, listening to loud music, and driving in loud traffic with the window down. The world is full of potentially ear-damaging sound that can erode the delicate mechanisms that help you hear.

Long-term diseases that become more common with age are a potential factor as well. When you have disorders that cause issues with your blood pressure, your inner ear can become damaged.

Recognize the signs

People generally don’t recognize when their hearing begins to go because hearing is often taken for granted:

Obviously, you’d be grumpy if you’ve been struggling with any of these signs! Feeling separated from your world can cause depression and even social solitude.

Managing hearing loss

Begin by asking a family member or a loved one if they have seen you struggling to hear conversations or if you say “What?” a little too frequently. It may seem like a difficult discussion but it’s a really important one. A hearing exam should be next on your list, particularly if people have observed you having a difficult time hearing. Try to get a family member to go along with you to your appointment. It can be helpful to have a calm and supportive presence with you.

Your hearing exam will not only help to confirm your hearing loss but it will also gauge the degree of it. If hearing loss is identified, we will advise the next strategy for you based on the results of the exam. In the majority of instances, that will involve getting hearing aids. You’ll definitely be able to get a set of hearing aids that will best fit your lifestyle since there are so many styles and options to choose from.

How to choose quality hearing aids

Everybody’s hearing loss is unique and we will help you figure out what treatment will be best for yours. Take some to time find the right brand and model for your needs, this may require testing several styles and models. Today’s hearing aids do lots more than just amplify sound. They can block out background noises, connect to smartphones and computers, and even determine the direction that sound is coming from. Do some research to determine which brands and models come with the features that will best fit your lifestyle and requirements.

Think about the style you want for your hearing aids, also. They come in lots of fashionable colors or with no color at all, so they are nearly invisible.

If you think you’re suffering from hearing loss, make an appointment with our qualified hearing specialists today. It’s time to get out of that grumpy mindset and we can help!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References
https://www.ncoa.org/adviser/hearing-aids/hearing-loss-america/

Stay Tuned in to the Sounds of Life by Getting Regular Hearing Exams

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 21:19:00 GMT

Hearing loss is often a gradual process, making it easy to disregard the subtle changes in your ability to perceive sounds. Unlike children, who get regular hearing tests in school, adults hardly ever even think of scheduling an appointment. You wouldn’t disregard a decline in your eyesight, so why wouldn’t you track the health of your hearing?

It’s worthwhile to get regular hearing tests, here are six reasons why:

Getting answers

Your physical safety, emotional well-being, and social life are some of the far-reaching consequences of neglected hearing loss. Hearing aids can significantly improve your hearing and total quality of life, letting you fully participate in conversations, enjoy social gatherings, and stay alert to important sounds in your environment.

Don’t miss out on the sound of a loved one’s voice, the laughter of a grandchild, or an important work meeting.

Make an appointment for a hearing test with us right away to safeguard your hearing health and rediscover the sounds that enhance your life.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Can Your Ears be Harmed by Earbuds?

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 00:41:00 GMT

Have you ever lost your earbuds? (Or, perhaps, unintentionally left them in the pocket of a sweatshirt that went through the laundry?) Suddenly, your morning jog is so much more boring. You have a dull and dreary train ride to work. And the sound quality of your virtual meetings suffers considerably.

Sometimes, you don’t realize how valuable something is until you have to live without it (yes, we are not being discreet around here today).

So you’re so relieved when you finally get a working pair of earbuds. The world is suddenly dynamic again, full of music, podcasts, and crystal clear sound. Earbuds are all over the place right now, and people use them for so much more than only listening to their favorite tunes (though, of course, they do that too).

Unfortunately, in part because they’re so easy and so common, earbuds present some considerable risks for your hearing. Your hearing might be in danger if you’re wearing earbuds a lot every day.

Why earbuds are different

It used to be that if you wanted high-quality sound from a set of headphones, you’d have to use a bulky, cumbersome set of over-the-ear cans (yes, “cans” is slang for headphones). That’s not necessarily the situation anymore. Contemporary earbuds can provide fantastic sound in a very small space. Back throughout the 2010s, smartphone manufacturers popularized these little devices by offering a pair with every new smartphone purchase (amusing enough, they’re rather rare nowadays when you buy a new phone).

In part because these sophisticated earbuds (with microphones, even) were so easily accessible, they began showing up all over the place. Whether you’re taking calls, listening to tunes, or watching movies, earbuds are one of the main ways to do that (whether you are on the go or not).

It’s that mixture of convenience, mobility, and reliability that makes earbuds useful in a wide variety of contexts. As a result, many consumers use them pretty much all the time. And that’s become a bit of a problem.

Vibrations are what it’s all about

Basically, phone calls, music, or podcasts are all the same. They’re simply air molecules being moved by waves of pressure. It’s your brain that does all the heavy lifting of interpreting those vibrations, grouping one type of vibration into the “music” category and another into the “voice” category.

Your inner ear is the intermediary for this process. There are tiny hairs along your ear that vibrate when exposed to sound. These are not big vibrations, they’re tiny. These vibrations are recognized by your inner ear. At that point, you have a nerve in your ear that converts those vibrations into electrical impulses, and that’s what allows your brain to figure it all out.

This is significant because it’s not music or drums that cause hearing damage, it’s volume. So whether you’re listening to NPR or Death Metal, the risk is exactly the same.

What are the risks of using earbuds?

Because of the popularity of earbuds, the risk of hearing damage due to loud noise is fairly prevalent. According to one study, over 1 billion young individuals are at risk of developing hearing loss across the globe.

On an individual level, when you use earbuds at high volume, you increase your risk of:

There may be a greater risk with earbuds than conventional headphones, according to some evidence. The reason might be that earbuds direct sound right to the most sensitive components of the ear. Some audiologists believe this while others still aren’t convinced.

Either way, volume is the biggest factor, and both kinds of headphones can deliver hazardous levels of that.

Duration is also an issue besides volume

Maybe you think there’s a simple solution: I’ll just turn down the volume on my earbuds as I binge my new favorite show for 24 episodes in a row. Obviously, this would be a good idea. But it may not be the complete answer.

The reason is that it’s not simply the volume that’s the problem, it’s the duration. Modest volume for five hours can be just as harmful as max volume for five minutes.

When you listen, here are some ways to keep it safer:

Your ears can be stressed by using headphones, particularly earbuds. So try to cut your ears some slack. After all, sensorineural hearing loss doesn’t (typically) happen suddenly; it occurs slowly and over time. The majority of the time individuals don’t even recognize that it’s happening until it’s too late.

There is no cure and no way to reverse sensorineural hearing loss

Usually, NHIL, or noise-related hearing loss, is permanent. When the stereocilia (small hair-like cells in your ears that detect sound) get damaged by too much exposure to loud sound, they can never be restored.

The damage accumulates slowly over time, and it usually begins as very limited in scope. That can make NIHL difficult to recognize. You may think your hearing is just fine, all the while it’s gradually getting worse and worse.

Unfortunately, NIHL cannot be cured or reversed. But strategies (hearing aids most notably) do exist that can mitigate the impact sensorineural hearing loss can have. These treatments, however, are not able to counter the damage that’s been done.

This means prevention is the best approach

That’s why so many hearing specialists place a considerable focus on prevention. Here are several ways to continue to listen to your earbuds while lowering your risk of hearing loss with good prevention practices:

You will be able to protect your sense of hearing for many years by taking measures to prevent hearing loss, particularly NHIL. And, if you do end up needing treatment, such as hearing aids, they will be more effective.

So… are earbuds the enemy?

So does all this mean you should find your nearest pair of earbuds and chuck them in the garbage? Well, no. Not at all! Brand-name earbuds can get costly.

But it does mean that, if you’re listening to earbuds on a regular basis, you might want to consider varying your strategy. You might not even recognize that your hearing is being damaged by your earbuds. Knowing the danger, then, is your best defense against it.

Step one is to moderate the volume and duration of your listening. The second step is to talk to us about the state of your hearing right away.

If you think you might have damage caused by overuse of earbuds, call us right away! We Can Help!

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Sudden Hearing Loss: Act Fast to Save Your Hearing

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 21:39:00 GMT

Hearing loss has a reputation for developing gradually. This can make the symptoms easy to miss. (After all, you’re simply turning up the volume on your television now and then, it’s nothing to worry about, right?) That’s normally the situation, yes, but not always. It turns out hearing loss can also happen abruptly and without much warning.

When our health abruptly changes, it tends to get our attention (one might even describe the feeling as “alarm”). For example, if your hair falls out a little bit at a time, it’s no big deal, you’re just balding! But you would most likely want to make an appointment with your doctor if you woke up one morning and all your hair had fallen out.

When you suddenly develop hearing loss, it’s the same thing. When this occurs, acting fast is important.

What is sudden hearing loss?

Sudden hearing loss (sometimes referred to as sudden deafness or sudden sensorineural hearing loss, or simply SSHL for short) isn’t usually as prevalent as the longer-term kind of hearing loss most individuals encounter. But sudden hearing loss is not exactly rare, either. Around 1 in 5000 people a year are afflicted by SSHL.

Here are a few symptoms of sudden hearing loss:

If you experience SSHL, you may be questioning: is sudden deafness permanent? Well, around half of everyone who experiences SSHL will recover within a couple of weeks. But prompt treatment is a significant key to success. So you will need to come see us for treatment right away. You should make an appointment within 72 hours of the start of your symptoms.

The best thing to do, in most instances, is to treat SSHL as a medical emergency. Your risk of sudden hearing loss becoming permanent increases the longer you wait.

What’s the cause of sudden hearing loss?

Some of the leading causes of sudden hearing loss include the following:

The majority of the time, we will be better capable of helping you formulate an effective treatment if we can figure out what type of sudden hearing loss you’re dealing with. But this isn’t always the case. Many types of SSHL are treated similarly, so knowing the exact cause isn’t always necessary for successful treatment.

What should you do if you have sudden hearing loss?

So, if you wake up in the morning and suddenly discover you can’t hear anything, what should you do? Well, there are some important steps you should take immediately. Never just try to play the waiting game. That’s a bad plan! You should wait no longer than 72 hours to get treatment. Getting in touch with us for immediate treatment is the smartest plan. We’ll be able to help you determine what went wrong and help you find the best course of treatment.

We will probably perform an audiogram in our office to determine your level of hearing loss (this is a totally non-invasive test where you wear some headphones and raise your hand when you hear a beep). We can make certain you don’t have an obstruction or a conductive issue.

For most individuals, the first course of treatment will likely include steroids. For some people, these steroids could be injected directly into the ear. In other situations, pills may be able to generate the desired effects. Steroids have been known to be quite effective in treating SSHL with a large number of root causes (or with no known root cause). You might need to use a medication to inhibit your immune response if your SSHL is due to an autoimmune disease.

If you or somebody you know has suddenly lost the ability to hear, call us right away for an assessment..

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Why is it Essential to Know How Users Feel About Their Hearing Aids?

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 17:24:00 GMT

The majority of people who use hearing aids are satisfied with their experience: 91% of hearing aid users are happy with the hearing aid experience when talking one-on-one, as reported by a recent survey. When processing results with particular activities, 75% were satisfied in a restaurant or on the phone, 78% were satisfied while in the supermarket, and 85% were satisfied watching TV or in a group.

For a sophisticated device like a hearing aid, these are some incredibly positive results. But we have to ask, what are the other 9%, 15%, and 25% experiencing? What makes them less satisfied with their hearing devices?

Individuals with hearing aids have some good and some bad things to convey about them. (We can easily fix the majority of the bad stuff and that’s the good news!)

If you love your hearing aid, this article will make you love it even more. If you’re not as satisfied with it as wish you were, we’ll explore what to do about it.

1. I feel more connected

People who have had their ability to hear restored with a hearing aid frequently feel reconnected with people around them . Their energy levels are higher. They feel like they can better participate and remain active.

They find their days filled with less frustration over their inability to hear. Because they don’t have to struggle to hear what people are saying, they feel less fatigued.

People are typically happiest when they feel connected to others and their world, and for many wearing a hearing aid makes this possible.

2. They may sound distorted initially

Modern hearing aids are digital. They don’t only make sounds louder, they have lots of settings to help you hear best in a variety of places. That’s why people may be so satisfied in a one-on-one conversation but dissatisfied in a restaurant or on the phone.

Hearing aids aren’t difficult to learn to use. But getting used to them will take a little practice.

3. I needed help finding out how to use my hearing aid

A common misunderstanding about hearing aids is that it’s a one-size-fits-all solution. People might leave the office with the misconception that the sound won’t get any better, which could prompt them not to wear them.

You may not even realize how complex hearing loss is. Hearing aids are designed to address various types and degrees of hearing loss by transforming the way sound enters the ear.

When you are in the office, we will perform a thorough hearing aid fitting. It’s strongly suggested that you practice using your hearing aid by chatting with a friend initially.

Talk with us if you’re still having trouble after a couple of weeks. We can help you have a better comprehension of how your settings work and we can probably make some fine adjustments for you.

4. Without healthy hearing, you forgot what you were missing

Do you remember what a playful whisper sounds like? What about gentle laughter? What about soft music, birds singing, wind chimes, or the wind? Maybe you can’t recollect what children playing sounds like, or you’ve forgotten the sound of the delicate breathing of your significant other.

Many individuals who get a hearing aid communicate that it’s a nice surprise to suddenly hear these small things that they had forgotten about . It means so much to have these sounds restored, it lets them again experience the fullness and grandeur of the world around them.

5. It took some time to get used to my hearing aids

You likely weren’t at first comfortable with your first pair of shoes when you were a toddler. But now, of course, you’re completely comfortable with them. It might take time to get used to a new hat or a new watch, in a similar way.

Our bodies are designed to feel discomfort when something seems out of place, like a hearing aid going into your outer ear. Eventually, when the body understands that it’s not threatened, it will become accustomed to and comfortable with the new device.

6. I wish I would have purchased my hearing aids sooner

People who put in the time to get used to their hearing aids wouldn’t go back. They typically feel disappointed about putting off for so long and they would never trade the benefits of being able to hear.

Among those now wearing them who had trouble at first, say they’re so glad they stuck with it. It’s made their life a great deal more enriched.

Improved hearing should be the drive

If you aren’t having the ideal experience with your hearing aid, don’t quit. The effort and the time will be worth it. It will become automatic before too long.

Let us know about what you’re experiencing with your hearing aids. We can help you adjust your hearing aids in a faster and more efficient way. Experiencing all that life has to offer with restored hearing is worth the patients.

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These 5 Enjoyable Tips Can Help You Enhance Mental Function

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 17:42:00 GMT

As your body ages, it isn’t difficult to notice the changes. Your skin begins to get some wrinkles. Your hair turns gray (or falls out). Your joints begin to get stiff. Some sagging of the skin begins to happen in certain places. Maybe your eyesight and your hearing both begin to fade a bit. It’s pretty hard not to notice these changes.

But it’s harder to see how aging affects your mind. You might find that you’re having to note important events on the calendar because you’re having trouble with your memory. Maybe you find yourself spacing out more and missing significant events. The difficulty is that this type of cognitive decline takes place so slowly and gradually that you may never notice it. And that hearing decline can be exacerbated by the psychological effects.

As you age, there are, luckily, some exercises you can do to help your brain remain clear. Even better, these exercises can be utterly fun!

What is the connection between hearing and mental cognition

There are numerous reasons why people will gradually lose their hearing as they age. This can contribute to a higher risk of cognitive decline. So what is the connection between cognitive decline and hearing loss? There are several hidden risk factors as revealed by research.

So is dementia the result of hearing loss? Well, indirectly. But neglected hearing loss can increase your risk of mental decline, up to and including dementia. Those risks, however, can be seriously decreased by getting hearing loss treated. And those risks can be decreased even more by boosting your overall brain function or cognition. Think of it as a little bit of preventative medicine.

How to improve cognitive function

So how do you accomplish giving your brain the workout it needs to strengthen mental function? Well, as with any other part of your body, the amount and type of exercise you do go a long way. So improve your brain’s sharpness by engaging in some of these fun activities.

Gardening

Growing your own vegetables and fruits is a tasty and gratifying hobby. A unique mix of deep thinking and hard work, gardening can also improve your cognitive function. Here are some reasons why:

As an added bonus, you get healthy fruits and vegetables from your hobby. Of course, not all gardens have to be focused on food. You can grow flowers, wild grasses, cacti, or anything your green thumb desires!

Arts and crafts

You don’t have to be artistically inclined to enjoy arts and crafts. You can make a simple sculpture using popsicle sticks. Or you can get started with pottery and make a cool clay pot! It’s the process that is important with regard to exercising the brain, not as much the particular medium. That’s because arts and crafts (drawing, sculpting, building) cultivate your imagination, your critical thinking skills, and your sense of aesthetics.

Arts and crafts can be good for your cognitive ability because:

Whether you pick up a paint-by-numbers kit or draft your own original fine art piece, your talent level isn’t really relevant. The most important thing is keeping your mind sharp by engaging your imagination.

Swimming

There are a number of ways that swimming can help you stay healthy. Plus, it’s always fun to jump into the pool (especially when it’s so unrelentingly hot outside). But swimming isn’t just good for your physical health, it also has mental health advantages.

Your brain has to be engaged in things like spatial awareness when you’re swimming in the pool. After all, you don’t want to collide with anyone else in the pool!

Your mind also has to be aware of rhythms. When will you need to come up for a breath of air when you’re under water? Things like that. Even if this type of thinking is occurring in the background of your mind, it’s still excellent mental exercise. Plus, physical activity of any sort can really help get blood to the brain pumping, and that can be good at helping to slow down mental decline.

Meditation

Just a little time for you and your mind. As your thoughts become calm, your sympathetic nervous system also gets calm. These “mindfulness” meditation methods are made to help you concentrate on your thinking. Meditation can help:

You can become even more conscious of your mental faculties by doing meditation.

Reading

It’s good for you to read! And even better than that, it’s fun. A book can take you anywhere according to that old saying. In a book, you can go anywhere, like outer space, ancient Egypt, or the bottom of the ocean. Consider all the brain power that is involved in generating these imaginary landscapes, following a story, or visualizing characters. This is how reading activates a huge part of your brain. Reading isn’t possible without engaging your imagination and thinking a lot.

As a result, reading is one of the best ways to sharpen your thinking. You have to use your memory to monitor the story, your imagination to picture what’s happening, and you get a pleasant dose of serotonin when you finish your book!

What you read doesn’t actually make a difference, fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, so long as you spend some time each day reading and building your brainpower! And, for the record, audiobooks are basically as effective as reading with your eyes.

Improve your cognition by getting your hearing loss managed

Even if you do everything correctly, neglected hearing loss can continue to increase your risks of cognitive decline. But if you don’t have your hearing loss treated, even if you do all of these things, it will still be a difficult fight.

When you do get your hearing managed (usually thanks to a hearing aid or two), all of these fun brain exercises will help boost your cognition. Improving your memory, your thinking, and your social skills.

Are you suffering from hearing loss? Call us today to make an appointment for a hearing test and reconnect to life!

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How to Interpret Your Hearing Test or Audiogram

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 17:18:00 GMT

Measuring hearing loss is more technical than it may seem at first. You can probably hear certain things clearly at lower volumes but not others. You may confuse certain letters like “S” or “B”, but hear other letters perfectly fine at whatever volume. It will become more apparent why you notice inconsistencies with your hearing when you learn how to interpret your hearing test. Because simply turning up the volume isn’t enough.

How do I read the results of my audiogram?

Hearing professionals will be able to get a read on the state of your hearing by utilizing this type of hearing test. It won’t look as straightforward as a scale from one to ten. (Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it did!)

Many people find the graph format challenging at first. But if you are aware of what you’re looking at, you too can interpret the results of your audiogram.

Reading volume on an audiogram

On the left side of the chart is the volume in Decibels (dB) from 0 (silent) to around 120 (thunder). This number will identify how loud a sound has to be for you to be able to hear it. Higher numbers signify that in order for you to hear it, you will need louder sound.

If you’re unable to hear any sound until it reaches about 30 dB then you’re dealing with mild hearing loss which is a loss of volume between 26 and 45 dB. You have moderate hearing loss if your hearing starts at 45-65 dB. Hearing loss is severe if your hearing starts at 66-85 dB. If you are unable to hear sound until it gets up to 90 dB or more (louder than the volume of a running lawnmower), it means that you have profound hearing loss.

Examining frequency on a audiogram

You hear other things besides volume also. You hear sound at different frequencies, commonly called pitches in music. Different types of sounds, including letters of the alphabet, are distinguished by frequency or pitch.

Frequencies that a human ear can hear, ranging from 125 (lower than a bullfrog) to 8000 (higher than a cricket), are normally listed along the bottom of the graph.

We will check how well you hear frequencies in between and can then plot them on the chart.

So if you’re dealing with hearing loss in the higher wavelengths, you may need the volume of high frequency sounds to be as high as 60 dB (the volume of somebody talking at an elevated volume). The volume that the sound needs to reach for you to hear each frequency varies and will be plotted on the graph.

Why tracking both volume and frequency is so significant

Now that you know how to read your hearing test, let’s have a look at what those results might mean for you in real life. Here are a few sounds that would be tougher to hear if you have the very prevalent form of high frequency hearing loss:

While a person with high-frequency hearing loss has more difficulty with high-frequency sounds, certain frequencies might seem easier to hear than others.

Inside of the inner ear tiny stereocilia (hair-like cells) shake in response to sound waves. If the cells that pick up a specific frequency become damaged and eventually die, you lose your ability to hear that frequency at lower volumes. If all of the cells that pick up that frequency are damaged, then you completely lose your ability to hear that frequency regardless of volume.

Interacting with others can become very aggravating if you’re dealing with this type of hearing loss. You might have difficulty only hearing certain frequencies, but your family members might assume they have to yell in order for you to hear them at all. In addition, those with this kind of hearing impairment find background noise overpowers louder, higher-frequency sounds like your sister talking to you in a restaurant.

We can use the hearing test to personalize hearing solutions

We will be able to custom tune a hearing aid for your particular hearing needs once we’re able to comprehend which frequencies you’re not able to hear. In modern digital hearing aids, if a frequency enters the hearing aid’s microphone, the hearing aid immediately knows if you can hear that frequency. The hearing aid can be fine tuned to boost whatever frequency you’re having trouble hearing. Or it can alter the frequency through frequency compression to a different frequency you can hear. Additionally, they can enhance your ability to process background noise.

Modern hearing aids are programmed to target your particular hearing requirements instead of just turning up the volume on all frequencies, which creates a smoother listening experience.

If you think you may be dealing with hearing loss, call us and we can help.

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Can’t Hear Well While You’re Working? You Might be Missing More Than You Know

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 20:17:00 GMT

Imagine for a minute you’re a salesperson. Now imagine that you have a call scheduled today with a very valuable client. Numerous representatives from their offices have come together to discuss whether to employ your company for the job. As the call goes on, voices rise and fall…and are sometimes difficult to hear. But you’re quite certain you got the gist of it.

Turning the speaker up just makes it sound more distorted. So you simply do your best, interpreting what’s being said the best you can. You’re really good at that.

As you try to listen, the voices sound particularly muffled for around a minute. Then all of a sudden you hear, “so what can your company do to help us with this”?”

You panic. You have no clue what their company’s problem is because you didn’t hear the last portion of the discussion. This is your contract and your boss is depending on you. So now what?

Do you request they repeat themselves? They’ll think you were distracted. What about resorting to some slick sales jargon? No, they’ll see right through that.

Every single day, people everywhere are dealing with scenarios like this at work. Sometimes, they try to pretend they’re fine and wing it.

So in general, how is your work being affected by your hearing loss? The following can help us find out.

Unequal pay

The Better Hearing Institute questioned 80,000 people utilizing the same technique the Census Bureau uses to get a representative sampling.

People who have disregarded hearing loss earn, on average, $12,000 less per year.

That doesn’t seem fair!

We could dig deep to try to figure out what the cause is, but as the example above demonstrates, hearing loss can impact your general performance. Sadly, he didn’t close the deal. Everything was going great until the client thought he wasn’t paying attention to them. They didn’t want to work with a firm that doesn’t listen.

His commission on this deal would have been over $1000.

The circumstances were misinterpreted. But how do you think this impacted his career? How may things have been different if he were wearing his hearing aids?

On the Job Injuries

Individuals who have neglected hearing loss are almost 30% more likely to incur a serious workplace injury according to a study conducted by the American Medical Association. Studies also show a 300% increased risk of having a serious fall and winding up in the emergency room.

And it might come as a shock that people with mild hearing loss had the highest chance among those who have hearing loss. Perhaps they don’t recognize that hearing loss of any kind impairs a person at work.

How to have a successful career with hearing loss

You have a lot to offer an employer:

Hearing loss shouldn’t dominate these. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not a factor. You might not even realize how great an impact on your job it’s having. Take measures to minimize the impact like:

Working with hearing loss

Hearing loss can effect your work, even if it’s minor. But getting it treated will frequently minimize any barriers you face with untreated hearing impairment. We can help so give us a call!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Three Basic Steps to Lessen Hearing Loss

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 18:59:00 GMT

Pizza is a fascinating thing. As long as a few criteria are met, you can change toppings, cheese, and sauce, and it’s still a pizza. Hearing loss is a lot like that. But as long as you have trouble hearing sound, it’s still hearing loss whether it’s due to genetic factors, age, blockages, or exposure to loud noise.

Normally, when you’re confronted with hearing loss (no matter the variety), the first thing you need to do is try to limit the damage. You can, after all, take some simple steps to limit additional damage and safeguard your ears.

Tip 1: Clean your ears

When you were younger, you likely were taught that you need to clean behind your ears. But it’s inside of your ears that we’re concerned with here, when it comes to hearing health, not the back of your ears.

There are various ways that earwax accumulation can impact your hearing:

If you notice earwax buildup, it’s absolutely not recommended that you dig around in there with a cotton swab. In most circumstances, a cotton swab will make things worse or cause additional damage. Instead, use over-the-counter ear drops.

Tip 2: Steer clear of loud sounds that could result in hearing loss

This is so evident that it sort of goes without saying. The problem is that the majority of people are hard-pressed to characterize what a “loud noise” really is. A freeway, for instance, can be noisy enough that over a long time period, it can harm your ears. Your ears can also be damaged by frequent usage of your lawn mower. As you can tell, it’s not only blasting speakers or loud rock concerts that harm your ears.

Some practical ways to avoid harmful noises include:

The damage to your ears from loud noises will build up gradually. So, even if your hearing “feels” fine after a noisy event, that doesn’t mean it is. Only if you come in for a hearing exam can we give your ears a clean bill of health.

Tip 3: If you have any hearing loss, deal with it

In most situations, hearing loss accumulates gradually over an extended time period. You’ll be in a better position to stop further damage if you recognize your hearing loss early. In terms of hearing loss, that’s why treatment is so important. Practical treatments (on which you follow through) will put your hearing in the best possible condition.

Treatment works like this:

In the long run, you will be benefited by wearing hearing aids

While it’s true that hearing loss has no cure, hearing specialists are focused on limiting additional harm to your ears. Treatment of hearing loss is usually one of the primary approaches to that. Your current level of hearing will be preserved and hearing loss will be prevented from getting worse with the correct treatment.

When you use hearing protection, practice good hygiene, and get hearing loss treatment with us, you’re taking the correct measures to minimize hearing loss while also giving yourself the best opportunity for healthy hearing in the years to come.

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Your Risk of Developing Dementia Could be Reduced by Having Routine Hearing Tests

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 16:04:00 GMT

What’s the connection between hearing loss and dementia? Medical science has found a connection between brain health and hearing loss. Your risk of getting dementia is increased with even mild hearing loss, as it turns out.

These two seemingly unrelated health conditions might have a pathological connection. So how can a hearing test help minimize the danger of hearing loss related dementia?

What is dementia?

The Mayo Clinic states that dementia is a group of symptoms that change memory, alter the ability to think concisely, and reduce socialization skills. Alzheimer’s is a common type of cognitive decline most people think of when they hear the word dementia. Alzheimer’s means progressive dementia that impacts about five million people in the U.S. These days, medical science has a comprehensive understanding of how hearing health increases the risk of dementias like Alzheimer’s disease.

How hearing works

The ear mechanisms are quite intricate and each one matters when it comes to good hearing. As waves of sound vibration move towards the inner ear, they get amplified. Inside the labyrinth of the inner ear, little hair cells shake in response to the sound waves to transmit electrical signals that the brain translates.

As time passes, many people develop a progressive decline in their ability to hear due to years of trauma to these delicate hair cells. The outcome is a decrease in the electrical signals to the brain that makes it difficult to comprehend sound.

Research indicates that this slow loss of hearing isn’t just an irrelevant part of aging. The brain attempts to decode any signals sent by the ear even if they are jumbled or unclear. That effort puts strain on the organ, making the individual struggling to hear more susceptible to developing cognitive decline.

Here are several disease risk factors with hearing loss in common:

And the more extreme your hearing loss the higher your risk of cognitive decline. Even mild hearing loss can double the risk of cognitive decline. More significant hearing loss means three times the danger and somebody with extreme, untreated loss of hearing has up to five times the odds of developing dementia. The cognitive skills of more than 2,000 older adults were observed by Johns Hopkins University over six years. They found that hearing loss significant enough to hinder conversation was 24 percent more likely to lead to memory and cognitive issues.

Why is a hearing assessment worthwhile?

Hearing loss impacts the overall health and that would most likely surprise many people. Most people don’t even realize they have hearing loss because it develops so gradually. As hearing declines, the human brain adapts gradually so it makes it less noticeable.

Scheduling regular thorough exams gives you and your hearing specialist the ability to properly assess hearing health and monitor any decline as it occurs.

Reducing the risk with hearing aids

The present hypothesis is that strain on the brain from hearing loss plays a significant role in cognitive decline and different forms of dementia. Based on that one fact, you could conclude that hearing aids reduce that risk. The strain on your brain will be decreased by using a hearing aid to filter out unwanted background noise while boosting sounds you want to hear. With a hearing aid, the brain will not work as hard to understand the audio messages it’s getting.

There’s no rule that says people who have normal hearing won’t develop dementia. What science believes is that hearing loss accelerates the decline in the brain, raising the risk of cognitive issues. Having regular hearing tests to diagnose and deal with hearing loss before it gets too extreme is key to reducing that risk.

Call us today to set up an appointment for a hearing test if you’re concerned that you may be dealing with hearing loss.

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At Night, the Buzzing in my Ears Seems Worse

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 19:20:00 GMT

If you are one of the millions of individuals in the U.S. suffering from a medical disorder called tinnitus then you probably know that it often gets worse when you are trying to fall asleep. But what’s the reason for this? The ringing or buzzing in one or both ears is not a real noise but a complication of a medical issue like hearing loss, either permanent or temporary. But none of that information can give a reason why this ringing becomes louder during the night.

The real reason is fairly straightforward. But first, we need to discover a little more about this all-too-common disorder.

Tinnitus, what is it?

To say tinnitus isn’t an actual sound just compounds the confusion, but, for most individuals, that is the case. It’s a noise no one else is able to hear. It sounds like air-raid sirens are going off in your ears but the person sleeping right near you can’t hear it at all.

Tinnitus is an indication that something is wrong, not a condition on its own. It is usually linked to significant hearing loss. For many, tinnitus is the first sign they get that their hearing is at risk. Hearing loss is typically gradual, so they don’t notice it until that ringing or buzzing begins. This phantom noise is a warning flag to warn you of a change in how you hear.

What causes tinnitus?

Right now medical scientists and doctors are still unsure of exactly what triggers tinnitus. It may be a symptom of inner ear damage or a number of other possible medical conditions. There are tiny hair cells inside of your ears that move in response to sound. Sometimes, when these tiny hairs become damaged to the point that they can’t efficiently send messages to the brain, tinnitus symptoms happen. These electrical messages are how the brain converts sound into something it can clearly interpret like a car horn or a person talking.

The present theory pertaining to tinnitus has to do with the absence of sound. The brain stays on the alert to receive these messages, so when they don’t arrive, it fills that space with the phantom noise of tinnitus. It tries to compensate for input that it’s not receiving.

When it comes to tinnitus, that would clarify some things. For starters, why it’s a symptom of so many different conditions that affect the ear: mild infections, concussions, and age-related hearing loss. It also tells you something about why the ringing gets louder at night for some individuals.

Why are tinnitus sounds louder at night?

You may not even detect it, but your ear is picking up some sounds during the day. It hears really faintly the music or the TV playing in the other room. But during the night, when you’re trying to sleep, it gets very quiet.

All of a sudden, the brain is thrown into confusion as it searches for sound to process. It only knows one response when confronted with total silence – create noise even if it’s not real. Sensory deprivation has been shown to trigger hallucinations as the brain attempts to insert information, such as auditory input, into a place where there isn’t any.

In other words, it’s too quiet at night so your tinnitus seems worse. Producing sound may be the solution for individuals who can’t sleep due to that aggravating ringing in the ear.

How to generate noise at night

For some individuals suffering from tinnitus, all they require is a fan running in the background. The volume of the ringing is lowered just by the sound of the fan motor.

But you can also get devices that are specifically made to lessen tinnitus sounds. Natural sounds, like ocean waves or rain, are produced by these “white noise machines”. The soft noise calms the tinnitus but isn’t distracting enough to keep you awake like leaving the TV on might do. Instead, you could go with an app that plays calming sounds from your smartphone.

What else can worsen tinnitus symptoms?

Your tinnitus symptoms can be worsened by other things besides lack of sound. For example, if you’re drinking too much alcohol before bed, that could contribute to tinnitus symptoms. Other things, like high blood pressure and stress can also contribute to your symptoms. If adding sound into your nighttime program doesn’t help or you feel dizzy when the ringing is active, it’s time to learn about treatment solutions by scheduling an appointment with us right away.

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References
https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/hearing-loss-tinnitus-statistics/

Have a Safe And Enjoyable Vacation Even if You Have Hearing Loss

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 16:33:00 GMT

Aren’t there a couple of types of vacation? There’s the type where you cram every single recreation you can into every waking moment. This type will leave you more exhausted than when you left but all of the fun will be remembered for years to come.

The other kind is all about relaxing. These are the trips where you might not do, well, much of anything. Maybe you drink some wine. Perhaps you spend a day (or two, or three) on the beach. Or perhaps you’re getting pampered at some resort for your entire vacation. These are the peaceful and relaxing types of vacations.

Everyone has their own concept of the perfect vacation. But neglected hearing loss can jeopardize whichever kind of vacation you take.

Your vacation can be ruined by hearing loss

Your vacation can become a challenge if you have hearing loss, especially if you’re not aware of it. Many people who have hearing loss don’t even realize they have it and it eventually creeps up on them. On all their devices, the volume just keeps going higher and higher.

The nice thing is that there are a few proven ways to minimize the effect hearing loss might have on your vacation. Making an appointment for a hearing exam is obviously the first step. The more ready you are before you go, the easier it will be to lessen any power hearing loss might have over your fun, rest, and relaxation.

How can your vacation be effected by hearing loss

So how can hearing loss negatively effect your next vacation? Well, there are a couple of ways. By themselves, they might not seem like that big of a deal. But when they begin to add up it can become a real problem. Here are some common examples:

Some of these negative outcomes can be avoided by simply wearing your hearing aids. So, managing your hearing needs is the ideal way to keep your vacation moving in the right direction.

If you have hearing loss, how can you get ready for your vacation?

That doesn’t mean that you can’t go on vacation if you have hearing loss. That’s nowhere near the case! But with a bit of extra planning and preparation, your vacation can still be enjoyable and relatively hassle-free. Whether you have hearing loss or not, this is definitely practical travel advice.

You can be certain that hearing loss won’t have a negative impact on your vacation, here are some things you can do:

Hearing aid travel tips

Once all the planning and preparation is done, it’s time to hit the road! Or, well, the airways, maybe. Before you go out to the airport, there are a few things about going on a plane with hearing aids you should definitely be aware of.

Life is an adventure, and that includes vacations

Vacations are unpredictable with or without hearing loss. Sometimes, the train can go off the rails. That’s why it’s important that you have a good attitude and manage your vacation like you’re taking on the unexpected.

That way you’ll still feel as if your plans are on track even when the inevitable challenge happens.

But you will be caught off guard less if you put together good preparations. When something goes awry, with the correct preparations, you can keep it from getting out of control.

For those with hearing loss, this preparation frequently starts by having your hearing assessed and making certain you have the equipment and care you require. And whether you’re taking vacation number one (sightseeing in the city), or vacation number two (relaxing on a tropical beach somewhere), this advice will still hold.

Still have some questions or concerns? Make an appointment with us for a hearing exam!

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Hearing Loss Can Result in Complications During Hospitalization

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 20:40:00 GMT

Tom is getting a new knee and he’s super pumped! Look, as you get older, the types of things you get excited about change. His knee replacement means he will suffer from less pain and be able to get out and about a lot better. So Tom goes in, the operation is successful, and Tom goes home!

That’s when things take a turn.

Sadly, the healing process doesn’t go as it should. An infection sets in, and Tom winds up back in the hospital for another knee surgery. It’s becoming less thrilling for Tom by the minute. As the doctors and nurses attempt to figure out what took place, it becomes evident that Tom wasn’t adhering to his recovery guidelines.

Tom didn’t purposely deviate from the instructions. Tom actually never even heard the instructions. Tom can take some comfort in the fact that he isn’t alone: there’s a solid connection between hearing loss and hospital visits.

More hospital visits can be the outcome of hearing loss

The typical disadvantages of hearing loss are something that most individuals are already familiar with: you tend to socially isolate yourself, causing you to become more distant from friends and family, and you raise your danger of developing dementia. But we’re finally starting to understand some of the less evident drawbacks to hearing loss.

Increased emergency room visits is one of those relationships that’s becoming more evident. One study discovered that individuals with hearing loss have a 17% greater danger of needing a visit to the emergency room and a 44% increased chance of readmission later.

Is there a connection?

There are a couple of reasons why this might be.

Risk of readmission is increased

Why is readmission more likely for individuals who have untreated hearing loss? This happens for a couple of reasons:

Let’s say, for instance, you’ve recently had surgery to replace your knee. Maybe you’re not supposed to shower for three weeks but you thought your doctor said three days. Now your wound is in danger of developing a severe infection (one that could land you back at the hospital).

Keeping track of your hearing aids

The answer might seem simple at first glimpse: just use your hearing aids! Sadly, in the early stages of hearing loss, it often goes unnoticed because of how slowly it advances. Coming in to see us for a hearing exam is the solution here.

Even if you do have a pair of hearing aids (and you should), there’s another complication: you could lose them. It’s frequently a chaotic scene when you need to go in for a hospital stay. So the probability of losing your hearing aid is absolutely present. Knowing how to handle hearing aids during a hospital stay can help you remain engaged in your care.

Tips for taking your hearing aids with you during a hospital stay

If you have hearing loss and you’re going in for a hospital stay, many of the headaches and discomfort can be avoided by knowing how to prepare. Here are a few basic things you can do:

The key here is to communicate with the hospital at every stage. Make sure you’re telling your nurses and physicians about your hearing loss.

Hearing loss can cause health problems

It’s important to recognize that your hearing health and your overall health are closely linked. After all your overall health can be considerably impacted by your hearing. Hearing loss is like any other health issue in that it needs to be treated as soon as possible.

You don’t need to be like Tom. Keep your hearing aids close the next time you need to go in for a hospital stay.

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Can I Use my Hearing Aid at The Same Time as my Glasses?

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 17:41:00 GMT

Movies and TV shows tend to utilize close-ups (at times extreme close-ups) when the action starts getting really intense. This is because more information than you’re likely even consciously aware of is conveyed by the human face. To say that human beings are really facially focused is, well, not a stretch.

So it’s no surprise that the face is where all of our primary sensors are, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. The face is cram packed (in a visually excellent way, of course).

But this can become problematic when you require multiple assistive devices. For instance, wearing glasses and hearing aids can become a little… awkward. In some circumstances, you might even have challenges. You will have a simpler time wearing your hearing aids and glasses if you make use of these tips.

Do hearing aids conflict with wearing glasses?

It’s common for individuals to be concerned that their hearing aids and glasses might interfere with each other since both eyes and ears will require assistance for many individuals. That’s because both the placement of hearing aids and the size of eyeglasses have physical constraints. Wearing them together can be uncomfortable for some people.

A few primary challenges can arise:

So can hearing aids be worn with glasses? Definitely! Behind-the-ear hearing aids can be used with glasses effectively, though it may seem like they’re mutually exclusive.

How to use hearing aids and glasses together

It may take a little work, but whatever your style of hearing aid, it can work with your glasses. For the intention of this article, we’ll be talking about behind-the-ear style hearing aids. This is because inside-the-canal hearing aids are a lot smaller and fit totally in your ear. There’s normally absolutely no clash between inside-the-canal hearing aids and glasses.

But with behind-the-ear hearings they…well, sit behind the ear. The electronics that go behind your ears connect to a wire that goes to a speaker that’s situated inside the ear canal. You should talk to us about what type of hearing aid will be best for your needs (they each have their own advantages and disadvantages).

If you wear your glasses every day all day, you might want to choose an inside-the-canal style of hearing aid; but this style of device won’t work for everybody. Some people will need a BTE style device in order to hear sufficiently, but even if that’s the situation they can still make it work with glasses.

Adjust your glasses

The level of comfort you get from your hearing aid will considerably depend on the style and type of glasses you have. If you have large BTE devices, get some glasses that have slimmer frames. Work with your optician to pick out a glasses style that will accommodate your hearing aids.

And it’s also significant to be sure your glasses fit correctly. They shouldn’t be too slack or too tight. If your glasses are wiggling around all over the place, you could compromise your hearing aid results.

Using accessories is fine

So how can hearing aids and glasses aids be worn together? Well, If you’re having difficulty handling both your glasses and hearing aids, don’t worry, you aren’t alone! This is a good thing because things can get a little easier by utilizing some available devices. Some of those devices include:

These devices are made to keep you more comfortable by holding your glasses in place and securing your hearing aids.

Will your hearing aids have more feedback if you’re wearing glasses?

There are certainly some accounts out there that glasses may trigger feedback with your hearing aids. And it does occur, but it’s not the most common complaint. In some instances, the feedback you experience could be caused by something else (like a television speaker or mobile phone speaker).

Still, if you’re experiencing hearing aid feedback and interference and you think your glasses are the problem, get in touch with us about possible fixes.

How to put on your hearing aids and glasses

Many of the problems associated with wearing hearing aids and glasses together can be prevented by ensuring that all of your devices are being properly worn. You want them to fit well!

You can do that by using these tips:

Put your glasses in place first. When it involves adjustment, your glasses are bigger so they will have less wiggle room.

Once you have your glasses in place, position the shell of your hearing aid between your glasses earpiece and your outer ear. Your glasses should be closest to your head.

After both are comfortably set up, you can put the microphone of the hearing aid inside of your ear.

And that’s it! Sort of, there’s definitely a learning curve when it comes to putting on and taking off your glasses without knocking your hearing aid out of place.

Take care of your hearing aids (and your glasses)

If either of your devices (glasses and hearing aids) isn’t well maintained, the conflict between the two can be increased. Sometimes, things break! But with some maintenance, those breakages can be prevented.

For your hearing aids:

For your glasses:

Professional assistance is occasionally required

Though it might not at first seem like it, both hearing aids and glasses a specialized pieces of technology. So finding the best fit for your hearing aids and your glasses will normally require a professional’s help.

The more help you get in advance, the less help you will need later on (this is because you’ll be preventing problems rather than trying to fix those issues).

Hearing aids and glasses don’t have to fight

Like one of those family feuds that’s been going on too long (with plenty of close-ups, of course), it’s now time to accept that glasses and hearing aids don’t need to be enemies. Sure, it can, sometimes, be challenging if you require both of these devices. But we can help you choose the best hearing aid for your needs, so you can focus less on keeping your hearing aids in place and more on your quality of life.

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How Long Should my Hearing Aids Last?

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 18:23:00 GMT

It’s tough to be apart from your hearing aid after you get accustomed to using one. After all, your hearing aids are essential to connect to your world. But just like all technology, though, it will have to be upgraded eventually.

The normal lifespan of a hearing aid

A hearing aid will usually last 3 to 7 years. You will need to get routine hearing assessments to be certain your current hearing aid is still the best option for your hearing requirements, and the 3 to 7 year lifespan isn’t etched in stone. Technology is constantly improving and some hearing aids need replacing more rapidly than others so it’s good to be open to other options should your hearing change.

Your hearing aid longevity might be affected by these factors

So, that’s just the typical life of a hearing aid. Meaning that there are plenty of individuals who might see their hearing aids last much longer. How long your hearing aids will last is based on a number of considerations:

Can you make your hearing aids last longer?

We have to acknowledge that hearing aids are pretty personal things. In most circumstances, they are programmed specifically for your hearing and will usually have custom molds. The investment is also considerable. So it’s a prevailing goal to get the most that you can from your hearing aid.

And it’s one you can accomplish. Taking good care of your hearing aids is the best thing you can do to be sure that your hearing aids last as long as possible. Try not to let them get wet and don’t drop them if you can help it. And make sure you do all the recommended cleaning and maintenance.

Your hearing aid will typically work well for at least five years. Whether you can get more than that is, generally, up to chance. But eventually, you will have to decide. You will probably, inevitably, want some of the features that modern hearing aids offer. So, contact us to make an appointment for a hearing exam right away. We’ll help you determine which hearing aid is best for you.

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8 Subtle Indications Your Hearing is Failing

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 02:40:00 GMT

Your hearing won’t be just gone one day when you wake up. For most people, hearing loss comes in degrees, especially when it is related to the aging process. Some signs appear earlier, though, and you don’t recognize there is an issue immediately.

These initially developing symptoms progress very subtly. Slowing down the progression of hearing loss and its associated health problems is a matter of early detection. However, you can’t recognize the signs if you have no clue what they are. You may be developing hearing loss if you notice any of the following eight barely detectable indicators.

1. Some voices you can’t hear very well, others you can

Maybe when you speak with your brother, you can hear him fine, but when your wife talks, some words just seem to get lost. It’s a typical sign that the nerves that send signals to the brain are damaged (called sensorineural hearing loss).

Her voice is a higher pitch, and that’s why it’s unclear. You might have the same problem with your grandchild or daughter. Even higher pitched tones such as the phone ringing or alarm clock can get lost. Those are also high pitched tones.

2. You don’t like to talk on the phone

When the phone rings you are inclined to make excuses for not answering:

You dread talking on the phone, but why? It will be a useful idea to get someone else to check the phone for you if the volume is at max and you still can’t hear what the other person is saying. You probably have a hearing loss issue if you can’t hear the voice but your friend can.

3. Why is everyone mumbling?

It seems as if it’s no longer just the kids who are mumbling when they talk, it’s your neighbor, the news woman, your partner, and even your bartender. It’s hard to imagine that everyone in your life suddenly has bad enunciation so this is a strong indication of hearing decline. How you hear words is changing. One of the first indications that something is happening with your hearing is when it sounds like people are mumbling and consonants like “S” and “T” are dropping off.

4. You’re saying “what?” a lot

You might not even realize that you’re unable to hear conversations anymore until somebody points out that you’re saying “What?” during conversations a lot. Very often the people you see on a daily basis like coworkers or family are the first to notice that you’re having a hard time hearing. You should certainly pay attention if somebody says something.

5. Why do I hear ringing sounds in my ears?

This sign is a bit more obvious, but unless it becomes a distraction, people tend to disregard it. A prevalent sign of hearing loss is a ringing in the ears, medically called tinnitus.

Triggers are a significant factor in tinnitus so it can be periodic, too. Perhaps, when you first get up in the morning is when you have the most pronounced ringing or buzzing. Or, it could also be a sign of high blood pressure, circulatory problems, or trauma.

If you’re experiencing these symptoms you should schedule an appointment for an exam because they may be a sign that you’re having a health issue.

6. It isn’t as enjoyable attending the neighborhood block party

It’s no fun when it sounds as if that many individuals are mumbling at the same time. It’s so much more difficult to make out what people are saying in noisy places. It becomes impossible for you to hear anything when you’re around something as basic as the AC turning on or children splashing and playing in the pool. And trying to focus in on conversations is exhausting.

7. You’re usually not this exhausted

It’s exhausting when you struggle to understand words. Your brain has to work overtime to process what it does hear, so you are more fatigued than usual. Your other senses may even begin to change. How much energy is left for eyesight, for instance, if your brain is using so much of its energy attempting to hear and understand words? If your eyes have tested fine, now it’s time to have your hearing assessed.

8. Why can’t I hear this TV?

When you have to constantly turn the volume on your TV up, it becomes all too easy to blame your service provider or that out-dated TV. It can be difficult to hear the dialogue on your favorite shows when you’re dealing with hearing loss. The background music and sound effects are befuddling dialogue, for example. What about the other things in the room such as the AC or the ceiling fan? Your hearing may be failing if you constantly turn the volume up.

The good thing is, if your hearing is failing, hearing aids can help, you just need to have your hearing tested.

Give us a call today to schedule an appointment for a hearing assessment if you’ve detected any of the above signs.

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What is The Link Between Concussions And Tinnitus?

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 16:46:00 GMT

You know that scene in your favorite action movie where something explodes near the hero and the sound goes all high-pitched-buzzing? Well, guess what: that probably means our hero sustained at least a mild traumatic brain injury!

Obviously, action movies don’t emphasize the brain injury part. But that high-pitched ringing is something known as tinnitus. Usually, hearing loss is the topic of a tinnitus conversation, but traumatic brain injuries can also trigger this condition.

Concussions, after all, are one of the more common traumatic brain injuries that happen. And they can occur for a wide variety of reasons (for instance, falls, sporting accidents, and motor vehicle crashes). How something such as a concussion causes tinnitus can be, well, complicated. But here’s the good news: even if you sustain a brain injury that triggers tinnitus, you can usually treat and manage your condition.

What is a concussion?

A concussion is brain trauma of a very specific kind. Think about it this way: your brain is situated pretty tightly into your skull (your brain is big, and your skull is there to protect it). The brain will start to move around inside your skull when something shakes your head violently. But because there’s so little additional space in there, your brain could literally smash into the inside of your skull.

This harms your brain! Multiple sides of your skull can be hit by your brain. And when this occurs, you experience a concussion. This illustration makes it quite clear that a concussion is literally damage to the brain. Here are a few symptoms of a concussion:

Even though this list makes the point, it’s in no way exhaustive. A few weeks to several months is the normal duration of concussion symptoms. Brain damage from one concussion is typically not permanent, most individuals will end up making a total recovery. But, repetitive or multiple concussions are a different story (generally speaking, it’s a good idea to avoid these).

How do concussions cause tinnitus?

Can a concussion interfere with your hearing? Really?

The question of concussions and tinnitus is an intriguing one. Because it’s more accurate to say that traumatic brain injuries (even mild ones) can bring about tinnitus, It isn’t only concussions. That ringing in your ears can be set off by even minor brain injuries. That may occur in a couple of ways:

It’s significant to stress that every traumatic brain injury and concussion is a bit different. Every patient will receive individualized care and instructions from us. You should certainly call us for an evaluation if you think you might have suffered a traumatic brain injury.

When you suffer from a concussion and tinnitus is the consequence, how can it be managed?

Usually, it will be a temporary challenge if tinnitus is the result of a concussion. How long can tinnitus last after a concussion? Well, it might last weeks or possibly months. But, it’s likely that your tinnitus is long lasting if it persists for more than a year. In these situations, the treatment strategy transitions to controlling your symptoms over the long run.

This can be accomplished by:

Achieving the expected result will, in some cases, require added therapies. Getting rid of the tinnitus will often require treatment to the root concussion. Depending on the nature of your concussion, there may be several possible courses of action. This means an accurate diagnosis is extremely important in this regard.

Learn what the right plan of treatment may be for you by getting in touch with us.

You can control tinnitus caused by a TBI

A concussion can be a significant and traumatic situation in your life. When you get a concussion, it’s a bad day! And if you’ve been in a car accident and your ears are ringing, you may wonder why.

Tinnitus may emerge instantly or in the following days. However, it’s essential to remember that tinnitus after a head injury can be successfully managed. Call us today to make an appointment.

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New Beginnings Sound Sweet!

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 02:30:00 GMT

TikTok has some really amazing videos you’ve most likely watched. Babies hearing the voice of their mother for the first time after being fitted for a hearing aid. In some videos, the baby is hesitant initially. They fight when the doctor tries to place the device in their ear. They might cry before they smile with delight. A variety of emotions envelopes them. They are not sure what to expect. But finally, their hearing is revived and the world suddenly opens up. These videos can even cause joyful tears for people watching them.

But anybody can have this life-altering moment.

If you’re feeling apprehensive about wearing a hearing aid, you’re not by yourself. If you’re feeling relatively apprehensive about this process it doesn’t indicate that you’re a baby.
Let’s explore how people of any age may cry tears of joy when they use their hearing aid.

The sweet sound of music

Perhaps you didn’t even know. It developed so gradually. You quit listening to music. It just doesn’t seem as satisfying anymore. It even annoys you sometimes. Turning the volume up makes it even worse.

Hearing loss doesn’t only impact the volume of sound. It affects how you hear different tones and notes.
Music is composed of notes of sound that mix together and travel as waves that are then picked up by your ears. Music just isn’t the same if you are unable to hear the amazing complexity of the notes.

When you use your hearing aid, all of a sudden you can hear those once-missing tones. Once again, music comes to life. It was once a wonderful pleasure in your life and now you’ve got it back.

The laughter of a child

Do you recollect the sound of a child laughing? You might have forgotten this beautiful sound experience if you have chosen not to wear your hearing aids. Rediscover these magical moments with your grandkids by rejuvenating your hearing.

Relationships repaired

Neglected hearing loss can put a considerable strain on relationships. People get frustrated. It can frequently result in more arguing. And the person with hearing loss will frequently feel like a burden causing them to isolate themselves.

While others are chatting and enjoying each other’s company, the individual with hearing loss will feel disconnected and will often isolate themselves.

Have you quit hobbies because they’re not as enjoyable?

Your relationships with your children, friends, and your partner will have new life breathed into them when you get your hearing back.
Learn to talk to each other again. Engage in long conversations. Do all of the things you enjoy with the people you love.

It’s time to consider hearing aids if you’re missing these things in your life.

You feel safer at home

Do you feel troubled about what you can’t hear? If a loved one was hurt and calling out to you, would you be able to hear them? If the doorbell, oven timer, or smoke alarm sounded, would you be able to hear them? Would you miss the ringing of the phone when a significant call was coming in?

When you stroll through the neighborhood, are you confident that you’ll hear approaching traffic, pedestrian signals, or a bicycle bell?

When we are in places where we should feel quite safe, hearing loss can make us feel quite uneasy. But when you use your hearing aid, you can be more comfortable, and enjoy life to its fullest. You’ll find peace of mind.

It’s likely you don’t know how much you’re missing

Much like the babies who’ve never heard their mother’s voices, you might not appreciate what you’re missing. Hearing loss progresses slowly in most instances. You may simply forget the pleasure of things you no longer hear.

You’ll be blown away when, suddenly, you can hear again. You’ll regret letting it go this long. Think your hearing loss isn’t that advanced? Find out just what you’ve been missing by giving us a call for a hearing assessment.

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Keep Your Hearing Crisp With These Three Simple Tips

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 16:31:00 GMT

Pizza is a fascinating thing. You can change the toppings, sauces, even the cheeses involved, but as long as it meets some standard criteria, it’s still a pizza. That’s similar to hearing loss. As long as you are having a hard time hearing sound, whether it’s due to a blockage, age, loud noise, or anything else, it’s still hearing loss.

Restricting the damage is usually the first thing to do when you start to detect hearing loss. There are, after all, some easy measures you can take to safeguard your ears and minimize further hearing loss.

Tip 1: Clean your Ears

Did you clean behind your ears? It’s one of those early hygiene lessons you learn (or should have learned), right? When it involves hearing health, we aren’t concerned with the areas behind your ears, but instead your inner ears.

Keeping your ears free of wax buildups can help your hearing in numerous different ways:

You should never attempt to use a cotton swab to dig out earwax. Cotton swabs can push the earwax further up into the ear canal and can trigger even more damage. You can buy earwax removal drops over-the-counter at your local drugstore which work better and are safer than swabs.

Tip 2: Avoid loud noises that could result in hearing loss

This one is so intuitive it almost doesn’t need to be on this list. But defining what comprises “loud sound” is not easy for most individuals. It’s not just blaring speakers or loud rock concerts that harm your ears, highway driving can be noisy enough to damage your ears over a long period of time. The motor on your lawnmower can be very taxing on your ears as well. And when you’re out celebrating the 4th of July, be mindful to protect your ears!

Here are a few useful ways to eliminate noise damage:

The damage to your ears from loud sounds will build up slowly. So, even if your hearing “seems” good after a loud event, that doesn’t mean it is. Your hearing can only be properly assessed by a hearing specialist.

Tip 3: Treat any hearing loss you might have

Hearing loss typically builds over time. So you’ll be in a better position to avoid further damage if you catch it early. That’s why treatment is extremely important when it comes to controlling hearing loss. Effective treatments (on which you follow through) will leave your hearing in the best possible condition.

Here’s how treatments work:

In the long run you will be benefited by using hearing aids

Treatment is one of the main ways to prevent hearing loss despite the fact that there is no cure. The correct treatment will help you preserve your present degree of hearing and prevent it from getting worse.

In the years to come you will be providing yourself with the best opportunity for healthy hearing if you get hearing loss treatment from us, use hearing protection, and practice quality hygiene!

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Summertime is Hearing Aid Time!

Sun, 25 Jun 2023 18:28:00 GMT

Have you ever awoke after a night’s sleep and heard birds singing a pleasant song through your open window? Turns out, there’s a name for all those birdsongs: the dawn chorus. For whatever reason, birds see the sun coming up and decide to start singing their favorite songs. Each type of bird has its own kind of song, and together, they sound like a symphony of nature.

But you may not hear the “dawn chorus” at all if you have neglected hearing loss. Which is a pity.

That’s particularly true because it’s not just birdsong you might be missing out on. Summer is full of amazing sounds. And you may be missing those summer sounds because you have hearing loss that’s gone undiagnosed or simply neglected. But you can begin to enjoy all of those wonderful summer sounds again with the help of a device like a hearing aid.

The sounds of summer

When you think about summer, you likely begin by visualizing the sun in a blue sky. And, a really, really hot sun (whew). But if you stay in your imagination a bit longer, you’ll begin incorporating details that make this blue sky feel more like summer, the sounds that fill out the day. You may be thinking about:

These are only a few examples. There are a bunch of sounds happening. These are the sounds that complete your summer, give it quality, and help deliver that overall vibe. Plus, there is so much pleasure in these everyday summertime sounds themselves.

If these summer sounds (or any sounds of summer) seem foreign to you these days, it’s most likely because an apparent level of hearing loss has successfully crept up on you. If you have noticed your hearing loss then you need to get some help with it.

Hearing aids can help you enjoy summer

For most, hearing aids are really about strengthening relationships. They’re about communication. They make it easier to talk to others, to hear what’s going on around you, and to appreciate the sounds that you hear. And at those summer barbecues, for example, that’s even more relevant.

The newest models of hearing aids can help you savor the sounds of summer, and they are equipped with some rather amazing built in tech, as well. Here are some examples of some of that potent technology:

You can ask us about how your pair of hearing aids are suitable for your favorite activities (for instance, you can ask whether you can wear them while you’re swimming or hiking in the country, that sort of thing). Hearing aids and water-sports don’t always get along. But all in all, your hearing aids will make your summer an all around richer experience.

You’ll also want to ask us some standard questions about your hearing aid models. For example, you should ask, can hot weather impact my hearing aids? And you should also ask, how do I protect my hearing aids from moisture in the air? The answer to both questions will depend on the model of hearing aid you have.

Some loud sounds you may want to avoid

As much as you enjoy the sound of the dawn chorus, there are some other summer sounds that could actually be harmful to your hearing, so you’ll probably want to avoid them. These are sounds that are, well, loud! And they’re harmful to everyone’s ears, not just individuals who have pre-existing hearing loss. Here are a few of those sounds:

This is only a partial list. For individuals who are dealing with hearing loss, summer might have a few less of these loud activities.

But even with hearing loss you probably won’t want to stay away from every loud summer activity. So what’s the solution? Well, you can use ear protection. For example, before you go to a live show, put in a pair of earplugs so you can minimize most of the damage. You just need to make sure you’re using effective ear protection.

Have fun this summer and enjoy the sounds

If you are dealing with hearing loss, the sounds of summer might feel like they’re growing further and further away (even as the heat of summer gets more and more oppressive). Which means, much of the joy of the season could get lost.

Getting the most from your summer then, may mean making a pit stop with us. We will be able to figure out whether your hearing is failing or not, and what kind of hearing aid will be best for your situation.

So if you want to appreciate the dawn chorus, that’s where you need to begin. And you’ll also be able to enjoy all of the other wonderful summer sounds.

Get a hearing tune-up this summer. Make an appointment today to find out which hearing aids are right for you!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Getting The Most Out of Your Hearing Aids

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 16:58:00 GMT

A car isn’t really an impulse purchase (unless you’re very, very wealthy). So a great deal of research is probably the first thing you do. You have a good look at things like gas mileage, overall price, and customer reviews. (You’re on Google a lot.) It makes sense to do this amount of research. You’re about to drop tens of thousands of dollars on something and spend years paying for it (unless, again, you are really wealthy). So you want to make sure your investment is well spent.

You’ll be thinking about how your purchase best fits your lifestyle and also practical things such as safety, gas mileage, etc. What style of vehicle do you want? How much room do you require for weekly supplies? How much pep do you want to feel when you push down that gas pedal?

In other words, to get the most from your new car, you have to examine your options and make some choices. And that’s the same mindset you should take when selecting your hearing aids. They’re still an investment even though they cost a lot less than a new car. And getting the most from your investment means determining which devices work best, overall, as well as what provides the most for your lifestyle.

Hearing aid benefits

In exactly the same way that you can talk about the benefits of a car in very general terms, you can also talk about the benefits of hearing aids in a similarly broad way. Hearing aids are pretty awesome!

The benefits of hearing aids, for most people, are more tangible than simply helping you hear. Staying involved with your family and friends will be much easier with a good pair of hearing aids. You’ll have an easier time chatting with the clerk at the pharmacy, listening to a tale about dinosaurs at the dinner table with your grandchildren, and enjoying conversations with friends.

With all these benefits, it stands to reason that you’d start to ask, “How can I make my hearing aids last longer?” You want to keep those benefits going!

Are higher quality hearing aids always more expensive?

Some individuals might think that they can only get a quality hearing aid if they get the highest-priced device.

Hearing aids are definitely an investment. There’s a reason why some hearing aids are costly in the first place:

But the most costly model won’t necessarily be your best fit or work the best. How severe your hearing loss is and, obviously, what you can afford are a couple of the factors to consider. Some hearing aids will definitely last longer than others. But the price of the device isn’t always the deciding factor.

As with any other investment, hearing aids will need regular maintenance in order to keep working properly. What’s more, your hearing aids will need to be calibrated to your ears and calibrated for your specific level of hearing loss.

Be sure you get the best hearing aids for you

So, what are your choices? When it comes to hearing aids, you’ll have numerous different styles and kinds to choose from. You can work with us to figure out which ones are best for you and your hearing needs. But in general, here’s what you’ll have to select from:

Pros and Cons of over-the-counter hearing aids

Another possibility to think about is OTC or over-the-counter hearing aids. The trouble is that OTC hearing aids are sort of like OTC medications, they work fine in a general way. But it’s likely that OTC hearing aids won’t have the power you need if your hearing loss is more advanced or complex. In general, OTC hearing aids can’t be specially calibrated to your hearing like prescription hearing aids can.

The best way to figure out what type of hearing aid will be best for you, you should talk with us.

Repair and maintenance

After you choose the ideal hearing aid for your hearing requirements, taking care of it is crucial. Just like your car requires oil changes now and then.

So, now you’re thinking: how often should my hearing aids be assessed? You should have your hearing aid cleaned and maintained every six months to a year. This gives you a chance to make sure everything’s working effectively and as it should!

You should also become familiar with your warranty. You will save some cash when you are aware of what is and isn’t covered. So now you’re wondering: how can I make my hearing aids last longer? The answer is usually simple: good upkeep and a strong warranty.

Is there a hearing aid that’s the best?

There isn’t a single greatest all-time hearing aid. If you go to see twelve different hearing specialists and ask for the “best” hearing aid, they might provide you with a dozen different models.

The key is to choose the best hearing aid for you and for your personal requirements. Some individuals will go with a minivan, others for a sport utility vehicle. The same goes with hearing aids, it all depends on your situation.

But the more you understand ahead of time and the better informed you are, the easier it will be to get the hearing aids that are perfect for you. Schedule a hearing assessment with us today!

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Diplacusis: When your hearing is in stereo

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 23:19:00 GMT

The world was rather different millions of years ago. The long-necked Diplacusis wandered this volcano-laden landscape. Thanks to its really long neck and tail, Diplacusis was so big that it feared no predator.

Actually, the long-necked dinosaur from the Jurassic Period is called Diplodocus. When you’re hearing two sounds simultaneously, that’s a hearing condition known as diplacusis.

While it’s not a “horrible lizard,” in many ways diplacusis can be a menace on its own, leading to a hearing experience that feels bewildering and out of sorts (frequently making communication difficult or impossible).

Perhaps your hearing has been a bit strange lately

Typically, we think of hearing loss as our hearing becoming muted or quiet over time. According to this notion, over time, we simply hear less and less. But in some cases, hearing loss can manifest in some peculiar ways. One of the most interesting (or, possibly, frustrating) such manifestations is a condition called diplacusis.

What is diplacusis?

So, what’s diplacusis? The meaning of the medical name diplacusis is simply “double hearing”. Normally, your brain takes information from the right ear and information from the left ear and combines them harmoniously into one sound. That’s what you hear. The same thing occurs with your eyes. You will see slightly different images if you cover each eye one at a time. Your ears are the same, it’s just that typically, you never notice it.

When your brain can’t effectively merge the two sounds from your ears because they are too different, you have this condition of diplacusis. You can experience diplacusis because of the hearing loss in one ear (called monaural diplacusis) or both ears (binaural diplacusis).

Diplacusis comes in two kinds

Diplacusis doesn’t affect everyone in the same way. Normally, though, individuals will experience one of the following two forms of diplacusis:

Symptoms of diplacusis

The symptoms of diplacusis can include:

The condition of double vision may be a useful comparison: Yes, it can develop some symptoms on its own, but it’s usually itself a symptom of something else. (In other words, it’s the effect, not the cause.) In these circumstances, diplacusis is almost always a symptom of hearing loss (either in one ear or in both ears). Consequently, if you experience diplacusis, you should probably make an appointment with a hearing specialist.

What causes diplacusis?

In a very general sense (and perhaps not surprisingly), the causes of diplacusis line up quite well with the causes of hearing loss. But you may develop diplacusis for numerous particular reasons:

As you can see, diplacusis and hearing loss have many of the same common causes. Which means that if you’re experiencing diplacusis, it’s a good bet something is impeding your ability to hear. So you should definitely come in and talk to us.

How is diplacusis treated?

Depending on the main cause, there are several possible treatments. If you have a blockage, treating your diplacusis will focus on clearing it out. But irreversible sensorineural hearing loss is more often the cause. Here are a few treatment options if that’s the situation:

A hearing test is the first step to getting to the bottom of the problem. Think about it this way: a hearing assessment will be able to identify what type of hearing loss is at the source of your diplacusis (and, to be fair, you might not even recognize it as diplacusis, you may just think stuff sounds weird these days). Modern hearing tests are really sensitive, and good at finding discrepancies between how your ears hear the world.

Hearing well is more fun than not

Getting the right treatment for your diplacusis, whether that’s a hearing aid or something else, means you’ll be more able to participate in your daily life. It will be easier to carry on conversations. Keeping up with your family will be easier.

So there will be no diplacusis symptoms interfering with your ability to hear your grandchildren telling you all about the Diplodocus.

If you believe you have diplacusis and want to have it checked, give us a call for an appointment.

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She’s Not Faking It: 4 Signs a Loved One Needs a Hearing Aid

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 17:12:00 GMT

It’s a common first reaction – denial. Of course, my loved one’s hearing loss isn’t as advanced as it seems. She’s not old enough for a hearing aid.

It’s possible, the two of you have started to joke around with each other about it. She is always requesting that you repeat what you said. You joke about it as if it’s simply a game. But it’s beginning to become less and less funny. You wonder if she’s just ignoring you or if she might actually be having some genuine hearing trouble.

You want your loved one to have a balanced, active, and happy life for years to come so it’s likely time to be encouraging and help them find the correct help.

Here are 4 prevalent signals that somebody you know needs a hearing aid.

1. She seems fatigued, especially in public

Perhaps you think that it just ordinarily happens when you get older. Your loved one just doesn’t have as much energy as they once did. You try to relate when she says that won’t be going out tonight.

Then she begins skipping meetings with a hobby group, organization, or club that she’s always enjoyed, even when they get together virtually, and you start to realize something could be wrong. Loud noise seems to deplete your loved one’s energy. If there is lots of background noise, or if more than one conversation is taking place at the same time, this is particularly true.

Individuals who are straining to hear put excess energy toward understanding people around them. As a result, energy is taken from other important brain functions like physical mobility, memory, and talking.

Utilizing this extra brainpower doesn’t strengthen the brain; it just tires it out. In social situations, fatigue will often seem to shut your loved one down.

Don’t assume you know what she’s dealing with. It may be a mix of things. But ask questions. Get to the base cause and recommend that she get a hearing test.

2. She always turns the TV up really loud

This is often one of the first signs that you might notice in another person. They can’t seem to watch TV or play music at a normal volume.

Your living room sounds like a cinema. You feel like you should have some popcorn, but it’s just your loved one blowing your ears out with the TV. Your neighbors can even hear it.

When you say that the TV is too loud, she might laugh and turn it down. But actually, she turned closed captions on.

Perhaps she’s ashamed about it. It’s likely time for you to recommend a hearing test if this is a regular thing.

3. She frequently needs people to repeat themselves

It may not be a problem if you are in a really loud setting or she’s really zoned in on something. But you should be mindful if this is happening frequently.

Similarly, take notice if she seems to have a lot of trouble hearing when she’s on the phone.

Is she complaining about people muttering or low-talking constantly? Is she requesting that people repeat themselves? It’s time for a compassionate talk about the advantages of hearing aids.

4. Your relationship is feeling strained

Couples argue twice as much when one of them is dealing with hearing loss, according to research. These arguments may center around TV volume, misconceptions, or what one says the other person may or may not have said.

When someone can’t hear, there will be a lot more tension in a household. Their hearing loss is frustrating. Others get upset when they won’t get help. This leads to lots of hurt feelings and decisions to spend more time apart or alone.

Many couples don’t realize that hearing loss is the cause, and this can damage their relationship irreparably. It’s important to get the proper help because even moderate hearing loss can strain relationships.

Simply getting a hearing test can give you a completely new perspective on your relationship, whether you’re dealing with a spouse, sister, or dear friend. Speak with your loved one about getting a hearing test.

Individuals who recognize they need hearing aids and use them say they’d never go back. Typically, they wish they would have done it sooner. Their general quality of life will be significantly improved.

It isn’t an easy conversation to have. But when your loved one finally finds the help they need it will all have been worth it.

Call us today and let us help you with some ideas about how to address your loved one’s hearing loss!

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This Summer You Can do Some Things to Protect Your Hearing

Wed, 24 May 2023 16:22:00 GMT

Finally, it’s summertime!!

That means it’s time to go out and partake in all of the exciting activities that the season has to provide. But keep the health of your hearing in mind before you head out for a day on the beach, a rocking concert, or perhaps a great backyard get-together.

Loud noises can damage your hearing, even if you don’t think they’re very loud. During the summer you’re a lot more likely to be exposed to loud sounds, so it’s very important to take the right steps to safeguard your hearing.

Here are some activities that are best experienced with earplugs.

Swimming

Even in clean pools, there can be parasites and bacteria that can cause swimmer’s ear. You can prevent infections by keeping water out of your ears and earplugs can help you do this.

Contaminated water getting into your ears, while usually not a serious problem, can have some unwanted consequences. It can result in inflammation, pain, and even short-term hearing loss.

Left untreated, infections can result in damage to the eardrum and the fragile inner workings of the ear.

It’s not possible to totally avoid all pathogens in pools or hot tubs, but using swimming earplugs will help protect your ears.

Live performances and concerts

Going to a concert is always fun, especially during the summer. Because the performers are trying to reach such a large audience, however, noise levels are often off the charts.

You may be exposed to more than 120dB of volume depending on the spot that you’re standing. That’s enough to cause immediate and permanent hearing loss.

Earplugs will block some of that sound but won’t distort it. Earplugs have an NRR rating with a range of 20 to 33, which establishes the strength of the protection. An NRR of 20 will reduce the sound by 20 dB. So if you’re at a concert with 120dB of sound, it will be lowered to 100dB.

However, that’s still a potentially damaging level.

The closer you are to a speaker, the higher NRR you’ll require to protect your ears and prevent permanent hearing damage. Even if you acquire the highest level of hearing protection, you will still be exposed to sounds loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage within 15 minutes. For the best protection, stand far away from the speakers and wear earplugs.

The same applies to indoor concerts, sporting events, plays, movies, cook-outs, festivals, or other events where sounds are being boosted through speakers.

Yard work

You do it each week, but the grass continues to grow. You take measures such as edging flower beds and weeding the gardens so your yard looks nice. Then you keep the long grass in check with a weed-whacker.

Power tools and other yard tools can be very loud, and prolonged exposure can and will harm your hearing. Earplugs will help lessen the noise from these tools and safeguard your hearing.

If you aren’t using earplugs when you use the mower, over time, you will be observably doing hearing loss.

Independence Day

It wouldn’t be Independence Day without them. On the 4th of July, we will all be celebrating our nation’s independence. But fireworks have a negative side. The noise they produce can be in excess of 175 dB. That’s the volume of a pistol being fired right next to your head!

You’ll definitely want earplugs if you’re attending a big fireworks show. If you’re close to the action, the highest NRR rating is suggested. You’ll protect your hearing from damage and the fireworks will still be loud enough.

It’s important to safeguard your hearing

Seek help before your hearing loss becomes profound. Hearing loss caused by loud noise can’t be corrected and since it happens so slowly, most people don’t realize they’re harming their hearing. Give us a call right away so we can help you determine any risks you may have.

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Over the Counter Hearing Aids: Are You Taking a Risk?

Wed, 17 May 2023 00:08:00 GMT

Remember when you used to be able to get those gallon buckets of ice cream at the grocery store? As a kid, they were the best thing ever because they offered a whole gallon of ice cream, that’s a lot of frozen custard and high-fructose corn syrup!

But as you get older, you start to get a little more specific. You start opting for the more specialized ice cream: the Turkey Hill, the Tillamook, the Ben & Jerry’s. Suddenly, those littler containers are the ones that are appealing.

But you will probably still go for that big bucket if you’re hosting a big dinner party. Which means that each type of ice cream has its own unique strengths and drawbacks. Generic is good in some circumstances, but you might want more specific ice cream in other situations.

This same mindset also applies to hearing aids. How effective are those new over-the-counter hearing aids? Well, it’s a lot like that ice cream: it depends on what your plans are.

There can be real detrimental effects from hearing loss

Hearing loss can have a significant effect on your everyday activities. When you have untreated hearing loss, you can experience social solitude, it’s more difficult to carry on even basic conversations, so you avoid situations where you confront other individuals who might want to talk to you.

This can cause you to feel distant from your family and friends. When you go to the store you go to self-checkout so you can steer clear of the cashiers. It isn’t a happy way to live. And as you get older, your cognitive faculties can deteriorate faster.

So not only are you missing out on conversations with your loved ones (making birthdays and holidays a lot less enjoyable, for instance), but you have other health issues to worry about too!

Over-the-counter hearing aids – how they function

It isn’t hard to understand why people would want to go towards hearing aids that can be obtained easily, given the health consequences of hearing loss.

By their nature, over-the-counter hearing aids are made to be convenient. Instead of going to consult a hearing specialist and getting fitted for hearing aids, you just stroll into your local pharmacy. You’re going home as soon as you get and pay for these devices. Once you put them in, they function to boost the sound around you.

This can have a profoundly positive impact on your life.

In some circumstances over-the-counter hearing aids can do the job

In 2022 the Food and Drug Administration changed some rules about the distribution of hearing aids that allowed stores including pharmacies to sell them. The idea was that if hearing aids were more readily available, you’d end up with fewer people who had untreated hearing loss.

It’s never been difficult to get a prescription hearing aid, but it is a process. And sometimes, that process can keep people away. Over-the-counter hearing aids may not be a bad option for people who just aren’t ready to deal with the process. But over-the-counter hearing aids were never manufactured to take the place of their prescription counterparts.

Regrettably, this means that consumers now bear some of the burden of determining when OTC hearing aids are a good fit (and when they aren’t).

What’s the essential difference between over-the-counter and prescription hearing aids?

As a general rule, prescription hearing aids are more powerful and have a lot more customizable functions than OTC hearing aids. They won’t be personalized to your particular needs and they won’t fit as well.

So is there anything helpful or positive about OTC hearing aids? There actually can be some advantages to an OTC in certain situations. OTC hearing aids may be the best choice if:

It’s pretty typical for OTC presets to be pre-programmed when you buy them. If your hearing loss is in the lower frequencies, some types will be best and if you have high-frequency hearing loss other models will be the best choice. (So before you buy a hearing aid, you should certainly get a better concept of your level and type of hearing loss.).

When OTC hearing aids are not a practical fit

So are there negative aspects to OTC hearing aids? Will you encounter undesirable effects from OTC hearing aids?

Well, let’s just say that OTC hearing aids aren’t a good fit for everybody in every situation. In general, OTC hearing aids may not be the right solution for you if:

What are the dangers of over-the-counter hearing aids? You could be wasting good money and doing more damage to your ears by using OTC hearing aids if they’re not the best solution for your distinct hearing loss.

Either way, you should consult a hearing specialist

OTC hearing aids are suitable for some people and prescription hearing aids are a good fit for others. But either way, scheduling an appointment can help your hearing aids work better.

That’s because learning more about your hearing loss will help you find a better treatment. Whether your hearing loss requires prescription hearing aids or OTC hearing aids, we can help you get the best treatment for your circumstance.

We can also help you get the most out of your new technology.

If you believe you have hearing loss and want to find out if OTC hearing aids are right for you, make an appointment with us today.

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What You Should Understand About Earwax Accumulation

Wed, 10 May 2023 14:59:00 GMT

Don’t neglect cleaning your ears. Whenever you say that, you inevitably use your “parent voice”. Maybe you even remember getting that advice as a kid. That’s the kind of memory that can remind you of simpler times as you wrap yourself in the nostalgia of childhood.

But it’s also good advice. Your hearing can be significantly impacted by an overabundance of earwax. And additionally, earwax can harden up inside your ear and become really hard to clean. In a nutshell, the cleaner you keep your ears, the better off you’ll be.

Excessive earwax? Eww!

We get it, earwax isn’t the most pleasing of substances. And we’re not going to try to change your mind about that. But it’s actually essential for your ear’s health. Earwax is made by glands inside of your ears and is then pushed out when you chew in order to keep your ears free of dirt and dust.

Essentially, the correct amount of earwax can help keep your ears healthy and clean. It might seem weird, but earwax doesn’t indicate poor hygiene.

An excessive amount of earwax is where the trouble begins. And, naturally, it can sometimes be a little bit difficult to tell when a healthy quantity of earwax begins to outweigh its advantages (literally).

What is the consequence of accumulated earwax?

So, what develops as a result of excess earwax? There are several issues that may arise due to out-of-control earwax or earwax that accumulates over time. Here are a few:

These are only a few. Ignored earwax can trigger painful headaches. Too much earwax can interfere with the functionality of hearing aids. This means that you might think your hearing aids are having problems when the real issue is a bit too much earwax.

Can your hearing be impacted by earwax?

Well, yes it can. Hearing loss is one of the most common issues linked to excess earwax. When earwax accumulates in the ear canal it produces a blockage of sound causing a form of hearing loss called conductive hearing loss. The issue usually goes away when the earwax is removed, and usually, your hearing will return to normal.

But there can be sustained damage caused by excess earwax, especially if the buildup gets severe enough. And tinnitus is also usually temporary but when earwax blockage persists, permanent damage can cause tinnitus to become an enduring condition.

Prevention, treatment, or both?

It’s a good plan to keep an eye on your earwax if you want to protect your hearing. It’s improper cleaning, not excess production that causes buildup in most instances (a cotton swab, for example, will often compact the earwax in your ear rather than getting rid of it, eventually causing a blockage).

It will usually call for professional removal of the wax that has become solidified to the point that you can’t remove it. You’ll be able to start hearing again after you get that treatment and then you can start over, cleaning your ears the right way.

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The Use of Technology in Dealing With Hearing Loss

Tue, 02 May 2023 21:39:00 GMT

Do you know what a cyborg is? If your mind gets swept up in science fiction movies, you probably think of cyborgs as sort of half-human, half machine characters (these characters are usually cleverly utilized to touch on the human condition). You can get some really fantastic cyborgs in Hollywood.

But actually, somebody wearing something as simple as a pair of glasses could be viewed as a cyborg. The glasses, in fact, are a technology that has been integrated into biology.

These technologies usually enhance the human experience. Which means, if you’re using an assistive listening device, like a hearing aid, you’re the coolest kind of cyborg in the world. And the best thing is that the technology doesn’t stop there.

Disadvantages of hearing loss

There are absolutely some drawbacks that come with hearing loss.

It’s hard to follow the plot when you go see a movie. It’s even more challenging to make out what your grandkids are talking about (part of this is because you have no clue what K-pop is, and you never will, but mostly it’s the result of hearing loss). And this can affect your life in extremely profound (often negative) ways.

Left untreated, the world can become pretty quiet. That’s where technology plays a role.

How can hearing loss be managed with technology?

Generally speaking, technology that helps you have better hearing is lumped into the category of “assistive listening devices”. Ok, it does sound a bit technical! The question may arise: exactly what are assistive listening devices? Is there somewhere I can go and buy one of these devices? Are there challenges to using assistive listening devices?

Those are all fair questions!

Mostly, we’re used to thinking of technology for hearing loss in a very monolithic way: hearing aids. That’s logical, as hearing aids are a vital part of treating hearing loss. But they’re also just the beginning, there are numerous types of assistive hearing devices. And you will be able to enjoy the world around you more when you properly utilize these devices.

What are the different types of assistive listening devices?

Induction loops

Induction loops, also known as hearing loops, utilize technology that sounds quite complex. Here are the basics: areas with hearing loops are typically well marked with signage and they can help people with hearing aids hear more clearly, even in noisy areas.

A speaker will sound more clear due to the magnetic fields in a hearing loop. Here are some examples of when an induction loop can be beneficial:

FM systems

These FM systems are like a walkie-talkie or radio. A transmitter, usually a speaker or microphone, and a receiver, like a hearing aid, are required for this kind of system to work. Here are a few scenarios where an FM system will be helpful:

Infrared systems

An infrared system is a lot like an FM system. It consists of a receiver and an amplifier. Typically, the receiver is worn around the neck with an IR system. Here are some examples where IR systems can be useful:

Personal amplifiers

Personal amplifiers are like less specialized and less powerful versions of a hearing aid. They’re generally composed of a microphone and a speaker. The microphone detects sounds and amplifies them through a speaker. Personal amplifiers may seem like a tricky option since they come in several styles and types.

Amplified phones

Phones and hearing aids don’t always get along very well. Sometimes there’s feedback, sometimes things get a bit garbled, sometimes you can’t have a hard time getting the volume quite right.

One solution for this is an amplified phone. Depending on the situation, these phones allow you to control the volume of the speaker. These devices are good for:

Alerting devices

When something is going on, these devices (sometimes called signalers or notification devices) use loud noises, vibrations, and blinking lights to get your attention. For example, when the doorbell dings, the phone rings, or the microwave bings. This means even if you aren’t using your hearing aids, you’ll still be aware when something around your home or office needs your consideration.

Alerting devices are an excellent solution for:

Telecoils

So the link (sometimes discouraging) between your hearing aid and phone becomes evident. When you hold a speaker up to another speaker, it causes feedback (sometimes painful feedback). This is essentially what happens when you put a phone speaker close to a hearing aid.

A telecoil is a way to get around that connection. It will link up your hearing aid to your phone directly, so you can listen to all of your conversations without noise or feedback. They’re great for:

Captioning

Closed captions (and subtitles more broadly) have become a mainstay of the way people enjoy media today. You will find captions pretty much everywhere! Why? Because they make it a little easier to understand what you’re watching.

When you’re dealing with hearing loss, captions can work in combination with your hearing aids, helping you understand mumbled dialogue or ensuring you can hear your favorite show even when there’s distracting conversation near you.

What are the advantages of using assistive listening devices?

So where can you buy assistive listening devices? This question implies a recognition of the advantages of these technologies for people who use hearing aids.

Obviously, every individual won’t get the benefit of every type of technology. If you have a cell phone with easy-to-use volume control, you may not need an amplifying phone, for example. If you don’t have the right type of hearing aid, a telecoil might be useless to you.

The point is that you have choices. After you start customizing your journey toward being an awesome cyborg, you will be ready to get the most out of your life. It’s time to get back into that conversation with your grandchildren.

Some situations will call for assistive listening technology and others won’t. Call us as soon as possible so we can help you hear better!

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Do I Need to Have my Hearing Aid Repaired Professionally?

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 19:19:00 GMT

You take good care of your hearing aids. Cleaning them every day, you make sure they are safe and comfortable on their charger when you go to sleep.

Suddenly and discouragingly, your hearing aids are no longer working the way they once did. There are a few things you can do to troubleshoot the problem, thankfully. Just don’t forget: your main job is to avoid damaging your hearing aid further (or you may have to replace them).

Hearing aid troubleshooting

Naturally, when you first got your nice new hearing aids, you made a point of storing the owner’s manual in a safe place. You’ll want to take it out so you can utilize it for troubleshooting and, potentially, maintenance. Each model of hearing aid can be somewhat different so it’s important to follow the manual’s recommendations.

On most models there are some other things you can check, here are a few:

Again, consult your owner’s manual on how you might address each of these issues. Self-maintenance is sometimes possible.

How can I tell when my hearing aid requires repair?

If your hearing aid continues to malfunction after you’ve performed basic upkeep and troubleshooting, it’s likely that your hearing aid will need to be professionally repaired. That may not always sound desirable, after all, you rely on your hearing aid for day-to-day communication (not to mention dinners with your family, staying up to date with your favorite Netflix series, and so on).

You won’t automatically be without your hearing aid for extended periods of time just because it needs to be serviced. In some instances, we can fix your hearing aid in office while you wait.

Or, you’ll be able to bring your hearing aids in for professional help and get them back in a matter of a few hours (this, obviously, depends on the extent of the damage, all the more reason to bring your devices in for repair as soon as you can).

There are still some instances where such quick repair isn’t possible. And in those cases, you may find yourself in need of a backup set of hearing aids. So if you’ve got an old pair lying around, ask whether they will serve on a temporary basis. We might even be able to loan you a pair while you are waiting.

Don’t wait to get help with your hearing aids

If the audio quality is starting to falter, it’s crucial to get your hearing aids checked and repaired.

Any degree of downtime needs to be prevented. Your mental health and your overall health can be affected by neglected hearing loss. More to the point, once your hearing aids are ignored in a box somewhere, it’s all too easy to pretend they don’t exist, all the while, your hearing gets worse and worse.

Keeping those hearing aids in excellent working order is the secret to keeping your hearing healthy. And the best way to do that is to clean them, keep them charged, and, when needed, bring your hearing aids to get some professional repair.

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Isn’t it Time You Considered a Hearing Aid Upgrade?

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 21:16:00 GMT

If you’re still wearing your older hearing aids, they might be better than no hearing aids, but they also may be costing you in some ways. Hearing aid technology has progressed a lot in the past few years! A decade ago many of the features of modern hearing aids weren’t even on the drawing board, going digital for instance.

When you decide it’s time to upgrade, choosing the right one will take a little preparation. First, you’ll have to get a hearing test to find out if your level of hearing loss has changed. Your options will start to be narrowed down when we determine your present level of hearing loss. It’s most likely time for an upgrade for the following reasons.

Hearing aid dependability

Every once in a while you’ll get an irritating buzz or other problems with older or low-quality hearing aids. And, how about feedback anytime you get close to a phone? Sometimes, there’s a shrill feedback noise that seems to happen out of nowhere, also. Newer designs compensate for common problems so that you hear feedback less frequently.

Volume isn’t enough

A decade ago hearing aids mainly focused on correcting the volume. Hearing aids have much more technology and capability nowadays.

Frequent battery replacing

Cost is always a consideration when it comes to a hearing aid upgrade. The new technology is not inexpensive, but neither is wearing old, outdated hearing aids. The batteries in analog devices die and need replacement a lot. The expenses will add up, especially if you need to replace batteries daily or more.

Old hearing aids break down and need to go to the shop for repair more often. Think of what a 1990 Chevy would be like and apply that idea to hearing aids. The costs of the continual repairs can get quickly out of hand.

You can’t hear your coworkers

Studies show that hearing loss can mean a reduced income. Doesn’t it make sense then, that better hearing aids would be a career advantage? You will hear your boss and customers clearer. You will follow instructions without questioning if you got it right and have essential discussions without worrying about whether your hearing aids will hold up or not.

Of course, stronger communication means a better quality of life, too. You’ll be capable of communicating with people again. Get right back into being socially engaged.

You want a smaller hearing aid

What do you think about when you look in the mirror and see that old hearing aid? Clunky? Obvious? OMG? Style and flexibility are some of the most considerable reasons to upgrade those outdated hearing aids. Today’s hearing aids come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. You could either get one in your favorite color and make a fashion statement or get one small enough that it will go unobserved by others.

If you’re thinking about investing in new hearing aids, or if you already have them but you’re unhappy with the results, think about upgrading to a newer model. The things that contemporary technology has allowed hearing aids to do wasn’t even possible before. Call us today to talk about your options.

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How You Can Improve Your Mood by Having Regular Hearing Tests

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 20:49:00 GMT

Hearing loss is a common condition that can be mitigated easily by using hearing aids and assistive listening devices. However, hearing loss often goes undiagnosed and unaddressed. This can result in greater depression rates and feelings of isolation in those who have hearing loss.

It can also cause a breakdown in personal and work relationships, which itself will foster more feelings of depression and solitude. The key to putting a stop to that downward spiral is getting treatment for your hearing loss.

Hearing loss and depression

It’s true that untreated hearing loss is connected to developing depressive symptoms – and this isn’t a new phenomenon. Adults older than 50 with untreated hearing loss often describe feelings of depression and anxiety, according to one study. They were also more likely to avoid social activities. A lot of them had the feeling that people were getting angry at them and they didn’t know why. But when those individuals got hearing aids, they reported improvements in their social condition, and others in their life also noted the difference.

Another study found that individuals between ages 18 and 70, reported a greater sense of depression if they had hearing loss of more than 25 dB. Increased depression wasn’t reported by individuals over 70 who had self-reported hearing loss. But that still means that a large part of the population isn’t getting the help they need to better their lives.

Mental health can be impacted by refusal to use hearing aids or to lack of awareness

It seems like it would be obvious that you should treat your hearing loss when you read reports like this. Maybe you simply don’t think your hearing is that bad. You think that people are mumbling.

Another issue could be that you think treating your hearing loss is too expensive or time consuming.

It’s imperative that anybody who has dealt with symptoms of anxiety and depression, or the sense that they are being left out of interactions because people appear to be talking too quietly or mumbling too much, get their hearing assessed. We can discuss your options if we do find hearing loss. It could help you feel much better.

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How Audiobooks Can be an Important Part of Auditory Training

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 18:01:00 GMT

In the past they were called “books-on-tape”. Of course, that was long before CDs, much less digital streaming. These days, they have a much better name; audiobooks.

With an audiobook, you will listen to the book as it’s being read by a narrator. It’s a bit like when you were a kid and a parent or teacher read to you. You can connect with new ideas, get swept away in a story, or discover something new. Audiobooks are a wonderful way to pass time and enrich your mind.

As it turns out, they’re also a great way to accomplish some auditory training.

What’s auditory training?

So you’re probably pretty curious about exactly what auditory training is. It sounds tedious like homework.

Auditory training is a specialized form of listening, developed to help you increase your ability to process, perceive, and decipher sounds (medically known as “auditory information”). One of the principal uses of auditory training is to help individuals learn to hear with their new hearing aids.

Because neglected hearing loss can cause your hearing to become used to a quieter environment and your brain can get out of practice. So when you get a new pair of hearing aids, your brain suddenly has to cope with an influx of extra information. When this happens, your brain will find it difficult, at first, to process all those new sounds as well as it should. Auditory training can be a useful tool to help deal with this. (As a side note, auditory training is also worthwhile for those who have language learning challenges or auditory processing disorders).

Think of it like this: Audio books won’t necessarily make you hear clearer, but they will help you better understand what you’re hearing.

When you listen to audiobooks, what happens?

Helping your brain distinguish sound again is precisely what auditory training is designed to do. If you think about it, people have a very complicated relationship with noise. Every single sound you hear has some meaning. Your brain needs to do a lot of work. The concept is that audiobooks are an ideal way to help your brain get used to that process again, particularly if you’re breaking in a new pair of hearing aids.

Audiobooks can help with your auditory training in various different ways, including the following:

Using audiobooks as aids to auditory training

WE recommend that, as you listen to your audiobook, you also read along with a physical copy of the book too. Your brain will adjust faster to new audio signals making those linguistic connections stronger. It’s definitely a good way to enhance your auditory training adventure. That’s because audiobooks enhance hearing aids.

It’s also very easy to get thousands of audiobooks. There’s an app called Audible which you can get a subscription to. Many online vendors sell them, including Amazon. Anywhere you find yourself, you can cue one up on your phone.

And you can also get podcasts on nearly every topic in case you can’t find an audiobook you want to listen to. You can improve your hearing and improve your mind simultaneously!

Can I utilize my hearing aids to listen to audiobooks?

Lots of contemporary hearing aids are Bluetooth enabled. So all of your Bluetooth-equipped devices, including your phone, your television, and your speakers, can be connected with your hearing aids. This means you don’t need to put huge headphones over your hearing aids just to listen to an audiobook. You can use your hearing aids for this instead.

This leads to an easier process and a higher quality sound.

Ask us about how audiobooks can help with your auditory training

So if you believe your hearing may be starting to go, or you’re worried about getting accustomed to your hearing aids, talk to us about audiobooks.

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Your Tinnitus Might be Getting Worse Due to Those Late Night Bar Visits

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 18:15:00 GMT

Remember the old tale of Johnny Appleseed? In elementary school, you may have been taught that he migrated across the United States, bringing the gift of healthy apples to every community he paid a visit to (the moral of the story is that apples are healthy, and you should eat them).

Actually, that isn’t the entire truth. Around the end of the 19th century, Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman was his real name) did in fact present apples to many parts of the United States. But apples were very different way back then. They weren’t as sweet or delicious. In truth, they were mostly only used for one thing: producing hard cider.

Yup, every neighborhood that Johnny Appleseed visited received the gift of booze.

Humans have a tricky relationship with alcohol. On the one hand, it’s horrible for your health (you will often experience some of these health issues immediately when you feel hungover). Conversely, humans generally like feeling intoxicated.

This habit goes back into the early mists of time. Humanity has been imbibing since, well, the beginning of recorded history. But if you’re dealing with hearing issues, including tinnitus, it’s likely that your alcohol use could be generating or exacerbating your symptoms.

So when you’re at the bar, loud music isn’t the only danger to the health of your hearing. It’s also the cocktails.

Drinking triggers tinnitus

The fact that alcohol causes tinnitus is something that hearing specialists will usually confirm. That isn’t really that hard to believe. If you’ve ever partaken of a little too much, you might have encountered something known as “the spins”. When you’re dizzy and the room seems like it’s spinning after drinking this is what’s called “the spins”.

When alcohol interferes with your inner ear, which is the part of your body responsible for balance, tinnitus can manifest.

And what else is your inner ear used for? Obviously, your ability to hear. So if alcohol can produce the spins, it’s not difficult to believe that it can also generate ringing or buzzing in your ears.

Ototoxic compounds, including alcohol, will cause tinnitus

The word ototoxic might sound daunting, but it just indicates something that can be damaging to your hearing. The whole auditory system from your ears to your brain is included in this.

Here are a few ways this can play out:

Drinking-related hearing loss & tinnitus aren’t always long-term

You might begin to notice some symptoms when you’re out on the town having some drinks with friends.

These symptoms, thankfully, are normally not permanent when related to alcohol. As your body chemistry returns to normal, you’ll likely start to recover some of your hearing and your tinnitus will decline.

But the longer you have alcohol in your system, the longer your symptoms will last. And it could become irreversible if this kind of damage keeps happening repeatedly. In other words, it’s definitely possible (if not likely) that you can generate both permanent tinnitus and hearing loss by drinking too much and too often.

Here are some other things that are happening

It isn’t just the booze, of course. The bar scene is not favorable for your ears for other reasons also.

The point is, there are serious risks to your health and your hearing in these late night bar trips.

Does that mean it’s time to stop drinking?

Of course, we’re not suggesting that drinking alone in a quiet room is the answer here. It’s the alcohol, not the socializing, that’s the root of the issue. So if you’re having trouble moderating your drinking, you could be creating significant problems for yourself, and for your hearing. You should consult your physician about how you can get treatment, and start on the path to being healthy again.

If you’ve detected a loud ringing in your ears after heavy drinking, make an appointment with us for a consultation.

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What is Auditory Neuropathy?

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:45:00 GMT

Have you ever been in the middle of the roadway and your car breaks down? That really stinks! You have to pull your car off the road. And then, for some reason, you probably pop your hood and take a look at your engine.

What’s strange is that you do this even if you have no idea how engines work. Maybe you think there’ll be a convenient knob you can turn or something. Inevitably, a tow truck will need to be called.

And it’s only when the mechanics get a look at things that you get an understanding of the issue. Just because the car is not starting, doesn’t mean you can tell what’s wrong with it because vehicles are complicated and computerized machines.

The same thing can occur in some cases with hearing loss. The symptom itself doesn’t necessarily reveal what the cause is. There’s the usual cause (noise-associated hearing loss), sure. But in some cases, it’s something else, something such as auditory neuropathy.

Auditory neuropathy, what is it?

Most individuals think of really loud noise such as a rock concert or a jet engine when they think of hearing loss. This form of hearing loss, called sensorineural hearing loss is a bit more complex than that, but you get the point.

But in some cases, long-term hearing loss can be the result of something other than noise damage. While it’s less common, hearing loss can sometimes be caused by a condition known as auditory neuropathy. When sound can’t, for some reason, be properly sent to your brain even though your ear is collecting that sound perfectly fine.

Symptoms of auditory neuropathy

The symptoms related to auditory neuropathy are, at first glance, not all that dissimilar from those symptoms linked to conventional hearing loss. Things like cranking the volume up on your devices and not being capable of hearing very well in loud settings. This can often make auditory neuropathy difficult to diagnose and treat.

Auditory neuropathy, however, has some distinctive symptoms that make recognizing it easier. When hearing loss symptoms manifest like this, you can be pretty sure that it’s not normal noise related hearing loss. Though, naturally, you’ll be better informed by an official diagnosis from us.

Here are some of the more unique symptoms of auditory neuropathy:

What triggers auditory neuropathy?

The underlying causes of this condition can, in part, be defined by the symptoms. On an individual level, the reasons why you may develop auditory neuropathy may not be totally clear. This disorder can develop in both adults and children. And, broadly speaking, there are a couple of well defined possible causes:

Auditory neuropathy risk factors

Some people will experience auditory neuropathy while others won’t and no one is really certain why. Because of this, there isn’t a tried and true way to counter auditory neuropathy. But you might be at a higher risk of developing auditory neuropathy if you present certain close associations.

Bear in mind that even if you have all of these risk factors you still may or may not experience auditory neuropathy. But you’re more statistically likely to experience auditory neuropathy the more risk factors you have.

Risk factors for children

Factors that can raise the risk of auditory neuropathy for children include the following:

Risk factors for adults

For adults, risk factors that increase your likelihood of developing auditory neuropathy include:

Minimizing the risks as much as possible is generally a smart plan. If risk factors are there, it might be a good idea to schedule regular screenings with us.

Diagnosing auditory neuropathy

A normal hearing test involves listening to tones with a pair of headphones and raising a hand depending on which side you hear the tone on. That test won’t help much with auditory neuropathy.

Rather, we will generally recommend one of two tests:

Once we do the appropriate tests, we will be able to more successfully diagnose and treat your auditory neuropathy.

Is there treatment for auditory neuropathy?

So, just like you bring your car to the mechanic to get it fixed, you can bring your ears to us for treatment! In general, there’s no “cure” for auditory neuropathy. But there are several ways to treat this disorder.

It’s best to get treatment as soon as possible

Getting your disorder treated punctually will, as with any hearing disorder, produce better outcomes.

So if you suspect you have auditory neuropathy, or even just regular old hearing loss, it’s important to get treatment as quickly as you can. You’ll be able to go back to hearing better and enjoying your life once you schedule an appointment and get treated. This can be extremely crucial for children, who experience a lot of cognitive development and linguistic growth during their early years.

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The History of Hearing Aids

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 15:52:00 GMT

When it comes to history, there are three different kinds of individuals: those who find history to be amazingly fascinating, individuals who think history is horribly boring, and people who think history is full of aliens.

The history of hearing aids is not about aliens (sorry not sorry). But the true story is probably pretty weird as well. Hearing loss is, after all, a human condition that has been here as long as we have. Because of this, people have been uncovering clever ways to manage hearing loss for hundreds of years, if not longer.

Being aware of the history of your hearing aids can give you a greater appreciation of how your own tiny, digital devices work, and why you should wear them more frequently.

Hearing loss has existed for thousands of years

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of hearing loss that goes back to the dawn of humanity. They can detect indicators of ear pathologies in fossil evidence. It’s fairly cool! Reports of hearing loss also begin appearing as soon as written language is created (for instance, there are numerous Egyptian sources that discuss hearing loss symptoms).

So, clearly, hearing loss is nothing new. And it wasn’t any better then than it is now (this is particularly true because it was harder to manage then). Communication will be a lot harder if you have untreated hearing loss. Friends and family members may become more distant. In a more “hunter and gatherer” type of society, you may also lose your ability to detect danger (resulting in a shorter lifespan).

Humans, thus, have had a strong incentive to address hearing loss going back thousands of years. And they didn’t totally fail at this.

The progression of hearing aid like devices

It’s relevant to note that we don’t have a complete history of the hearing aid. Not all evidence of hearing devices is recorded through time. It’s likely that ancient humans did something to alleviate hearing loss, even if there’s no direct evidence of what that was.

Still, here’s what the known “hearing aid timeline” looks like:

History’s best hearing aids

For centuries or more, we have been working on relieving hearing loss.
Modern hearing aids can attain that better than at any time in the history of humanity. And because they’re so beneficial, these little devices are also more prominent than ever. They can help with a larger number of hearing issues.

So if you want to get back to connecting with your children or your family or the cashier at the checkout lane, hearing aids can help you do it. (See? No aliens involved.)

Call us and make an appointment to find out what hearing aids can do for you!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References
https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/blogs/hearing-aid-history-ear-trumpets-european-royalty-earbuds

If You want to Enjoy Your Life, Keep that Hearing Aid Turned on!

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:03:00 GMT

Even if you have an active, healthy lifestyle, you could develop hearing loss and certain cognitive challenges as you grow older. And scientists have discovered a strong connection between the two that shouldn’t be overlooked and it will help if you don’t switch that hearing aid off.

Individuals with neglected hearing loss are twice as likely to deal with depression. About 27% more individuals with neglected hearing loss reported “often feeling sad” compared to people who used a hearing aid.

They were also 24% more likely to stop doing things they used to love and 39% more likely to feel like people are mad at them for no reason.

There’s an even more troubling statistic you should be aware of, though you won’t like it very much. Don’t turn off that hearing aid!

Our beliefs about hearing loss will be totally changed by this study

For centuries, age-related hearing loss has been considered a “harmless” condition. It was widely believed that compensation would come from all of the other senses. People would just go on with their lives trying to live safely, healthily, and happily. Hearing loss wasn’t believed to have any health affects besides the hearing impairment.

Of course we now know that’s not the case. This study presents just one of the greater effects that hearing loss has on a person’s overall health.

This important and well-structured study forces us to reconsider hearing loss as a society.

How the research was conducted

Committed researchers at the National Institute for Aging (NCOA) carried out this research and surveyed over 2000 individuals 50 and older. People with neglected hearing loss and people who used hearing aids were among the participants. Clinically pertinent questions were asked to determine the levels of the following:

Over 2000 family members of the participants were also included in this ground-breaking study. What they reported helped to give the participant’s statements validity. When we discuss hearing loss, this research, with the added verification, becomes even more pertinent.

How health and quality of life are affected by depression

Eating disorders like acute obesity or extreme weight loss are more likely in those who suffer from depression, according to the American Psychological Association. Memory loss and insomnia are also more common in those with neglected hearing loss.

While driving, cooking, and other activities, their diminished reaction time can lead to severe injury. Those who suffer with depression have even been found to heal less quickly, causing complications and lengthy hospital stays.

The chance of falls for older people is also increased when a person has depression.

Depression progresses as hearing loss progresses. The person usually becomes more and more secluded, lonely, and unable to care for themselves.

But there’s an even sadder statistic.

Hearing aid usage rates

About 75% of people who should use hearing aids don’t use them. Yup! Many individuals have the ability to shield themselves from depression by wearing hearing aids but for some reason abstain from taking the steps.

Why do so many individuals neglect using a hearing aid?

When asked why they don’t use a hearing aid, many individuals say they do own one. They simply won’t wear it because it makes them “look old.” They’re embarrassed.

A hearing aid update would be worthwhile for these people. Present day hearing aids can sync to your smart devices, work better, and are more subtle. This makes them seem less like a hearing aid and more like an extension of their smart tech.

A smaller but considerable number of people say hearing aids are too expensive. States and insurance companies are now recognizing the connection between untreated hearing loss and general health. Hearing aids are, due to this, becoming more available and affordable. And unaddressed hearing loss can cost a lot of money over time which the majority of people don’t take into account. They don’t understand how hearing loss impacts their overall life. Unaddressed hearing loss can increase your overall healthcare costs by as much as 4o percent in only a few years.

How can hearing associated depression symptoms be decreased?

Be proud to wear your hearing aid. Help fight the stigma people feel about using a hearing aid by showing them how much better you feel when you can hear.

Maximize your hearing in every setting with your modern hearing aid by taking a little time to learn the advanced features. You’re not getting the most from your hearing aid by simply cranking up the volume. Consult us so you can try out these upgraded hearing aids.

If you feel you aren’t getting the most out of your hearing aid and are tempted to leave it off, talk to us today about how to make use of your hearing aid more successfully.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References
https://www.ncoa.org/article/what-older-adults-need-to-know-about-hearing-loss

I’m Going Nuts With This Itchy Ear

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 16:55:00 GMT

Have you ever experienced an itch that you just couldn’t reach?

Alright, there are two ways to think about it: First, you think about something you always wanted to do in life but so far you haven’t got around to (skydiving, for instance). Or, if you’re a little less of a romantic, you think about that spot on your back that you just can’t quite reach.

That’s really annoying! Desperately trying to scratch that itchy spot on your back. It’s the reason why back-scratchers exist.

Regrettably, when you have an itchy ear, there isn’t any device to get at it. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t reach up inside your ear canal where that itch is coming from. It’s worse than that spot on your back, and it isn’t surprising that itchy ears are probably driving you crazy.

Itchy ears can impact your daily life

At first glance, it sounds like a minor thing. Itchy ears? It could be much worse, right? At least you aren’t in horrible pain.

Here’s something to think about: Your ear is itchy, and you can’t do anything about it. No big deal, if it only happens once in a while. But if your ears are itchy constantly? You may find yourself, and your quality of life, significantly impacted.

Maybe you stay home and quit socializing with friends. Or perhaps you try to overpower the sensation by listening to excessively loud music.

It’s not fun at all. But there are strategies and treatments. Discovering the best way to address itchy ears means knowing what causes them to begin with.

So what are some of the causes of itchy ears?

So why are your ears itchy? And what can you do about it? The treatment for itching ears is going to differ depending on the underlying cause. As with most other medical conditions, there are several possible underlying conditions that could be affecting your ears. Here are a few of the most prevalent:

Finding treatment for your itchy ears, and relief

Pretty much every activity becomes less fun with itchy ears. Your life can actually be changed by finding relief with the proper treatment. If you attempt to just wait it out, you will likely prolong your suffering because it isn’t likely that the itching will clear itself up.

Stop focusing on your itchy ears and go back to enjoying your life. Give us a call for a consultation.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Should Musicians Wear Ear Protection?

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 16:36:00 GMT

Musicians rock. Their shows bring us so much enjoyment. The drawback is that music is nearly always loud, in fact, many individuals prefer it that way. The musicians themselves are at an increased danger of hearing damage since they are subjected to loud music nearly every day.

Whether your income depends on music or not, you’ll still want to be able to hear your favorite songs when you’re in your later years of life. The key to having an extended successful career, for musicians, is protecting their ears. Ear protection is also key to a lifetime of musical enjoyment for everybody.

Music is surprisingly loud

Most people would say that a jet engine is really loud.

Is music really that loud? People might not be so quick to answer that question if you ask them if a violin or acoustic guitar is loud. Imagine their surprise when they discover the reality: That can also be very loud music! Even classical music can reach fairly high volumes that can easily damage your hearing.

A violin, for example, can create sounds in excess of 90 dB. That’s around as loud as a leaf blower. To put that into context, the European Union laws dictate that any work environment noisier than 85 dB will require the use of ear protection.

And your hearing can be significantly damaged over time if you’re working with music every day, particularly if you don’t wear ear protection.

How can you safeguard your hearing?

Okay, now you’re aware that musicians need to protect their hearing (especially if they want to continue rocking out for years to come). So what can musicians do to protect their hearing and still enjoy the music they love so much?

Well, here are a couple of simple things musicians can do:

hearing protection is important

Using ear protection is the single most effective way to safeguard your hearing. Many musicians are reluctant to wear hearing protection because they’re worried it will impact the clarity of sound they hear, in addition to dampening the volume. That isn’t always true, depending on which kind of hearing protection you use.

Safeguard your career by protecting your ears

It’s better to start protecting your hearing early, before any substantial damage occurs. With options available at nearly every price point, there are easy ways for everyone to safeguard their hearing and their future. Keep in mind, ear protection for a musician is an investment in your career. By doing so, you will be able to enjoy creating music for as long as you want to.

Don’t quite know where to begin? Give us a call today, we can help!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Types, Details, and Diagnosis of Hearing Tests

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:26:00 GMT

Hearing loss is challenging, if not impossible, to diagnose by yourself. For instance, you can’t really put your ear next to a speaker and subjectively measure what you hear. Which means that if you want to know what’s happening with your hearing, you need to take a test.

Now, before you begin sweating or fidgeting anxiously, it’s significant to point out that the majority of hearing tests are rather easy and involve nothing more difficult than wearing a pair of fancy headphones.

Okay, tests aren’t everyone’s favorite thing to do. Tests in general are no fun for anybody of any age. Taking some time to get to know these tests can help you feel more prepared and, therefore, more comfortable. There’s almost no test easier to take than a hearing test!

How is a hearing test done?

We frequently talk about making an appointment with a hearing specialist to get your ears tested. And the phrase “hearing test” is something we’ve probably talked about on occasion. You may even be thinking, well, what are the two types of hearing tests?

Well, that’s not completely accurate. Because you might undergo a number of different types of hearing tests, as it turns out. Each of these tests will give you a specific result and is created to measure something different. Here are some of the hearing tests you’re likely to encounter:

What can we discover from hearing test results?

It’s likely, you usually won’t take every single one of these hearing tests. We will choose one or two tests that best address your symptoms and then go from there.

What do we look for in a hearing test? A hearing test can sometimes uncover the cause of your hearing loss. The hearing test you take can, in other cases, simply help us eliminate other causes. Essentially, we will get to the bottom of any hearing loss symptoms you are experiencing.

In general, your hearing test will reveal:

What’s the difference between a hearing test and a hearing screening? The difference between a quiz and a test is a good comparison. A screening is very superficial. A test is made to supply usable information.

The sooner you take this test, the better

That’s why it’s essential to schedule a hearing test when you first detect symptoms. Take it easy, you won’t have to study, and the test isn’t stressful. Nor are hearing tests intrusive or generally painful. We will give you all of the information about what to do and not to do before your hearing test.

It’s easy, just call and schedule an appointment.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Hearing Loss Doesn’t Have to Negatively Affect Your Relationship

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 17:04:00 GMT

It’s something lots of individuals cope with, but most don’t want to talk about – hearing loss and its effect on personal relationships. Both partners can feel aggravated by the misunderstandings that are created by hearing loss.
This is the perfect time for you to express your love and appreciation for your loved one with Valentine’s Day just around the corner. A great way to do this is to talk to your loved one about your hearing loss.

Having “the talk”

Studies have revealed that a person with untreated hearing loss is 2.4 times more likely to experience dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. A cascade effect that will eventually affect the entire brain will be initiated when the part of your brain in charge of hearing becomes less engaged. Doctors call this brain atrophy. It’s the “use it or lose it” principle in action.

Depression cases are almost half in people who have normal hearing compared to those who have hearing loss. Individuals frequently become stressed and agitated as their hearing loss progresses according to research. This can lead to the person being self secluded from friends and family. They are also likely to avoid involving themselves in the activities they used to enjoy as they fall deeper into a state of depression.

This, in turn, can lead to relationship stress among mother and son, daughter and father, close friends, spouses, and others in this person’s life. Communication problems need to be handled with patients and compassion.

Mystery solved

Your loved one may not be ready to let you know they’re developing hearing loss. They may be afraid or embarrassed. They may be in denial. You may need to do a bit of detective work to figure out when it’s time to have the talk.

Here are a few external clues you will have to rely on because you can’t hear what other people are hearing:

Plan to have a heart-to-heart discussion with your loved one if you notice any of these symptoms.

What is the best way to talk about hearing loss?

Having this talk might not be easy. A loved one could become defensive and brush it off if they’re in denial. That’s why discussing hearing loss in the right way is so crucial. The steps will be basically the same but perhaps with some minor modifications based on your particular relationship situation.

Be ready with your responses. You may even rehearse them in the mirror. These responses need to address your loved one’s Worries but they don’t have to match those listed above word-for-word

Relationship growth

If your spouse is unwilling to discuss their hearing loss, it can be challenging. Openly talking about the effect of hearing loss on your relationship can help to establish a plan to address any communication issues and make sure that both partners are heard and understood. By doing this, your relationship will get stronger and your loved one will take measures to live a longer, healthier life. And relationships are, after all, about growing together.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing#
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/hearing-loss-common-problem-older-adults

Are There Different Kinds of Hearing Loss?

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 19:30:00 GMT

Have you ever bought one of those “one size fits all” t-shirts only to be dismayed (and shocked) when the shirt doesn’t, in fact, fit as advertised? That’s truly annoying. The reality is that there’s pretty much nothing in the world that is truly a “one size fits all”. That’s true with t-shirts and it’s also true with medical conditions, like hearing loss. This can be true for numerous reasons.

So what causes hearing loss? And what is the most prevalent kind of hearing loss? Let’s find out!

Hearing loss comes in different kinds

Because hearing is such a complex cognitive and physical operation, no two people’s hearing loss will be precisely the same. Maybe you hear perfectly well at the office, but not in a noisy restaurant. Or, perhaps certain frequencies of sound get lost. There are numerous forms that your hearing loss can take.

The root cause of your hearing loss will determine how it manifests. Lots of things can go wrong with an organ as intricate as the ear.

How your hearing works

It’s useful to get an idea of how hearing is supposed to work before we can figure out what degree of hearing loss requires a hearing aid. Here’s how it breaks down:

Types of hearing loss

Because there are numerous parts of your auditory system, there are (as a result) multiple forms of hearing loss. The underlying cause of your hearing loss will determine which kind of hearing loss you develop.

Here are some of the most prevalent causes:

The desired results are the same even though the treatment option will differ for each form of hearing loss: improving your hearing ability.

Hearing loss kinds have variations

And that’s not all! We can break down and categorize these common types of hearing loss even more specifically. Here are some examples:

If that seems like a lot, it’s because it is. But your hearing loss will be more effectively treated when we’re able to use these classifications.

A hearing test is in order

So how can you tell which of these categories applies to your hearing loss situation? Unfortunately, hearing loss isn’t really something you can self-diagnose with much accuracy. It will be hard for you to know, for example, whether your cochlea is functioning properly.

But you can get a hearing exam to determine precisely what’s happening. It’s like when you have a check engine light on in your car and you take it to a skilled auto technician. We can connect you to a wide range of machines, and help establish what type of hearing loss you’re dealing with.

So the best way to figure out what’s happening is to schedule an appointment with us today!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/types-of-hearing-loss/

Forgetting Important Information? This Might be Why

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 02:44:00 GMT

Feel like you might be forgetting something crucial? It isn’t your imagination. Remembering day-to-day things is getting more and more difficult. Once you become aware of it, memory loss seems to progress quickly. The more aware you are of it, the more incapacitating it is. Did you know memory loss is linked to hearing loss?

If you believe that this is just a normal part of getting older, you would be wrong. Losing the ability to process memories always has an underlying reason.

For many people that cause is neglected hearing loss. Is your memory being affected by hearing loss? You can slow the onset of memory loss considerably and possibly even get some back if you are aware of the cause.

This is what you should know.

How memory loss can be triggered by untreated hearing loss

They’re not unrelated. As a matter of fact, researchers have found that people who have untreated hearing loss are 24% more likely to develop dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other severe cognitive issues.
The reasons for this higher risk are multi-fold.

Mental fatigue

To begin with, hearing loss causes the brain to work extra hard. Listening to things takes extra effort. Now, your brain needs to work extra hard where before it just occurred naturally.

You begin to use your deductive reasoning abilities. You try to figure out what people most likely said by removing unlikely possibilities.

This puts lots of extra stress on the brain. It’s particularly stressful when your deductive reasoning skills let you down. The outcome of this can be misconceptions, embarrassment, and sometimes even resentment.

How we process memory can be seriously affected by stress. Mental resources that we should be utilizing for memory get tied up when we’re experiencing stress.

As the hearing loss worsens, something new occurs.

Feeling older

You can begin to “feel older” than you actually are when you’re constantly asking people to repeat what they said and straining to hear. If you’re always thinking that you’re getting old, it can become a self fulfilling prophecy.

Social isolation

We’ve all heard the trope of the person who’s so lonely that they start to lose touch with reality. Humans are social creatures. Even people who are introverted struggle when they’re never around others.

A person with untreated hearing loss gradually becomes isolated. It’s more difficult to talk on the phone. You need people to repeat themselves at social functions making them much less enjoyable. You start to be excluded from conversations by friends and family. Even when you’re in a setting with lots of people, you might space out and feel secluded. Eventually, you might not even have the radio to keep you company.

It’s just easier to spend more time alone. You feel older than others your age and don’t feel that you can relate to them now.

This regular lack of mental stimulation makes it more difficult for the brain to process new information.

Brain atrophy

As a person who is coping with untreated hearing loss starts to isolate themselves either physically or just mentally, a chain reaction initiates in the brain. Parts of the brain are no longer being stimulated. They stop working.

There’s a high level of interconnectivity between the various regions of the brain. Skills like problem solving, learning, speech, and memory are all related to hearing.

There will usually be a gradual spread of this functional atrophy to other brain activity, like hearing, which is also connected to memory.

It’s just like the legs of a person who is bedridden. Muscles become weak when they’re sick in bed over a long time period of time. They could stop working entirely. They might need to have physical therapy to learn to walk again.

But with the brain, this damage is a great deal more challenging to rehabilitate. The brain actually begins to shrink. Brain Scans show this shrinkage.

How a hearing aid can prevent memory loss

You’re most likely still in the beginning stages of hearing loss if you’re reading this. It may be hardly noticeable. The great news is that it isn’t the hearing loss that contributes to memory loss.

It’s the fact that the hearing loss is untreated.

Studies have shown that people that have hearing loss who regularly use their hearing aid have the same chance of developing memory loss as somebody of the same age with healthy hearing. Individuals who started wearing hearing aids after symptoms began were able to delay the progression considerably.

As you get older, try to remain connected and active. If you want to keep your memory intact you should understand that it’s closely related to hearing loss. Don’t dismiss your hearing health. Schedule a hearing exam. And if there’s any reason you aren’t wearing your hearing aid, please talk to us about solutions – we can help!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Hearing Loss is no Big Deal and Other Myths

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 20:39:00 GMT

It’s important to educate yourself about hearing loss, especially if you or somebody you know is coping with it. Armed with accurate knowledge, you can avoid making bad decisions and will be better able to deal with your condition. Here are some popular myths to disregard when you have minor hearing loss.

Hearing loss isn’t a big deal as long as it’s mild

While there are numerous steps you can take to overcome your hearing loss, it would be unwise to neglect the effects it can have. The quality of your life can be affected by even minor hearing loss. Being unable to hear as clearly as you used to can impact how well you communicate with others. This can lead to numerous psychological effects, such as social isolation, frustration, and depression.

Only certain people are vulnerable to hearing loss

Many people are under the misconception that hearing loss is only encountered by the elderly. This couldn’t be further from being true. Many people are born with hearing impairment, while others might lose their hearing because of an illness or traumatic injury at some point in life. Age doesn’t prevent anybody from developing hearing loss.

When you get a hearing aid, your hearing is immediately perfect

You will most likely need some time to adjust to your new hearing aids before you’re hearing at an optimal level. Your unique hearing scenario will mean you will need a particular model of hearing aid and will probably require several office visits for fine-tuning. It also takes time for your brain to adapt to hearing again.

Hearing loss can only be treated with surgery

For a small number of adults who suffer from hearing loss, surgery will be the best solution. Properly fitted and tuned hearing aids will be the go-to for the majority of moderate hearing loss situations.

You only get hearing loss on one side

It is not unusual for hearing loss to affect both ears. Your level of hearing loss may be more severe in one ear giving you the notion that you’re losing your hearing only in that ear. In many situations, the level of hearing loss is the same for both ears. Actually, the majority of people who need hearing aids for moderate hearing loss need them for both of their ears.

Don’t let what you think is true about hearing loss stand in the way of proper treatment. Come in and see us so we can fit you with the ideal hearing aid solution for your unique hearing situation.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Seven Unmistakable Indications You Should Get a Hearing Test

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 21:06:00 GMT

Bananas don’t taste the same as they once did. That’s because modern banana farmers grow a very different type of banana then they did in the past. These new bananas develop faster, are more resilient, and can thrive in a wider variety of climates. And they taste very different. So how did this change occur without us noticing? Well, the reality is that it developed slowly, through the years. You never noticed the gradual switch.

The same thing can take place with your ears and hearing loss. It’s not like all of a sudden your hearing is completely gone. In most cases of hearing loss, it goes undetected because it progresses so slowly.

Early treatment can really help preserve your hearing so that’s a regrettable truth. If you are aware that your hearing is at risk, for example, you may take more safeguards to protect it. So it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for these seven signs of waning hearing.

7 signs you should get a hearing assessment

Hearing loss isn’t always thoroughly understood as it happens gradually over time. It’s not as if you’ll go to a loud rock concert and the next day find yourself entirely unable to hear. Damage to your hearing (from that rock concert and other loud noises) builds up over time. So keeping an eye on your hearing early will be the best way to safeguard it. You shouldn’t put off on this because untreated hearing loss has been linked to problems like social isolation, depression, and dementia.

These seven signs are what you should be paying attention to out for. The only way to know for certain is to get a hearing assessment, but these indicators might encourage you to schedule an appointment earlier than you normally would have.

Sign #1: You keep turning up the volume on your devices

Are you constantly turning up the volume on your devices? Maybe they’re mixing the audio on your favorite shows differently now, or your favorite artists have started to mumble. But it’s more likely that you’re compensating for your increasing hearing loss by turning the volume up on your devices.

This is especially the situation if your family has also constantly been telling you that the TV is too loud. They can often recognize hearing trouble in you sooner than you can.

Sign #2: You failed to hear the doorbell (or a phone call)

If you’re regularly missing some everyday sounds, that could be an indication of issues with your ears. Here are a few common sounds you may be missing:

If your family and friends have stated that they’re a little scared of driving with you because you miss so many everyday sounds (from honking horns to the beeping of a truck in reverse), that could be a sign that it’s time for a hearing test.

Sign #3: You keep needing people to repeat what they said

Are your most commonly used words “what?” or “pardon?”? If you’re constantly needing people to repeat themselves, it’s very, very possible it’s not because of them, it’s because of you (and your hearing). This is particularly relevant if people do repeat themselves and you still can’t hear what they say. Most likely, time to get a hearing exam.

Sign #4: It sounds as if everybody’s always mumbling

You could also call this sign #3-A, since they go rather well together. You should know that people most likely aren’t mumbling or talking about you under their breath even if your hearing loss is making it seem that way. It’s stressful to always think people are mumbling about you, so it might be a relief to learn they’re actually not. Instead, it’s more likely that you’re simply having a difficult time hearing what they’re saying.

If you’re attempting to talk to somebody in a noisy setting or with someone who has a high pitched voice this can be especially relevant.

Sign #5: Family members prompt you to get a hearing assessment (or get hearing aids)

Your friends and family most likely know you pretty well. And some of them probably have healthy hearing. It’s a smart plan to pay attention to your family members (especially the younger ones) if they are telling you something is going on with your hearing.

It’s easy to understand that you would want to rationalize away this advice. Maybe you think they just caught you on a bad day or something. But you could give your hearing an advantage by heeding their advice.

Sign #6: Your ears are ringing or you’re experiencing balance problems

When you’re experiencing ringing in your ears, you’re dealing with a condition known as tinnitus. It’s extremely common. There are a couple of reasons why you might experience more ringing in your ears when you’re dealing with hearing loss:

Either way, if you’re going through loud ringing, or even dizziness and vertigo, it could be a sign that something is going on in your ears. This means it’s time to come see us for a hearing test.

Sign #7: You feel fatigued after social interactions

Perhaps you’ve always been an introvert at heart, and that’s why social interactions have grown completely exhausting. Or maybe, and just hear us out here (again with the puns), your hearing isn’t what it used to be.

When you leave a restaurant or a social affair feeling totally depleted, your hearing (or lack thereof) might be the cause. Your brain is trying to fill in the gaps that you can’t hear. This is fatiguing (no matter how good your brain is), particularly over the long run. So you may experience even more fatigue when you’re in an especially noisy setting.

The first step is getting in touch with us for an appointment

The truth is that we all encounter some hearing damage during our lives. If or when you develop hearing loss is heavily dependent on how well you protect your ears when you’re subjected to loud sound.

So if you’ve experienced any of these signs, it’s an indication that the banana is changing. Luckily, you can take matters into your own hands and give us a call for an appointment. You’ll be able to get treatment as soon as you get diagnosed.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Is There a Cure for Hearing Loss?

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:05:00 GMT

New cures are constantly being discovered. That may be a positive or a negative. For instance, you might look at promising new research in the arena of curing hearing loss and you decide you don’t really need to be all that cautious. You’ll feel like they will most likely have a cure for deafness by the time you will notice any symptoms of hearing loss.

That wouldn’t be wise. Clearly, protecting your hearing now while it’s still healthy would be the smarter choice. Scientists are making some incredible strides when it comes to treating hearing loss though, and that includes some potential cures in the future.

It’s no fun to lose your hearing

Hearing loss is simply something that happens. It’s not necessarily because of something you did wrong. It’s just part of the aging process. But there are some definite disadvantages to dealing with hearing loss. Your social life, general health, and mental health can be significantly affected by hearing loss, along with your inability to hear what’s taking place around you. Untreated hearing loss can even result in an increased risk of depression and dementia. Lots of evidence exists that shows a connection between social isolation and neglected hearing loss.

Hearing loss is, generally speaking, a degenerative and chronic situation. This means that there isn’t any cure and, as time passes, it’ll grow worse. That’s not true for every kind of hearing loss, but more on that below. Even though there’s no cure, though, that doesn’t mean it can’t be treated.

We can help you protect your levels of hearing and slow the development of hearing loss. Frequently, this means using a hearing aid, which is usually the ideal treatment for most types of hearing loss. So there are treatments for most people but there’s no cure. And your quality of life will be immensely improved by these treatments.

Hearing loss comes in two main kinds

Not all hearing loss is the same. Hearing loss comes in two main categories. One can be cured, the other can be treated. Here’s how it breaks down:

Treatments for sensorineural hearing loss

Sensorineural hearing loss may be permanent but that doesn’t mean it can’t be treated. The purpose of any such treatment is to let you hear as much as possible given your hearing loss. The objective is to help you hear discussions, increase your situational awareness, and keep you functioning independently through life.

So, how do you treat this type of hearing loss? Here are some common treatments.

Hearing aids

Most likely, the single most common way of treating hearing loss is hearing aids. They’re particularly useful because hearing aids can be specifically tuned for your unique hearing loss. During the course of your day, a hearing aid will help you make out conversations and communicate with people better. Hearing aids can even forestall many symptoms of social solitude (and the danger of depression and dementia as a result).

Having your own pair of hearing aids is extremely common, and there are many styles to pick from. In order to determine which model is suited to your taste and degree of hearing loss, you’ll have to come see us for a consultation.

Cochlear implants

Sometimes, it will be necessary to bypass the ears altogether if hearing loss is total. A cochlear implant does just that. Surgery is used to put this device into the ear. The device picks up on sounds and converts those sounds into electrical energy, which is then transferred directly to your cochlear nerve. This allows your brain to translate those signals into sounds.

Cochlear implants are normally used when hearing loss is complete, a condition known as deafness. So there will still be treatment options even if you have totally lost your hearing.

Novel advances

New novel ways of treating hearing loss are always being researched by scientists.

These new advances are frequently geared towards “curing” hearing loss in ways that have previously been impossible. Some of these advances include:

Don’t wait to have your hearing loss treated

There’s a lot of promise in these innovations. But let’s remember that none of them are available to the public at this time. Which means that it’s smart to live in the here and now. Be proactive about safeguarding your hearing.

Don’t try and hold out for that miracle cure, call us today to schedule a hearing exam.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://hsci.harvard.edu/major-step-toward-treatment-leading-form-hearing-loss
https://news.mit.edu/2022/frequency-therapeutics-hearing-regeneration-0329

$20,000 – or More – a Year? Just for Wearing a Hearing Aid?

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 21:32:00 GMT

Have your friends, family, and co-workers been asking you to invest in hearing aids but you’ve been stubbornly resisting? Are you feeling that right now you really don’t need a hearing aid or that you’re not losing enough to warrant buying one?

Even if you believe you’re doing fine at the moment, your hearing loss could catch up with you – and if that happens, it might potentially cost you upwards of $30,000 per year. Not only could you end up hurting yourself by dismissing your hearing loss, you could also cost yourself income and lost opportunities by missing important medical or work information.

Lost opportunities and unemployment

If you can’t hear everything you’re supposed to, it will eventually effect your performance at work. You could lose out on future projects because you didn’t follow instructions on previous work, or your interaction with co-workers may have deteriorated due to your being unable to hear them. You could end up going unnoticed by people at every level if you become socially isolated at work. These ”little” things add up over time and impact your ability to reach your full earning potential. People who treat their hearing loss earn, on average, $20,000 more than individuals with neglected hearing loss as reported by research done by the Better Hearing Institute.

Research also indicates that people with untreated hearing loss have a higher danger of being unemployed. People who don’t address their hearing loss will be 15% more likely to be unemployed. Not seeking treatment, consequently, could cost you a lot of money as time goes by.

Extra medical bills due to falls

Untreated hearing loss can deal another financial blow by actually making you more likely to fall. The chance of falling increases by 300% for individuals who have even minor untreated hearing loss as detailed by one study. also, there is a 1.4-fold increase in falls for every additional 10 dB of hearing loss. The vestibular system handles balance and researchers believe there might be a connection between the degree of hearing loss and how it impacts that system. Or, it might also be plausible that somebody with neglected hearing loss just gets disoriented in their environment because they’re overcompensating with their other senses. And when you have a fall it often leads to a costly trip to the doctor.

Increased general health issues

But there’s more to it than just that. You might be missing some of the guidance from your doctor if you have neglected hearing loss. If you miss information from your doctor, you might wind up having worse consequences in health matters, thus resulting in more bills and more issues. A major financial gap will be the result. Several studies have connected untreated hearing loss to significantly higher medical costs over time. One study noted the average increase was more than $20,000 over a ten year period and that these people were 40% more likely to go to the emergency room. More recent research from the University of South Carolina suggested that untreated hearing loss resulted in a 33% increase in healthcare costs over an 18 month time period.

Moderate to profound untreated hearing loss can result in a significantly increased danger of death according to a study published by Johns Hopkins University.

So, if you want to protect yourself both financially and physically, it’s time to get your hearing checked. You might need hearing aids depending on the results of that test. If you do, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. Hearing aids these days are state-of-the-art, really comfortable to use, and sound clear. Make your overall life better by taking advantage of this fantastic technology.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2018/patients-with-untreated-hearing-loss-incur-higher-health-care-costs-over-time

Sensorineural Hearing Loss Post Covid-19

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:33:00 GMT

You might develop hearing loss as you get older, particularly if you regularly expose yourself to loud noise. Likewise, if you work on a noisy factory floor and don’t use hearing protection, hearing loss may be in your future. These are pretty common and widely known causes of hearing loss. But within the past few years, a new cause has entered the fray. Yup, you guessed it, Covid-19.

People throughout the world have been ravaged by all of the many symptoms and side-effects of Covid-19, and that might include issues with hearing.

Maybe? Probably? Okay, Covid-19 is still a very new virus. And something new about it is being discovered all of the time by scientists. Some research does indicate that Covid-19 is linked to hearing loss, but that research is also somewhat preliminary and is still waiting for more information to back it up. So let’s have a look at where things stand currently.

So can hearing loss be caused by Covid-19?

So here’s the first thing to keep in mind: The Covid-19 vaccine has never been proven to cause hearing loss. All of the currently approved vaccines have this in common. Vaccines don’t affect your ears, they just don’t work that way. It would be like consuming a nice healthy salad and then declaring that it was the cause of your diabetes.

This is true of both the conventional vaccines and the new mRNA vaccines. For the majority of people, the risks are greatly exceeded by the advantages. If you have questions about vaccines, make sure to speak with your doctor, and get information from a reputable source.

Okay… with that out of the way, let’s discuss hearing loss.

So how is hearing loss caused by Covid?

So how is hearing loss caused by this? Specifically, how does it cause the type of hearing loss that is the result of damage to the auditory system which is usually irreversible, known as sensorineural hearing loss?

Scientists have a couple of hypotheses. Either one of them could cause hearing loss or both together.

Theory #1: inflammation

Covid-19 creates inflammation in your upper respiratory tract, and the theory is that this inflammation eventually impacts your ears. After all, your nose, mouth, and ears are all interconnected. There are a couple of ways this might cause hearing loss:

Steroids are occasionally prescribed when hearing loss is caused by inflammation. Researchers are still looking for a way to prevent sensorineural hearing loss caused by cell damage. It’s unclear, based on this research, just how much protection vaccines give you against this sort of damage, but it seems obvious that it’s better than no protection.

Theory #2: Long Covid

The next hypothesis is more substantial when it comes to patients’ experience, but a bit less comprehended with regards to cause and effect. There’s something called Long Covid which you, by now, have probably heard about.

Patients will go through symptoms of Covid when they are experiencing Long Covid, long after they have recovered from the actual virus. Often, a debilitating bout of long Covid that lasts for months, or longer, after having Covid itself, is experienced. Scientists still aren’t sure just what causes Long Covid, but there’s no denying it’s a real thing.

In February of 2021, researchers published a systematic review that looked at data about long-term auditory problems resulting from Covid-19. The review found that:

Whether these auditory problems are caused by Long Covid or just associated with it isn’t really clear, but it goes without saying there’s some kind of relationship. A host of symptoms, including hearing problems, come from Long Covid.

Anecdote or evidence?

When someone talks about how they got Covid and haven’t been able to hear the same since, that’s an anecdote. It’s one individual story. When researchers are trying to develop a treatment plan, these individual stories, while they are part of everyday life for the individuals, aren’t enough for researchers to go on. That’s why research is so critical.

Scientists will be able to get a better comprehension about the hazards of Covid as they collect more data about how prevalent these complications are.

Obviously, there’s still more to understand. Research is continuing, which means the link between Covid-19 and hearing loss isn’t necessarily proven or unproven. Regardless of how you developed hearing loss, however, it’s still crucial that you get treatment as soon as possible. So call us if you think you might be experiencing hearing loss.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.883749/full

If You’re Dealing With Hearing Loss, These Tips Will Keep You Safer

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 18:53:00 GMT

For you and the people you love, living with hearing loss can be difficult to adjust to. Sometimes, it can even be unsafe.

What if you can’t hear a smoke detector or somebody yelling your name? Car noises can signal dangers ahead, but if you have neglected hearing loss, you won’t hear them.

But the “what ifs” aren’t something you need to stress over. If you are dealing with neglected hearing loss, getting a hearing assessment is the first thing you should do. Here are a few recommendations to help keep people with hearing aids and their loved ones safer whether or not they’re wearing their hearing aid.

1. Bring a friend with you when you go out

If possible, take someone with you who is not struggling to hear. If you need to go out by yourself, ask people to come closer and look at you when they talk.

2. Stay focused when you drive

Because you can rely on your hearing less, it’s important to decrease other distractions behind the wheel. Don’t use your phone or GPS while driving, just pull over if you need to reroute. Before you drive, if you are worried that you may have a problem with your hearing, call us for an assessment.

Don’t feel ashamed if you need to turn off the radio or ask passengers to stop talking during more decisive moments of your drive. It’s better to err on the side of caution!

3. Think about getting a service dog

You think of service dogs as helpful for individuals with loss of vision, epilepsy, or other disorders. But if you’re dealing with auditory challenges, they can also be really helpful. A service dog can be trained to warn you of danger. When somebody is at your door they can let you know.

They can assist you with your hearing problems and they are also wonderful companions.

4. Make a plan

Before an emergency comes about, prepare a plan. Speak with others in your life about it. For instance, be certain your family is aware that you will be in the basement in the case of a tornado. Plan a specific location outside your house in the case of a fire.

This way, if something were to happen and you became trapped, family and emergency personnel can act rapidly to assist you.

5. When you’re driving, pay attention to visual cues

Your hearing loss has probably worsened over time. If your hearing aids aren’t regularly adjusted, you may find yourself relying more on your eyes. Be alert to flashing lights on the road since you may not hear sirens. When kids or pedestrians are around, stay extra attentive.

6. Let family and friends know about your limitations

It might be tough to admit, but it’s essential that people in your life are aware of your hearing loss. You may need to get to safety and those around you will be able to warn you about something you may have missed. They most likely won’t bother alerting you if they think you hear it too.

7. Be diligent about the maintenance of your vehicle

Your car may start making strange sounds that your hearing loss stops you from detecting. These sounds could point to a mechanical problem with your vehicle. If dismissed, they can do long-term damage to your vehicle or put you at risk. It’s a smart idea to ask a trustworthy mechanic for their opinion on the condition of your vehicle when you bring it in for an oil change or inspection.

8. Have your hearing impairment treated

If you want to be safe, getting your hearing loss treated is crucial. In order to identify if you need to get a hearing aid, have your hearing tested annually. Don’t allow pride, money, or time constraints stop you. Hearing aids nowadays are very functional, affordable, and unobtrusive. A hearing aid can help you remain safer in all facets of your life.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Hearing Aids – Top Ten Benefits

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 19:16:00 GMT

Hearing loss can seriously effect the way you live, even when it’s minor. The way you interact with friends, coworkers, and family members can change drastically. It can become difficult to complete day-to-day activities such as going shopping. But that doesn’t mean it has to be all doom and gloom. If you utilize a well adjusted hearing aid, it can make a big difference.

Most people usually think of those benefits in a very linear sort of way: Hearing aids help you hear better. And that’s not untrue. But how is the quality of life improved? What further advantages will hearing aids deliver?

Hearing aid’s top ten advantages

It’s kind of amazing, isn’t it, how people can so often produce top ten lists for anything? When you got up today, did you think you’d be reading a top ten list about hearing aids? Well, perhaps you did if you’ve been dealing with your hearing loss for a while.

So, what are the top ten advantages linked to wearing your hearing aid? Here they are!

1. Your relationships will get better

Great communication is critical to any great relationship. But when you have neglected hearing loss, communication can be challenging. But when you use hearing aids, you’ll be capable of hearing the whole conversation without losing anything. You’ll be able to follow along with the conversation and get the whole story.

This also means you won’t feel left out of the conversation, and you won’t feel resentful that the conversations carry on without you. So you will have an improvement in your relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. There is a strong link between relationships and hearing aids!

2. You’ll be more independent

Shopping at the grocery store or going to a restaurant when you’re dealing with neglected hearing loss can be an ordeal. Trying to communicate with wait staff and cashiers can be challenging when you can’t hear very well. But with a pair of hearing aids, the entire process suddenly becomes much easier. You’ll have much more independence when you move around the world around you.

You’ll also be in a better position to drive safely. That’s because your hearing aids will improve your overall situational awareness (more on that later). You won’t be as anxious about doing things by yourself when you’re able to hear the world more clearly.

3. Better hearing could result in higher pay

Consider this hypothetical scenario: if you’re attending a meeting at work and miss half of what’s discussed, you may not execute your job quite as well. This can lead to reduced job prospects and being passed-up for promotions.

When you’re wearing precisely tuned hearing aids, you will be less fatigued from struggling to hear, and keeping up with those meetings will be a lot easier. By doing this you can have an opportunity to raise your income by improving your ability to focus on work.

4. Your tinnitus symptoms will diminish

Tinnitus is one of those things that most people have experienced from time to time; it’s that buzzing or ringing in your ear. Tinnitus symptoms will frequently be more intense and more often with hearing loss (there are a host of explanations for this, sometimes the tinnitus is just relatively noisier because everything else is so quiet, for example).

With a hearing aid, many people note that they experience decreased tinnitus symptoms. The louder overall outside sound provided by the hearing aid might be, in some situations, simply drowning out the tinnitus symptoms. But relief is relief.

5. Decreased risk of mental decline

There is a solid link between mental decline and hearing loss. Your risk of developing dementia can be seriously elevated by ignoring hearing loss, for instance. Managing hearing loss seems to be helpful, though there are numerous theories as to why. That’s why it’s essential to be certain you wear your hearing aids. You might be giving your brain a greater chance of staying healthy longer.

6. Music can once again be appreciated

When you have hearing loss music is harder to hear clearly. That’s because one wavelength of sound typically goes before the others. Maybe you’re unable to hear low frequencies, for example. As a result, the song you once enjoyed may just sound… strange.

With your hearing aids, though, those missing holes in the music will be filled in, and you can appreciate music again! You’ll get the high notes and the low notes, instead of only one or the other (or a garbled mess). It can be an incredible relief to hear your favorite tune again.

7. You’ll get a boost of confidence

Your confidence will be boosted when you can hear better and have more successful interactions. And confidence is a wonderful thing.

We’re not suggesting that you shouldn’t have confidence just because you deal with hearing loss. It’s just that, particularly if that hearing loss is new, you could suddenly find it difficult to interact with others in the same ways you always have.

Those interactions can become easier again with hearing aids. And when that takes place, confidence will grow.

8. You’ll have more vigor

If your hearing loss has been slowly progressing, your brain has probably been working overtime. The audio holes that your hearing loss is creating will try to be filled in by your brain because it doesn’t recognize that your ears aren’t working. That’s hard work. And so, your brain is under constant strain.

When you get a hearing aid, you’re giving your brain a chance to relax and recharge. It will have less work to accomplish. With this, persistent exhaustion and fatigue will be minimized. You’ll have more energy to do the things you love to do!

9. Being more aware of your surroundings will keep you safer

If your hearing loss is recent, you may not yet have completely adapted. Normally, you would hear approaching traffic before you step out into the street. Before you look in your rearview mirror, you would usually hear the oncoming sirens.

You might presume certain situations are safe when, because you’re unaware of your hearing loss, or you’ve ignored it, they actually aren’t. That can put you in some very unsafe scenarios.

Hearing aids will help reestablish that lost awareness. Your decision making will be wiser and less hazardous.

10. You will set a good example!

The one thing that can be even more difficult than change is personal growth. When you invest in a hearing aid, you’re acknowledging that something isn’t necessarily working right anymore. But you’re also attempting to improve the situation.

There’s nothing wrong with that! It’s the type of thing we should all strive for! So you’re acting as a role model and a positive example when you wear your hearing aids. You should be proud of yourself.

Schedule a hearing exam right away

When you use hearing aids you will hear better and that’s the principal advantage. That one’s obvious. But there are lots of advantages to using hearing aids. This top ten list is by no means complete.

You might have a totally different top ten list. No matter what benefits you look forward to the most, the first step is making an appointment with us to have your hearing tested.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

What’s the Connection Between Hearing Loss and Dementia?

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 18:15:00 GMT

If you start talking about dementia at your next family get-together, you will most likely put a dark cloud over the whole event.

The topic of dementia can be really frightening and most people aren’t going to go out of their way to discuss it. Dementia, which is a degenerative cognitive disease, causes you to lose a grip on reality, experience loss of memory, and brings about an over-all loss of mental faculties. Nobody wants to experience that.

This is why many people are looking for a way to counter, or at least delay, the advancement of dementia. It turns out, untreated hearing loss and dementia have several pretty clear connections and correlations.

That may seem a bit… surprising to you. What could your brain have to do with your ears after all? Why are the risks of dementia multiplied with hearing loss?

What happens when your hearing loss is neglected?

Maybe you’ve detected your hearing loss already, but you’re not too worried about it. You can simply crank up the volume, right? Maybe you’ll simply turn on the captions when you’re watching your favorite show.

But then again, maybe you haven’t detected your hearing loss yet. Maybe the signs are still easy to dismiss. Cognitive decline and hearing loss are strongly linked either way. That’s because of the effects of untreated hearing loss.

So your hearing impairment is not quite as harmless as you may have thought.

One of the leading indicators of dementia is hearing loss

Let’s say you only have slight hearing loss. Whispers might get lost, but you can hear everything else so…no problem right? Well, turns out you’re still twice as likely to get dementia as somebody who doesn’t have hearing loss.

Which means that even minor hearing loss is a fairly good preliminary indication of a risk of dementia.

Now… What does that suggest?

We’re considering risk in this circumstance which is important to note. Hearing loss is not a guarantee of dementia or even an early symptom of dementia. It does mean that later in life you will have an increased chance of developing cognitive decline. But that can actually be good news.

Because it means that successfully dealing with your hearing loss can help you lower your risk of dementia. So how can you deal with your hearing loss? Here are a few ways:

Other ways to reduce your dementia risk

You can decrease your risk of cognitive decline by doing some other things as well, of course. Here are a few examples:

Needless to say, scientists are still researching the connection between dementia, hearing loss, lifestyle, and more. It’s a complicated disease with an array of causes. But the lower your risk, the better.

Hearing is its own benefit

So, hearing better will help lower your general risk of developing cognitive decline in the future. You’ll be improving your life now, not just in the future. Imagine, no more solitary visits to the store, no more confused conversations, no more misunderstandings.

It’s no fun missing out on life’s important moments. And taking steps to manage your hearing loss, maybe by using hearing aids, can be really helpful.

So make sure to schedule an appointment with us right away!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/hearing-loss-and-the-dementia-connection

Your Tinnitus Symptoms May be Brought About by Your Diet

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 21:57:00 GMT

You go into the kitchen and you find a snack. Will it be something salty… what about crackers? Chips sound good! There’s a leftover slice of cheesecake that would be yummy.

Actually, maybe you should just have a banana. A banana is a healthier choice after all.

Everything is interrelated in the human body. So maybe it’s not a big surprise that what you eat can affect your ears. If you eat a diet high in sodium, for instance, it can raise your blood pressure which can increase your tinnitus symptoms. Research is adding weight to this notion, suggesting that what you eat could have a direct impact on the development of tinnitus.

Your diet and tinnitus

A study published in Ear and Hearing, the official journal of the American Auditory Society, sampled all kinds of people and looked closely at their diets. Your risk of certain inner ear conditions, including tinnitus, increases or diminishes based on what you eat. And, according to the research, a lack of vitamin B12, particularly, could raise your potential for developing tinnitus.

Vitamin B12 wasn’t the only nutrient that was linked to tinnitus symptoms. Your risk of getting tinnitus also increases if your diet is too high in fat, calcium, and iron.

That isn’t all. This research also revealed that tinnitus symptoms can also be affected by dietary patterns. For example, your risk of developing tinnitus will be decreased by a diet high in protein. It also appeared that diets low in fat and high in fruits and veggies had a positive effect on your hearing.

Does this mean you should change your diet?

You would need to have a seriously deficient diet in order for that to be the cause, so modifying your diet alone probably won’t have a substantial impact. Other issues, such as exposure to loud noise, are far more likely to impact your hearing. But your overall health depends on a healthy diet.

There are several meaningful and useful insights that we can take from this research:

Real life doesn’t always mirror the research

While this is inspiring research, it’s important to mention that there’s more to be said on the matter. In order to validate and improve the scope of these conclusions, more research will still have to be carried out. We don’t know, for example, how much of this relationship is causal or correlational.

So we’re not implying that tinnitus can be eliminated by a B12 shot alone. Keeping that ringing in your ears from appearing in the first place may mean taking a multi-faceted approach. One of those facets can certainly be diet. But it’s essential that you don’t forget about proven strategies, and that you pay attention to safeguarding your ear health as much as possible.

We can help, so if you’re experiencing hearing issues, call us.

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References

https://journals.lww.com/ear-hearing/Fulltext/2020/03000/Relationship_Between_Diet,_Tinnitus,_and_Hearing.8.aspx

Hearing Aids Aren’t “One Size Fits All”, This is Why

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:20:00 GMT

Every case of hearing loss is unique

You should not expect your experience with impaired hearing to be precisely the same as somebody else who might have the same hearing loss condition.

Each instance of hearing loss is different. While it may be advantageous to learn about somebody else’s journey with hearing loss, it is essential that you remember that your hearing loss situation will be different because you are different from everyone else.

When you are considering strategies for managing your loss of hearing, you should be prepared for when they aren’t the same as those for someone in a similar situation.

There can be marked differences in hearing loss symptoms even with individuals who have the same condition with the same causes. One person might have conductive hearing loss in one ear, for example, while somebody else might have conductive hearing loss in both ears.

Choosing the appropriate hearing aid

This thinking also extends to hearing aids. Even if two people have the same kind of hearing loss, they could still need different hearing aids. Modern hearing aids are typically custom-fitted for the user’s specific ear canal. Despite that, every hearing aid is professionally programmed for its user based upon the wearer’s particular hearing loss issue. The fitting range of the device, or the range of hearing loss the device can accommodate with proper programming, may be outside of another person’s fitting range.

Whether or not you are self-conscious about wearing a hearing aid will also determine the hearing aids you select. Designs that are colorful and highly noticeable most likely won’t be the best choice for people who are self-conscious about using hearing aids. Your physical ability to handle hearing aids is another factor, as some hearing aids require that you have dexterity in your fingers to handle them correctly.

Your life is not the same as everyone else’s

Another factor to consider when trying to find a distinct answer to your particular hearing challenge is your lifestyle. If you spend a lot of time in noisy listening environments or have an active lifestyle, your hearing loss needs will differ from somebody who has a casual lifestyle and spends most of their time in quieter listening environments.

Multiple factors, including your type of hearing loss and your lifestyle, will determine what you will need to preserve the same quality of life you had before your hearing changed. You can determine the best option for your unique hearing loss issues with our help.

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Despite Your Hearing Loss, You Can Still Have Fun During the Holidays

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 15:46:00 GMT

So, so many family get-togethers.

It likely seems like you’re meeting or reuniting with every relative you have, every weekend, during the holidays. That’s the charm (and, some would say, the curse) of the holiday season. Normally, this sort of annual catching up is something that’s pleasing to look forward to. You get to learn what everyone’s been doing all year.

But those family get-togethers may feel less welcoming when you have hearing loss. What’s the reason for this? What are the effects of hearing loss at family gatherings?

Hearing loss can interfere with your ability to communicate, and with others’ ability to communicate with you. The resulting experience of alienation can be especially disheartening and stressful around the holidays. Your holiday season can be more fulfilling and pleasant when you employ a few go-to tips developed by hearing specialists.

Tips to help you enjoy the holiday season

During the holidays, there’s so much to see, like decorations, gifts, food and so much more. But there’s also a lot to hear: how your nephew is doing in school, how your cousin’s pond hockey team is doing, and on, and on.

During holiday get-togethers, make use of these tips to get through and make more unforgettable moments.

Steer clear of phone calls – use video instead

For family and friends, Zoom video calls can be a great way to keep in touch. If you’re dealing with hearing loss, this is particularly true. If you have hearing loss and you want to connect with loved ones over the holidays, try utilizing video calls instead of traditional phone calls.

Phones represent a difficult conundrum with regards to hearing loss and communication challenges. The voice on the other end can sound muffled and hard to understand, and that makes what should be a pleasant phone call annoying indeed. You won’t have clearer audio quality from a video call, but you will at least have visual cues to help figure out what’s being said. Conversations will have a better flow on video calls because you can read lips and use facial expressions.

Be honest with people

Hearing loss is very common. If you need help, it’s important to communicate that! There’s no harm in asking for:

When people know that you’re dealing with hearing loss, they’re not as likely to get annoyed if you need something repeated more than once. As a result, communication tends to flow a little bit smoother.

Choose your locations of conversation wisely

You will always want to avoid certain subjects of conversation throughout the holidays. So you’re cautious not to say anything that might offend people, but instead, wait for them to talk about any delicate subject matter. Similarly, you should try to carefully pick areas that are quieter for conversations.

Here’s how to handle it:

Okay, okay, but what if your niece begins talking to you in the loud kitchen, where you’re filling your mug with hot chocolate? In situations like this, there are a couple of things you can do:

Speak to the flight crew

So, you’re thinking: what are the effects of hearing loss at family gatherings that aren’t as obvious? You know, the ones you may not see coming?

Many people go on planes during the holidays, it’s particularly important for families that are fairly spread out. When you fly, it’s essential to comprehend all the directions and communication provided by the flight crew. Which is why it’s extra crucial to tell the flight crew that you have trouble hearing or have hearing loss. This way, if needed, the flight crew can take extra care to give you additional visual instructions. When you’re flying, it’s important not to miss anything!

Take breaks

It can be a lot of work trying to communicate with hearing loss. You may find yourself growing more fatigued or exhausted than you used to. As a result, it’s essential to take regular breaks. This will give your ears, and, maybe more significantly, your brain, some time to catch a breath.

Consider investing in hearing aids

How does hearing loss impact relationships? Hearing loss has a considerable impact on relationships.

Every conversation with your family through the holidays will be benefited by hearing aids and that’s one of the greatest benefits. And, the greatest part, you won’t have to keep asking people to repeat themselves.

Hearing aids will allow you to reconnect with your family, in other words.

It could take some time to adjust to your new hearing aids. So you shouldn’t wait until right before the holidays to get them. Naturally, everyone’s experience will differ. But we can help you with the timing.

You can get help getting through the holidays

It can feel as if you’re alone sometimes, and that no one can relate to what you’re going through when you have hearing loss. It’s like hearing loss is impacting your personality in this way. But you’re not alone. We can help you get through many of these dilemmas.

The holidays don’t have to be a time of worry or nervousness (that is, any more than they normally are). With the right strategy, you can look forward to seeing, and hearing, your family around this time of year.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Despite Your Hearing Loss, You Can Survive That Holiday Office Party

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 16:41:00 GMT

You arrive at your company’s annual holiday party and you’re immediately bombarded by noise. The din of shouted conversations, the clanging of glasses, and the pulsating beat of music are all mixing in your ears.

It makes you miserable.

You can’t hear a thing in this loud setting. You can’t keep up with conversations, you can’t hear the punch line of jokes, and you’re completely disoriented. How can this be enjoyable for anyone? But as the evening continues, you see that you’re the only person having trouble.

For individuals who suffer from hearing loss, this probably sounds familiar. The office holiday party can introduce some unique stressors and consequently, what should be a fun affair is nothing more than a dour, lonely event. But don’t worry! You can make it through the next holiday party without difficulty with this little survival guide and perhaps you will even have a good time.

Holiday parties can be stressful, here’s why

Holiday parties are usually a unique blend of fun and stress, (if you’re introverted this is especially true) even if your hearing is healthy. For people who have hearing loss or if you struggle to hear with loud background noise, holiday parties introduce some unique stressors.

First and foremost is the noise. Think about it like this: a holiday party is your team’s opportunity to let loose a bit. In a setting like this, individuals have the tendency to talk at higher volumes and frequently at the same time. Alcohol can certainly play a part. But it can also be really loud at dry office parties.

For those with hearing loss, this noise creates a certain degree of interference. Here are some reasons for this:

This means that picking up and following conversations will be difficult for people who have hearing loss. This may not sound like a very big deal at first.

So… What is the big deal?

The big deal is the professional and networking side of things. Even though office holiday parties are theoretically social events, they’re also professional events. It’s usually highly encouraged to attend these events so we’ll probably be there. This means a couple of things:

This can be even more troublesome because you might not even know you have hearing loss. The inability to hear well in noisy environments (like restaurants or office parties) is usually one of those first indications of hearing loss.

As a result, you may be alarmed that you’re having a hard time following the conversation. And when you observe you’re the only one, you may be even more alarmed.

Hearing loss causes

So how does this take place? How does hearing loss develop? Age and, or noise damage are the most prevalent causes. Essentially, as you get older, your ears likely experience repeated injury as a result of loud noises. The stereocilia (tiny hairs in your ears that detect vibrations) become compromised.

That damage is permanent. And your hearing will continue to get worse the more stereocilia that are damaged. Your best bet will be to safeguard your hearing while you still have it because this type of hearing loss is usually permanent.

Armed with this knowledge, you can make that holiday party a little more enjoyable in a few ways.

Tips to make your office party more fun

You don’t want to miss out on the fun and opportunities that are part of that office holiday party. So, you’re thinking: how can I hear better in a noisy setting? Well, here are a few tips to make your office party go a little better:

Of course, there’s an even more ideal solution: invest in a pair of hearing aids. Hearing aids can be discrete and personalized to your specific hearing needs. Even if you go with larger hearing aids it will still be better than asking people to repeat what they said.

Before the party, get your hearing checked

If possible, take a hearing test before you go to the party. Because of COVID, this might be your first holiday party in several years, and you don’t want to be surprised by your hearing issues!

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Did You Realize Your Common Cold Could Cause Hearing Issues?

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 19:48:00 GMT

There are other symptoms of a cold that are less prevalent than the well known runny nose. One type of cold you don’t frequently hear about is the one that moves into one or more ears. While you might generally consider colds as harmless, here’s why this ear-related cold symptom shouldn’t ever be disregarded.

What does a cold in your ear feel like?

Your sinuses are directly interconnected to your ears, so it’s normal to feel some blockage in your ears during a cold. Usually, when you take a decongestant for sinus relief, this blockage will also be alleviated.

But you should never dismiss pain in your ear, even when you have a cold. The eardrum can become infected if the cold goes into the ears. When it does, swelling happens. The immune system responds to the cold by creating fluid that can accumulate on the eardrum. Often, a slow leaking fluid accompanies this inflammation. Because it’s a slow leak, it’s most noticeable when you are sleeping on your side.

This is called conductive hearing loss and impacts how well you hear over the short term. Sadly, it can also cause the eardrum to burst, which brings about long-term hearing loss. In turn, more permanent damage occurs to the hearing nerves from the inflammation, which is known as sensorineural hearing loss.

It could be costly if you wait

If you’re experiencing ear pain, have your ears checked by us. It’s not unusual for a primary care physician to wait until the cold is cleared up because they assume the ear pain will go away with it. Sometimes, a patient won’t even remember to mention any pain they might be feeling in their ear. But the infection has likely gotten to the point where it’s causing damage to the ear if you’re experiencing pain. In order to prevent further damage, the ear infection has to be quickly addressed.

In many instances, ear pain will linger even after the cold goes away. This is usually when an individual finally decides to see a hearing specialist. But at this point, a considerable amount of damage has already been done. This damage often causes permanent hearing loss, particularly if you’re prone to ear infections.

After a while, hearing clarity is affected by the tiny scars and perforations of the eardrum which are left behind from ear infections. In a normal, healthy individual, the eardrum serves as a boundary between the middle ear and inner ear. Ear infections that were once confined to the middle ear can go into the inner ear if the eardrum is perforated even once. When the infection goes into the inner ear, it can permanently damage the nerve cells needed to hear.

What should you do if you waited to treat that ear infection?

Don’t be so hard on yourself. A cold with pain in the ear can actually be a more serious cold than most individuals may think. If you’re dealing with continued hearing loss after a cold, it’s best to make an appointment with us as soon as possible.

We can determine whether the hearing loss is temporary (conductive). If this is the case, you might have a blockage in your ear that needs to be removed by a professional. If the hearing loss is permanent (sensorineural), we can talk about solutions that will help you hear better, including new hearing technology.

Schedule an appointment as soon as possible if you’re having trouble hearing after a cold.

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Hearing Aid Domes: The Pros and Cons

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 20:10:00 GMT

You’ve been putting off calling us to see if you need hearing aids, but you’ve finally decided it’s time. Like many other people, you’ve been resisting this. But the inconvenience, the lost moments, the missing interactions, they all finally became too much.

So it’s a bit discouraging when you’re sitting in the hearing specialist’s office and you learn that you’re going to have to wait another couple of weeks for custom fit hearing aids.

That’s another two weeks struggling with those lost moments before you can start getting them back. Of course, there is another option: a deceptively basic device add-on, known as hearing aid domes.

What are hearing aid domes?

They sound kind of epic, right? Like hearing aids fighting in some type of ancient mythological arena. Only one hearing aid can come forth victorious from the hearing aid dome.

Well, it’s a bit less exciting than that. They are rather cool though. Hearing aid domes are like tiny earbuds that you can put at the end of your hearing aid speaker. Generally made of plastic or silicone, they fit around that little bit that goes inside your ear canal, attaching to the tubing of your hearing aid. They’re made for behind-the-ear or inside-the-ear-canal models of hearing aids. Here are the two basic functions:

Those small bulbs at the end of earbuds are a lot like hearing aid domes. There are several hearing aid dome styles, so we will help you pick the one that’s best for your needs.

What is the difference between hearing aid domes?

Open types and closed types each let in different levels of background sound.

Hearing aid dome types include:

Open Domes

These have holes in the dome that allow more natural sound to pass through and into your ears. This helps your ear process ambient sounds along with the benefit of amplification.

Closed Domes

These domes let less external sound in through fewer and smaller holes. For people with more significant hearing loss, ambient noise can be really distracting and this kind of dome can help with that.

Power Domes

Power domes completely block the ear canal and have no venting. With these, almost no external sound can get in. These are most practical for very profound hearing loss.

Do hearing aid domes need to be swapped out?

Every two to three months will be the ideal schedule for changing your hearing aid domes (your ears aren’t the dirtiest place, but they aren’t the cleanest, either).

For most individuals, hearing aid domes can be used right out of the box. That’s one of the greatest things about them.

What are the benefits of hearing aid domes?

Hearing aid domes are popular for a wide variety of reasons. The most common advantages include the following:

And again, this will mean you’re not as likely to leave your hearing aid sitting on your nightstand.

What are the downsides to hearing aid domes?

You’ll want to be mindful of some of the downsides and trade-offs that come with hearing aid domes. Among the most common are the following:

So are hearing aid domes right for me?

Ultimately, the decision of whether you should use hearing aid domes or not is largely a personal one. We can help but it’s up to you. And we will look at your individual needs and help advise you on the pros and cons.

For some people, it might be worth waiting the extra two weeks for a custom-fit device. Others will create healthy lifelong hearing habits by opting for a solution that lets them start using their new hearing aids immediately.

You have options and that’s the nice thing.

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Have You Had a Hearing Examination Recently?

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 19:40:00 GMT

It’s hard to comprehend but most people have gone more than ten years without having a hearing test.
Harper is one of them. She schedules a cleaning and checkup with her dentist every six months and she reports dutifully for her yearly medical exam. She even changes her timing belt every 6000 miles. But her hearing exam normally gets ignored.

There are many reasons to get hearing assessments, the most notable of which is that it’s often difficult for you to detect the earliest signs of hearing loss without one. Determining how often she should get a hearing test will help Harper keep her ears (and hearing) healthy for as long as possible.

So, just how frequently should you get a hearing assessment?

It’s alarming to think that Harper hasn’t taken a hearing test in 10 years. Or we might think it’s completely normal. Our reaction will vary depending on how old she is. Depending on age, guidelines will differ.

Signs you should get your hearing checked

Undoubtedly, there are other occasions, besides the annual exam, that you may want to come in and see us. Perhaps you start to notice some signs of hearing loss. And when they do you need to make an appointment with us for a hearing exam.

Some of the signs that should motivate you to have a hearing exam include:

When the above warning signs begin to add up, it’s a good indication that the perfect time to get a hearing test is right now . You’ll know what’s going on with your ears as soon as you come in for an evaluation.

What are the advantages of hearing testing?

There are lots of reasons why Harper might be late in getting her hearing test.
It may have slipped her mind.
Maybe she’s purposely avoiding thinking about it. But there are tangible advantages to having your hearing tested per guidelines.

Even if you believe your hearing is perfectly healthy, a hearing test will help establish a baseline reading, which makes deviations in the future easier to identify. If you can detect your hearing loss before it becomes obvious, you can better protect it.

Detecting hearing problems before they cause permanent hearing loss is the exact reason someone like Harper should get tested regularly. Detecting your hearing loss early by having your hearing tested when you should will help you keep your hearing healthier, longer. Consider the effects of hearing loss on your overall health, it’s that important.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Can Sensitivity to Loud Sound be a Symptom of Hearing Loss?

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 15:27:00 GMT

If you have a partner with neglected hearing loss, you know that getting their attention can be… a challenge. Their name is the first thing you try saying. “Greg”, you say, but you used a regular, indoor volume level, so you get nothing. You try saying Greg’s name a bit louder and still no reply. So finally, you shout.

And that’s when Greg whirls around with absolutely no awareness of his comedic timing and says crossly, “why are you shouting?”

It’s not just stubbornness and irritability that create this interaction. Hypersensitivity to loud sound is often documented in those who have hearing loss. So it seems logical that Greg gets cranky when you shout his name after he continually fails to hear you when you speak to him at a normal volume.

Can hearing loss make loud sounds even worse?

So, hearing loss is sort of curious. The majority of time, you’ll hear less and less, particularly if your hearing loss goes untreated. But things can get really loud when you’re out at a crowded restaurant or watching a Michael Bay movie. So loud that it can get uncomfortable. Maybe it’s somebody shouting to get your attention or one of the explosions in the latest Transformers movie, it just gets really loud really fast.

And you’ll think: What’s causing this sensitivity to loud noise?

Which can also make you feel a bit cranky, honestly. Many people who experience this will feel like they’re going crazy. That’s because they can’t get a handle on how loud things are. You have a sudden sensitivity to loud sounds even as your family and friends are pointing out your very obvious hearing loss symptoms. It feels like a contradiction.

Auditory recruitment

A condition known as auditory recruitment can trigger these symptoms. Here’s how it works:

Think about it this way: everything is silent except for the Michael Bay explosion. So the Michael Bay explosion will seem louder (and more obnoxious) than it would otherwise!

Isn’t that the same as hyperacusis?

Those symptoms may sound a little familiar. That’s probably because they’re frequently confused with a condition known as hyperacusis. When you first compare them, this confusion is understandable. Auditory recruitment is a condition in which you have a sensitivity to loud sounds, and hyperacusis is a condition in which sounds very abruptly get loud.

But there are a few key differences:

At the end of the day, auditory recruitment and hyperacusis have some superficially similar symptoms. But they are not the same condition.

Is there any way to treat audio recruitment?

Here’s the bad news, there’s no cure for hearing loss. Your hearing will never return once it goes. Treating hearing loss early will go a long way to protect against this.

This also is true for auditory recruitment. But the good news is that auditory recruitment can be treated successfully. In most situations, that treatment will involve hearing aids. And those hearing aids have to be specifically calibrated. So it will be necessary to schedule an appointment with us.

The precise frequencies of sound that are triggering your auditory recruitment will be identified. Your hearing aids can then be adjusted to diminish that wavelength of sound. It’s sort of like magic, but it’s using science and technology (so, not really like magic at all, but it works really well is what we’re trying to convey here).

Only specific types of hearing aid will be effective. The symptoms can’t be addressed with over-the-counter hearing devices because they lack the technological sophistication.

Schedule an appointment with us

It’s essential that you recognize that you can find relief from your sensitivity to loud noise. The bonus is that your new hearing aid will make everything sound better.

But it all starts by making an appointment. Lots of people who have hearing loss cope with hypersensitivity to loud noise.

You can get help so call us.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

You Could Have an Increased Risk of Hearing Loss With These Chemicals

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 19:33:00 GMT

There are lots of well recognized causes of hearing loss, but few people recognize the dangers that certain chemicals present to their hearing. Groups that are at risk include automotive workers, plastics, textiles, metal fabrication, and petroleum. You can safeguard your quality of life by knowing what these chemicals are and what precautions to take.

Your hearing could be harmed by certain chemicals

The word “ototoxic” means that something has a toxic effect on either the ears themselves or the nerves in the ears that help with hearing. People can come in contact with chemicals that are “ototoxic” at home or in the workplace. These chemicals can be breathed in, absorbed, or ingested. These chemicals can make their way to the delicate nerves of the ears once they enter the body. Noise exposure will increase the negative effects, whether permanent or temporary, of ototoxic hearing loss.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, recognized five kinds of chemicals that can be harmful to hearing:

If you are exposed to ototoxic chemicals, what should you do?

Taking key precautions is the best way to safeguard your hearing from exposure to chemicals. If you work in an industry like automotive, firefighting, plastics, pesticide spraying, or construction, ask your employer about exposure levels to these chemicals. You need to use every safety material your job offers, like protective gloves, garments, and masks.

When you are at home, read all safety labels on products and adhere to the instructions to the letter. If you can, keep away from any chemicals, open up windows, use appropriate ventilation, and ask for help with any instructions you can’t understand. Loud noise and chemicals can have a cumulative impact on your hearing so if you find yourself in this kind of scenario, take extra precautions. If you can’t stay away from chemicals or are on medications, make sure you have regular hearing examinations so you can try to nip any problems in the bud. We are experienced in addressing the numerous causes of hearing loss and can help you put together a plan to avoid further damage.

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References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4693596/

What’s a Safe Volume to Listen to Music on Your headphones?

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 22:42:00 GMT

Aiden enjoys music. He listens to Spotify while working, switches to Pandora while jogging, and he has a playlist for everything: cardio, cooking, video games, you name it. His headphones are just about always on, his life a completely soundtracked event. But the exact thing that Aiden enjoys, the loud, immersive music, could be contributing to irreversible damage to his hearing.

As far as your ears are concerned, there are healthy ways to listen to music and dangerous ways to listen to music. But the more hazardous listening choice is often the one most of us use.

How can hearing loss be caused by listening to music?

Your ability to hear can be damaged over time by exposure to loud noise. We’re accustomed to thinking of hearing loss as an issue caused by aging, but more and more research reveals that it’s really the accumulation of noise-induced damage that is the problem here and not anything inherent in the aging process.

Younger ears that are still developing are, as it turns out, more vulnerable to noise-related damage. And yet, the long-term damage from high volume is more likely to be dismissed by young adults. So there’s an epidemic of younger individuals with hearing loss thanks, in part, to high volume headphone use.

Is there a safe way to listen to music?

Unlimited max volume is clearly the “hazardous” way to enjoy music. But there is a safer way to listen to your tunes, and it normally involves turning the volume down. Here are a couple of basic guidelines:

Forty hours per week is about five hours and forty minutes per day. Though that may seem like a while, it can seem to pass rather quickly. But we’re conditioned to keep track of time our entire lives so most of us are pretty good at it.

Monitoring volume is a little less intuitive. Volume isn’t gauged in decibels on most smart devices like TVs, computers, and smartphones. It’s measured on some arbitrary scale. It might be 1-100. But maybe it’s 1-16. You might not have any idea how close to max volume you are or even what max volume on your device is.

How can you listen to tunes while keeping track of your volume?

It’s not really easy to tell how loud 80 decibels is, but luckily there are some non-intrusive ways to know how loud the volume is. It’s even more difficult to determine the difference between 80 and 75dB.

That’s why it’s greatly recommended you use one of numerous cost-free noise monitoring apps. These apps, widely available for both iPhone and Android devices, will provide you with8 real-time readouts on the noises around you. In this way, you can make real-time alterations while monitoring your real dB level. Or, while listening to music, you can also modify your settings in your smartphone which will efficiently let you know that your volume is too high.

The volume of a garbage disposal

Your garbage disposal or dishwasher is generally around 80 decibels. So, it’s loud, but it’s not that loud. Your ears will start to take damage at volumes above this threshold so it’s a significant observation.

So pay close attention and try to stay away from noise above this volume. And minimize your exposure if you do listen to music over 80dB. Maybe minimize loud listening to a song rather than an album.

Listening to music at a higher volume can and will cause you to have hearing problems over the long run. You can develop hearing loss and tinnitus. The more you can be cognizant of when your ears are going into the danger zone, the more educated your decision-making will be. And safer listening will hopefully be part of those decisions.

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Is my Anxiety Causing my Tinnitus and Sleep Issues?

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 15:26:00 GMT

You first hear the sound when you’re lying in bed attempting to sleep: Your ear has a whooshing or pulsating in it. The sound is beating in rhythm with your heartbeat. And once you hear that sound, you can’t tune it out. You have a big day tomorrow and you really need your sleep so this is bad. And suddenly you feel really anxious, very not sleepy.

Does this sound familiar? Turns out, tinnitus, anxiety, and sleep are closely associated. And you can see how tinnitus and anxiety could easily conspire to produce a vicious cycle, one that robs you of your sleep, your rest, and can impact your health.

Can anxiety cause tinnitus?

Generally, ringing in the ears is the definition of tinnitus. But it’s not that simple. First of all, the actual sound you hear can take a large number of forms, from pulsation to throbbing to ringing and so on. Basically, you’re hearing a sound that isn’t really there. For many, tinnitus can occur when you’re feeling stressed out, which means that stress-related tinnitus is absolutely a thing.

An anxiety disorder is a condition in which feelings of dread, worry, or (as the name suggests) anxiety are hard to control and severe enough to interfere with your daily life. Tinnitus is just one of several ways this can physically materialize. So can anxiety trigger tinnitus? Certainly!

What’s bad about this combination of anxiety and tinnitus?

This combination of anxiety and tinnitus is bad news for a couple of the following reasons:

There are instances where tinnitus can manifest in one ear and eventually move to both. There are some cases where tinnitus is constant day and night. In other situations, it might pulsate for a few minutes and then go away. Whether constant or sporadic, this combo of anxiety and tinnitus can have health consequences.

How does tinnitus-anxiety affect your sleep?

Your sleep loss could certainly be caused by anxiety and tinnitus. Here are several examples of how:

When your anxiety is causing your tinnitus, you might hear that whooshing sound and worry that an anxiety attack is near. It’s no wonder that you’re having trouble sleeping. But lack of sleep results in all kinds of issues.

How lack of sleep affects your health

As this vicious cycle keeps going, the health impacts of insomnia will grow much more substantial. And this can really have a negative affect on your wellness. Some of the most prevalent effects include the following:

Other causes of anxiety

Of course, there are other sources of anxiety besides tinnitus. It’s essential to recognize what these causes are so you can stay away from stress triggers and possibly decrease your tinnitus at the same time. Here are some of the most common causes of anxiety:

Other causes : Less commonly, anxiety disorders may be caused by some of the following factors:

This isn’t an all-inclusive list. And if you believe you have an anxiety disorder, you should talk to your provider about treatment possibilities.

How to deal with your anxiety-related tinnitus?

You have two general choices to treat anxiety-induced tinnitus. The anxiety can be dealt with or the tinnitus can be dealt with. Here’s how that may work in either case:

Addressing anxiety

There are a couple of possibilities for managing anxiety:

Treating tinnitus

Tinnitus can be treated in a variety of different ways, especially if it presents while you’re sleeping. Here are some common treatments:

Dealing with your tinnitus could help you sleep better

As long as that humming or whooshing is keeping you up at night, you’ll be at risk of falling into one of these vicious cycles, fueled by anxiety and tinnitus. Dealing with your tinnitus first is one possible solution. To do that, you should give us a call.

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Hearing Loss in One Ear – Likely Causes

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 00:07:00 GMT

Because you’re so cool, you were in the front row for the entire rock concert last night. It isn’t exactly hearing-healthy, but it’s fun, and the next day, you wake up with both ears ringing. (That’s not so fun.)

But what if you can only hear out of one ear when you wake up? The rock concert is probably not to blame in that situation. Something else must be happening. And when you develop hearing loss in only one ear… you might feel a little worried!

Also, your general hearing might not be working properly. Usually, your brain is processing information from both ears. So only getting information from a single ear can be disorienting.

Why hearing loss in one ear results in issues

In general, your ears work as a functional pair. Your two outward facing ears help you hear more accurately, much like how your two forward facing eyes help your depth perception. So when one of your ears quits working correctly, havoc can happen. Amongst the most prevalent impacts are the following:

So what causes hearing loss in one ear?

“Single sided Hearing Loss” or “unilateral hearing loss” are technical terms for when hearing is muffled on one side. While the more typical kind of hearing loss (in both ears) is usually the result of noise-related damage, single-sided hearing loss isn’t. This means that it’s time to evaluate other possible causes.

Some of the most prevalent causes include the following:

So how should I deal with hearing loss in one ear?

Treatments for single-sided hearing loss will vary depending on the underlying cause. Surgery may be the best choice for specific obstructions such as tissue or bone growth. Some issues, like a ruptured eardrum, will usually heal on their own. And still others, like an earwax based blockage, can be cleared away by basic instruments.

Your single-sided hearing loss, in some circumstances, might be permanent. And in these situations, we will help by prescribing one of two hearing aid solutions:

It all starts with your hearing specialist

There’s most likely a good reason why you can only hear out of one ear. In other words, this isn’t a symptom you should be ignoring. Getting to the bottom of it is important for hearing and your overall health. So begin hearing out of both ears again by making an appointment with us.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7230949/

Every New Hearing Aid Owner Makes These 9 Mistakes

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 18:18:00 GMT

Congrats! You’ve just become the proud owner of hearing aids – a wonderful piece of modern technology. But new hearing aid owners will wish someone had told them certain things, just like with any new technology.

Let’s examine how a new hearing aid user can eliminate the 9 most common hearing aid errors.

1. Not learning how hearing aids work

To put it simply, learn your hearing aid’s functions. The hearing experience will be dramatically improved if you know how to utilize advanced features for different settings like on the street, at the movies, or in a restaurant.

Your wireless devices, like smartphones and televisions can most likely connect wirelessly to your hearing aids. Additionally, it may have a specific setting that helps you hear on the phone.

If you fail to learn about these functions, it’s so easy to get stuck in a rut by using your technologically-advanced hearing aid in a rudimentary way. Modern hearing aids do more than simply increase the volume of outside sounds.

To get the clearest and best sound quality, take some time to practice wearing the hearing aid in different places. Test out how well you hear by asking a friend or family member to assist you.

As with anything new, it will get easier after a little practice. Simply turning the volume up and down won’t even come close to providing the hearing experience that using these more advanced features will.

2. Expecting immediate improvement in your hearing

In line with number one, many new hearing aid owners think their hearing will be perfect as they leave the office. This assumption is normally not how it works. Some people say it takes a month or more before they’re entirely comfortable with their hearing aid. But stay positive. They also say it’s really worth it.

After getting home, give yourself a couple of days to get used to the new situation. It’s like breaking in a new pair of shoes. You might need to wear it in short intervals.

Start in a quiet setting with a friend where you are just talking. It can be a bit disorienting at first because voices might not sound the same. Ask your friends if you’re speaking too loud and make the required adjustments.

Slowly start to visit new places and use the hearing aid for longer periods of time.

You will have wonderful hearing experiences ahead of you if you can only be patient with yourself.

3. Not being honest about your level of hearing loss at your hearing appointment

In order to be sure you get the correct hearing aid technology, it’s important to answer any questions we may ask honestly.

Go back and get another test if you realize you may not have been totally honest after you get your hearing aids. But it’s better if you get it right the first time. The hearing aid type and style that will be ideal for you will be determined by the degree and kind of hearing loss you’re experiencing.

For instance, some hearing aids are better for individuals with hearing loss in the high-frequency range. People who are dealing with mid-range hearing loss will call for different technology and etc.

4. Failing to have your hearing aid fitted

Your hearing aids need to juggle several requirements at the same time: They need to efficiently boost sound, they need to be simple to put in and remove, and they need to be comfortable in your ears. All three of those variables will be addressed during your fitting.

During hearing aid fitting sessions, you may:

5. Not tracking your results

It’s important that you take notes on how your hearing aid performs and feels after you get fitted. Make a note if you are having a hard time hearing in a large room. Make a note if one ear seems tighter than the other. If everything feels great, make a note. With this information, we can customize the settings of your hearing aid so it functions at peak effectiveness and comfort.

6. Not anticipating how you’ll utilize your hearing aids

Water-resistant hearing aids do exist. Others, however, can be damaged or even ruined by water. Some have advanced features you might be willing to pay more for because you take pleasure in certain activities.

You can ask our opinion but the decision is yours. Only you know which state-of-the-art features you’ll actually use and that’s worth committing to because if the hearing aids don’t fit in with your lifestyle you won’t wear them.

You and your hearing aid will be together for a number of years. So if you really need certain functions, you don’t want to settle for less.

A few more things to think about

Many issues that come up with regards to fit, lifestyle, and how you use your hearing aids can be resolved during the fitting process. Also, you may be able to demo out your hearing aids before you commit to a purchase. This trial period will help you determine which brand will be best for your needs.

7. Neglecting to take proper care of your hearing aid

Moisture is a serious issue for the majority of hearing aids. If you live in a humid place, acquiring a dehumidifier may be worth the money. It’s not a good idea to keep your hearing aid in the bathroom where everyone showers.

Consistently wash your hands before touching the hearing aid or batteries. Oils encountered normally on your hand can effect how well the hearing aid functions and the duration of the batteries.

The hearing aid shouldn’t be allowed to accumulate earwax and skin cells. Instead, clean it based on the manufacturer’s instructions.

The life and function of your hearing aid will be increased by taking these simple steps.

8. Failing to keep a spare set of batteries

New hearing aid users frequently learn this concept at the worst times. When you’re about to find out who did it at the crucial moment of your favorite show, your batteries die without warning.

Your battery life depends, like any electronic device, on the external environment and how you use it. So always keep an extra set of batteries nearby, even if you recently replaced them. Don’t miss something special because of an unpredictable battery.

9. Not practicing your hearing exercises

You might assume that your hearing aids will do all of the work when you first purchase them. But the parts of your brain in charge of interpreting sound are also impacted by hearing loss not only your ears.

You can start to work on rebuilding those ear-to-brain pathways after you get your new hearing aids. For some individuals, this may happen quite naturally and this is particularly true if the hearing loss developed recently. But other people will need a more structured approach to rebuild their ability to hear. The following are a couple of common strategies.

Reading out loud

One of the most efficient ways you can recreate those connections between your ears and your brain is to spend some time reading out loud. It might feel a bit foolish at first, but don’t let that stop you. You’re doing the important work of linking the words (which you read) to the sound (which you say). Your hearing will get better and better as you continue practicing.

Audiobooks

If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of reading something out loud yourself, then you can always go the audiobook route. You can purchase (or rent from the library) a physical copy of a book and the audiobook version together. Then, you read along with the book while the audiobook plays. You’ll hear a word as you’re reading it just like reading out loud. And that helps the hearing-and-language region of your brain get accustomed to hearing (and making sense of) speech again.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Resources

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10900/

Is My Tinnitus Inherited?

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 18:42:00 GMT

Do you have ringing in your ears that’s driving you mad? Find out what causes tinnitus and whether you may have inherited it.

Tinnitus, what exactly is it?

Tinnitus is the term referring to a person’s perception of a ringing , droning , or buzzing in the ear with no external noises present to explain this experience. The direct translation of the term tinnitus is”ringing like a bell”.”

How will tinnitus impact my daily living?

Tinnitus can disrupt personal connections in many aggravating ways. It’s not a disease in and of itself, but it’s a symptom of other ailments or conditions in your life like hearing loss or damage. You may hear tinnitus in one ear or both ears and it can hinder your ability to focus.

Tinnitus is always disruptive regardless of how it’s manifesting. Sleep loss, anxiety, and even depression can also be triggered by tinnitus symptoms.

What causes tinnitus?

Tinnitus can be long lasting or it can come and go. Lengthy exposure to loud noise, such as a rock concert, is normally the cause of short-term tinnitus. Tinnitus has been known to manifest with a few different medical conditions.

A few of the circumstances that could play host to tinnitus include:

Could I have inherited this ringing in my ears from my parents? Tinnitus isn’t directly hereditary. However, your genes can play a part in this condition. You can, for instance, inherit a tendency for your ear bone to change. These changes are a consequence of irregular bone growth that can be passed down through family lines. Here are a few other conditions you may have inherited that can result in tinnitus: Being predisposed to depression or anxiety Being prone to inner ear infections or wax build-up Certain diseases You can’t directly inherit tinnitus, but there are disorders that become breeding grounds for tinnitus which you might have inherited. If your family has a history of tinnitus, you should definitely come in for an assessment.

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10 Hearing Tips to Make You Feel Younger

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 14:30:00 GMT

There are lots of ways to feel more youthful. However, one method of staying young that isn’t usually talked about is to protect your hearing.

For years, enhancing and extending your life has been linked to a healthy diet and exercise. These habits also help you control your weight and help prevent heart disease and cancer. But good hearing does just as much to keep you healthy and young.

Hearing maintenance benefits frequently ignored

Take a look at all of the ways that healthy hearing boosts confidence, gives you a better sex life, and helps you stay youthful.

1. More fruitful interactions

Those who have hearing loss tend to become estranged from society. They let their impairment separate them from people and information. If you’re having a hard time hearing, how can you hear what your pickleball partner is saying? You may not even detect the issue until you’re already estranged from friends and relatives. A boost in confidence will also result from better hearing.

2. Increased learning

Many people stimulate their minds by going back to college. You will learn more and enjoy yourself more when you’re in school if you have good hearing. You won’t need to sit in the front and ask the instructor for clarification on every idea. You’ll understand concepts easier and have a smoother ability to interact with your fellow students.

3. Better sex

Senior citizens who have no hearing loss or wear hearing aids have a more fulfilling social life. More independence and better general health are the results. And, surprisingly, you will also have a far better sex life.

4. Improved blood flow

Exercising is beneficial for many reasons, and one of them is better hearing. Nutrients nourish and protect the ears and when there is good blood flow, more of these nutrients get where they need to go.

5. Less risk of a fall

Hearing loss also decreases spatial awareness and potentially leads to worse balance. Seniors are three times more likely to have a fall with a hearing loss of just 25 decibels than seniors with normal hearing.

6. Increased reaction time

Our senses activate our instincts including reaction time to alerts or danger. You will keep yourself and people around you safer if you can respond quickly to alerts, sirens, fire alarms, and other warnings which good hearing will help you do.

7. Fewer hospital stays

A senior’s danger of depression, inactivity, falling, and accidents are all increased by hearing loss. Seniors often become hospitalized as a direct or indirect result of depression or accidents.

8. Increased confidence

Insecurity and a lack of confidence are often the outcomes when somebody has a hard time communicating. It’s not uncommon for someone with this type of confidence issues to avoid social gatherings and to seclude themselves. This behavior further isolates the person which creates a repeating cycle.

9. Better job satisfaction

The fact that individuals who have strong hearing do better at their job shouldn’t come as a surprise. You could miss essential information, safety precautions, or instructions. Not to mention the difficulty you had when attempting to comprehend and follow along with your teammates during your last Zoom meeting. Good job performance and results depend on participation.

10. Reduced risk of cognitive decline

Due to a loss of social interaction and overall stimulation, hearing loss has been connected to dementia. Dementia is induced partly by shrinkage of the brain which takes place as people age. A greater chance of dementia comes from increased shrinkage of the brain.

Enjoy a better quality of life

You will feel more confident when you can communicate with your friends and family members and that will allow you to go out and enjoy your favorite activities. It’s best to address your hearing loss and protect your ears if you want to remain youthful. We can help, give us a call.

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Protect Your Hearing During Noisy Summer Activities

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 16:08:00 GMT

Summertime has some activities that are simply staples: Outdoor concerts, fireworks shows, state fairs, air shows, and NASCAR races (look, if you like watching cars go around in circles, no one’s going to judge you). As more of these activities return to something like normal, the crowds, and the noise levels, are getting larger.

But sometimes this can bring about problems. Because let’s be honest: this isn’t the first outdoor concert that’s left you with ringing ears. That ringing is often called tinnitus, and it could be an indication of something bad: hearing damage. And as you keep exposing your ears to these loud sounds, you continue to do further permanent damage to your hearing.

But it’s ok. With the correct hearing protection, you’ll be able to enjoy those summer experiences (even NASCAR) without doing lasting damage to your ears.

How to know your hearing is hurting

So, you’re at the air show or enjoying an amazing concert, how much attention should you be paying to your ears?
Because, naturally, you’ll be pretty distracted.

Well, if you want to avoid significant injury, you should be looking out for the following symptoms:

This list isn’t exhaustive, obviously. There are tiny hairs inside of your ears which are responsible for picking up vibrations in the air and excessively loud noises can harm these hairs. And once an injury to these tiny hairs occurs, they will never heal. That’s how fragile and specialized they are.

And the phrase “ow, my little ear hairs hurt” isn’t something you ever hear people say. That’s why you have to look out for secondary signs.

You also may be developing hearing loss without any apparent symptoms. Any exposure to loud sound will lead to damage. The longer you’re exposed, the more severe the damage will become.

What should you do when you experience symptoms?

You’re getting your best groove on (and everyone is digging it), but then, you start to feel dizzy and your ears start to ring. What should you do? How loud is too loud? Are you hanging too close to the speakers? How should you know how loud 100 decibels is?

Well, you’ve got several options, and they vary when it comes to how effective they’ll be:

Are there any other methods that are more effective?

So when you need to protect your ears for a short time period at a concert, disposable earplugs will be fine. But if you work in your garage every day fixing your old Chevelle with power tools, or if you have season tickets to your favorite football stadium or NASCAR, or you go to concerts nightly, it’s not the same.

In these situations, you will want to take a few more serious steps to protect your hearing. Those steps could include the following:

Have your cake and hear it, too

It might be a mixed metaphor but you get the point: you can enjoy all those great summer activities while still protecting your hearing. You just have to take steps to enjoy these activities safely. You need to take these steps even with headphones. Knowing how loud is too loud for headphones can help you make better choices about your hearing health.

Because if you really love going to see an airshow or a NASCAR race or an outdoor summer concert, chances are, you’re going to want to keep doing that as the years go on. If you’re not smart now you could end up losing your hearing and also your summer fun.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/decibel-levels

Which Hearing Loss Symptoms Are Red Flags?

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 20:19:00 GMT

Hearing loss can be caused by many things and is generally extremely aggravating. There are some situations where hearing loss is caused by a more severe underlying health condition and isn’t simply the result of aging or an injury.

These are some hearing loss red flags you should look for

Hearing loss will often throw up various red flags indicating it’s time for a hearing exam. Pay attention if any of these red flags manifest.

Trouble hearing on the phone

You may be having a hard time hearing phone calls even with the volume setting. If you are constantly turning the volume up louder and louder on your cell phone or landline, you should make an appointment as soon as possible for a hearing evaluation.

Difficulty following conversations

Sometimes, we get lost when we’re having conversations even when our hearing is healthy, but if it happens often, especially when more than two people are talking, it’s most likely an indication of hearing loss.

Neighbors and family members are complaining about a loud TV

It can be difficult to follow television programs, especially if music is combined with dialog. It’s important to know that cranking the television up louder doesn’t always make the sound clearer. But it’s time to get your hearing assessed if your neighbors can hear your TV or if you continuously need the volume on a really loud setting.

Trouble hearing in noisy environments

It typically means you’re struggling to separate speech from background sound if hearing in a public place has become challenging. Individuals who are developing hearing loss most commonly have this complaint.

You say “what” frequently

Simply because you can’t hear someone mumbling several feet away doesn’t mean you have hearing loss. However, it could be a red flag that you aren’t receiving and processing speech properly if the word “what” is the most used word in your vocabulary.

Failing to understand what people are saying

Misunderstanding what people are saying can be awkward and is often an indication of high frequency hearing loss. This form of hearing loss makes it hard to discern speech.

If you are noticing any of the above red flags, you should schedule a hearing exam as soon as you can. Luckily, the stigma that was once associated with hearing loss no longer exists, the testing is simple, and with the modern developments in hearing aid technologies, there’s no reason for you to keep suffering with hearing loss.

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Can Hearing Aids Cause Headaches?

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 15:44:00 GMT

Hearing aids are intended to help make up for your unique hearing loss problem. Whether you are new to using hearing aids or have been wearing them for years, if your hearing aids cause headaches or any other type of pain, there is a solution.

If your hearing aid is adjusted properly it will meet your personal needs and fit inside of your ear comfortably. If this is not the case, you should make sure you have the appropriate type of hearing aid and that it’s been precisely adjusted.

Your hearing aid needs to be adjusted if you notice any of these signs

If your hearing aids are not precisely fitted, they can cause headaches. Usually, poor adjustment or improper use is the reason. If this is the case, the following problems might arise:

Over-the-counter hearing aids

Even though you can go to a local Pharmacy and get a less expensive personal amplification device (over the counter hearing aid), these devices won’t be customized for your personal hearing loss requirements.

Improving your hearing demands more than just amplifying sounds because hearing loss is specific to the individual. Typically, specific frequencies of sound are lost when someone loses their hearing. Hearing aid settings have to be adjusted to help the person hear effectively in different settings.

Getting your hearing aid professionally adjusted

One of the best ways to ensure your hearing aid is fitted correctly is to have your personalized hearing aid fitted and adjusted. Custom-fitted hearing aids will be fabricated just for you using molds of your ears. Once the ideal fit is obtained, it will be necessary to adjust the hearing aid settings so you can differentiate unwanted noise and the sounds you want to hear.

Your hearing aid should also make automatic adjustments, which will let you hear background sounds in different environments without interference. In order to be certain you get the best hearing aids for your individual needs, you may need to come in more than once. If you have severe hearing loss, the adjustments to your hearing aid will be done in stages so that your brain has time to adjust to louder sounds.

If you believe you may be suffering from an out of tune hearing aid, call us today and make an appointment to have it checked out.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/symptoms-causes/syc-20373072
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing-aids#hearingaid_08

This is Why Hearing Aid Batteries Drain so Fast

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 19:34:00 GMT

Do your hearing aid batteries seem to drain quicker than they ought to? Here are some unexpected reasons that might happen.

So how long should the charge on my hearing aid battery go? The typical hearing aid battery lasts anywhere from 3 to 7 days.

That’s a very wide range. But it’s so wide that it’s unpredictable and could leave you in trouble.

You may be at market on day 4. Unexpectedly, your sound cuts out. You don’t hear the cashier.

Or, you’re out for dinner with friends on day 5. All of a sudden, you can’t hear the discussion and it’s leaving you feeling quite alone.

Now, you’re at your grandson’s school play. And the children’s singing goes quiet. Wait, it’s just day 2. Yes, they even sometimes die after a couple of days.

It’s not simply inconvenient. You’re losing out on life because you’re not sure how much juice is left in your hearing aids.

If your hearing aid batteries drain too quickly, check out these seven possible culprits.

Moisture can kill a battery

Did you know that humans are one of the few species that produce moisture through their skin? It’s a cooling system. You do it to eliminate extra sodium or toxins in the blood. On top of this, you might live in a rainy humid environment where things get even wetter.

The air vent in your device can get clogged by this excess moisture which can cause less efficient functionality. It can even interact with the chemicals that generate electricity causing it to drain even faster.

Here are a few steps you can take to prevent moisture-caused battery drain:

Advanced hearing aid functions can run down batteries

Even a decade ago, hearing aids were much less helpful for individuals with hearing loss than current devices. But these extra functions can cause batteries to drain faster if you’re not paying attention.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use these amazing features. But be aware that the battery will drain faster if you spend all day streaming music from your phone to your hearing aids.

Noise-canceling, Bluetooth, multichannel, tinnitus relief — all of these extra features can drain your battery.

Batteries can be affected by altitude changes

Going from a low to high altitude can drain your batteries , especially if they’re on their last leg. Make sure you bring some spares if you’re in the mountains or on a plane.

Maybe the batteries aren’t actually drained

Some hearing aids let you know when the battery is getting low. Generally, these alerts are giving you a “heads up”. They aren’t telling you the battery is dead. In addition, you might get a warning when the charge takes a dip because of an altitude or humidity change.

Take the hearing aids out and reset them to stop the alarm. There may be hours or even days of juice left.

Improper handling of batteries

You shouldn’t remove the little tab from the battery before you’re ready to use it. Always wash your hands before handling your hearing aids or batteries to avoid getting hand oil or dirt on them. Keep your batteries away from the freezer. It doesn’t increase their life as it might with other kinds of batteries.

Basic handling errors like these can make hearing aid batteries drain faster.

Overstocking on batteries isn’t a good plan

It’s often a practical financial decision to purchase in bulk . But as you get toward the end of the pack, the last few batteries likely won’t last as long. Try to limit yourself to a 6-month supply or less unless you’re fine with the waste.

Buying hearing aid batteries from the internet This isn’t a general criticism of buying stuff on the internet. You can get some great deals. But some less scrupulous individuals will sell batteries online that are very close to the expiration date. Or worse, it has already gone by. Most kinds of batteries, including hearing aid batteries, have expiration dates. When you purchase milk, you wouldn’t forget to look at the date it expires. You shouldn’t do that with batteries either. If you want to get the most from your battery, be certain the date is well into the future. If the website doesn’t state an expiration date , message the seller, or purchase batteries at a pharmacy or hearing aid center where you can see it on the packaging. Make sure you check reviews to be certain you’re purchasing from a trustworthy source.

The batteries in hearing aids no longer drain quickly

Hearing aid batteries might drain faster for numerous reasons. But you can get more energy from each battery by taking little precautions. You may also consider rechargeable hearing aids if you’re shopping for a new set. You put these hearing aids on a charger each night for a full day of hearing the next day. Every few years, you will need to change the rechargeable batteries.

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You May Have Hearing Loss if You Notice These 6 Behaviors

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 15:33:00 GMT

You want to be courteous when you’re talking with friends. You want your customers, co-workers, and manager to recognize that you’re totally involved when you’re at work. With family, you might find it less difficult to just tune out the conversation and ask the person next to you to fill in what you missed, just a bit louder, please.

On zoom calls you move in closer. You watch for facial hints, listen for inflection, and tune in to body language. You try to read people’s lips. And if that doesn’t work, you nod as if you heard every word.

Maybe you’re in denial. You’re struggling to keep up because you missed most of what was said. Life at home and tasks at work have become unnecessarily overwhelming and you are feeling frustrated and cut off due to years of progressive hearing loss.

The ability for a person to hear is influenced by situational variables including background sound, contending signals, room acoustics, and how acquainted they are with their environment, according to research. But for people who suffer from hearing loss, these factors are made even more difficult.

Watch out for these behaviors

There are certain tell-tale habits that will raise your awareness of whether you’re in denial about how your hearing loss is affecting your social and professional life:

Hearing loss most likely didn’t take place overnight even though it might feel that way. The majority of people wait 7 years on average before accepting the problem and seeking help.

So if you’re detecting symptoms of hearing loss, you can bet that it’s been occurring for some time unnoticed. Begin by scheduling an appointment right away, and stop fooling yourself, hearing loss is no joke.

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Why Does my Hearing Aid Sound Muffled?

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 19:35:00 GMT

You’re having a Zoom call with your granddaughter and you’ve been waiting for it all week! You’ll be able to catch up, check-in, and, have a laugh.

But when you get online you notice, to your sadness and disappointment, that you can’t hear very well. You’re wearing your hearing aids but you still can’t hear anything.

You can’t believe how disappointed you are.

Modern marvels muffled

Modern hearing aids are celebrated for their ability to produce crystal clear sounds. So it can be really, really aggravating when that doesn’t occur. Hearing aids are meant to help you hear better , right? But, lately, every time you’ve used your hearing aids, everything has sounded muffled and distorted (and that’s definitely not an improvement over your regular hearing). The hearing aid itself might not even be the problem.

Why do my hearing aids sound muffled?

So why do voices sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher if your hearing aids are functioning properly? Well, there are a couple of things you can do to try to fix the issue.

Earwax

If I had a dime for every issue that earwax has caused (in general, not me personally), I’d be a rich (but still cranky) man. The problem with your hearing aid might be a build-up of earwax against the microphone . Amplification is muffled when earwax obstructs your hearing aid’s ability to detect sound.

Here are some indications that earwax could be the problem.:

Conversely, it’s possible that earwax in your ear rather than on the hearing aid is the problem here. In those instances, be certain to clean out your ears in a safe way (a cotton swab, by the way, is not a safe way). If the muffled issue persists after you’ve cleaned up your hearing aid and your ears, you’ll have to continue troubleshooting.

Infection

So, if earwax isn’t the issue, the next likely reason will be an infection. Sometimes, this could be a common ear infection. Or it may be an inner ear infection. In both cases, a hearing assessment is suggested.

Ear infections of various kinds and causes can generate swelling in your ear canal or middle ear. This swelling blocks the transmission of sound and, therefore, the sound you’re hearing is muffled. Normally, antibiotics will clear this kind of infection up. Once the infection has cleared, your hearing should go back to normal.

Batteries

You just need to replace your battery. Hearing aids can sound muffled when the batteries get low so be sure to watch for that. Even if your hearing aids are rechargeable this can still be true. Sometimes, changing the batteries with fresh ones can make your hearing aids sound crystal clear again.

Hearing loss

If you’re still having trouble hearing, don’t discount the possibility that your hearing loss has changed. Think about scheduling an appointment for a hearing test if you haven’t had one in the past year. While you’re here having your hearing aid adjusted we can also do an inspection and cleaning.

Don’t let it linger

If you try all this troubleshooting and your hearing is still muffled, it’s definitely worth taking some time to come in for a consultation. You might find yourself putting your hearing aids in a drawer and cranking your TV up again if you don’t eliminate this muffling problem. And all of that could begin renewed hearing damage.

So, don’t let it linger. If you are unable to clear out some earwax and get hearing again, schedule a hearing test with us today and get everything taken care of before your next family event. If you can actually hear what everyone is saying you’ll you’ll have a lot more fun.

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What’s Causing the Crackling Sound in my Ear?

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 21:27:00 GMT

Crackling in your ear? A condition called tinnitus can cause you to hear crackling, buzzing, whooshing, or other noises in your ears. Here’s some info.

Do you hear phantom noises like thumping, ringing, or buzzing in your ears? If you have hearing aids, it can mean that they need to be adjusted or aren’t properly fitted. But those noises are most likely coming from inside your ears if you don’t have hearing aids.

Don’t worry there’s no need to stress. Even though we generally think of our ears in terms of what we see externally, there’s more than meets the eye – or in this instance, the ear. You might hear some of these common tinnitus noises and here are some indications of what they may be telling you about your hearing. Most of these sounds are temporary and harmless but if you have tinnitus sounds that are painful or are chronic you should schedule a consultation with us.

What’s the cause of the snap, crackle, and pop in I’m hearing?

We can tell you one thing, it’s not the Rice Krispies. When the pressure in your ears changes, whether from altitude, going underwater, or just yawning, you could hear popping or crackling noises. The eustachian tube, which is a tiny tube in your ear, is the cause of these noises. The crackling occurs when these mucus-lined passageways open up, allowing air and fluid to circulate and equalize the pressure inside your ears.

It’s an automatic process, but sometimes, like if you have inflammation from allergies, a cold, or an ear infection, your eustachian tubes can literally get clogged from the overabundance of mucus in your system (don’t forget, your ears, nose, and throat are all linked). In extreme situations where decongestant sprays, chicken soup, or antibiotics don’t give relief, a blockage could call for surgical intervention. You should make an appointment with us if you can’t get any relief from the nagging ear pain and pressure.

I’m hearing vibrations in my ear – what does that mean?

Sometimes, vibrations in the ear are an obvious indication of tinnitus. The term tinnitus relates to a disorder where noises are heard in the ears but those noises don’t originate in the outside world. Most individuals will refer to it as a ringing in the ears and it manifests across the spectrum, from barely there to unbearable.

Is the buzzing and ringing in my ear tinnitus?

Again, if you use hearing aids, you might hear these kinds of sounds for a number of reasons: your batteries may be running low, you need a volume adjustment, or perhaps your hearing aids aren’t fitting right in your ear. But if you don’t have hearing aids and you’re hearing this type of sound, it could also be the result of excess earwax.

It seems logical that too much wax could make it hard to hear and cause itchiness or even inner ear infections, but how could earwax make a sound? If it is pressing against your eardrum, it can actually inhibit the eardrum’s ability to function, which is what causes the buzzing or ringing.

Persistent buzzing or ringing is an indication that you are coping with tinnitus. And the sounds generated by earwax are actually a kind of tinnitus. Bear in mind that tinnitus isn’t itself a disorder or disease, rather, it’s a symptom of something else happening with your health. While it could be as simple as wax accumulation, tinnitus is also associated with conditions such as anxiety and depression. Diagnosing and treating the underlying health issue can help alleviate tinnitus, so you should speak with us to find out more about ways to decrease your symptoms.

What are the unusual rumblings i’m hearing?

This particular symptom is self-produced. Sometimes, you can hear a low rumble when you yawn. Your body is trying to soften sounds you make and the rumbling is your ears tensing little muscles in order to do that. They turn down the volume on yawning, chewing, and even your own voice.

Those sounds manifest so close to your ears and so often that the noise level would be harmful without these muscles. In very rare situations, some individuals can control one of these muscles, the tensor tympani, and generate that rumble at will. In other cases, a condition called tonic tensor tympani syndrome (TTTS) will cause people to suffer from tensor tympani muscle spasms. Individuals dealing with tinnitus or hyperacusis, which is a sensitivity to certain frequencies of sound, commonly experience TTTS.

What about a fluttering noise?

Have you ever felt a flutter in your legs or arms after a workout? Those flutters are normally caused by a muscle spasm, and it’s no different from the fluttering you hear in your ears. Middle ear myoclonus, also known as MEM tinnitus, is a condition that impacts the above mentioned tensor tympani muscle and the stapedius muscle in your middle ear. Since this is a muscle condition, muscle relaxers and anticonvulsants are commonly used as a first-round treatment to bring the fluttering under control. Inner ear surgery to correct the condition is an option if the medications don’t work, but success varies from procedure to procedure.

Why are my ears drumming, pumping, and pulsing so much?

If you sometimes feel like you’re hearing your heartbeat pulsing inside your ears, you’re probably right. Some of the body’s largest veins run really close to your ears, and if your heart rate is high – whether from a tough workout, big job interview, or a medical condition like high blood pressure – your ears will tune in to the sound of your heartbeat.

Most forms of tinnitus can’t be heard by others but that isn’t the case with pulsatile tinnitus. Pulsatile tinnitus is not difficult for us to diagnose because we can listen in on your ears and hear the thumping and pulsing too. If your heart is pounding, it’s not unusual to hear your own heartbeat, but if you’re hearing this thumping at other times that’s not normal.

It’s a smart idea to come in for a consultation if you’re hearing this pulsing every day. If it continues, pulsatile tinnitus could be an indication of high blood pressure or other health conditions. It’s important to tell us about your heart health history as pulsatile tinnitus can point to a heart condition. But after a good scare or workout, your hearing should go back to normal when your heart rate goes back to normal.

What’s this clicking sound?

As mentioned above, the Eustachian tube helps keep equal pressure in your ears. If you get a muscle spasm in the muscles that are close to the Eustachian tube, like for instance in the roof of your mouth, it can cause a repeated clicking sound. Clicking can also take place when you swallow for the same reasons. This is a result of the opening and closing of the eustachian tubes. Some individuals report hearing a clicking sound when their head drains of mucus. A clicking can, in rare instances indicate a fracture of one of the fragile bones of the ears.

Is ear popping an indication of infection?

Sometimes, an ear infection produces the feeling that your ears are clogged and the inflammation can cause your ears to pop. Popping in your ear can be a symptom of an acute infection. You need to make an appointment with us as soon as possible if you have any other symptoms, like ear pain, sudden loss of hearing, or fever. Sometimes, your ears will pop after an infection or cold as your head drains of mucus.

How do I stop my ears from crackling?

Do you hear a crackling in your ear and suspect you have tinnitus? Come in and consult with us and we can help you learn what treatments are best for your situation.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24289817/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23571302/

Does Hearing Loss Trigger Brain Atrophy?

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 15:55:00 GMT

Hearing loss is generally accepted as simply a normal part of the aging process: as we age, we begin to hear things a little less clearly. Perhaps we begin to turn up the volume on the TV or keep asking our grandchildren to speak up when they’re talking to us, or perhaps we begin to forget things?
Memory loss is also typically considered a natural part of aging as dementia and Alzheimer’s are far more common in the senior citizen population than in the younger population at large. But what if the two were somehow connected? And, better yet, what if there was a way to manage hearing loss and also maintain your memories and mental health?

The connection between cognitive decline and hearing loss

Most individuals don’t associate hearing loss with mental decline and dementia. But if you look in the appropriate places, you will see a clear connection: studies reveal that there is a considerable risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-like disorders if you also suffer from hearing loss – even at relatively low levels of hearing impairment.
Mental health issues including anxiety and depression are also fairly prevalent in people who have hearing loss. Your ability to socialize is impacted by cognitive decline, mental health problems, and hearing loss which is the common thread.

Why does hearing loss affect cognitive decline?

While there isn’t any solid finding or definitive proof that hearing loss causes cognitive decline and mental health problems, there is some link and several clues that experts are looking at. They have pinpointed two main situations that they believe result in problems: the inability to socialize and your brain working overtime.
Studies have revealed that depression and anxiety are often the result of loneliness. And when people suffer from hearing loss, they’re less likely to socialize with others. Many individuals with hearing loss find it’s too difficult to participate in conversations or can’t hear well enough to enjoy things like the movie theater. These actions lead to isolation, which can result in mental health problems.

In addition, researchers have discovered that the brain often has to work harder to make up for the fact that the ears don’t hear as well as they should. The region of the brain that’s responsible for understanding sounds, such as voices in a conversation, needs more help from other parts of the brain – namely, the part of the brain that stores memories. This overworks the brain and causes mental decline to set in a lot faster than if the brain was able to process sounds normally.

Using hearing aids to stop cognitive decline

The weapon against mental health issues and cognitive decline is hearing aids. Research has revealed that people improved their cognitive functions and were at a decreased risk of developing dementia when they used hearing aids to combat their hearing loss.
We would see fewer instances of cognitive decline and mental health problems if more people would just wear their hearing aids. Of all the individuals who require hearing aids, only between 15% and 30% actually wear them, that’s between 5 and 9 million people. The World Health Organization estimates that there are almost 50 million people who suffer from some form of dementia. If hearing aids can lower that number by even just a couple of million people, the quality of life for many individuals and families will improve exponentially.
Are you ready to improve your hearing and safeguard your memory at the same time? Contact us today and schedule a consultation to learn whether hearing aids are right for you and start moving toward better mental health.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/blogs/protecting-your-hearing-means-protecting-your-mental-health

7 Ways to Prepare for Your Hearing Test

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 16:08:00 GMT

You’re a pretty busy person, so it’s reasonable that you totally forgot about the hearing test you have scheduled for tomorrow. Luckily, you just got that reminder text from us, and you still have some time to get ready. So what should I do to get ready?

Hearing tests aren’t like back in college or high school where you’d have to stay up all night to study for a test. Getting ready for a hearing exam is more about thinking over your symptoms and making certain you’re not forgetting anything. Essentially, getting ready for your hearing test is really about ensuring you get as much out of your time with us as possible.

Get prepared using these 7 tips!

1. Create a list of your symptoms (and when they occur)

The symptoms of hearing impairment differ from person to person and at different times. There may be some symptoms that are obvious and others that are more subtle. So take some notes on when your symptoms are most pronounced before your appointment. Some things you can list out include:

We find this type of information very useful. Take note of the day and time of these symptoms if possible. If you can’t, just remember that they did happen.

2. Get some information about hearing aids

How accurate is your knowledge about hearing aids? It’s an important question because you don’t want to make any decisions influenced by what you think you know. If we inform you a hearing aid would be helpful, that’s going to be the perfect moment to ask informed questions.

You will get better answers and the process will be expedited when you know what types of hearing devices are available and understand what your preferences are.

3. Review your medical history

This one will also help the process go faster after your appointment. Write down your medical history before you come in for your exam. This should include both major and minor incidents. You should note things like:

4. Avoid loud sounds and noisy settings

If you have a hearing test scheduled and you go to a loud concert the night before, the outcome will be skewed. Similarly, if you go to an airshow the morning before your exam, the results will not be accurate. You can see where we’re going with this: you want to safeguard your ears from loud noises before your hearing exam. This will help ensure your results are reliable and reflect your current hearing health.

5. Talk to your insurance in advance

It can be somewhat challenging sorting out what parts of your appointment will be covered by insurance. If your hearing impairment is related to a medical problem, some insurance plans will cover it. But not all plans will. You will be a lot more confident at your appointment if you get this all squared away before you come in. In some situations, you can work directly with us to get answers about insurance. If we can’t, you will need to speak directly with your insurance company.

6. Bring a friend or family member in with you

Bringing a trusted friend or loved one with you to a hearing appointment isn’t strictly necessary, but it can present several benefits. Here are some of the most prominent benefits:

7. Be prepared for your results

With many medical diagnostics, it might be days or weeks before you get your diagnosis. But with a hearing exam, that’s not the case. With a hearing exam, you will get the results immediately.

And what’s even better, we’ll show you how to enhance your overall hearing health and walk you through the meaning of your results. Maybe that’s a hearing aid, maybe it’s some changes to your behavior, or some hearing protection. You’ll know rather quickly either way.

So, you won’t need to cram for your hearing exam. But it is helpful, mainly for you, to be prepared!

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Wearing Your Hearing Aid While Doing Summer Activities

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 18:43:00 GMT

You’ve got an active summer planned. Plenty of beach time and lots of swimming for sure. You’ll do some regular jogging and then maybe attend a ball game or two before heading home and grilling up some delicious dinner. Your schedule will be quite full. And you want to make sure your hearing aids are up to the challenge.

Summer activities like these can be tough on your hearing aids, but these little beneficial devices can be protected without it slowing your summer fun.

Obstacles of hearing aids in the summer

With hearing aids, every season will have distinctive challenges. Climate and weather are the greatest obstacles during the summer.

Here are some summer related obstacles:

Part of the reason why these problems are more common during the summer is clear: you spend more time outside. And you’re more likely to encounter a sudden rain storm or a powerful wind when you’re outside so often.

Keeping your hearing aids at optimum performance through the summer

Your hearing aids are manufactured to make it possible for you to do more, to enhance your quality of life. The majority of people who wear hearing aids will want to use them as much as possible, especially during the summer. Taking care of your hearing aids by taking a few extra steps can make that happen.

Keeping your hearing aids dry

We’ve established that moisture is the enemy of a well-functioning hearing aid (the more advanced the electronics, the worse water becomes). Protect against moisture with these tips:

Take measures to keep your hearing aids clean

Moisture and heat can both fuel the growth of bacteria. So you should also take a few steps to make sure your hearing aids are remaining clean over the summer months. Here are some tips:

Be happy, stay active, hear well

Your hearing aids are designed to accompany you throughout your life, and that’s definitely true of the summer months. You can keep your hearing aids dry and in good working order whether you’re hiking, swimming, or simply taking an evening stroll around your neighborhood.

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How Can Your Driving Habits be Impacted by Hearing Impairment?

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 19:02:00 GMT

Don’t take your eyes off the road. While this may be sound advice, how about your other senses? As an example, consider the amount of work your ears are doing when you’re driving. You’re using your ears to engage with other individuals in your vehicle, call your attention to important info appearing on your dashboard, and help you monitor other vehicles.

So when you’re coping with hearing loss, how you drive can change. That’s not to say your driving will become excessively dangerous. Inexperience and distracted driving are greater liabilities in terms of safety. Still, some special safeguards should be taken by individuals with hearing loss to ensure they keep driving as safely as possible.

Hearing loss can affect your situational awareness but formulating safe driving habits can help you remain a safe driver.

How your driving may be impacted by hearing loss

Generally, driving is a vision-centric activity (at least, if it’s not a vision-centric activity, something’s wrong). Even complete hearing loss most likely won’t stop you from driving, but it very likely could change the way you drive. After all, you use your hearing a lot while you’re driving. Some prevalent examples include:

All of these audio cues can help develop your overall situational awareness. You could start to miss more and more of these audio cues as your hearing loss progresses. But there are steps you can take to ensure you still remain as safe as you can while driving.

Developing new safe driving habits

If you’re experiencing hearing loss and you want to continue to drive, that’s okay! Stay safe out on the road with these tips:

How to keep your hearing aid ready for driving

If you are dealing with hearing loss, driving is one of those instances where having a hearing aid can really help. And when you’re driving, use these tips to make your hearing aids a real asset:

Hearing loss doesn’t mean driving is a problem, particularly with hearing aids which make it safer and easier. Developing good driving habits can help guarantee that your drive is enjoyable and that your eyes remain safely on the road.

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When Should I Get my Hearing Examined?

Tue, 24 May 2022 17:17:00 GMT

When should you get a hearing test? You need a hearing exam if you have any of these four signs.

Recently, my kids complained about how loud my TV was. And guess what my reply was. I said, “What”? It was a joke. I thought it was amusing. But, in some ways, it was anything but funny. I have needed to turn the TV up louder and louder as of late. And I started to ask myself: should I have my hearing tested?

It really doesn’t make much sense to neglect getting a hearing assessment. Hearing tests don’t cause you any discomfort, they’re non-invasive, and there isn’t any radiation. You’ve most likely just been putting it off.

Considering how much untreated hearing loss can affect your health, you really should be more vigilant about making sure your hearing impairment hasn’t worsened.

Hearing exams are important for many reasons. It’s often hard for you to observe the earliest signs of hearing loss without one, and even mild hearing impairment can affect your health.

So when should you get your hearing tested? Here are several ways to tell if you need to consult with us.

Signs you should get a hearing test

If you’ve recently experienced any of the symptoms of hearing loss, it’s definitely a good idea to get a professional hearing screening. Clearly, it’s a powerful indication of hearing loss if you’re having a hard time hearing.

But some of the other signs of hearing loss are more subtle:

Here are a few other situations that show you should make an appointment for a hearing exam:

This checklist, clearly, is not thorough. There are other examples of red flags (if, for instance, the volume on your TV is maxed out and you still want it to go just a little louder). It would be a smart plan to follow up on any of these signs .

Routine examinations

But what if, to your knowledge, you haven’t encountered any of these possible symptoms of hearing loss? Is there a guideline for how often you should go get your hearing checked? There’s a guideline for everything, right, so there’s got to be a guideline for this. There are, actually, some suggestions.

Regular examinations can help you discover hearing loss before any red flags appear. You will have a better chance of preserving your hearing over time the sooner you get checked. Which means, you should probably turn your TV down and make an appointment for a hearing examination.

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Treating Tinnitus

Mon, 16 May 2022 22:10:00 GMT

You have a buzzing in your ears and it’s not improving, if anything it’s getting worse. It started off quietly enough, one of those “is it really there” sort of things. But you’ve noticed how loud and constant the tinnitus sounds have become after an entire day on the job at a construction site. Sometimes, it sounds like ringing or other noises. You’re considering coming in to see us, but you’re wondering: how is ringing in the ears managed?

The source of your tinnitus symptoms will substantially determine what approach will be most suitable for you. But there are some common threads that can help you prepare for your own tinnitus therapy.

There are a couple of different kinds of tinnitus

Tinnitus is incredibly common. The buzzing or ringing (or any number of noises) in your ear can be caused by various underlying issues. So when it comes to treatment, tinnitus is normally split into one of two categories:

The best way to manage your symptoms will be determined by the underlying cause of your hearing problem and the kind of tinnitus you have.

Treatments for medical tinnitus

Your medical tinnitus symptoms will usually improve when the root medical issue is treated. Here are some treatments for medical tinnitus:

You’ll want to make an appointment to come see us so we customize a tinnitus treatment plan, especially if you’re coping with medical tinnitus.

Managing non-medical tinnitus

The causes of non-medical tinnitus are often much harder to diagnose and treat than is typically the case with medical tinnitus. There’s usually no cure for non-medical tinnitus (especially in cases where the tinnitus is caused by hearing damage). Treatments, instead center around treating symptoms and improving the quality of life.

Find what works

In order to successfully treat your hearing problems you will probably need to try out several strategies as the exact cause of your tinnitus probably won’t be obvious. Depending on the source of your ringing or buzzing, there may not be a cure for your tinnitus. But many different treatments are available that could reduce the symptoms. Finding the right one for you is the trick.

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If I Was Dealing With Hearing Loss, How Would I Know?

Wed, 11 May 2022 01:13:00 GMT

Your last family dinner was frustrating. It wasn’t because of family crisis (this time). No, the cause of the stress was simple: it was loud, and you couldn’t hear anything. So you didn’t get the chance to ask about Dave’s new kitten or Sally’s new career. And that was really annoying. You try to play it off as if the room’s acoustics are the problem. But you have to admit that it may be a problem with your hearing.

It’s not usually recommended to self diagnose hearing loss because it’s incredibly challenging to do. But there are some early red flags you should watch for. When enough red flags show up, it’s time to call us for a hearing test.

Early signs of hearing impairment

Not every symptom and sign of hearing loss is obvious. But if you happen to see your own situation reflected in any of the items on this list, you just could be experiencing some degree of hearing loss.

Here are some of the most common early signs of hearing loss:

Get a hearing test

No matter how many of these early warning signs you might encounter, there’s really only one way to know, with confidence, whether your hearing is going bad: get a hearing test.

Generally speaking, any single one of these early warning signs could indicate that you’re developing some type of hearing loss. And if any impairment exists, a hearing evaluation will be able to identify how bad it is. Once we discover the degree of hearing loss, we can determine the best course of treatment.

This will help you have a much more enjoyable time at that next family get-together.

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Tips for Getting Used to Your New Hearing Aid

Wed, 04 May 2022 16:01:00 GMT

You’ve been waiting for this day for quite a while. You got your new hearing aids. You’re finally going to be able to get back into the swing of your social life again. No more bad transitions or confused conversations. But there’s a problem: everything sounds just a little off.

That’s because it’ll most likely take you some time to adjust to a new pair of hearing aids. Often, this transition can be frustrating. You were so looking forward to enjoying your hearing again and it feels like it’s hard to be patient.

Luckily, there are a few tips that can help accelerate the transition process. With a little practice, you can quickly get yourself to a space where you’re thinking less about your hearing aids, and paying more attention to what you’re hearing.

Tips that help you start Slowly

Your brain will take a little time to get used to hearing certain sounds again regardless of how sophisticated your hearing aids are. Here are a few ways you can intentionally give yourself time to adjust and start things off slowly:

Tips that help you get added practice in

Similar to any other skill (and hearing is a skill, among other things), there are a few activities that can help you practice with your hearing aids. You could even have some fun!

Improve your hearing health with these tips

Keeping your ears as healthy as possible, after all, is one of the principal purposes of hearing aids. And there are a few tips you can do to keep your ears happy as you get used to wearing your new hearing aid:

Take your time, and build up to full-time hearing aids

Working your way up to wearing your hearing aids full time is the objective here. A slow and progressive strategy works quite often, but everybody’s unique. Learning the best ways to get comfortable with your new hearing aids is something we can help you with.

Following these tips (and tips like them) can help ensure that you enjoy having your hearing aids and that you keep using them because they continue to enrich your life.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Do They Make Hearing Aids That Are Waterproof?

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 20:51:00 GMT

As a swimmer, you enjoy going in the water. When you were younger, everybody said you were part fish because you liked to swim so much the pool was your second home. The water seems a bit…louder… than normal today. And then you recognize your oversight: you went in the pool with your hearing aid in. And you don’t know if it’s waterproof or not.

Generally, this would be somewhat of a worry. Normally, modern hearing aids are resistant to water to some degree. But a device that resists water is much different than a device that’s waterproof.

Water resistance ratings and hearing aids

In general speaking, your hearing aids are going to function best when they are kept clean and dry. But for the majority of hearing aids, it won’t be a problem if you get a little water on them. It all depends on something called an IP rating–that’s the officially allocated water resistance number.

The IP number works by giving every device a two digit number. The device’s resistance to dust, sand, and other forms of dry erosion is represented by the first digit.

The second number (and the one we’re really considering here) represents how resistant your hearing aid is to water. The greater the number, the longer the device will keep working under water. So a device that has a rating of IP87 will be very resistant to sand and work for about thirty minutes in water.

Although there aren’t any hearing aids currently available that are entirely waterproof, there are some that can have a high water resistance rating .

Is water resistance worthwhile?

The sophisticated electronics inside your hearing aid case won’t mesh well with water. Before you go for a swim or into the shower you will probably want to take out your hearing aid and depending on the IP rating, try not to use them in excessively humid weather. No level of water resistance will help if you drop your hearing aids in the deep end of a swimming pool, but there are some circumstances in which a high IP rating will definitely be to your advantage:

This is surely not a complete list. Of course, what degree of water resistance will be enough for your day-to-day routine will only be able to be identified after a consultation.

Your hearing aids need to be taken care of

Your hearing aid isn’t maintenance-free just because it’s resistant to water. You will need to keep your hearing aids dry and clean.

In some circumstances, that could mean investing in a dehumidifier. But in most cases, a clean dry storage place will work fine (depending on where you live). And it will be necessary to completely clean and remove any residue left behind by some moistures including sweat.

What can you do if your hearing aids get wet?

If there’s no such thing as a waterproof hearing aid, should you panic when your devices get wet? Well, no–mostly because getting panicked won’t improve anything anyway. But you need to give your hearing aids sufficient time to dry out entirely and if they have a low IP rating, we can help you identify if there is any damage.

The IP rating on your hearing device will give you a concept of what you can expect when it comes to possible water damage. At least, try not to forget to take your hearing aids out before you go swimming. The drier your hearing devices remain, the better.

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Protect Your Hearing With These 5 Tips

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 20:51:00 GMT

Your ability to hear is valuable – once you lose it, the chance of getting it back in its natural form is not likely. But for some reason, hearing loss tends to go neglected and unchecked in the general population. As a matter of fact, permanent hearing loss affects one in every eight people (nearly 30 million people) over the age of 12 in the United States alone.

Protecting your hearing from the beginning is the best and easiest way to prevent hearing loss, but if you already have hearing loss you can recover much of your hearing with a hearing aid.

Safeguard your hearing with these five tips:

Don’t use earbuds

Earbuds have been a mobile device accessory since the early 2000s and are one of the biggest threats to hearing. These little devices sit snugly into the ear canal and pump sound straight into the inner ear and most smartphones come with them. You can get irreversible hearing damage by listening to a movie or music on your mobile device at maximum volume for just 15 minutes. The better option would be to get a pair of earmuff-style headphones that go over your ears, which is made even better if you can find a pair that has noise-canceling technology. No matter what devices you use, you should follow the 60/60 rule – keep the volume at 60% maximum and only use the devices for 60 minutes each day.

Keep your volume low

Earbuds don’t generate the only sounds that can damage your hearing. If you regularly listen to the TV or radio at high volumes over prolonged periods, your hearing can also be damaged. Shooting ranges, concerts, construction zone, and other noisy settings should be avoided. It might be impractical to entirely avoid these situations especially if they’re part of your job. The next item on the list will be significant if you’re in this situation.

Hearing protection will be helpful

Hearing protection is a must if you work in an environment or enjoy hobbies that expose you to loud sounds. Hearing loss can happen in just 15 minutes at 85 decibels. Compare that to the following:

If you participate in any of these activities, you need to invest in a good set of earmuffs or earplugs.

Take auditory breaks

Sometimes giving your ears a rest is the smartest thing you can do. If you engaged in any of the activities listed above, you really should make sure to take some quiet time for yourself so your ears can rest and recover, even if you were wearing ear protection. That means, you most likely shouldn’t get into your car and start blasting loud music right after you leave a 3-hour concert.

Check your medicine

Your hearing may be significantly impacted by the medication you take. There are some medicines that have been proven to trigger hearing loss including certain heart and cancer medicines, aspirin, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory medication. Luckily, medication related hearing loss normally only happens when more than one of these medications are taken together making it much less common.

Looking to find treatment for your hearing loss? Make an appointment with us for a hearing exam.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Resources

The Shocking Connection Between Hearing Aids and Your Love Life

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 16:46:00 GMT

When you imagine hearing aids, intimacy probably isn’t the first thing you consider. We understand. These tiny devices are normally presented in rather concrete terms. Less defined expressions including poetry, music, and art are more suited to the topic of love.

But you may want to start looking at your hearing aid as an intimacy device because of the strong link between your hearing and your relationship. After all, the social separation that comes from neglected hearing loss can also mean isolation from your partner. That means preserving intimate relationships will be just as difficult as attempting to communicate with the clerk at the grocery store.

Hearing loss doesn’t inevitably mean you can’t enjoy wonderful relationships and deep emotional bonds. It’s just that doing so takes specialized care and well-practiced adaptations. You most likely haven’t developed those skills if your hearing loss has advanced slowly and that could mean your relationships may suffer.

True intimacy, though, and improved personal relationships can come from something as basic as using a hearing aid. Hearing aids can have a positive affect on your love life in the following ways.

Improved communication

It’s no secret that healthy relationships require strong communication (although, it is often harder to practice than it is to preach). Taking the time to communicate can help avoid arguments, improve emotional connections, and make everybody feel more valued and appreciated.

But the challenge becomes even more pronounced with hearing loss which can seriously hinder normal communication.

A hearing aid will help most quickly in the following ways:

You won’t need to use your partner as a translator

If your partner has to repeat everything people are saying, it doesn’t make for a really romantic evening. Likewise, you won’t have a very good time if you can’t hear anything that’s happening all night. It’s easy to see how this arrangement could breed resentment.

Your independence can be maintained by using hearing aids. Your partner won’t have to order your food at a restaurant or be your translator when you’re at a dinner party. In addition, it will be easier to continue socializing on your own! This means you’ll have stories and adventures that you can bring back to your partner, enriching your relationship in the process.

Your partner’s needs will be more accessible to you

Your partner’s daily life will be so much easier in so many ways if you’re able to hear more. Perhaps you jump in and help with dinner because your hearing aids allow you to hear the cook timer sound. Or perhaps you ask your partner if they’re ok when you hear them stumble on the floor. When you hear your partner grumbling under their breath, you have a chance to ask what’s the matter.

All of this may not sound like much of a big deal. But these little gestures, taken together, will show your partner that you’re compassionate and committed. They demonstrate your level of care. And that’s what partners are supposed to do! You will have a much easier time achieving this with hearing aids which will help you detect more discreet audio cues.

You won’t miss the power of a whisper

You may have a difficult time hearing those breathy whispers shared during intimate moments when you have hearing loss, especially if it has developed so gradually you didn’t even detect it. And part of the fun of being romantic, let’s be truthful, is those discreet, quiet occasions. You will once more be able to enjoy the power of a whisper. Which means you’ll be able to enjoy the intimacy of your partnership in a more powerful way.

Helping Your Relationship

Every problem in your relationship won’t be fixed with a hearing aid, clearly. And if you do have hearing loss, you can still have intimacy. Hearing aids will make specific elements of your love life more enjoyable and enriching and that’s the main point here.

So if your relationship is a little… dicey… and you’re struggling to find a cause, it might be that your hearing loss is getting in the way of your connections. A hearing aid can return needed intimacy to your relationship so schedule an appointment as soon as possible.

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Age Related Hearing Loss – the First Signs

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 17:54:00 GMT

It’s frequently said that hearing loss is a slow-moving process. It can be quite insidious for this exact reason. Your hearing gets worse not in huge leaps but by little steps. So if you’re not watching closely, it can be difficult to measure the decline in your hearing. Because of this, it’s worthwhile to be acquainted with the early signs of hearing loss.

An entire assortment of related problems, such as anxiety, depression, and even dementia, can result from neglected hearing loss, so even though it’s hard to notice, it’s crucial to get hearing loss treated as early as possible. You will also avoid further deterioration with prompt treatment. The best way to ensure treatment is to recognize the early warning signs as they are present.

It can be hard to observe early signs of hearing loss

Early hearing loss has elusive symptoms. It’s not like you wake up one day and, very suddenly, you can’t hear anything quieter than 65 decibels. Instead, the initial signs of hearing loss hide themselves in your everyday activities.

The human body and brain, you see, are amazingly adaptable. Your brain will start to compensate when your hearing begins to go and can make use of other clues to determine what people are saying. Similarly, if your left ear begins to fade, maybe your right ear starts to pick up the slack and you unconsciously start tilting your head just a bit.

But your ears and brain can only compensate so much.

Age related hearing loss – initial signs

There are some well known signs to look out for if you think that you or a loved one might be experiencing the beginning of age related hearing loss:

You should also be on the lookout for these more subtle signs

There are some signs of hearing loss that don’t seem to have much to do with your hearing. These signs can be powerful indicators that your ears are struggling even though they’re subtle.

It’s a good idea to give us a call for a hearing exam if you’re noticing any of these age related signs of hearing loss. Then, we can develop treatment plans that can protect your hearing.

Hearing loss develops gradually. But you can stay ahead of it with the right knowledge.

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References

https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/46306-Hearing-loss-auditory-deprivation

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/symptoms-causes/syc-20373072

Are There Treatments for Hyperacusis?

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 21:08:00 GMT

Pain is your body’s way of supplying information. It’s an effective strategy though not a very pleasant one. When your ears begin to feel the pain of a very loud megaphone near you, you know damage is happening and you can take steps to move further away or at least cover your ears.

But, in spite of their minimal volume, 8-10% of people will feel pain from quiet sounds as well. This condition is known by experts as hyperacusis. It’s a fancy name for overly sensitive ears. The symptoms of hyperacusis can be managed but there’s no cure.

Heightened sound sensitivity

Hyperacusis is a hypersensitivity to sound. Most of the time sounds within a specific frequency trigger episodes of hyperacusis for people who experience it. Normally, quiet noises sound loud. And loud noises seem even louder.

Hyperacusis is commonly connected with tinnitus, hearing trouble, and even neurological issues, though no one really knows what actually causes it. When it comes to symptoms, severity, and treatment, there’s a noticeable degree of individual variability.

What type of response is normal for hyperacusis?

Here’s how hyperacusis, in most cases, will look and feel::

Treatments for hyperacusis

When you are dealing with hyperacusis the world can become a minefield, particularly when your ears are overly sensitive to a wide assortment of frequencies. Your hearing could be assaulted and you could be left with a terrible headache and ringing ears whenever you go out.

That’s why it’s so essential to get treatment. You’ll want to come in and talk with us about which treatments will be most up your alley (this all tends to be rather variable). The most common options include the following.

Masking devices

A device called a masking device is one of the most common treatments for hyperacusis. While it might sound ideal for Halloween (sorry), in reality, a masking device is a piece of technology that cancels out select wavelengths of sounds. So those offending frequencies can be removed before they make it to your ears. If you can’t hear the triggering sound, you won’t have a hyperacusis attack.

Earplugs

Earplugs are a less sophisticated take on the same basic approach: if all sound is blocked, there’s no possibility of a hyperacusis incident. It’s undoubtedly a low-tech approach, and there are some disadvantages. There’s some research that suggests that, over time, the earplugs can throw your hearing ecosystem even further out of whack and make your hyperacusis worse. Consult us if you’re thinking about using earplugs.

Ear retraining

One of the most thorough methods of managing hyperacusis is called ear retraining therapy. You’ll use a mix of devices, physical therapy, and emotional counseling to try to change how you react to certain types of sounds. The concept is that you can train yourself to disregard sounds (rather like with tinnitus). Normally, this approach has a good success rate but depends a great deal on your dedication to the process.

Methods that are less common

There are also some less prevalent approaches for managing hyperacusis, such as medications or ear tubes. These strategies are less commonly utilized, depending on the specialist and the person, because they have met with mixed success.

A huge difference can come from treatment

Because hyperacusis will vary from person to person, a unique treatment plan can be developed depending on your symptoms as you encounter them. Successfully treating hyperacusis depends on finding a strategy that’s best for you.

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Why Homeopathic Remedies For Hearing Loss Are a Bad Idea

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 18:04:00 GMT

If you cut your arm, it heals. Before too long, your stubbed toe will feel better. Even a broken bone will heal if correctly set.

But what if you lose your hearing? Is it possible for the inner ear to heal? Will your hearing come back? Can homeopathic treatments facilitate that healing?

What is homeopathic medicine’s approach?

Homeopathy is thought of as natural medicine. You’re treating the complete person, according to this method, not just the illness. The basic concept is that the human body should repair itself. Those who practice it think they are encouraging a natural healing process that lets the body heal faster than normally possible.

What is homeopathic medicine made of?

The prefix “Homeo” means “like” and the basis of the word “pathy” means “disease”. So the general meaning of homeopathy is “like a disease”. This probably sounds strange, after all, why would a cure be called “like a disease?”

But it’s called that because it uses compounds like nightshade and arsenic which would be unsafe in large amounts. The thought is that by administering these kinds of substances, you encourage a natural healing process.

While some disregard homeopathy, other people believe in its value. Usually, once a person forms an opinion about this, it’s hard to change their mind. We need to explore why homeopathic treatments don’t apply to hearing loss.

Homeopathy may be harmless at best for other parts of the body but with the ears, it can actually lead to significant damage.

How hearing works

The inner ear is shaped like a snail shell, known as the cochlea. There are little hairs, called cilia, inside of this structure. These hair cells vibrate rhythmically with the sound waves that are produced when something makes a noise. Complex signals are sent to the brain as these hairs oscillate with incoming sound waves. The brain can interpret these signals to differentiate between a cat’s meow and a car horn. It can decode whether someone said the letter “T” or the letter “D.”

There are thousands of these little hairs in your ears when you’re a newborn. But as you get older, your ears are exposed to loud noises, infections, and other risks that literally shake these tiny hair cells to pieces. They bend over. They break. They die. Sound will no longer be received and transmitted by these dead hairs.

The most delicate hairs are the ones that pick up high pitched sounds like birds chirping or the voices of little children. So these are the first to go when your ears begin to take damage.

These hairs will never grow back or heal. That’s why protecting your ears is so essential.

Homeopathy and Hearing

Homeopathic remedies are believed to work by stimulating the body’s natural healing processes. But hearing loss doesn’t ever heal. When these hairs are gone, they never regrow.

The best thing to do, if you’re experiencing early hearing loss, is to give us a call for a hearing test. If you delay getting medical assistance and treatment while you “try” homeopathic remedies, you may be doing more long term harm to your hearing. Speak to us today about proven prevention and treatment possibilities.

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Even the Young Should Think About This to Safeguard Their Hearing

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 22:01:00 GMT

An estimated 50% of people 75 or older have some level of hearing loss and that’s why most people think of it as a problem for older people. But research shows that younger individuals are at risk for hearing loss – and, alarmingly, they are losing their hearing despite the fact that it’s entirely preventable.

One study of 479 freshmen across three high schools revealed that 34% of those students showed indications of hearing loss. The cause? The thought is that mobile devices with earbuds connected are contributing to the problem. And younger people aren’t the only ones at risk.

What causes hearing loss in individuals under 60?

There’s a simple rule regarding earbud volume for teenagers and everybody else – if someone else can hear your music, then the volume is too high. Damage to your hearing can occur when you listen to sounds above 85 decibels – which is about the sound of a vacuum cleaner – for an extended time period. A normal mobile device with the volume turned all the way up is around 106 decibels. Utilized in this way, 4 minutes is enough to cause injury.

It might seem like everybody would know this but teenagers often have their headphones in for hours at a time. They’re playing games, watching videos, or listening to music during this time. And if the latest research is to be accepted, this time will only increase over the next several years. The release of dopamine acts in a similar way to addictive drugs and research has shown that smartphones and other screens can activate dopamine release. It will become harder and harder to get screens away from kids, and their hearing could suffer because of it.

Young people are in danger of hearing loss

Clearly, hearing loss creates several challenges for anybody, regardless of age. Younger people, however, face added issues regarding academics, after-school activities, and even job possibilities. Students with hearing loss face a particularly difficult time hearing and comprehending concepts. Sports become particularly difficult if you can’t hear coaches and teammates calling plays and giving instructions. Young adults and teenagers entering the workforce can face unnecessary roadblocks due to hearing loss.

Hearing loss can also lead to social issues. Kids who have damaged hearing have a more difficult time interacting with peers, which often causes social and emotional issues that require therapy. Individuals who suffer with hearing loss frequently feel isolated and experience mental health problems like depression and anxiety. Managing hearing loss often must go hand-in-hand with mental health treatment, especially during the crucial developmental stages experienced by kids and teenagers.

How young people can prevent hearing loss

Using earbuds or headphones for no more than 60 minutes a day and at a volume 60% of maximum or less (the 60/60 rule) is the first rule to follow. Even at 60%, if other people can still hear the music, it needs to be turned down.

It also may be smart to switch back to over-the-ear style headphones and stop using earbuds. Earbuds put directly into the ear can actually produce 6 to 9 extra decibels compared to traditional headphones.

Whatever you can do to reduce your child’s exposure to loud sounds throughout the day will be helpful. Try to make their home time free of headphone use because you can’t regulate what they’re doing when they’re not home. And if you do think your child is suffering from hearing loss, you should have them examined right away.

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References

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing

https://time.com/4989275/young-children-tablets-mobile-devices/
https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/52500-Hearing-loss-among-kids-and-teens
https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/blogs/protecting-your-hearing-means-protecting-your-mental-health
https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/earbuds.html

Finding Hearing Aids You Can Afford

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 17:56:00 GMT

We all love a good bargain. But when it comes to your health, be careful what you buy and keep your eye on the little details.

The terms “hearing aid” and “hearing amplifier” might seem similar but they are actually very different devices. And your overall hearing and health could suffer major consequences if you make the wrong decision about this.

What is a hearing amplifier?

A little device that goes inside of your ear, a hearing amplifier raises the volume of outside sound. These tend to be quite simple, one-dimensional devices which the government categorizes as personal sound amplification devices. A hearing amplifier is like cranking the volume up on the world.

These devices are typically not suggested for people with moderate to severe hearing loss because of their one-size-fits-all strategy.

Clear difference between hearing aids and personal amplifiers

It starts to become pretty apparent that hearing aids aren’t the same as hearing amplification devices when you consider that amplifiers are not recommended for people with even moderate hearing loss. Hearing aids, obviously, are encouraged for those with hearing loss.

Both types of devices are capable of raising the volume of outside sound. But one of these devices has a much higher degree of amplification technology and sophistication.

To put it bluntly, properly treating hearing loss depends on these capabilities. In most cases, personal amplifiers don’t have these features.

The right deal for your ears

Along with a decreased ability to hear, neglected hearing loss can also lead to mental decline. Because amplifiers don’t differentiate between frequencies, if you turn them up enough to hear what you’re missing, you’ll likely have it up too loud for other frequencies….and damage your hearing further. And who wants to do that?

Right now, the only approved treatments for hearing loss, if it’s not a result of earwax, are some surgeries and hearing aids. You won’t save any money long term by failing to get treatment for your hearing loss. Untreated hearing loss has been shown to increase your overall healthcare costs more than 40 percent. Fortunately, there are affordable options. Just ask us.

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References

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373077

The Annual Visit You Likely Forgot to Schedule

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 21:24:00 GMT

Even if you have glasses (the kind you put on your face, not the kind you fill with liquid), you still visit your eye doctor annually, right? Because your eyes change as time passes. Similar to the rest of your body, your eyes aren’t fixed and neither are your ears. That’s why, much like your eyes, it’s crucial to keep getting your ears checked even after you’ve purchased a quality pair of hearing aids.

Many individuals, regrettably, skip those yearly appointments. Perhaps a visit to their doctor is taking a back seat to enjoying life. Or maybe, work has been especially hectic this year. Or perhaps, you’ve just been so pleased with your hearing aids that you haven’t had a reason to go back in. That’s a good thing, right?

Scheduling a hearing test

Let’s take Daphne as a fictional example. Daphne has been detecting some red flags with her hearing for a while now. She keeps increasing the volume on her TV. She has difficulty following conversations at after-work happy hours in loud restaurants. And because she enjoys taking care of herself, and she’s intelligent, she schedules a hearing exam.

Daphne makes certain to follow all of the steps to manage her hearing impairment: she buys hearing aids, which are then precisely fitted and calibrated, and then she gets on with her life.

Problem solved? Well, not quite. Going in for a screening allowed her to recognize her hearing loss early and that’s great. But, in the long run, follow-up care becomes almost more significant for people with even minor hearing loss. Keeping up on regular appointments would be a wise plan for Daphne. However, one study found that only around 33% of seniors with hearing aids get regular check-ups so Daphne isn’t by herself.

If you already use hearing aids, why do you need regular hearing exams?

Alright, remember our glasses metaphor? Just because Daphne uses hearing aids now doesn’t mean her hearing will become static and stop changing. It’s necessary to fine-tune the hearing aids to deal with those changes. Any hearing changes can be recognized early with regular monitoring.

And that’s not even the only reason why it may be a good idea to keep routine appointments after you get your hearing aids. Here are a few of the most significant reasons:

Hazards and hurdles

The greatest concern here is that eventually, the hearing aids Daphne is wearing will quit working the way they’re meant to, so she’ll get frustrated with them and stop using them entirely. Over time, hearing loss can be slowed by wearing hearing aids. If you stop wearing them, not only can your hearing diminish faster, you may not notice it right away.

If you want your hearing aids to keep working at an optimal level, routine check-ups are going to be your best bet in terms of attaining that. Yearly hearing tests or screenings can help you be sure your hearing aids are working as they should and that your hearing remains protected.

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The Connection Between Tinnitus and Cannabinoids

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 21:42:00 GMT

Public opinion surrounding marijuana and cannabinoids has changed significantly over the last several decades. Cannabinoids, marijuana, and THC products are now allowed for medical usage in many states. Far fewer states have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes, but even that would have been unimaginable even just ten or fifteen years ago.

Any substances derived from the cannabis plant (the marijuana plant, essentially) are known as cannabinoids. And we’re still discovering new things about cannabis in spite of the fact that it’s recently been legalized in a number of states. It’s a common notion that cannabinoid compounds have widespread healing properties. But research suggests a strong connection between the use of cannabinoids and tinnitus symptoms but there are also conflicting studies.

Many forms of cannabinoids

At present, cannabinoids can be consumed in a number of forms. It’s not only pot or weed or whatever name you want to give it. Other forms can include topical spreads, edibles, pills, inhalable vapors, and more.

Any of these forms that contain a THC level higher than 0.3% are technically still federally illegal and the available forms will vary depending on the state. That’s why many individuals tend to be rather cautious about cannabinoids.

The long-term complications and side effects of cannabinoid use are not well understood and that’s the issue. Some new studies into how cannabinoids impact your hearing are prime examples.

Studies connecting hearing to cannabinoids

A wide array of disorders are believed to be effectively treated by cannabinoids. According to anecdotal evidence vertigo, nausea, and seizures are just a few of the conditions that cannabinoids can benefit. So the researchers wondered if cannabinoids could help manage tinnitus, too.

But what they discovered was that tinnitus symptoms can actually be caused by the use of cannabinoids. Ringing in the ears was documented, according to the study, by 20% of the participants who used cannabinoids. And that’s in individuals who had never experienced tinnitus before. And tinnitus symptoms within 24 hours of consumption were 20-times higher with marijuana users.

Further research suggested that marijuana use could exacerbate ear-ringing symptoms in those who already suffer from tinnitus. So, it would appear, from this compelling evidence, that the relationship between cannabinoids and tinnitus isn’t a positive one.

The research isn’t clear as to how the cannabinoids were consumed but it should be pointed out that smoking has also been connected to tinnitus symptoms.

Causes of tinnitus are unclear

The discovery of this connection doesn’t reveal the root cause of the relationship. It’s pretty clear that cannabinoids have an impact on the middle ear. But it’s much less evident what’s producing that impact.

Research, undoubtedly, will continue. Individuals will be in a better position to make better choices if we can make progress in understanding the link between the many varieties of cannabinoids and tinnitus.

Don’t fall for miracle cures

In recent years, there has been a great deal of marketing hype around cannabinoids. In part, that’s due to changing attitudes associated with cannabinoids themselves (and, to some extent, is also an indication of a desire to turn away from opioids). But some negative effects can come from the use of cannabinoids, especially regarding your hearing and this is demonstrated in this new research.

You’ll never be able to avoid all of the cannabinoid enthusiasts and devotees in the world–the advertising for cannabinoids has been particularly intense lately.

But this research certainly indicates a strong link between tinnitus and cannabinoids. So if you have tinnitus–or if you’re concerned about tinnitus–it may be worth avoiding cannabinoids if you can, no matter how many advertisements for CBD oil you may come across. The connection between cannabinoids and tinnitus symptoms is uncertain at best, so it’s worth using a little caution.

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References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5855477/
https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aaohnsf/82180

What is Meniere’s Disease?

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 18:55:00 GMT

The cause of Meniere’s is not really understood. But it’s difficult to ignore its impact. Some common symptoms of this affliction are dizziness, vertigo, ringing in the ears, and hearing loss. Researchers aren’t really sure why, but for some reason, fluid can accumulate in the ears and this appears to be the root cause of Meniere’s disease.

So here’s the question: if something doesn’t have an identifiable cause, how can it be addressed? It’s a complicated answer.

Exactly what is Meniere’s disease?

Meniere’s disease is a persistent disorder that affects the inner ear. For many individuals, Meniere’s disease is progressive, meaning symptoms will get worse as time passes. Those symptoms could include:

Unpredictable bouts of vertigo: Unfortunately, there’s no way to determine when these attacks of vertigo may occur or how long they could last.

Tinnitus: The severity of this tinnitus may ebb and flow, but it’s not abnormal for those with Meniere’s Disease to experience ringing in their ears.

Fullness in the ear: This manifests as a sensation of pressure in your ears and is medically called aural fullness.

Hearing loss: Meniere’s disease can lead to hearing loss over time.

If you notice these symptoms, it’s crucial to receive an accurate diagnosis. Symptoms of Meniere’s disease can come and go for many people. But eventually, symptoms may become more regular and obvious.

How is Meniere’s disease treated?

There is no known cure for Menier’s disease which is persistent and progressive. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t any way to treat it.

Some of the most common treatments include the following:

Find the correct treatment for you

You should get checked out if think you might have Meniere’s disease. The development of Meniere’s disease might be slowed by these treatments. More often, however, they reduce the effect that Meniere’s will have on your daily life.

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Affordable or Cheap Hearing Aids – What’s the Difference?

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 22:24:00 GMT

Saving money just feels great, right? It can be exhilarating when you’ve found a great deal on something, and the larger discount, the more pleased you are. It’s a little too easy, then, to make the cost your primary criteria, to always go for the least expensive option, to let your coupons make your consumer decisions for you. But going after a bargain when it comes to purchasing hearing aids can be a big oversight.

If you require hearing aids to manage hearing loss, going for the “cheapest” option can have health consequences. After all, the whole point of getting hearing aids is to be able to hear clearly and to prevent health problems related to hearing loss including mental decline, depression, and an increased risk of falls. The key is to choose the hearing aid that best suits your lifestyle, your hearing requirements, and your budget.

Choosing affordable hearing aids – some tips

Cheap and affordable aren’t necessarily the same thing. Affordability, and functionality, are what you should be looking for. This will help you stay within your budget while enabling you to get the correct hearing aids for your personal requirements and budget. These tips will help.

Tip #1: Do your homework: Affordable hearing aids exist

Hearing aids have a reputation for putting a dent in your wallet, a reputation, though, is not necessarily represented by reality. The majority of manufacturers sell hearing aids in a wide range of price points and work with financing companies to make their devices more budget friendly. If you’ve started searching the bargain bin for hearing aids because you’ve already decided that really good effective models are out of reach, it could have significant health repercussions.

Tip #2: Ask what’s covered

Insurance may cover some or all of the expenses associated with getting a hearing aid. Some states, in fact, have laws requiring insurance companies to cover hearing aids for children or adults. Asking never hurts. There are government programs that frequently provide hearing aids for veterans.

Tip #3: Your hearing loss is unique – choose hearing aids that can calibrate to your hearing needs

Hearing aids are, in some aspects, similar to prescription glasses. The frame is rather universal (depending on your sense of style, of course), but the prescription is adjusted for your specific needs. Hearing aids, too, have distinct settings, which we can calibrate for you, personalized to your precise needs.

Buying a cheap hearing device from the clearance shelf won’t give you the same benefits (or, in many cases, results that are even remotely helpful). These amplification devices increase all frequencies instead of raising only the frequencies you’re having trouble with. What’s the importance of this? Hearing loss is often uneven, you can hear certain frequencies and voices, but not others. If you raise the volume enough to hear the frequencies that are low, you’ll make it uncomfortable in the frequencies you can hear without amplification. Simply put, it doesn’t actually solve the problem and you’ll wind up not using the cheaper device.

Tip #4: Different hearing aids have different functions

It can be tempting to believe that all of the modern technology in a good hearing aid is just “bells and whistles”. The problem is that in order to hear sounds clearly (sounds like, you know, bells and whistles), you most likely need some of that technology. The sophisticated technology in hearing aids can be tuned in to the user’s level of hearing loss. Many modern models have artificial intelligence that helps filter out background noise or communicate with each other to help you hear better. Also, choosing a model that fits your lifestyle will be easier if you factor in where (and why) you’ll be using your hearing aids.

It’s essential, in order to compensate for your hearing loss in a reliable way, that you have some of this technology. Hearing aids are a lot more advanced than a simple, tiny speaker that boosts the volume of everything. And that brings us to our last tip.

Tip #5: A hearing amplification device isn’t a hearing aid

Alright, repeat after me: A hearing aid is not the same thing as a hearing amplification device. This is the number one takeaway from this article. Because hearing amplification devices try really hard to make you think they do the same thing as a hearing aid for a fraction of the cost. But that’s dishonest marketing.

Let’s break it down. An amplifier:

Conversely, a hearing aid:

Your ability to hear is too important to go cheap

Everybody has a budget, and that budget is going to restrict your hearing aid options regardless of what price range you’re looking in.

That’s why we often emphasize the affordable part of this. When it comes to hearing loss, the long term advantages of hearing loss management and hearing aids is well recognized. That’s why you need to concentrate on an affordable solution. Don’t forget, cheap is less than your hearing deserves.”

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Hearing Loss And Diabetes, What’s The Connection?

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 18:24:00 GMT

It’s true, hearing loss can catch you by surprise. But in some cases, hearing problems bypass the sneaking completely, in favor of a sudden (and often startling), cat-like pounce. Here’s a hypothetical: You get up one morning and jump in the shower and when you get out you detect your hearing seems off or different. Maybe muffled.

Initially, you think that you have water in your ears, but when your hearing doesn’t improve as the day progresses, you get a bit more anxious.

It’s these moments when hearing loss seems to strike suddenly, as if from the shadows somewhere, that it’s a good plan to get some medical attention. That’s because sudden hearing loss can frequently be a symptom of a larger problem. In some cases, that larger problem can be an obstruction in your ear. It might be just a bit of earwax.

And sometimes that sudden hearing loss can be related to diabetes.

Diabetes – What is it?

If you don’t instantly recognize the connection between hearing loss and diabetes that would be understandable. Your ears and your pancreas seem really far apart, distance-wise.

Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which your body has trouble processing sugars into energy. When your body doesn’t generate a sufficient amount of insulin or can’t process the insulin it is producing, this is the outcome. This is why insulin injections are the most prevalent form of diabetes treatments.

What is The Connection Between Diabetes And Hearing?

Diabetes is a common, often degenerative (and complex), affliction. With the assistance of your doctor, it needs to be handled carefully. So how is that related to your hearing?

Believe it or not, a pretty common sign of type 2 diabetes is sudden hearing loss. Collateral damage to other areas of the body is common with diabetes which frequently has an affect on blood vessels and nerves. Tiny tiny hairs in your ears (called stereocilia and in control of your ability to hear) are especially sensitive to exactly those changes. So you could experience sudden hearing loss even before other, more traditional symptoms of diabetes appear (numb toes, for example).

Is There Anything I Can Do?

You’ii want to get medical help if your hearing has suddenly started giving you trouble. You might not even realize that you have diabetes in the beginning, but these warning signs will begin to clue you in.

As is the case with most types of hearing loss, the sooner you seek out treatment, the more options you’ll have. But you need to keep an eye out for more than just diabetes. Here are a few other possible causes of sudden hearing loss:

Without an appropriate medical diagnosis, it can be challenging to figure out the cause of your sudden hearing loss and how to handle the underlying symptoms.

Sudden Hearing Loss Treatment Options

Here’s the good news, whether your sudden hearing loss is caused by diabetes or infection (or any of these other issues), effective management of the underlying cause will often return your hearing back to normal levels if you catch it early . If you promptly address the problem, your hearing is likely to return to normal once the blockage is removed, or in the case of diabetes, once you address the circulation problems.

But that really does rely on prompt and efficient treatment. There are some conditions that can result in permanent harm if they go neglected (diabetes is, again, one of those conditions). So if you’re coping with any type or amount of hearing loss, get it treated now.

Pay Attention to Your Hearing

Sudden hearing loss catch you by surprise, but it might be easier to detect, and you might catch it sooner if you get regular hearing screenings. These screenings can typically detect specific hearing problems before they become obvious to you.

There’s one more thing that diabetes and hearing loss share, managing them sooner will bring better results. Neglected hearing loss can produce other health concerns such as loss of cognitive function. Call us to schedule a hearing test.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Are Your Ears Ringing? This Could Offer Relief

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 22:58:00 GMT

You’re living with tinnitus and you’ve learned to adjust your life to it. In order to tune out the constant ringing, you always leave the TV on. The loud music at happy hour makes your tinnitus much worse so you avoid going out with your coworkers. You make appointments regularly to try new therapies and new treatments. Over time, you simply integrate your tinnitus into your everyday life.

The primary reason is that tinnitus has no cure. But that might be changing. A study published in PLOS Biology appears to offer hope that we could be getting closer to a permanent and reliable cure for tinnitus. For now, hearing aids can really be helpful.

The Specific Causes of Tinnitus Are Unclear

Somebody who is coping with tinnitus will hear a ringing or buzzing (or other noises) that don’t have an outside source. Tinnitus is very common and millions of individuals cope with it to some degree.

It’s also a symptom, generally speaking, and not itself a cause. In other words, something causes tinnitus – there’s an underlying issue that produces tinnitus symptoms. It can be hard to narrow down the cause of tinnitus and that’s one of the reasons why a cure is so evasive. Tinnitus symptoms can develop due to several reasons.

Even the link between tinnitus and hearing loss is unclear. Some people who have tinnitus do have hearing loss but some don’t.

Inflammation: a New Culprit

Dr. Shaowen Bao, an associate professor at the Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, led a study published in PLOS Biology . Dr. Bao performed experiments on mice that had tinnitus caused by noise-induced hearing loss. And the results of these experiments pointed to a culprit of tinnitus: inflammation.

Tests and scans carried out on these mice found that the areas of the brain in control of listening and hearing typically had considerable inflammation. This suggests that some damage is occurring as a consequence of noise-related hearing loss which we currently don’t understand because inflammation is the body’s reaction to injury.

But this knowledge of inflammation also results in the potential for a new form of treatment. Because inflammation is something we know how to manage. The symptoms of tinnitus went away when the mice were given drugs that inhibited inflammation. Or, at least, those symptoms were no longer observable.

So is There a Magic Pill That Cures Tinnitus?

This research does seem to suggest that, eventually, there might actually be a pill for tinnitus. Imagine if you could just pop a pill in the morning and keep tinnitus at bay all day without having to resort to all those coping mechanisms.

That’s definitely the goal, but there are a number of big hurdles in the way:

So it might be a while before there’s a pill for tinnitus. But it’s no longer impossible. That’s considerable hope for your tinnitus down the road. And various other tinnitus treatments are also being studied. The cure for tinnitus gets closer and closer with every breakthrough and every bit of new knowledge.

Is There Anything You Can Do?

If you have a chronic buzzing or ringing in your ears today, the promise of a far-off pill may provide you with hope – but not necessarily relief. Although we don’t have a cure for tinnitus, there are some modern treatments that can produce real results.

There are cognitive treatments that help you learn to ignore tinnitus noises and others that utilize noise cancellation strategies. Hearing aids frequently provide relief for many individuals. A cure could be a number of years off, but that doesn’t mean you need to deal with tinnitus by yourself or unassisted. Finding a treatment that is effective can help you spend more time doing things you love, and less time focusing on that buzzing or ringing in your ears.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000307
https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/brain-inflammation-identified-potential-target-treat-tinnitus

This Valentine’s Day, Show Your Love in This Unexpected Way

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 19:03:00 GMT

You care deeply about your loved ones and want to do something to show them? Really listen when your loved ones talk to you. But you have to be able to hear in order to really listen.

According to research, millions of individuals would benefit from wearing hearing aids because one out of three adults between the ages of 65 and 74 have some amount of hearing loss. But only 30% of those people actually use hearing aids, regrettably.

Diminishing hearing, depression, higher instances of dementia, and stressed relationships are some outcomes of this inaction. Many individuals coping with hearing loss just suffer in silence .

But spring is right around the corner. It’s a time for emerging leaves, flowers, new beginnings, and growing together. Isn’t it time to renew your relationship by talking openly about hearing loss?

It’s Necessary to Have “The Talk”

Studies have revealed that an person with untreated hearing loss is 2.4 times more likely to experience dementia , including Alzheimer’s disease . When the part of your brain responsible for hearing becomes less engaged, it can begin a cascade effect that can affect your entire brain. Doctors refer to this as brain atrophy. It’s the “use it or lose it” concept in action.

People with hearing loss have nearly two times as many instances of depression than individuals who have healthy hearing. Research demonstrates that as a person’s hearing loss gets worse, they often become stressed and agitated. The individual may start to isolate themselves from friends and family. They’re likely to fall deeper into depression as they stop participating in activities once loved.

This, in turn, can lead to relationship strain among spouses, but also between parent and child, close friends, and other people in this individual’s life.

Solving The Puzzle

Your loved one might not be ready to let you know that they are suffering from hearing loss. Fear or embarrassment might be a problem for them. Perhaps they’re dealing with denial. In order to determine when will be the best time to have this conversation, some detective work might be needed.

Since you can’t hear what your loved one hears, you’ll have to rely on outward cues , including:

Plan to have a heart-to-heart talk with your loved one if you detect any of these common symptoms.

How to Talk About Hearing Loss

It might be hard to have this talk. You might get the brush off or even a more defensive response from a partner in denial. That’s why it’s crucial to approach hearing loss appropriately. The steps will be the basically same even though you may need to modify your language based on your unique relationship.

Step 1: Let them know that you love them unconditionally and appreciate your relationship.

Step 2: Their health is important to you and you’re concerned. You’ve done the research. You’re aware of the higher dementia risk and depression that accompany untreated hearing loss. That’s not what you want for your loved one.

Step 3: Your own health and safety are also a worry. An overly loud television could harm your hearing. Additionally, studies show that loud noise can lead to anxiety, which might effect your relationship. If somebody has broken into your house, or you yell for help, your loved one might not hear you.

Emotion is a key part of strong communication. If you can paint an emotional picture of what might happen, it’s more effective than just listing facts.

Step 4: Come to an agreement that it’s time for a hearing exam . After deciding, make the appointment as soon as possible. Don’t procrastinate.

Step 5: Be ready for your loved ones to have some objections . At any time in the process, they might have these objections. This is somebody you know well. What problems will they find? Costs? Time? Are they convinced it’s not a big deal? Are they considering trying out home remedies? Be aware that these natural remedies don’t help hearing loss and can actually do more harm.

Be prepared with your responses. Maybe you rehearse them beforehand. You should address your loved one’s concerns but you don’t have to follow this exact plan word-for-word.

Grow Your Relationship

Talking about hearing loss isn’t easy if your significant other isn’t willing to discuss it. But by having this talk, you’ll grow closer and get your loved one the help they need to live a longer, healthier, more rewarding life. Growing closer – isn’t that what love is all about?

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/hearing-loss-common-problem-older-adults
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing#:~:text=About%2028.8%20million%20U.S.%20adults%20could%20benefit%20from%20using%20hearing%20aids.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-hidden-risks-of-hearing-loss
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5403920/
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/news/2014/nidcd-researchers-find-strong-link-between-hearing-loss-and-depression-adults

Choosing Not To Wear Your Hearing Aids Can Result in Problems

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 18:50:00 GMT

You’re supposed to use your hearing aids every day. But before you recycle your milk containers, you’re supposed to rinse them out too. We don’t always do what we’re supposed to . The same goes for hearing aids. Sometimes we forget to take them with us. Maybe you even go a day, or a week, or possibly a few weeks (a month?) without using your hearing aids.

That isn’t a very good idea. Because when you don’t wear your hearing aids a number of things happen and some things already happening get worse. And, honestly, the majority of them are kind of negative.

Consequences of Forgetting to Use Your Hearing Aids

There will be consequences of varying degrees of intensity and severity, both to your health and social life, if you fail to use your hearing aid. Here are some of those effects and repercussions.

Your Degree of Hearing Impairment Will Worsen

The technology of hearing aids is rather amazing. They increase your ability to hear and help keep your auditory complex (the part of the brain that interprets sound) working efficiently.

You could damage your hearing even more if, instead of wearing your hearing aids, you start cranking up the volume on your devices even higher than they already are. Even if you’re keeping the volumes in check, problems with your brain can result from the lack of sensory stimuli. (It actually shrinks.) So if you don’t wear your hearing aids, your hearing will most likely keep getting worse (which means you’ll need even more powerful hearing aids in the near future).

Social Interactions Will Become More Stressful (And Less Frequent)

You know those short conversations you have with the cashier as you’re checking out at the grocery store? Those conversations are pleasant. A nice little bit of humanity in a technology-driven world.

When you don’t wear your hearing aids, these basic social interactions can suddenly be a lot more difficult. You regularly miss parts of the conversation and need to ask people to repeat themselves. Again and again. And once that happens, the conversation just quickly falls apart. Maybe that sounds superficial, but every bit you withdraw into yourself makes it that much easier to entirely isolate yourself socially. And the consequences can be even more serious.

Hearing Aids And Mental Decline

When you isolate yourself socially, your brain gets much less exercise. After you have a pleasant conversation with your family, think about how revitalized (or exhausted) you can feel. Without that exercise, particular mental processes can start to decline (or decline faster ). This could mean:

But that’s not all. Because hearing sound is vitally essential to certain parts of your brain and nervous system. Without stimulation, certain nerves will begin to weaken, and your auditory complex begins to atrophy. This can lead to an even more accelerated mental decline (or, even in the best-case scenario, make adapting to your hearing aids even more difficult).

Your brain remains happy, stimulated, and engaged when you use hearing aids.

Loss of Independence

It’s not unusual, as you age, to require a little more help. Maybe you get a family member to go shopping for you or a neighbor to do some yard work. You are likely speeding up your loss of independence if you’re not using your hearing aids.

You can miss phone calls or lose parts of conversations with your neighbor when you don’t wear your hearing aids. It’s possible that you will miss important alerts. Maybe you don’t hear your dog barking when there’s someone at the door or your cat meowing at 6 am when he needs food.

Is There Any Solution?

Wearing a hearing aid is not going to solve all of life’s issues, no matter how technologically inventive those little gadgets get. But they will solve many problems related to not using your hearing aids.

If you’re having issues with your hearing aids or if they’re uncomfortable, that’s one thing (and you should speak with us about getting solutions to those particular problems).

But if you’re looking for reasons to avoid wearing your hearing aids, if you’re just leaving them in the nightstand drawer, it’s worth taking some time to think about what could be gained by wearing them… and what might happen if you don’t use your hearing aids.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/specialty_areas/hearing/faq.html
https://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20140128/hearing-loss-tied-to-faster-brain-shrinkage-with-age
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation

Can I Recover From Hearing Impairment?

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 19:01:00 GMT

The human body is an awesome, breathtaking, confusing, confounding construction, isn’t it? Scratches, cuts, and broken bones are typically no problem for the human body to mend (with a bit of time, your body can heal the giant bones in your arms and legs).

But when it comes to restoring the fragile little hairs in your ear, you’re out of luck. For now anyway.

It doesn’t seem exactly fair when you can recover from considerable bone injuries but you have problems repairing tiny hairs in your ear. What’s going on there?

When is Hearing Impairment Permanent?

So, let’s get right to it. You’re sitting in your doctor’s office and you’re taking in the news: you’re losing your hearing. So you ask your doctor if your hearing will ever come back. And the answer is… maybe.

It’s a little anticlimactic, speaking dramatically.

But he’s not wrong. Hearing loss comes in two basic forms:

So here’s the main point: there’s one form of hearing loss you can recover from, and you may need to get examined to see which one you have.

Hearing Loss Treatment

Scientists haven’t found a “cure” for sensorineural hearing loss but they’re working on it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find treatment for your hearing loss. As a matter of fact, getting the correct treatment for your hearing loss might help you:

Of the many forms of treatment available, which one is the right choice for you depends on the extent of your hearing loss. One of the most prevalent treatments is pretty simple: hearing aids.

Why Are Hearing Aids a Practical Treatment For Hearing Loss?

Hearing aids can help you return to the people and things you love. With the help of hearing aids, you can begin to hear conversations, your television, your phone, and sounds of nature once more. You will no longer be struggling to hear so pressure will be removed from your brain.

Prevention is The Best Protection

Whether you have hearing loss now or not, you need to protect your hearing from loud sounds and other things that can damage your hearing (like ototoxic drugs). Hearing well is critical to your general health and well-being. Routine hearing care, like annual hearing tests, is just another type of self-care.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Try This First When Your Hearing Aids Are Faltering

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 19:05:00 GMT

If you have hearing aids, you should be able to hear, right? When they aren’t working right, it can be thoroughly infuriating, it’s a real “You had ONE job” situation. Here’s the good news, with regular maintenance, your hearing aids should continue to function efficiently.

Before you do anything drastic, consider this list. It may be time to come in and see us if you find it’s not one of these ordinary problems. Your hearing may have changed, for instance, or you may need a hearing aid recalibration.

Potential Pitfall: Low Batteries

While hearing aid batteries have gotten considerably smaller and lifespans are improving, the batteries still need to be occasionally replaced or recharged. That means that it’s important to keep up with your hearing aids’ batteries. The first thing you need to do if your hearing aid starts to fail or cut in and out is check the battery.

The fix: Keep ‘em Fresh

A battery tester is a beneficial investment, particularly if you like to stock up. Even if you keep batteries sealed until it’s time to use them, always a good idea, they have a limited shelf life, and so the last batteries in that huge pack you purchased months ago likely won’t last as long as the first few did. Another trick: Wait five minutes after you open new batteries before you put them in your hearing aids. This can help extend the battery life by allowing the zinc to become active.

Potential Pitfall: Grease, Grime, And Other Gross Stuff

No matter how clean you keep your ears, and if you have a tough time hearing, you’re much more likely than the average person to pay attention to earwax, your hearing aids are going to gather debris and dirt. If you can hear but sounds seem distorted or a little off, dirt might be the cause.

The fix: Clean ‘em Out—And Keep Them Clean!

You can purchase a kit for keeping your hearing aids clean or you can use things you already have around the house to clean them. You can use a microfiber cloth, like the kind you use to clean your cellphone or glasses, to wipe your hearing aid down after taking it apart.

Simple hygiene practices will go a long way to keeping your hearing aids clean. Whenever you do something that involves liquid or dampness, such as washing your face or styling your hair, take your hearing aids out and make sure your hands aren’t wet when handling them.

Potential Pitfall: Trapped Moisture

Even a small amount of moisture can really harm your hearing aid (you don’t need to be underwater, even a sweat can be an issue). Even humidity in the air can be an issue, clogging up the hearing aid’s air vents or draining more quickly. Depending on how much moisture’s gotten in, you might experience issues from sound distortion to static, to crackling. They might even seem to shut down.

The fix: Keep ‘em Dry

Be certain that when you store your hearing aids, the battery door is open; and if you’re taking them out for longer than 24 hours, remove the batteries completely. Any captured moisture will be able to evaporate and air will be able to flow with almost no effort on your part.

Store hearing aids in a cool, dry spot. The bedroom is a smart spot, skip the kitchen or bathroom. Although the latter is convenient, the steam from a hot shower is exactly what you don’t want. You will probably want to purchase a hearing aid storage box if you live in a very humid climate. Pricier versions plug in, but less expensive options use desiccants or gels (yes, like those “throw away do not eat” packets you find in the box when you purchase a pair of shoes) to take in moisture.

If you’ve tried all of these and none of them are helping then it may be time for a consultation with us.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Tips to Get Relief From Tinnitus

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 17:16:00 GMT

The actual issue with chronic tinnitus is not just that you have a ringing in your ears. The real problem is that the ringing won’t stop .

Initially, this may be a mild noise that’s not much more than a little annoying. But after a day or a week or a month, that ringing or buzzing can become aggravating, frustrating, even incapacitating.

That’s why it’s crucial that if you are coping with tinnitus you adhere to some tips to make life easier. It can make a big difference if you have a plan when you’re lying in bed unable to fall asleep because of the ringing or buzzing in your ear.

Your Tinnitus Can be Exacerbated

It’s important to remember that tinnitus is frequently not static. Symptoms manifest themselves in spikes and valleys. There are times when your tinnitus is mild and virtually lost in the background. At other times, that ringing could be as difficult to ignore as a full-blown, individualized symphony.

That can leave you in a very scary place of uncertainty. You may be so worried about your tinnitus flaring up while you’re in a meeting that you get a panic attack while you’re driving to work. And the very panic attack brought on by this worry can itself cause the tinnitus.

Tips For Coping With Tinnitus

The more you know about tinnitus, the better you can prepare for and manage the effects. And, because there’s no known cure for tinnitus, management of symptoms is essential. With the right treatment, there’s no reason that chronic tinnitus has to negatively affect your quality of life.

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is One Option

Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is a common strategy for tinnitus management. The analogy that gets floated around frequently is the sound of rain on your roof: very apparent at the beginning of a storm, but you stop focusing on it after a while and that rain-on-rooftops sound goes into the background. It’s the same basic concept with TRT, training your brain to move that ringing into the background of your attention where it’s easier to dismiss.

Mastering this technique can take a bit of practice.

Get Your Brain Distracted

One reason tinnitus can be so frustrating is because your brain is constantly searching for the source of that noise, trying to alert you to its presence. So supplying your brain with a range of different sounds to focus on can be quite helpful. Try these:

You get the point: Your tinnitus might be able to be reduced by engaging your brain.

Alternately, many individuals have found that meditation helps because it focuses your attention on something else, your breathing, a mantra, and so on. Another benefit of meditation, at least for some people, is that it can reduce blood pressure which is a known cause of tinnitus symptoms.

Manage Tinnitus With a Hearing Aid

Hearing aids that help decrease tinnitus symptoms are already being manufactured by numerous hearing aid companies. This option is really convenient because they are small and out of your way compared to other strategies. You can relax and let a discreet hearing aid take care of the ringing for you.

Make a Plan (And Stick to it)

The effect of some tinnitus episodes can be lessened, and your stress reaction can be managed if you have a good plan for any surges in your symptoms. Think about having a “go bag” full of things you might need. Anything that can help you be ready for a tinnitus surge, even generating a list of useful exercises will be good because it will keep you from panicking!

The Key is Management

Chronic tinnitus is a condition that has no known cure. But control and treatment of tinnitus is a very real potential. Make sure you are managing your tinnitus not suffering from it by utilizing these tips and any others that you find helpful.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3303565/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5050200/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17956798/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4447068/
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008664

Your Hearing Can be Improved by Research – Here’s How

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 22:10:00 GMT

Researchers at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may have cracked the code on one of hearing’s most mystifying mysteries, and the insight could result in the modification of the design of future hearing aids.

Findings from an MIT study debunked the idea that neural processing is what allows us to single out voices. Tuning into individual sound levels may actually be managed by a biochemical filter according to this study.

How Background Noise Effects Our Ability to Hear

While millions of individuals battle hearing loss, only a fraction of them attempt to deal with that hearing loss using hearing aids.

Though a hearing aid can give a significant boost to one’s ability to hear, people who use a hearing-improvement device have traditionally still struggled in settings with a lot of background noise . A person’s ability to single out voices, for example, can be severely limited in settings like a party or restaurant where there is a constant din of background noise.

Having a discussion with somebody in a crowded room can be upsetting and annoying and people who cope with hearing loss know this all too well.

Scientists have been closely investigating hearing loss for decades. The way that sound waves move through the ear and how those waves are differentiated, due to this body of research, was believed to be well understood.

Scientists Discover The Tectorial Membrane

However, it was in 2007 that scientists discovered the tectorial membrane inside of the inner ear’s cochlea. The ear is the only place on the body you will see this gel-like membrane. The deciphering and delineation of sound is accomplished by a mechanical filtering carried out by this membrane and that may be the most intriguing thing.

Minuscule in size, the tectorial membrane sits on delicate hairs inside the cochlea, with small pores that manage how water moves back and forth in response to vibrations. It was noted that the amplification created by the membrane caused a different reaction to different tones.

The middle tones were shown to have strong amplification and the frequencies at the lower and higher ends of the scale were less affected.

Some scientists think that more effective hearing aids that can better identify individual voices will be the result of this groundbreaking MIT study.

The Future of Hearing Aid Design

For years, the general design concepts of hearing aids have remained rather unchanged. A microphone to pick up sound and a loudspeaker to amplify it are the general components of hearing aids which, besides a few technology tweaks, have remained the same. Regrettably, that’s where one of the design’s shortcomings becomes clear.

Amplifiers, typically, are not able to discern between different levels of sounds, because of this, the ear gets boosted levels of all sounds, including background noise. Tectorial membrane research could, according to another MIT researcher, lead to new, state-of-the-art hearing aid designs which would provide better speech recognition.

Theoretically, these new-and-improved hearing aids could functionally tune in to a specific frequency range , which would permit the wearer to hear isolated sounds like a single voice. With this concept, the volume of those sounds would be the only sounds boosted to aid in reception.

Have Questions About Hearing Loss?

Give us a call if you think you might be experiencing some level of hearing loss. Our mission is to supply you with answers to your questions about hearing impairment and the advantages of using hearing aids.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.machinedesign.com/motion-control/researchers-discover-secret-how-we-can-pick-out-voice-crowd
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-01/16/c_137749535.htm
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2010-11-tuning-mechanism.html

Hearing Aids of The Future Are Here Now

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 17:08:00 GMT

Technology is developing into smarter, more powerful, and smaller devices. Generally speaking, the trend is that devices do more and take up less space.

This is also true for hearing aids, and it’s not surprising. Though hearing issues have a variety of causes, hearing issues are more prevalent among older people, and the world’s population is getting older. According to the National Institutes of Health, around 37.5 million individuals and 3 million Canadians describe having trouble hearing, and since age is a better predictor of hearing loss than any other demographic variable, that number will probably increase.

Naturally, if you’re dealing with hearing loss, even one individual with trouble hearing, i.e. you, is one person too many. Are there any better ways to deal with hearing loss? Let’s have them! Here are some of the advancements that are happening.

Complete-Body Tracking Through Your Hearing Aids

This is so intuitive, it’s one of those “Now why didn’t I think of that” developments. Health and fitness trackers need to be worn on the body. So do you really need a device on your wrist if you already have one in your ear? Nope! If you have a newer hearing aid, it can most likely track your pulse, physical activity along with correcting hearing issues such as tinnitus. Certainly, a wearable like an Apple Watch can do that, but hearing aids can give you other kinds of input that can be helpful to monitoring health, like how much time you spend having conversations or listening. How much social engagement you get can actually be an essential health metric, particularly as you age.

Data Streaming

Virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri have quickly moved from smartphones to in-home devices and the principal focus here is connectivity. Audio from a device, such as a smart TV can now be streamed directly to your hearing aid if it is Bluetooth capable. Android developers now have open-source specs provided by Google which allows them to use specific Bluetooth channels to stream uninterrupted audio straight to your hearing aid. This technology is making things like music and movies more enjoyable by acting like super-powered wireless headphones.

Smart Adjustments From Big Data

Similar to how Netflix recommends shows and movies based on what you’ve watched previously, or your Fitbit alerts you to tell you that you’ve reached a milestone (or okay, let’s say stepping stone, depending on how ambitious your daily step goals are), your next hearing aid might make personalized suggestions. Several manufacturers are working on hearing aids that will learn both from the adjustments you make and from listening to the places you go. Some take it one step further, crowdsourcing data on how people use their hearing aids anonymizing and then mixing the data. So whether you’re watching TV at home, or in an IMAX theater, your hearing aids will be capable of using this information to identify what your situation is and make adjustments to give you the most enjoyable audio experience.

Finally Losing The Batteries

Ya, it sounds too good to be true, hearing aids that don’t require batteries? After all, making certain you’ve got spare batteries with you, or even making time to recharge your hearing aid batteries, can be annoying. While we’re not likely to see hearing aids that don’t need any batteries, there has been a continuous improvement in rechargeable technology. You’ll get faster charging time, extended use time, and less worry about batteries, which seems pretty good.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Your Hearing Can be Strengthened by Music

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 21:45:00 GMT

The saying “Music to my ears” may soon have a very different meaning to people suffering from hearing loss.

Exposing children to music can have a beneficial impact on hearing as is highlighted by a joint study carried out by the University College London and the University of Helsinki.

Evaluating Speech-in-Noise Performance

Researchers observed 43 young children in a 14 to 16 month study where they assessed speech-in-noise performance. Of those enrolled, 21 children had cochlear implants, while the remaining 22 had normal hearing ability. The researchers already knew that children with implants had a difficult time understanding speech so they created control and test sets which assigned participants to singing and non-singing groups.

For kids in the singing group, a remarkable improvement in awareness and speech-in-noise performance was observed compared to children in the non-singing group.

The Ears Are Trained by Music

There is a great deal of research showing the advantages to cognitive ability and speech processing offered by musical training and this research is just one of them. A study from the Montréal Neurological Institute corroborated these findings and indicated that musical training can enhance speech perception in loud environments.

That study evaluated the brain activity of 30 participants, 15 musicians and 15 non-musicians, asking each to identify speech syllables through numerous background noise levels.

Unlike the research out of Helsinki and London, Drs. Yi and Robert’s study looked at young adults whose ages averaged around 22-years-old. While participants weren’t necessarily hearing impaired, the difference in results among people who were musically trained and those who weren’t was significant.

Non-Musicians Were Outperformed By Musicians

When the noise was missing, both groups had similar results, but when any level of background noise was incorporated, the musicians significantly outperformed the non-musicians. Musicians have enhanced left interior frontal and right auditory areas of the brain which probably accounts for this ability to perform well on these tests.

But there’s more to the benefits of the musical training identified by Dr. Yi and Robert’s study. According to the study’s conclusions, musical training reinforced the participant’s auditory-motor network, fine-tuning and uniting the auditory system and speech motor system to improve hearing.

It’s important to note that while the musicians observed were adults, each of them began their musical training at a much younger age and amassed at least a decade of musical training. This again backs the recent assessment that musical training can have a powerful impact.

The Affect of Hearing Loss on Beethoven

Some of the world’s most celebrated musicians and composers have struggled with hearing loss. Most notably, Ludwig van Beethoven who started to lose his hearing in his 20’s.

The early groundwork of Beethoven’s training, though severe, was probably the gateway for prolonging his musical career. Over the last decade of his life, Beethoven was, in fact, nearly totally deaf. Amazingly, it was during the last 15 years of his life that Beethoven composed some of his most popular pieces.

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References

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-12-musical-affects-speech.html

Before The Holidays, Remember to do This

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 23:22:00 GMT

Nutmeg and cinnamon wafting in the air. Brightly colored lights of blue, red, and green fill your house with a festive spirit. You love catching up with your family members as your grandchildren dance, sing and play.

The holidays are exciting, and you don’t want to miss a beat.

You’re so thrilled, you can’t wait.

Are You Missing Something?

Throughout the year, you spend as much time with family and friends as you can but it’s special when the holidays are here. Every second is precious.

But the voices of the people talking around you frequently get lost under the din of background noise. You frequently need to have them repeat what they said.

As the conversation goes on, your youngest niece and her husband make a major announcement. After they finish speaking, everybody starts to celebrate and congratulate them. As the family celebrates, the noise in the room gets louder.

Embarrassment and confusion overtakes you. You didn’t catch what your niece said. What just happened?

You want to take somebody aside and learn what you missed. It seems as if it was an important announcement. But missing it the first time has you feeling embarrassed.

It just isn’t the same when someone has to repeat it. Everybody’s cheering and you don’t want to be disruptive.

You discover later, after everyone else, that your niece saw the doctor this week. They’re having a baby.

If you’re coping with untreated hearing loss, who knows what you’ll miss this holiday season.

Preparing For The Holidays

You’re already organizing that memorable meal and getting presents in anticipation. You typically get your shopping done well in advance of the holiday.

You’re decorating your home and planning out zoom calls. All of this is worthwhile.

But it’s not as important as making sure that you get to enjoy this holiday with friends and family without missing out on the conversation.

You should have your hearing tested sooner than later.

You Shouldn’t Wait – Here’s Why

We can immediately offer appropriate solutions even if you only have moderate hearing loss.

Whatever you may be doing during the holiday, these solutions will help you hear better. When there’s lots of background sound, using hearing devices makes it easier to understand those around you.

You will be able to understand what people are saying on the phone as well.

It’s always better to begin early. Some hearing solutions take a little time to get used to. This will make sure that you are ready when it’s time for your family to gather. Do not miss a moment of your grandchildren’s laughter. Don’t miss that big announcement.

Remain in the loop this holiday. Call us for a hearing assessment.

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How to Hear Better at Holiday Meals

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 16:23:00 GMT

The holidays are coming up soon, and large family get-togethers and meals in crowded restaurants can prove especially difficult for people with hearing loss . Not only do several people often talk at the same time in these settings, but they also elevate their voices to be heard over one another.

Combine that with the clanging of dishes, scraping of chairs, and background music, and you have a situation in which it is difficult for individuals with hearing loss to have a good time. If you have a hard time hearing from one or both ears, or you use a hearing aid, there are several steps you can take to make these big, noisy meals more enjoyable for you and your family.

Have a Talk With Your Loved Ones First

It is important that you talk about your hearing loss with your family before a big meal, so they can make adjustments to help you cope with the background noise. Your family can then do the things that will make communicating smoother like looking at you when they talk. It may seem like an awkward conversation to have, but it makes the meal much more enjoyable for everybody when you can actively engage.

Sit in The Middle of The Table

Family tradition may stipulate that you sit at the head or near the end of the table during big meals, but those spots make it harder for you to hear conversations. You won’t have as hard of a time hearing conversations from the middle of the table. Make sure you speak up and tell your family if there is a place at the table that’s best for you.

Ask That The Music be Turned Down

Background noise poses a considerable problem for individuals with hearing loss because it’s hard for their ears to filter out this noise and focus in on speech. If you are at a family gathering, ask that the music is turned off or set at a very low background level . At restaurants, ask to be seated away from the kitchen and the speakers.

Technology Can Help

If you don’t already have them, think about purchasing directional microphones or an FM system. Both of these technologies can help you isolate background noise by turning away from it and boosting the voices you need to hear to understand a conversation.

Attempting to Bluff Your Way Through Isn’t Good Plan

The only way your family will know if you are struggling through a meal is if you inform them . A family gathering is a time to celebrate, and your hearing loss should never prevent you from getting in on the fun. If there are adjustments needed mid-meal, your family will be glad to give you a hand.

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Dementia Can be Slowed by Having Hearing Loss Treated

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 18:18:00 GMT

Susan always knew that after she retired she would be living an active lifestyle. She travels a lot and at 68 she’s been to over 12 countries and is planning many more trips. On some days you’ll find her tackling a hiking trail with her grandchildren, on others she will be volunteering at a local soup kitchen, and sometimes you will see her out on the lake.

Susan always has something new to see or do. But in the back of her mind, Susan is concerned that cognitive decline or dementia could change all that.

When Susan’s mother was about her age she began to show the first signs of mental decline. Susan watched her mother, who she had always respected and loved, struggle more and more with daily tasks over a 15 year period. She’s becoming forgetful. There finally came a time when she frequently couldn’t identify Susan anymore.

Having experienced what her mother went through, Susan has always attempted to stay healthy, eating a balanced diet and getting plenty of exercise . But she isn’t sure that will be enough. Is there anything else she can do that’s been found to delay cognitive decline and dementia?

Fortunately, it is possible to prevent cognitive decline by doing a few things. Here are only three.

1. Exercise Regularly

This one was already part of Susan’s day-to-day life. She does try to get the appropriate amount of exercise each day.

Individuals who do modest exercise daily have a decreased risk of mental decline according to many studies. This same research shows that individuals who are already dealing with some form of mental decline also have a positive impact from regular exercise.

Here are numerous reasons why scientists believe consistent exercise can ward off mental decline.

2. Have Vision Concerns Treated

The rate of mental decline was cut almost in half in individuals who had their cataracts extracted according to an 18-year study conducted on 2000 subjects.

While this study focused on one common cause for eyesight loss, this study supports the fact that preserving eyesight as you get older is important for your mental health.

People often begin to seclude themselves from friends and withdraw from things they enjoy when they lose their eyesight at an older age. Further studies have investigated links between social isolation and worsening dementia.

If you have cataracts, don’t just ignore them. You’ll be safeguarding yourself against the development of dementia if you do what you can to preserve healthy vision.

3. Get Hearing Aids

You may be going towards mental decline if you have untreated hearing loss. A hearing aid was given to 2000 people by the same researchers that performed the cataract research. They used the same methods to test for the advance of mental decline.

The results were even more remarkable. The people who received the hearing aids saw their dementia progression rates decline by 75%. Put simply, whatever existing dementia they might have currently had was almost completely stopped in its tracks.

There are some probable reasons for this.

The social aspect is the first thing. Individuals who are dealing with neglected hearing loss tend to socially isolate themselves because they struggle to interact with their friends at social gatherings and events.

Second, when a person gradually begins to lose their hearing, the brain forgets how to hear . The degeneration gradually affects other parts of the brain the longer the person waits to get their hearing aids.

Researchers have, in fact, used an MRI to compare the brains of individuals with neglected hearing loss to people who use a hearing aid. People who have untreated hearing loss actually have shrinking of the brain.

Clearly, your mental ability and memory are going to start to slip under these circumstances.

If you have hearing aids, wear them to ward off dementia. If you have hearing loss and are reluctant to get hearing aids, it’s time to make an appointment with us. Find out about today’s technologically sophisticated designs that help you hear better.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258000/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/10/11/hearing-aids-slow-dementia-75-new-study-finds/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6581941/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764000/
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy_aging/healthy_body/the-hidden-risks-of-hearing-loss
https://www.helpingmehear.com/hearing-aids-facts/

Neglected Hearing Loss Associated With Premature Death

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 18:11:00 GMT

Most people understand that living a sedentary lifestyle and smoking is bad for them. But what most people probably don’t know is that there is some compelling research that indicates a connection between early death and untreated hearing loss.

Of course, life expectancy varies widely. Access to healthcare, where you live, gender, type of work, and access to healthy food can all be factors in this variance. But people who deal with neglected hearing loss appear to die earlier even when you take these differences into account.

Research Linking Early Death to Hearing Loss

Over a two year period, data from more than 50,000 people was examined by Norwegian scientists. They cross-referenced that data with the causes of death for the examined people. They could connect a greater risk of premature death to hearing loss irrespective of the cause of death.

Other research reveals that even moderate hearing loss is related to a 21% greater morbidity rate and that there’s an increased danger of cardiovascular death for those with hearing loss, especially if they live by themselves.

Clarifying The Connection

For scientists, just because they discover a link doesn’t mean that a causality is firmly demonstrated. Rather, they try to establish why the connection exists. What’s the common connection?

The Norwegian study also showed that men and women who were divorced and women with no children were also at increased risk. This indicates that social life has an impact on longevity.

Earlier studies support this presumption. One study published in the Journal of Epidemiology analyzed the data from more than half a million individuals. It discovered that social isolation raises the danger of early death significantly.

How Does Social Stability Contribute to Longevity?

Having relationships socially with others has numerous life-extending advantages much like a herd of elephants or a pack of wolves:

What is it about neglected hearing loss that takes all of this away?

Decreased Longevity And Social Isolation Can be The Result of Neglected Hearing Loss

You most likely have a very close relationship with your loved ones. It’s difficult to envision how hearing loss may change that.

Have you ever been with a group of strangers, who were ignoring you while talking to each other? It was probably a lonely feeling. This is what neglected hearing loss can start to feel like. It’s not that people are ignoring you. It seems like you’re being ignored because people are starting to have a difficult time having a conversation with you.

On your side of things, you often feel out of the loop because you miss parts of the conversation. This can quickly make you withdraw emotionally and physically, even at family gatherings. The appeal of going to a club or restaurant with friends begins to fade away. Simply avoiding these types of scenarios becomes common. Here are a few other challenges that people who have progressing hearing loss cope with.:

These make social contact even more difficult.

The Norwegian researchers offer a positive side in their research, however. After reviewing their research, they came to a significant conclusion. Investing in hearing aids can eliminate the connection between early death and hearing loss.

You will remain healthier, more active and social if you use hearing aids and that can give you longevity.

Similar studies back these facts. The American Academy of Audiology performed one such study. They found that when individuals with hearing loss wear hearing aids consistently, they have:

Early Death Linked to Neglected Hearing Loss

Premature death and hearing loss have a complex connection. But an entire picture appears when all of the data is considered. It shows how hearing loss impacts health, finances, relationships, and more. So the early death link isn’t difficult to understand.

These studies also make it obvious that treating hearing loss can counter its adverse effects. You will live a longer, socially active and healthier life.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.earth.com/news/hearing-loss-premature-death/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/hearing/news-briefs-does-hearing-loss-boost-death-risk
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/hearing-loss-risk-factor-premature-death
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwy231

What Hearing Aids Are Actually Like

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 16:15:00 GMT

Ever ask yourself “what would it really be like to wear hearing aids”? How does a hearing aid feel when you’re wearing one, what is the sound like, and what does it feel like in your ears are all questions you may want to ask someone who already has hearing aids? Here’s a description of what hearing aids are like, but if you truly want to understand, come in for a demo.

1. Sometimes You Get Feedback

This isn’t the type of feedback that you get when somebody tells you how they feel about your results. When a microphone and a speaker pick up each other’s signal, they interfere with each other creating a high-pitched whistling sound. It causes a sound loop that even modern speakers like those in hearing aids don’t know how to handle.

They might squeal like a speaker in the school auditorium right before the principal starts talking.

Though this can be unpleasant, when hearing aids are correctly tuned, it’s rare. You may need to re-fit or replace the earmolds if this continues happening.

Feedback can be eliminated, in some more sophisticated hearing aids, by a built-in feedback cancellation system.

2. Conversations Are Easier to Follow in a Noisy Setting

Going to a restaurant with the family can feel like eating dinner by yourself if you have neglected hearing loss. It’s virtually impossible to follow the conversations. You might end up sitting there, nodding and smiling most of the night.

But today’s hearing aids have the advanced noise blocking ability for background sound. They bring the voices of your children and the wait staff into crystal clarity.

3. It Gets a Little Sticky at Times

Your body has a way of letting you know when something doesn’t belong. If you eat something too spicy hot, you secrete more saliva to wash it out. You will generate tears if something gets in your eye. Your ears have their own way of getting rid of a nuisance.

Earwax production.

As a result of this, earwax accumulation can occasionally be a problem for individuals who wear hearing aids. It’s just wax, thankfully, so cleaning it isn’t an issue. (We can help you learn how.)

Once you’re finished the cleaning you’re quickly back to good hearing.

4. Your Brain Will Also Get The Benefit

This one might surprise you. If someone starts to develop hearing loss it will gradually impact cognitive function as it progresses.

One of the first things to go is the ability to understand the spoken language. Then memory, learning new things, and problem-solving become a challenge.

This brain atrophy can be slowed by getting hearing aids sooner than later. They re-train your brain. They can slow and even reverse mental decline according to numerous studies. In fact, 80% of individuals had improved brain function, according to a study conducted by the AARP, after using hearing aids to treat their hearing loss.

5. The Batteries Need to be Replaced

Those little button batteries can be a bit difficult to manage. And these batteries seem to pick the worst time to die, like when you’re waiting for a call from your doctor.

But most of the perceived challenges with these batteries can be easily solved. There are methods you can use to substantially extend battery life. The batteries are small and inexpensive, so it’s easy to carry an extra set in your wallet.

Or, you can buy a pair of rechargeable hearing aids which are available now. At night, just put them on the charging unit. In the morning, simply put them back on. You can even get some hearing aids that have solar-powered charging docs so they will be available to you even if you are camping or hiking.

6. There’s a Learning Curve

Nowadays, hearing aids have sophisticated technology. It isn’t as hard as learning to use a new computer. But it certainly takes a little time for your brain to get used to new hearing aids and to get the settings right.

The longer and more regularly you use hearing aids the better it gets. During this adjustment period, try to be patient with yourself and your new hearing aids.

Individuals who have stayed the course and used their hearing aids for six months or more typically will say it’s all worth it.

This is what it’s actually like to wear hearing aids. Isn’t it time to find out for yourself?

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-07-2013/hearing-loss-linked-to-dementia.html

We Love Sharing The Joy of Hearing

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 16:58:00 GMT

YouTube has some videos you really should look at. A 7-month old baby hears his mother’s voice for the first time after being having hearing aids fitted. You may find yourself crying tears of joy when you see his smile.

You can find numerous videos similar to this online. You feel like you’re part of that wonderful moment that the child is having with their doctors and parents.

The baby doesn’t always take to the idea of getting hearing aids put in at first. They struggle when the doctor tries to fit the device on their ear. They might cry before they smile with delight. They are overtaken by a range of emotions. They’re not certain what’s happening. But in the end, with restored hearing, the world immediately opens up for them.

They glow with joy, but that life-changing moment can happen to anyone.

Are you feeling anxious about using a hearing aid? You’re not by yourself. You don’t need to be a child to be a bit wary of this new experience.

Let’s investigate how individuals of any age might cry tears of joy when they wear their hearing aid.

The Sound of Music

You may not have even noticed. It was a very slow development. You stopped listening to music. It seems like it used to be so much more satisfying. It was even grating in some cases. Turning the volume up made it even worse.

Hearing impairment doesn’t just impact the volume you can hear. It effects how you hear different pitches and notes.

Music is, as every musician recognizes, a beautiful blend of sound frequencies that blend together to create the sound that we hear as…., well, music. It’s just not the same if you can’t hear the sublime complexity of the music.

But wait, now you put in your new hearing aids. Now, those notes which were once silent can be vibrantly heard. Music once again comes alive . It becomes a fantastic pleasure in your life that you’d lost.

A Child’s Laughter

Is the sound of a child’s laughter something you can recall? Perhaps your hearing loss has caused you to forget this amazing experience.

Rediscover these wonderful moments with your grandchildren by recovering your hearing.

Where Did All The Birds go?

Have you forgotten that lots of birds live in your yard? If you go to the park there will be hundreds. While some of their chirps are more pleasant than others, it’s something you may not acknowledge until they’ve gone.

Except they haven’t gone. You just don’t hear these joyful melodies that so enhance your life.

When you use your hearing aids, you once again delight in the merriment of our feathered friends.

Relationships Restored

Relationships can be significantly stressed by untreated hearing loss. It can cause a tremendous amount of frustration. They do not understand. They often argue more. Sometimes, in order to not feel like a burden, people with hearing loss will go into seclusion.

They frequently feel all alone and disconnected from other’s discussions causing them to avoid going out to dinner or other social events.

Have you given up hobbies because they’re not as enjoyable?

Your relationship with friends and family will be revitalized by the simple act of wearing hearing aids.

Learn to talk to each other again. Talk for hours. Get back to doing the things you love and being with people you love.

It’s time to consider hearing aids especially if you miss these things.

Feeling Safer in Your Home

Does what you can’t hear make you feel anxious? Could you hear the voice of an injured family member yelling to you from another room? A doorbell, oven timer, or smoke alarm…would you be able to hear them? Maybe you would miss an essential phone call because you didn’t hear it ring.

When you walk around the neighborhood, are you certain that you will hear oncoming traffic , pedestrian signals, or a bicycle bell?

These “what ifs” can make us feel unsafe in places where we should feel completely comfortable.

But when you wear your hearing aid, you can be more at ease , and enjoy life to its fullest. You’ll have peace of mind.

You Might Not Know What You’re Missing

Hearing loss advances slowly in most instances. It’s possible that you don’t even remember how much you took pleasure in things before your hearing began to decline.

You’ll be surprised when you suddenly hear them again. You’ll regret neglecting it this long. If you don’t think your hearing loss is that severe, it’s time to get it looked at. Call us to schedule a hearing test.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

What’s The Best Way to Talk About Hearing Loss With a Loved One?

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 21:55:00 GMT

You know it’s time to start talking over hearing aids when your dad stops talking on the phone because he has a difficult time hearing or your mom always reacts late to the punchline of a joke. Although hearing loss is noticeable in a quarter of individuals between the ages of 65 and 74 and 50% of individuals over 75 , it can be an altogether different matter getting them to accept their hearing problems. Hearing frequently declines little by little, meaning that many individuals might not even recognize how significantly their everyday hearing has changed. And even if they are cognizant of their hearing loss, it can be a big step getting them to acknowledge they need hearing aids. The following guidance can help you frame your discussion to ensure it hits the right note.

How to Talk About Hearing Aids With a Loved One

Recognize That it Won’t be One Conversation But a Process

When planning to have a dialogue about a family member’s hearing loss, you have a lot of time to think about what you will say and how the person may respond. As you think about this, remember that it will be a process not one conversation. It may take a number of conversations over weeks or months for your loved one to acknowledge they have a hearing problem. And that’s okay! Let the conversations proceed at their own pace. One thing you don’t want to do is force your loved one into getting hearing aids before they are ready. After all, hearing aids don’t do any good if somebody refuses to wear them.

Find Your Moment

Choose a time when your loved one is relaxed and by themselves. Holidays or large get-togethers can be stressful and may draw more attention to your family member’s hearing issues, making them hypersensitive to any perceived attack. A one-on-one conversation with no background noise also helps ensure that your loved one hears you correctly and can take part in the conversation.

Take a Clear And Straightforward Approach

It’s beneficial not to be vague and unclear about your worries. Be direct: “Lets’s have a conversation about your hearing mom”. Point out circumstances where they’ve insisted people are mumbling, had a hard time following tv programs or asked people to repeat what they said. Rather than emphasizing your loved one’s hearing itself, talk about the effect of hearing issues on their daily life. You could say something like “You don’t seem to go out with your friends as much anymore, could that be because you have a difficult time hearing them?”.

Acknowledge Their Concerns And Underlying Fears

Hearing loss often corresponds to a larger fear of losing independence , specifically for older adults dealing with physical frailty or other age-related changes. If your loved one is unwilling to talk about hearing aids or denies the problem, attempt to understand his or her point of view. Acknowledge how hard this discussion can be. Waite until later if the conversation begins to go south.

Offer Next Steps

When both individuals work together you will have the most effective conversation about hearing impairment. Part of your loved one’s resistance to admit to hearing loss may be that he or she feels overwhelmed about the process of getting hearing aids. Provide your support to make the transition as smooth as you can. Before you talk, print out our information. We can also check to see if we take your loved one’s insurance before they call. Some people might feel self-conscious about needing hearing aids so letting them know that hearing loss is more common than they think.

Realize That Hearing Aids Aren’t The End of The Process

So your talks were compelling and your loved one has agreed to explore hearing aids. Great! But the process doesn’t stop there. Adjusting to life with hearing aids will take time. Your loved one has new sounds to process, new devices to care for, and maybe some old habits to unlearn. During this cycle of adjustment, be an advocate. Take seriously any issues your family member may have with their new hearing aids.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Health Problems Associated With Hearing Loss

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 22:19:00 GMT

Your hearing health is linked to many other health conditions, from depression to dementia. Here are just a few of the ways your hearing is connected to your health.

1. Diabetes Affects Your Hearing

A widely-cited study that examined more than 5,000 adults revealed that individuals who had been diagnosed with diabetes were twice as likely to experience mild or worse hearing loss when tested with low- or mid-frequency sounds. Hearing loss was also more likely with high-frequency tones, but not as severe. The researchers also discovered that subjects who were pre-diabetic, put simply, those who have blood sugar levels that are elevated but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes were 30% more likely to have hearing impairment than people with regular blood sugar levels. A more recent meta-study found that the link between diabetes and hearing loss was consistent, even when controlling for other variables.

So it’s fairly well established that diabetes is linked to an increased danger of hearing impairment. But the significant question is why is there a link. When it comes to this, science doesn’t really have the answers. A whole variety of health concerns have been linked to diabetes, including damage to the limbs, eyes, and kidneys. One theory is that the condition might affect the ears in an equivalent way, damaging blood vessels in the inner ear. But management of your general health could also be a relevant possibility. Individuals who failed to treat or control their diabetes had worse consequences according to one study carried out on military veterans. If you are concerned that you may be pre-diabetic or have undiagnosed diabetes, it’s essential to consult with a doctor and have your blood sugar tested.

2. Your Ears Can be Damaged by High Blood Pressure

It is well known that high blood pressure plays a part in, if not accelerates, hearing loss. Even when taking into consideration variables like whether you smoke or your amount of noise exposure, the results are consistent. Gender seems to be the only variable that matters: If you’re a man, the connection between high blood pressure and hearing loss is even greater.

The ears and the circulatory system have a direct relationship: Two of your body’s main arteries run right past your ears besides the presence of tiny blood vessels in your ears. Individuals with high blood pressure, in many cases, can hear their own blood pumping and this is the source of their tinnitus. That’s why this type of tinnitus is called pulsatile tinnitus; you hear your pulse. The foremost theory why high blood pressure would accelerate hearing loss is that high blood pressure can result in physical harm to your ears. If your heart is pumping harder, there’s more power behind each beat. The smaller blood vessels in your ears can be injured by this. Both medical treatment and lifestyle changes can be used to help regulate high blood pressure. But if you think you’re suffering from hearing impairment, even if you think you’re not old enough for age-related hearing loss, you should make an appointment to see us.

3. Dementia And Hearing Impairment

You may have a higher chance of dementia if you have hearing loss. Studies from Johns Hopkins University that observed almost 2,000 patients over six years found that the danger of cognitive deterioration increased by 24% with just mild hearing impairment (about 25 dB). Another study by the same researchers, which followed subjects over more than 10 years, found that the worse a subject’s hearing was, the more likely that he or she would develop dementia. These studies also demonstrated that Alzheimer’s had a similar link to hearing loss. Based on these results, moderate hearing loss puts you at 3X the risk of someone without hearing loss. The risk goes up to 4 times with extreme hearing loss.

It’s essential, then, to have your hearing examined. Your health depends on it.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/symptoms-causes/syc-20373072

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/hearing-loss-common-people-diabetes
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23150692
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4632848/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1108740
https://www.helpingmehear.com/hearing-aids-facts/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2018/8541638/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3889339/

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1558452
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/802291

Tinnitus And Suicide: Here’s What You Need Know

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 13:56:00 GMT

As with many chronic conditions, there’s a mental health component to tinnitus. It’s not just a matter of coping with the symptoms. It’s handling the symptoms continuously never knowing for certain if they will subside. For some individuals, regrettably, depression can be the outcome.

Persistent tinnitus has been linked to a higher rate of suicide, particularly among women, according to research published in the Journal of American Medical Association and performed by Stockholm Public Health Cohort (SPHC).

Tinnitus And Suicide, What’s The Connection?

Researchers at the SPHC surveyed about 70,000 individuals to establish the link between suicide and tinnitus (Accurate, reliable results require large sample sizes).

According to the answers they received:

The differences in suicide rates between women and men are obvious, leading the experts to bring attention to the increased risks for women. These results also suggest that a significant portion of individuals experiencing tinnitus don’t get a diagnosis or get professional help. Many individuals can get relief by wearing hearing aids and other therapies.

Are These Findings Universal?

Before any broad generalizations can be made, this study needs to be duplicated in different areas of the world with different variables and population sizes. In the meantime, we need to take these findings seriously.

What Does This Research Mean?

The study was inconclusive about why women had an increased suicide rate than men but that was definitely the result. There are numerous reasons why this could be but the data doesn’t pinpoint any one reason why this might be.

Some things to take note of:

Not All Tinnitus is “Severe”

Most people who experience tinnitus symptoms don’t have “severe” tinnitus. Moderate cases also have their own obstacles, of course. But the statistical correlation between suicide and women with tinnitus was most evident (and, thus, denotes the greatest risk) with those who rated their tinnitus as severe.

Most of The Participants Weren’t Diagnosed

Perhaps the next most surprising conclusion in this study is that fairly few individuals were actually diagnosed with tinnitus, even though they presented moderate to severe symptoms.

This is possibly the best way to minimize the danger of suicide and other health concerns linked to tinnitus and hearing impairment in general. Here are a few of the numerous advantages that can come from tinnitus treatment:

Tinnitus And Hearing Loss

It’s estimated that 90 percent of people with tinnitus have hearing impairment, and studies indicate that hearing aids help control the symptoms of tinnitus. As a matter of fact, some hearing aids are designed with additional features to improve tinnitus symptoms. To find out if hearing aids can help you, set up an appointment.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/2732497

Bet You Didn’t Know Your Hearing Impacted This

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 19:23:00 GMT

We typically don’t appreciate how important our sense of hearing is until it’s too late. Socially, mentally and physically, our lives are enhanced with good hearing. If you aren’t safeguarding your hearing or disregarding your hearing loss, you are compromising your overall health in ways you may not have recognized. Here are just a few of the many advantages of healthy hearing:

Enhanced Physical Health

According to a survey performed by Hear The World Foundation, 21 percent of respondents confirmed exercising more often after obtaining hearing aids. Additionally, 34 percent of respondents with hearing aids said they were taking part in sports activities at least once every week.

Improved Mental Health

Clinical depression, along with the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s have been connected to hearing impairment according to researchers at Johns Hopkins. Fortunately, the use of hearing aids has been shown to help reverse or prevent many of these issues.

Stronger Relationships

When you’re in a relationship, nothing is more important than the ability to communicate. This is especially true with friends and family. Hearing loss can result in miscommunication, aggravation, and ill will. By improving your hearing by using hearing aids, you will be better able to engage in conversations, particularly in crowded rooms, public places, or other areas with a great deal of background noise.

Improved Mental Abilities

In people with hearing impairment, a 2016 study showed that wearing hearing aids improves brain function. Cognition is interrupted by hearing loss as the brain makes use of extra resources trying to hear and understand.

Fewer Tinnitus Symptoms

Individuals who cope with hearing loss will be able to hear sounds they previously couldn’t when they wear hearing aids. By enhancing the stimulation between the brain and auditory pathways, hearing aids can help mask and reduce tinnitus symptoms. Users can also use hearing aids to control volumes and drown out tinnitus sounds.

Decreased Fatigue

If you’re expending more energy than normal to listen to and understand everyday conversations, it can result in stress, sleep disturbances, tiredness, and even exhaustion. As well as helping you effectively communicate, hearing aids also help you spend less energy trying to hear.

Improved Safety

You will be able to better react to important sounds and noises when you have good hearing. Wearing hearing aids ensures you can hear alarms, sirens, cell phones, doorbells, and car horns, in addition to other traffic sounds that indicate approaching vehicles.

Fewer Headaches

Headaches and even migraines frequently accompany tinnitus which can, in turn, make the tinnitus symptoms even worse. The intensity and frequency of headaches can be reduced by using hearing aids which decrease tinnitus symptoms.

Clearer Speech

To ensure your children learn essential language and pronunciation skills, it is imperative to immediately treat any hearing loss experienced by young children who are still building these skills. There may be fluid in the child’s inner middle ears canal which may require a tube to be surgically implanted for drainage. For more serious conditions, children may be fitted with hearing aids to improve their hearing and ensure they’re learning to talk clearly and accurately.

Even adults articulate and communicate better when they have clear hearing.

Improved Confidence in The Workplace

If you’re going to accomplish your daily work responsibilities competently, you need to be able to hear. Not being capable of hearing critical conversations with your coworkers can lead to misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and unfinished tasks. The use of hearing aids can help you eliminate these problems, and allow you to have greater pride and satisfaction in your career. Better workplace communication and increased production will also improve the disposition of your coworkers.

You should speak to your local hearing professional if you think hearing impairment is causing you to miss important conversations. These experts can help identify your level of hearing loss, as well as whether your hearing – and overall health – would benefit from using hearing aids.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

You Can Develop Ringing in Your Ears by Taking These Everyday Medicines

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 15:09:00 GMT

You notice a ringing in your ears when you wake up in the morning. This is weird because they weren’t doing that yesterday. So you start thinking about likely causes: you haven’t been working in the shop (no power tools have been around your ears), you haven’t been listening to your music at an unreasonable volume (it’s all been quite moderate of late). But you did have a headache yesterday, and you did take some aspirin last night.

Could it be the aspirin?

And that idea gets your brain working because perhaps it is the aspirin. You feel like you remember hearing that certain medications can produce tinnitus symptoms. is aspirin one of those medicines? And does that mean you should stop using aspirin?

What’s The Connection Between Tinnitus And Medications?

Tinnitus is one of those disorders that has long been reported to be associated with many different medications. But those rumors aren’t really what you’d call well-founded.

The common notion is that tinnitus is widely viewed as a side effect of a diverse range of medications. But the fact is that only a small number of medications produce tinnitus symptoms. So why does tinnitus have a reputation for being this ultra-common side effect? Here are some theories:

What Medicines Are Connected to Tinnitus

There is a scientifically established link between tinnitus and a few medicines.

Powerful Antibiotics And The Tinnitus Connection

There are ototoxic (damaging to the ears) properties in some antibiotics. These strong antibiotics are normally only used in special situations and are known as aminoglycosides. High doses have been proven to result in damage to the ears (including some tinnitus symptoms), so such dosages are normally avoided.

Medicines For High Blood Pressure

Diuretics are often prescribed for people who have hypertension (high blood pressure). When the dosage is significantly higher than normal, some diuretics will trigger tinnitus.

Aspirin Can Trigger Ringing in Your Ears

It is possible that the aspirin you used is causing that ringing. But the thing is: It still depends on dosage. Generally speaking, tinnitus starts at extremely high dosages of aspirin. The doses you take for a headache or to manage heart disease aren’t often large enough to cause tinnitus. Here’s the good news, in most situations, when you stop using the huge dosages of aspirin, the tinnitus symptoms will go away on their own.

Check With Your Doctor

Tinnitus might be able to be caused by a couple of other uncommon medications. And there are also some odd medication mixtures and interactions that may generate tinnitus-like symptoms. So consulting your doctor about any medication side effects is the best strategy.

You should also get examined if you start experiencing tinnitus symptoms. It’s difficult to say for certain if it’s the medication or not. Often, hearing loss is present when tinnitus symptoms appear, and treatments like hearing aids can help.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

You Should Keep an Eye on Your Aunt’s Hearing, Here’s Why

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 16:13:00 GMT

You expect specific things as your loved ones get older: Gray hair, needing glasses, stories about “When I was your age”. Another change commonly connected with aging is hearing loss. This happens for many reasons: Exposure to loud sounds (whether job-related or from a youth spent at rock concerts), medications that cause harm to structures inside of the ear (some forms of chemotherapy, for instance, have this side effect), or simply changes to the inner ear.

But just because an older friend or relative’s hearing loss isn’t a surprise doesn’t mean it’s something you can disregard. This is especially true because you may simply start to speak louder to compensate for the progressive hearing loss your loved one is developing. So here are four principal reasons you should take hearing loss seriously, and talk to your loved one about ways to deal with it.

1. Hearing Troubles Can Cause Needless Hazards

In a small house, smoke and fire alarms usually don’t have the flashing lights and other visual aspects that they have in a larger building. Individuals who suffer from hearing loss can lose other less severe day-to-day cues also: Getting a phone call, a delivery person ringing the doorbell, or (and yes, we’re back in potentially really hazardous territory here) car horns. A decreased ability to react to auditory cues can result in minor inconveniences or significant risks.

2. Hearing Loss Has Been Linked to an Increased Risk of Cognitive Issues

There is a statistically substantial link between age related hearing loss and mental decline as reported by a large meta-study. The process is debated, but the most common concept is that when individuals have difficulty hearing, they withdraw socially, decreasing their overall level of involvement and failing to “exercise” their brains. On the other hand, some researchers claim that when we suffer from hearing loss, our brains work so much harder to process and understand sounds that other cognitive activities get less resources.

3. The High Price of Hearing Loss

If your loved one is worried that treating hearing problems could be costly, here’s a solid counterpoint: Neglected hearing loss can be costly to your finances for many reasons. For instance, research from 2016 that evaluated health care costs for a sample of 55- to 64-year-old adults found that people who suffered from neglected hearing loss spent, on average, 33% more on doctor’s bills. Why? One of the study’s authors proposed that people who suffer with hearing loss might avoid preventative care due to trouble communicating and thus wind up with a large bill because a major health problem wasn’t caught sooner. Others point out that hearing loss is related to other health issues such as cognitive decline. Another point to consider: Your paycheck could be directly affected, if you haven’t already retired, because of a decline in productivity caused by hearing impairment.

4. Hearing Impairment is Linked to Depression

Difficulty hearing can have emotional and mental health repercussions, also. The stress and anxiety of not being able to hear others clearly will often cause withdrawal and isolation. This isolation is related to negative physical and mental repercussions particularly in older people. The good news: Managing hearing loss can potentially help reduce depression, partly because being able to hear makes social situations less anxious. Individuals who wear hearing aids to manage hearing loss show fewer symptoms of depression and are more socially active according to a study done by the National Council on Aging.

How to do Your Part

Communicate! We mean yes, talk to your loved one about hearing loss, and keep the conversation flowing. This can help you determine the amount of hearing loss by providing a second pair of ears and it also furthers mental engagement. Even though the reasons are debated, research has demonstrated that individuals over 70 under-report hearing loss. Secondly, encourage your friend or family member to have a consultation with us. Regular, professional hearing exams are important for providing a baseline and learning how their hearing may be changing.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

You Should be Aware of These Three Things Regarding Hearing Protection

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:28:00 GMT

What stops your hearing protection from working properly? Here are 3 things to look out for.

In spite of your best efforts, you can sometimes run into things that can hinder your hearing protection, both at home and at work. That’s hard to cope with. After all, you’re striving to do what you’re supposed to do! You wear your earmuffs every day while working; you use earplugs when you attend a show; and you avoid your loud Uncle Joe who is always shouting in your ears (although, maybe you just don’t really enjoy Uncle Joe).

The point is, it can be a bit discouraging when you’re doing everything right and still there are issues . The good thing is that once you understand a few of these simple problems that can interfere with your hearing protection, you can prepare yourself better. And this will keep your hearing protection in a state of efficiency even when you’re experiencing a little difficulty.

1. Wearing The Wrong Type of Ear Protection

There are two convenient and standard categories of hearing protection: earmuffs and earplugs. As the names might indicate, earplugs are compact and can be pushed directly into the ear canal. Earmuffs are like big headphones with no tunes (instead, they, you know, safeguard your hearing).

There’s a simple explanation for that: when it’s quiet, you’ll want to remove you’re hearing protection which is more difficult to do with earplugs than earmuffs. Earplugs take a bit more work to put in and are easy to lose so you may find yourself needing to replace lost plugs when you need them most.

You will be okay if you wear the proper protection in the appropriate scenario.

2. Your Hearing Protection Can be Affected by Your Anatomy

Human anatomy is incredibly diverse. That’s why your vocal cords are average sized compared to old Uncle Joe’s larger vocal cords. It’s also why your ear canal might be narrower than the average person’s.

This can cause complications with your ear protection. Disposable earplugs, for example, are made with a clothing mindset: small, medium, and large (even sometimes one-size-fits-all). So, perhaps you give up in frustration because you have tiny ear canals, and you quit using any hearing protection.

If you find yourself in this scenario, you may forsake the hearing protection you were attempting to give yourself, leaving you in danger of hearing damage. Another instance of this is people with large ears who frequently have a hard time getting earmuffs to fit comfortably. For people who work in noisy settings, a custom fit pair of hearing protection is a good investment.

3. Assess if There’s Any Wear And Tear on Your Hearing Protection

You should be commended if you manage to wear your hearing protection regularly. But that also means you need to keep an eye on the wear and tear your hearing protection is experiencing.

Ensuring you conduct routine maintenance on your hearing protection is vital if you want to continue benefiting from that protection. It’s essential that you have a consultation with us if you have any questions on how to care for your hearing protection or want to learn more about the things that can interfere with their performance.

Your hearing is vital. Taking the time to protect it right is worthwhile.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Forget 312 Batteries – Why You Should Start Thinking About Rechargeable

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 15:50:00 GMT

Modern technology has evolved the way we power electronics of every kind, from cameras to phones to music players. For decades, those looking to manage hearing loss have wished for a similar advancement, and the industry is finally realizing the promise of a powerful rechargeable hearing aid battery.

Size 312 batteries are the most prevalent of the disposable batteries that have typically been used to power hearing aids. The most popular form of this battery, now, is “zinc-ion”.

The Downside to Disposable Hearing Aid Batteries

As the name would indicate, a zinc-air battery is affected by the presence of air. The user has to tear a small tab off the back of a 312 zinc-air battery in order to activate it.

As soon as it is fully oxygenated , it begins to lose power. That means power is beginning to drain even if the user isn’t ready.

Most users regard the duration of life to be the greatest disadvantage of disposable batteries. With 312 batteries, the user might be changing the batteries in their hearing aids around 120 times per year because they drain in 3 to 12 days according to some reports.

That also means users may need to buy 120 batteries, spend the time twice a week to replace them, and properly dispose of each. That’s probably over $100 in batteries from a cost perspective alone.

Rechargeable battery Advancements

Rechargeable hearing aid technology has progressed to the point where it’s now a practical solution and that’s great news for individuals who use hearing aids.

Studies have demonstrated that most individuals overwhelmingly prefer to use rechargeable hearing aids. Until now these models have historically struggled to provide a long enough charge to make them practical. But today’s rechargeable batteries will hold a charge all day without needing a recharge.

Users won’t see significant cost savings by changing to rechargeable batteries, but where they will see a demonstrated improvement is in quality of life.

These new models provide less aggravation on top of maintaining a 24 hour charge because the user doesn’t have the burden of continuously swapping out the batteries. Instead, they only need to pop out the battery and put them in a convenient tabletop charging unit.

When a disposable battery nears the end of its life it can’t run your hearing aid at full capacity. There’s also no real way to identify how close to being inoperable the battery actually is. So the batteries could die at the precise moment that a user needs them the most which could even put them in danger. Not only is this a safety hazard, but users could miss important life moments because of a faulty battery.

Types of Rechargeable Hearing Aid Batteries

Rechargeable batteries come in a variety of different materials, each providing distinct advantages. Integrated lithium-ion batteries are one option being used by manufacturers because of their ability to hold a 24-hour charge. And cellphones are powered by this same type of battery which might be surprising.

Silver-zinc technology is another material used for today’s rechargeable hearing aids. Originally, these revolutionary batteries were manufactured for Nasa’s moon missions. With this technology, even your current hearing aids can most likely be updated to run on rechargeable batteries. Just like lithium-ion, silver-zinc can also supply enough power to last you for a full day.

Some models even let you recharge the battery while it’s still in the hearing aid. At night, or at some other time when the hearing aid is not being used, the whole hearing aid can be put right into the charger

While each of these rechargeable strategies offers substantial benefits over disposable batteries, each option should be carefully vetted to get a complete picture and to see if it’s right for you.

If you’re searching for more information about hearing aid technology or how to pick the best hearing aid to satisfy your needs, we encourage you to look at our hearing aids section.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Surprise – This Can Cost You Your Career

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 15:37:00 GMT

When people are at an age where they are still working, their job is often a big part of their self-worth. They base their self-image on what kind of job they do, what position they hold, and how much they earn.

When someone asks “so what do you do?”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind. It’s probably to tell them about your occupation.

It’s not enjoyable to consider what would happen if something took your living away. But if you value your job, then you should take note of this career-breaker.

That livelihood killer is the disturbing link between untreated hearing loss and career success .

Untreated Hearing Loss Raises Unemployment Rates

A person is over 200% more likely to be underemployed or unemployed if they have neglected hearing impairment. If a person isn’t working full time or has marketable skills that their not using and their not earning as much money as they should be, that’s defined as underemployed.

In nearly any occupation, individuals with neglected hearing loss experience many challenges. A doctor needs to hear her patients. If they’re going to efficiently work together, construction workers have to be able to communicate. Even a librarian would find it difficult to help library patrons without her hearing.

Lots of individuals stay in the same occupation their entire lives. They become very good at what they do. For them, if they can’t hear well, it would be difficult to change to a different job and make a respectable living.

The Potential Hearing Loss Wage Gap

In addition to unemployment, those with hearing impairment all have the tendency to experience a significant wage gap, making about 75 cents for every dollar someone with normal hearing makes. This wage gap is supported by numerous independent studies that reveal that a person loses as much as $12,000 in income each year.

The severity of hearing loss is directly associated with how much they lose. Even people with moderate hearing loss are potentially losing money, according to a study of 80,000 people.

What Are Some on The Job Struggles That People With Hearing Loss Face?

Someone with untreated hearing loss is 5 times more likely to take a sick day as a result of job stress.

From moment to moment, someone with hearing loss copes with stresses that co-workers never recognize. Imagine having to focus on hearing and comprehending in team meetings while others simply take hearing for granted. And missing out on a crucial piece of information is always a concern.

That’s even more stressful.

While at work or at home, it’s three times more likely that someone with untreated hearing loss will suffer from a fall. Both impact your ability to do the work.

Somebody with neglected hearing loss is at an increased risk, in addition to job concerns, of the following:

Reduced productivity is the consequence of all this. And given the obstacles that someone suffering from hearing loss experiences at work and in life, they may also not be considered for an upcoming promotion.

Luckily, there’s a very bright upside to this dismal career outlook.

A Career Approach That Works

The unemployment and wage gap can be mitigated by using hearing aids according to some studies.

According to a Better Hearing Institute study, somebody with slight hearing loss who wears hearing aids can erase the wage gap by as much as 90-100%.

Somebody with moderate hearing loss can remove about 77% of the gap. That’s nearly the earning level of somebody with normal hearing.

Despite this positive news, many individuals leave their hearing loss untreated during those working years. They think that losing their hearing is embarrassing. It makes them feel old.

They may think that hearing aids are simply too costly for them. They most likely don’t realize that if hearing loss is left untreated, it worsens more quickly in addition to triggering the other health problems pointed out above.

In light of these common objections, these studies hold additional significance. Not treating your hearing loss might be costing you more than you know . If you’ve been undecided about using hearing aids at work, it’s time to have a hearing test. Call us and we can help you decide whether hearing aids would help.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/fulltext/2013/02001/Hearing_Loss_Linked_to_Unemployment,_Lower_Income.2.aspx

Caring For This is Vital to Your Mental Health

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 18:01:00 GMT

Are you aware that about one in three people between the ages of 65 and 74 is impacted by hearing impairment and half of them are older than 75? But even though so many individuals are affected by hearing loss, 70% of them have never used hearing aids and for people under 69, that number drops to 16%. At least 20 million people cope with untreated hearing loss and some reports put this number at over 30 million.

There are a number of reasons why people may not get treatment for hearing loss, particularly as they grow older. One study revealed that only 28% of individuals who said they suffered from hearing loss had even had their hearing examined, let alone sought additional treatment. For some folks, it’s like gray hair or wrinkles, just a part of aging. Hearing loss has long been easy to diagnose, but thanks to the substantial advancements that have been made in hearing aid technology, it’s also a very manageable condition. This is significant because your ability to hear is not the only health risk linked to hearing loss.

A study from a research group based at Columbia University adds to the documentation linking hearing loss and depression. They gathered data from over 5,000 adults aged 50 and older, giving each subject an audiometric hearing exam and also assessing them for symptoms of depression. After adjusting for a range of variables, the researchers found that the likelihood of suffering with clinically significant symptoms of depression increased by about 45% for every 20-decibel increase in hearing loss. And 20 decibels is not very loud, it’s about the volume of rustling leaves, for the record.

The basic relationship between hearing loss and depression isn’t that surprising, but what is striking is how small a difference can so dramatically raise the chance of suffering from depression. The fact that mental health worsens as hearing loss gets worse is revealed by this research and a multi-year analysis from 2000, adding to a sizable body of literature linking the two. Another study from 2014 that found both people who self-reported difficulty hearing and who were found to have hearing loss according to hearing tests, had a substantially higher risk of depression.

The good news: The link that researchers suspect exists between hearing loss and depression isn’t biological or chemical. In all likelihood, it’s social. Individuals who have hearing loss will frequently steer clear of social situations due to anxiety and will even often feel anxious about typical everyday situations. This can increase social separation, which further feeds into feelings of depression and anxiety. It’s a vicious cycle, but it’s also one that’s broken easily.

Treating hearing loss, usually with hearing aids, according to numerous studies, will lessen symptoms of depression. A 2014 study that looked at data from over 1,000 people in their 70s discovered that those who used hearing aids were considerably less likely to cope with symptoms of depression, even though the authors did not define a cause-and-effect relationship since they were not viewing the data over time.

But the hypothesis that treating hearing loss reduces depression is reinforced by a more recent study that observed subjects before and after wearing hearing aids. A 2011 study only looked at a small group of people, 34 subjects total, the researchers found that after three months with hearing aids, every one of them demonstrated significant improvement in both depressive symptoms and mental functioning. And those results are long lasting according to a small-scale study carried out in 2012 which demonstrated continuing relief in depression symptoms for every single subject who used hearing aids as much as 6 months out. And even a full year after beginning to use hearing aids, a group of veterans in a 1992 study were still experiencing relief from depression symptoms.

Hearing loss is hard, but you don’t have to go it alone. Get your hearing checked, and know about your options. It could help improve more than your hearing, it could positively affect your quality of life in ways you hadn’t even imagined.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/age-related-hearing-loss
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27818440
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing#8
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/2664072
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/article-abstract/2717904
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/article-abstract/2717904
https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/40/3/320/605349
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24604103

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1494282

More Veterans Suffer From This Than Anything Else

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 14:13:00 GMT

When the men and women of our armed forces come home from service, they frequently suffer from emotional, physical, and mental problems. Within the continuing discussion about veteran’s healthcare, the most frequently diagnosed disability is often relatively disregarded: Tinnitus and hearing loss.

Even if you factor in age and occupation, there’s a 30% higher chance of veterans having severe hearing impairment compared to civilians. Even though service-related hearing loss has been recognized going back to World War 2, the numbers are even more stunning for military personnel who served more recently. Veterans who have served recently are commonly among the younger group of service members and are also as much as four times more likely to have hearing loss than non-veterans.

Why Are Veterans at Greater Risk For Hearing Loss?

Two words: Noise exposure. Sure, some occupations are louder than others. For example, a librarian will be working in a fairly quiet setting. Thet would likely be exposed to decibel levels ranging from a whisper (about 30 dB) to standard conversation (60 dB).

For civilians who are at the other end of the sonic scale, like a city construction worker, the hazard rises. Sounds you’d continuously hear (city traffic, around 85 dB) or sporadically (an ambulance siren’s about 120 dB) are at unsafe levels, and that’s just background noise. Research has revealed that construction equipment noise, everything from power tools to bulldozers, exposes workers to noises louder than 85 dB.

As loud as a heavy construction site is, active military personnel are constantly subjected to much louder sounds. This is certainly true in combat settings, where troops hear sounds like gunfire (150 dB), hand grenades (158 dBA), and artillery (180 dB). But military bases, whether at home or overseas, are none too quiet either. Indoor engine rooms are very loud and the deck of an aircraft carrier can be as loud as 130 – 160 dB. For pilots, sound levels are high too, with choppers being well over 100 dB and jets and other planes also being well above 100 dB. Another concern: Certain jet fuels, according to one study, disrupt the auditory process causing hearing impairment.

Our service men and women don’t have the option of opting out, as a 2015 study plainly demonstrates. They need to cope with noise exposure so that they accomplish missions and even everyday tasks. And although hearing protection is standard issue, lots of the sounds just outlined are so loud that even the best-performing hearing protection isn’t enough.

What Can Veterans do to Treat Hearing Loss?

Even though hearing loss due to noise exposure is permanent, the impairment can be eased with hearing aids. The loss of high-pitch sound is the most prevalent type of hearing impairment among veterans and this kind of impairment can be treated with specialized hearing aids. Tinnitus is often a symptom of another health problem and though it can’t be cured, there are also treatment solutions for it.

Veterans have already made many sacrifices in serving our country. Hearing shouldn’t have to be one of them.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Can Tinnitus be Cured by Wearing Hearing Aids?

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:32:00 GMT

The cause of tinnitus, a constant ringing or buzzing in the ears, is often ambiguous. But one thing we know for sure is that if you have hearing loss your probability of experiencing tinnitus rises. According to HLAA up to 90 percent of people who experience tinnitus also have hearing loss.

As you most likely know, your age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the development of hearing loss. Often, moderate instances of hearing loss go undetected and hearing loss, in general, isn’t always apparent. Even minor cases of hearing loss will increase your chance of tinnitus, making the situation even worse.

Hearing Aids Won’t Cure Tinnitus But They Can Help

Tinnitus doesn’t have a cure. However, your symptoms can be decreased and your life can be improved by using hearing aids to address your hearing loss and tinnitus. As a matter of fact, one study confirmed that as much as 60 percent of tinnitus patients experienced relief when they wore hearing aids, with 22 percent showing significant relief.

A conventional hearing aid can basically hide the ringing or buzzing caused by tinnitus by strengthening your ability to hear other sounds, which effectively drowns out the ringing. And, fortunately, traditional hearing aids aren’t the only solution as more advanced treatment possibilities are being produced.

Types of Specialized Hearing Aids to Decrease Tinnitus Symptoms

Hearing aids boost the volume of environmental sounds to the point that you can hear them clearly. This basic technology is critical in teaching your hearing to receive specific stimulation by amplifying sounds like the clattering of a ceiling fan or the hum of a dinner party.

You can take an even more complete approach to your tinnitus management by enhancing hearing aids with other techniques, like stress reduction, sound stimulation, and counseling.

Some hearing aid manufacturers even utilize the irregular rhythm of fractal tones to minimize the symptoms of tinnitus. These rhythmically inconsistent tones can distract from the constant and regular tones tinnitus sufferers hear.

Other specialty devices try to blend your tinnitus in with the natural sounds you’re hearing. Your condition and ear have very personal needs and this technique will use a customized white noise that will be calibrated by your hearing professional.

Whether you use sound therapy, blending, or a white noise mechanism, all of these specialized devices have a common objective of distracting the user away from the ringing or buzzing of tinnitus.

It’s true that there isn’t any cure for tinnitus, but for at least some individuals, hearing aids help reduce symptoms and improve your quality of life.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

Musicians Take Heed: This Can Harm Your Health

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 16:32:00 GMT

Music lovers and musicians of all genres can certainly relate to the words of reggae icon Bob Marley. Marley said the following in regards to the power of music: “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

Music has been known to have a detrimental effect on the musicians playing it even though the people enjoying it may not feel any pain. Many musicians learn that without protection, the constant exposure to loud tones can play a role in hearing loss .

As a matter of fact, one German study revealed that working musicians are almost four times more likely to grapple with noise-related hearing loss than somebody working in another field. Those same musicians are also 57 percent more likely to experience constant ringing in their ears, also known as tinnitus.

Those results are not surprising for musicians who frequently receive or produce exposure to noise levels above 85 decibels (dB). The ability of the nerve cells to send messages from the ears to the brain, according to one study, can start to degrade with exposure to sound above 110 dB. This damage is normally permanent.

Any type of music can be loud enough to damage the ears but some styles are riskier because they’re inherently loud. And noise-related hearing loss has had a negative effect on the careers of lots of rock musicians.

One musician who suffers from tinnitus and partial deafness is Pete Townshend of the British rock group The Who. The common belief is that Townshend’s hearing problems result from continuous and repeated exposure to loud music. As his symptoms have progressed over the years, Townshend has utilized several different strategies to manage the issue.

On the band’s 1989 tour, Townshend opted to play acoustically and shield himself from direct contact with loud noises by standing behind a glass partition. At a show in 2012, the volume turned out to be too loud for the guitarist, who chose to leave the stage to escape the noise.

Substantial hearing loss due to loud music exposure has also been a problem for Alex Van Halen of the rock band Van Halen. According to Van Halen himself, the drummer lost 60 percent hearing in his left ear and, 30 percent in his right.

Looking for a way to curtail the continued deterioration of his ability to hear, Van Halen consulted with the band’s soundman on a custom-fitted in-ear monitor. This allowed him to hear the music more clearly and at a lower volume by connecting wirelessly to the soundboard. The sound-man eventually was so successful with this prototype that he began to produce and sell the design and ended up selling the patent to a major tech company for 34 million dollars.

Townshend and Van Halen are just two names on a long “who’s who” list of musicians and singers, including Eric Clapton and Sting, to encounter noise-induced hearing issues.

But there’s one singer in the United Kingdom who found another way to fight her own bout with hearing loss effectively. And while she might not have Clapton’s worldwide name recognition or Sting’s history of record sales, she does have a set of hearing aids that have helped to resurrect her career.

From stages throughout London’s West End, British musical theater performer, Elaine Paige, has been thrilling audiences for over 50 years. Five decades of performing damaged Paige’s hearing to the point she experienced significant hearing loss. Paige shared that she has been depending on hearing aids for years.

Paige said that she uses her hearing aids every day to fight her hearing loss and asserts that her condition has no bearing on her ability to work. And that’s music to the ears of theater fans in the U.K.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2018/musicians-hearing-loss.html
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150619-are-you-damaging-your-hearing-without-realising-it

How do I Know What Kind of Hearing Protection to Use?

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 17:36:00 GMT

A noisy workplace isn’t very good for your ears (or your concentration, for that matter). Even moderate noise, when experienced for many hours a day, can begin to weaken the health of your hearing. For this reason questions like “what hearing protection should I use?” are worth asking.

It’s not common knowledge that numerous levels of hearing protection are available. But it makes sense when you stop to consider it. A truck driver won’t require the same amount of protection that a jet engine mechanic will.

Hearing Damage Levels

The fact that 85dB of sound can start to harm your ears is a standard rule of thumb. We aren’t really used to thinking about sound in terms of decibels (even though that’s how we measure sound – it’s just not a number we’re used to putting into context).

Eighty-five decibels is approximately how loud city traffic is when you’re driving your car. That isn’t a big deal, right? Wrong , it’s a big deal. It becomes a big deal after numerous hours. Because it isn’t just the loudness of the noise that you need to pay attention to, it’s the duration of exposure.

Typical Danger Zones

If you’re exposed to 85 dB of noise for eight hours a day or more, you should probably think about using ear protection. But there are some other important thresholds to take note of. If you’re exposed to:

When you are going to be exposed to these levels of noise, wear hearing protection that will bring the volume in your ears down below 85 dB.

Make Sure Your Hearing Protection Fits Comfortably

NRR, which is an acronym for Noise Reduction Rate, is a scale used to measure the effectiveness of hearing protection. Outside sound will be progressively quieter the higher the NRR.

It’s very important that you choose hearing protection with a high enough NRR to keep you safe (and your workplace will usually make suggestions about what level will be appropriate).

But there’s another element to consider also: comfort. As it happens, comfort is extremely significant to keeping your ears healthy . This is because you’re less likely to actually use your hearing protection if it’s uncomfortable.

Hearing Protection Options

You’ve got three basic options to choose from:

Each type of protection has advantages and disadvantages, but much of your hearing protection decision will come down to personal preference. Earmuffs are a better choice for individuals whose ears are irritated by earplugs. Other people might value the put-them-in-and-forget-them strategy of earplugs (of course, at the end of the workday you will need to take them out for a good cleaning).

Find a Constant Degree of Hearing Protection

Comfort is important because any lapse in your hearing protection can lead to damage. If you remove your earmuffs for ten minutes because they’re heavy and uncomfortable, your hearing can suffer over the long run. This is why hearing protection that you can leave in for the entire workday is the best choice.

Investing in the level of hearing protection you require can help keep your ears healthy and happy.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

How do I Know What Kind of Hearing Protection to Use?

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 17:33:00 GMT

Hearing Damage Levels

Typical Danger Zones

When you are going to be exposed to these levels of noise, wear hearing protection that will bring the volume in your ears down below 85 dB.

Make Sure Your Hearing Protection Fits Comfortably

NRR, which is an acronym for Noise Reduction Rate, is a scale used to measure the effectiveness of hearing protection. Outside sound will be progressively quieter the higher the NRR.

It’s very important that you choose hearing protection with a high enough NRR to keep you safe (and your workplace will usually make suggestions about what level will be appropriate).

Hearing Protection Options

You’ve got three basic options to choose from:

Find a Constant Degree of Hearing Protection

Investing in the level of hearing protection you require can help keep your ears healthy and happy.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

Ignoring This Will Impact Your Mental Health

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 14:42:00 GMT

There is a solid correlation between mental health and hearing loss according to new studies.

Beyond this connection, both conditions have something else in common – they often go unacknowledged and neglected by patients and health professionals. Recognizing there is a relationship could potentially enhance mental health for millions of individuals and give hope as they seek solutions.

We understand that hearing loss is common, but only a handful of studies have addressed its impact on mental health .

Out of all individuals who are diagnosed with hearing loss, studies show that over 11 percent of them also deal with clinical depression. This is significant because only 5 percent of the general population report being depressed. Depression was evaluated by the frequency and severity of the symptoms and a standard questionnaire based on self-reporting of hearing loss was utilized. People who were between 18 and 69 had the highest instance of depression. Dr. Chuan-Ming Li, a scientist at NICDC and the author of this study, discovered “a substantial link between profound depression and hearing loss”.

Your Chance of Depression Doubles With Untreated Hearing Loss

Age related hearing loss is quite common in older people and, according to a study published by JAMA Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery , the chance of depression increases the worse the hearing loss is. After audiometric hearing testing, participants were evaluated for depression. Once again, researchers observed that individuals with even a little bit of hearing loss were nearly two times as likely to experience depression . Even more startling, mild hearing loss often goes undiagnosed and untreated by many people over 70 which has also been demonstrated to raise the danger of cognitive decline and dementia. While the studies cannot prove that one is caused by the other, it is evident that it is a contributor.

In order to communicate efficiently and remain active, hearing is crucial. Anxiety, embarrassment, and potential loss of self-esteem can be the consequence of the social and professional blunders that come with hearing loss. Gradual withdrawal can be the outcome if these feelings are left unaddressed. People start to steer clear of physical activity and isolate themselves from family and friends. This seclusion, after a while, can result in depression and loneliness.

Hearing Isn’t Simply About Your Ears

Hearing loss is about more than the ears as is underscored by its connection with depression. Your brain, your quality of life, healthy aging, and general health are all impacted by your hearing. This emphasizes the vital role of the hearing care professional within the scope of overall healthcare. Confusion, frustration, and fatigue are frequently a problem for individuals who deal with hearing loss.

The good news: The problem can be substantially improved by getting a hearing exam and treatment as soon as you recognize hearing loss symptoms. Studies demonstrate that treating hearing loss early greatly decreases their risk. Routine hearing tests need to be encouraged by doctors. Hearing loss isn’t the only thing that a hearing test can uncover, after all. Caregivers should also watch for signs of depression in patients who might be dealing with either or both. Common symptoms include difficulty concentrating, fatigue, overall loss of interest, unhappiness, and loss of appetite.

Don’t suffer alone. If you believe you have hearing loss, call us to schedule a hearing test.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

References

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/1835392
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/article-abstract/2781095
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/2682653

Neglected Hearing Loss Can Cause Mayhem With Your Health

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 14:28:00 GMT

You can wind up in the hospital if you don’t properly manage your hearing loss symptoms. I know that sounds like an exaggeration. We’re used to thinking of hearing loss as not much more than an inconvenience – something that makes the news a bit more difficult to hear or, at worst, makes you unwittingly agree to something you didn’t mean.

But the long-term health effects of untreated hearing loss is beginning to get serious attention from researchers.

What Does Hearing Loss Have to do With Your Health?

At first sight, hearing loss doesn’t seem to have that much to do with other health indicators. But research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health indicates that over time, visits to the hospital can increase by up to 50% for someone with neglected hearing loss. The longer the hearing loss remains unmanaged, the more significant the health troubles get.

That seems like a strange finding: how is your general state of health associated with your ability to hear? The answer is complicated.

The Connection Between Mental Health And Hearing

Untreated hearing loss has been associated with a number of other health issues, like:

Hearing Aids: An effective Answer

It’s not all gloom and doom, though. Far from it. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research suggests that up to 75% of hearing loss associated cognitive decline can be stopped in its tracks by one basic solution: using a hearing aid.

Wearing a hearing aid has a profound impact on putting an end to the risks associated with untreated hearing loss. According to the research, people who used hearing aids for just two weeks saw:

The researchers from Johns Hopkins looked at data from 77,000 patients accumulated over about twenty years. And a critical part of maintaining your health lies in protecting your hearing which is a surprising outcome. Taking care of your hearing health also benefits your finances, because being sick can be expensive.

Caring For Your Health And Your Hearing

Hearing loss is not exclusive to getting older but it is a part of it. Hearing loss can occur at any age because of accidents, occupational hazards, or diseases.

However, it’s essential to address any hearing loss you might be experiencing. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

What Does Treating Hearing Loss With Hearing Aids Say About You?

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 15:08:00 GMT

This article from the Chicago Tribune discusses the benefits of treating hearing loss with hearing aids:

Much is said about the effects of untreated hearing loss on your mind, your general health, your ability to socialize, and your emotional state. Wearing hearing aids does much more than enrich your social life. They actually have a profound effect on your brain, keeping you mentally sharp, lowering your risk of depression, and improving your balance.

If you already wear hearing aids, you already know the benefits they give you. If you wear them occasionally (rarely), or do not use them, here are facts offered by the Hearing Rehabilitation Center that may encourage you to wear hearing aids full-time:

Families of people who have hearing loss and wear hearing aids indicate that a significant side benefit is greater participation in social activities and better relationships with the people they love, thus creating a higher quality of life overall.

If you or a family member have a hearing loss, and you want to experience better brain function, lower the risk of depression and mental decline, and be at lower risk of falling, Audiologist Peter Sotiropoulos encourages you to treat your hearing loss with hearing aids. If you are a go-getter, value your relationships, like to be active, love living life, you want to make the most of what modern life has to offer, then treat your hearing loss.

Sotiropoulos wants to help everyone improve their lives and overall long-term health by treating hearing loss with hearing aids. Make an appointment today to assess your candidacy by calling us today . Hearing Rehabilitation Center is located at 29 W. 34th St. in Steger. For more information, visit hearingrehabctr.com .

Make Hearing Tests Part of Annual Health Check Ups

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 14:41:00 GMT

This article from the Chicago Tribune discusses the importance of regular hearing testing:

The Hearing Rehabilitation Center has been selected as the Best Hearing Clinic by Daily Southtown readers for the second year in a row.

Dr. Peter Sotiropoulos, president of The Hearing Rehabilitation Center, says “thank you for our second selection as Southland’s ‘Best Hearing Clinic.’ In my 30th year of practice, 10 years in the Chicago’s Southland, it is with pleasure I can provide quality and ethical hearing, balance and tinnitus health care, with a human touch, at our offices in Kankakee and Steger.”

Sotiropoulos is a strong advocate for regular hearing testing, protection of hearing from noise exposure, and treatment of hearing impairment for a better quality of life. He states that there are at least five motivators for getting a hearing test:

Hearing health affects so many aspects of one’s life that routine hearing tests should be part of a healthy lifestyle to safeguard one’s well-being and quality of life.

So schedule your hearing test today.

Hearing loss brings with it cascading medical, emotional and social side effects.

Hearing loss affects communication, so it is not surprising that several medical studies, and medical professionals, point to a strong association between hearing loss and depression.

Dr. Lin’s study at the John’s Hopkins School of Medicine found that older adults with hearing loss experienced higher rates of hospitalizations for other serious illnesses than those without. According to Lin, hearing loss has a greater impact on quality of life than diabetes, heart disease, coronary artery disease or hypertension.

Two independent studies in the U.S. show that a 25-decibel shift in the speech frequency pure-tone average was equal to nearly seven years of aging on cognitive scores in older adults. Sometimes the changes that affect the well-being of our loved ones come about so slowly that we don’t understand what’s happening.

Brandeis University Professor, Dr. Arthur Wingfield, has been studying cognitive aging and the relationship between memory and hearing acuity.

“Unaddressed hearing loss not only affects the listener’s ability to ‘hear’ the sound accurately but it also affects higher-level cognitive functioning,” he says.

Specifically, it interferes with the listener’s ability to accurately process the auditory information and make sense of it.

“Even if you have just a mild hearing loss that is not being treated, cognitive load increases significantly,” Wingfield says. “You have to put in so much effort just to perceive and understand what is being said that you divert resources away from storing what you have heard into your memory.” As people move through middle age and their later years, Wingfield suggested, it is reasonable for them to get their hearing tested annually. If there is a hearing loss, it is best to take it seriously and treat it. There is a strong relationship between quality hearing health care, benefit, and quality of life improvements.

Sotiropoulos states that 85 percent of patients report at least one area of their life was improved by wearing hearing aids. Eight out of 10 hearing aid users are satisfied with the changes that have occurred in their lives due to hearing aids, and nine out of 10 patients are projected to experience significant improvements in their quality of life once they experience a 70 percent reduction in their hearing handicap. “Come in and hear the quality difference,” Sotiropoulos says.

The Hearing Rehabilitation Center is located at 29 W. 34th St. in Steger; or 1455 W. Court St., in Kankakee. For more information call us or visit facebook.com/hearingrehabctr.

Do Not Neglect These Tinnitus Symptoms

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 22:18:00 GMT

“What’s that ringing in my ears?” “How can I make that noise go away?”

You could be dealing with tinnitus, a common hearing disorder that manifests noises in your ears that nobody else can hear, if you find yourself making these types of remarks. This is more common than you might think. Millions of individuals have this disorder.

Most describe it as ringing in the ears, but it can also sound like a pulsing noise, a dial tone, buzzing, or whistling.

Ringing in the ears might seem harmless, depending on its severity. But there are definitely times when you shouldn’t ignore it . Tinnitus symptoms can often be a sign of something more serious taking place in your body.

You need to take the following 6 symptoms seriously.

1. Your Quality of Life is Being Affected by The Ringing in Your Ears

26% of individuals who suffer from tinnitus experience symptoms constantly, based on some studies.

Depression , anxiety , insomnia , and relationship problems are all possible repercussions of this ever present ringing.

It can be a battle between the tinnitus noise and something as basic as attempting to hear your friend tell you a recipe over the phone. You might snap at your grandson, who asks a simple question, because the ringing stresses you out.

A vicious cycle can be the result of this continuous ringing. The ringing gets louder as your stress level goes up. Loud noise makes you more nervous and so on.

If tinnitus is contributing to these kinds of life challenges, it’s time to deal with it. It’s there, and your life is being affected. The noise can be reduced or eliminated with obtainable treatment options.

2. After You Changed Medications, Your Ears Started to Ring

Whether you have persistent back pain or cancer, doctors may try numerous different medications to manage the same ailment. You may ask for an alternative if you begin to experience severe side effects. If your tinnitus began or got significantly worse after you started a new drug, check that list of side effects and speak with your doctor.

Tinnitus may be caused by some common medications. Here are a few examples:

3. Blurred Vision, Seizures, And Headache Come With Tinnitus Noises

This might be a sign that high blood pressure is contributing to your tinnitus. When you have hypertension, the flow of blood to your inner ear is compromised. Unregulated high blood pressure is also a risk to your overall health. As time passes, it could cause or worsen age-related hearing loss.

4. You Only Hear it After You Leave a Concert, Gym, or Work

If you leave a noisy place such as a factory, bar, concert, or fitness class, and you start to hear tinnitus noises, you were probably exposed to unsafe noise levels and that’s most likely the cause of these noises. It becomes increasingly likely that these noises will become permanent the more often you disregard them and neglect using ear protection. And it’s usually accompanied by hearing loss.

If you are going to be exposed to loud noise, use the following to protect your hearing:

If you work in a noisy place, adhere to work rules regarding earmuffs and earplugs. Your safety gear will only effectively protect you if you use it correctly.

5. You Also Have Facial Paralysis

Whether you have ringing in your ears or not, you should never ignore facial paralysis. But when the tinnitus symptoms are come along with headaches, paralysis, and nausea, this may be a sign of a slow-growing benign brain tumor called an acoustic neuroma.

6. Fluctuating Hearing Loss is Accompanying Tinnitus

Do you experience hearing loss that seems to worsen, then get better, then worse again? Do you feel dizzy off and on? If these symptoms are occurring along with tinnitus, you may need to get tested for Menier’s disease. This produces a fluid imbalance in your ears. Your risk of falling caused by lack of balance will get worse if this disorder is left untreated.

Hearing loss is frequently signaled by tinnitus. So you should get your hearing tested if you’re experiencing it. Get in touch with us to make an appointment for a hearing test.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Rules of Roof Maintenance

billing@zoolstra.com (Todd Dean) — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 12:46:04 GMT

Broken shingles are a sign that your roof needs attention. Pay attention to this early sign and you'll save yourself time and money in the long run.

Make a list

Lists are great ways to stay on track. Write down some big things you want to accomplish and some smaller things, too.

Check the list regularly

Don’t forget to check in and see how you’re doing. Just because you don’t achieve the big goals right away doesn’t mean you’re not making progress.

Reward yourself

When you succeed in achieving a goal, be it a big one or a small one, make sure to pat yourself on the back.

Think positively

Positive thinking is a major factor in success. So instead of mulling over things that didn’t go quite right, remind yourself of things that did.

Find the Right Roof Experts

billing@zoolstra.com (Todd Dean) — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 12:46:04 GMT

Not all roofs are created equal; some roofs require more attention than others. Working with an expert will help you choose the roof that is right for you.

Here are some reasons to make blogging part of your regular routine.

Blogging is an easy way to engage with site visitors

Writing a blog post is easy once you get the hang of it. Posts don’t need to be long or complicated. Just write about what you know, and do your best to write well.

Show customers your personality
When you write a blog post, you can really let your personality shine through. This can be a great tool for showing your distinct personality.

Blogging is a terrific form of communication
Blogs are a great communication tool. They tend to be longer than social media posts, which gives you plenty of space for sharing insights, handy tips and more.

It’s a great way to support and boost SEO
Search engines like sites that regularly post fresh content, and a blog is a great way of doing this. With relevant metadata for every post so search engines can find your content.

"This is a quote for you new post. To change it, simply click and start typing."

John Doe

Drive traffic to your site
Every time you add a new post, people who have subscribed to it will have a reason to come back to your site. If the post is a good read, they’ll share it with others, bringing even more traffic!

Blogging is free
Maintaining a blog on your site is absolutely free. You can hire bloggers if you like or assign regularly blogging tasks to everyone in your company.

A natural way to build your brand
A blog is a wonderful way to build your brand’s distinct voice. Write about issues that are related to your industry and your customers.

Replacing your roof? Read this first.

billing@zoolstra.com (Todd Dean) — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 12:46:03 GMT

Replacing your roof has many benefits, including reduced heating costs and increased home value. Learn about the benefits of roof replacement.

Speak to your audience

You know your audience better than anyone else, so keep them in mind as you write your blog posts. Write about things they care about. If you have a company Facebook page, look here to find topics to write about

Take a few moments to plan your post

Once you have a great idea for a post, write the first draft. Some people like to start with the title and then work on the paragraphs. Other people like to start with subtitles and go from there. Choose the method that works for you.

Don’t forget to add images

Be sure to include a few high-quality images in your blog. Images break up the text and make it more readable. They can also convey emotions or ideas that are hard to put into words.

Edit carefully before posting

Once you’re happy with the text, put it aside for a day or two, and then re-read it. You’ll probably find a few things you want to add, and a couple more that you want to remove. Have a friend or colleague look it over to make sure there are no mistakes. When your post is error-free, set it up in your blog and publish.

Secrets to Preventing Hearing Loss

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 17:58:00 GMT

It’s likely that you’ve already observed that you don’t hear as well as you once did. Usually, we don’t even realize that our choices are negatively impacting our hearing.

Many types of hearing impairment are preventable with several simple lifestyle changes. Let’s look at six unexpected secrets that will help you protect your hearing.

1. Manage Your Blood Pressure

Consistently high blood pressure is not okay. A study found that hearing loss was 52% more likely with people who have above average blood pressure and they are more likely to have other health issues also.

Take steps to decrease your blood pressure and prevent hearing damage. Don’t dismiss high blood pressure or wait to see a doctor. Following your doctor’s orders, managing stress, eating a healthy diet, and getting regular exercise are all parts of blood pressure management.

2. Quit Smoking

There are plenty of reasons to quit smoking, here’s another: Hearing loss is 15% more likely to impact smokers. Even more alarming: Individuals who are frequently exposed to second-hand smoke are 28% more likely to have hearing troubles . Even if you leave the room, smoke hangs around for long periods of time with hazardous repercussions.

If you smoke, protect your hearing and think about quitting. Take actions to decrease your exposure to second-hand smoke if you spend time with a smoker.

3. Regulate Your Diabetes

Diabetes or pre-diabetes affects one in four adults. A pre-diabetic individual is highly likely to get diabetes within 5 years unless they make significant lifestyle changes.

Blood vessels that are injured by high blood sugar don’t effectively carry nutrients. Compared to someone who doesn’t have diabetes, a diabetic person has more than twice the chance of developing hearing loss.

If you have diabetes , protect your hearing by taking the proper steps to manage it. Safeguard your hearing by making lifestyle changes if you are at risk of type 2 diabetes.

4. Lose Some Weight

This isn’t about body image or feeling good about yourself. It’s about your health. As your Body Mass Index (BMI) goes up, so does your risk of hearing loss and other health conditions. The chance of getting hearing loss goes up by 17% for a mildly obese woman with a BMI of 30 to 34. A moderately obese individual has a 25% chance of hearing loss if they have a BMI of 40.

Work to eliminate some of that extra weight. Something as basic as walking for 30 minutes each day can lower your chance of hearing loss and prolong your life .

5. OTC Medicines Shouldn’t be Overused

Certain over-the-counter (OTC) drugs can cause hearing loss. The more frequently these medicines are used over a prolonged period of time , the higher the risk.

Typical over-the-counter medicines that impact hearing include aspirin, NSAIDs (like naproxen, ibuprofen), and acetaminophen. Take these medicines sparingly and talk to your doctor if you’re using them on a regular basis.

If you’re using the recommended dose for the occasional headache, studies indicate you’ll most likely be fine. The risk of hearing loss goes up to 40% for men, however, when these medicines are used on a day-to-day basis.

Always follow your doctor’s advice. But if you’re using these drugs every day to deal with chronic pain or thin your blood, consult your doctor about lifestyle changes you can make to decrease your dependence on OTC drugs.

6. Eat More Broccoli

Broccoli is packed with nutrients and vitamins including C and K and also has lots of iron. Iron is essential to a healthy heart and strong blood circulation . Iron helps your blood carry oxygen and nutrients to cells to keep them healthy and nourished.

For vegetarians or individuals who don’t eat much meat, eating a sufficient amount of plant-based iron is important. The iron found in plants is not as bioavailable as the iron in meat so people in this group are more likely to be deficient in iron.

Pennsylvania State University researchers examined over 300,000 people. The researchers found participants with anemia (severe iron deficiency) were twice as likely to experience sensorineural hearing loss as those without the condition. Age-related permanent hearing loss is what the technical term “sensorineural hearing loss” refers to.

The inner ear has fragile hair cells that detect sounds and interact with the brain to transmit the volume and frequency of those sounds. If poor circulation or an iron deficiency causes these little hairs to die they will never grow back.

Don’t wait to get a hearing exam because you’re never too young. Implement these steps into your life and prevent hearing loss.

Surprise: This is The Most Prevalent Workplace Injury

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 16:37:00 GMT

Every year, about 2 million workplace injuries are documented. Normally, we think about a hand caught in a piece of machinery or a flying projectile when we consider work-related injuries.

But the most prevalent workplace injury is a lot more insidious and commonly goes unreported. It sneaks up on people extremely slowly over the course of several years. The injury goes unnoticed until the effects become impossible to dismiss. People typically make excuses. “It’s just part of growing older” or “It’s a temporary issue”. This response is normal.

And it’s unusual for people to even recognize that their workplace is the cause of this injury.

The insidious injury is damaged hearing. There are numerous warning signs you should recognize, and there are important steps you need to take if you suspect the damage is already done.

Exactly When Does The Volume Become “Too Loud”?

Your hearing can be permanently damaged with prolonged exposure to as little as 85 decibels (dB) over a long period. Seventy-five dB, for instance, is the average volume of a vacuum cleaner. A lawnmower produces 85 dB. If you’re exposed to a leaf blower or a chainsaw you’re dealing with 100 dB. And the volume of a gunshot logs in at 140 dB.

How loud is your workplace? Are you being exposed to the most prevalent workplace injury? Over time, your hearing can be damaged if you are regularly exposed to sound as loud as a lawnmower, even if it’s not constant.

Hearing Damage Signs

If you work in a loud environment, there’s no question you’re damaging your hearing.

Your experiencing hearing loss if you notice any of the following symptoms:

What Are Employers Doing to Reduce Hearing Damage?

In settings that are extremely loud, technology is being put to use by businesses or organizations to reduce workplace noise . Workplace noise will be minimized as new guidelines are being put in place by governments to safeguard workers.

As more employees become aware of the chronic damage they have suffered due to workplace noise, they are coming forward. In time, their voices will lead to further change.

Preventing Additional Damage

If you work in a loud environment, the best thing you can do is safeguard your ears before any damage occurs. Wearing protective earmuffs or earplugs while at work will help reduce potential damage.

Schedule an appointment for a hearing exam as soon as possible if you believe a noisy workplace has caused injury to your hearing. When you determine the degree of your hearing loss, you will learn how to avoid further damage going forward. We address any hearing damage you already have and develop strategies to help you counter any further damage.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Why Can I Hear Soft Sounds But Can’t Understand Conversations?

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 03:11:00 GMT

Turning up the volume doesn’t always remedy hearing loss issues. Here’s something to consider: Many people are able to hear very soft sounds, but can’t make out conversations. The reason for this is hearing loss often occurs unevenly. You tend to lose specific frequencies but are able to hear others, and that can make voices sound garbled.

Hearing Loss Comes in Numerous Types

Sensorineural Hearing Loss Symptoms

You may hear a little better if people speak louder to you, but it isn’t going to comprehensively address your hearing loss challenges. People who cope with sensorineural hearing loss have trouble making out specific sounds , like consonants in speech. This may lead somebody with hearing loss to the mistaken conclusion that people around them are mumbling when actually, they’re talking clearly.

When somebody is dealing with hearing loss, the pitch of consonants often makes them hard to distinguish. Pitch is measured in hertz (Hz), and many consonants register in our ears at a higher pitch than other sounds. For instance, a short “o” registers at 250 to 1,000 Hz, depending on the voice of the person speaking. Conversely, consonants such as “f” and “s” register at 1,500 to 6,000 Hz. Because of damage to the inner ear, these higher pitches are hard to hear for people who have sensorineural hearing loss.

This is why just speaking louder doesn’t always help. If you can’t hear some of the letters in a word like “shift,” it won’t make much difference how loudly the other person speaks.

How Can Wearing Hearing Aids Help With This?

Hearing aids come with a component that goes in the ear, so sounds get to your auditory system without the interference you would typically hear in your environment. Hearing aids also help you by boosting the frequencies you’re unable to hear and balancing that with the frequencies you can hear. This makes what you hear much more clear. Modern hearing aids can also cancel out background noise to make it easier to make out speech.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

How Should I Care For my Hearing Aid?

Wed, 19 May 2021 01:15:00 GMT

How would you handle it if your hearing aid stopped working at the worst possible moment. Such as in the middle of a phone call?

Nobody wants that to occur! Your hearing aids are a significant investment in your hearing, happiness, and overall health. Keeping them functioning in peak condition allows you to obtain the greatest possible advantages from them.

The following are 7 tips to help you correctly care for your hearing aids and keep them operating in peak condition.

1. Read The Instructions

The best results will be accomplished when you use the manual that was included with your hearing aids. These manuals typically come with troubleshooting guides that will help you resolve many technical challenges.

If something isn’t functioning correctly, always check the manual first.

Any issues associated with the performance of your hearing aid should be addressed in the manual. This is important even if you’ve worn hearing aids before because your new devices might not work the same way. After all, there have been many advances in hearing aid technology in the last few years.

2. Keep Your Hearing Aids Clean

Hearing aids can provide a breeding ground for bacteria.

If you fail to clean and disinfect your hearing aids and wash your hands before you handle them, an ear infection can be the result.

Ear infections can cause further hearing concerns. Some of these issues are short lived but permanent damage can also take place.

After every use, wipe your hearing aids down with a dry cloth because bacteria bread faster on moist surfaces. Never put your hearing aids in water. Taking care not to get them too wet, utilize an alcohol-free wet wipe to clean and disinfect.

Once a week, clean the hearing aid and any custom mold pieces completely.

Regularly cleaning your hearing aids will help prevent wax buildup on the earpiece.

3. Keep Your Hearing Aids Dry

Most hearing aids are not designed to get wet. Even high humidity can cause damage. Don’t leave them on the nightstand after cleaning.

Hearing aids will gather dust which has bacteria if they are left sitting on an open surface.

Store your devices in a cool, dry place according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Remember to take them out before you bathe or shower. Leave your hearing aids out of the bathroom during your shower because there will be moisture in the air.

When it’s raining, bring an umbrella.

Always bring your charger with you because your battery may drain faster if the air has moisture.

Don’t allow your hearing aid to be exposed to intense heat, such as a blow dryer or sauna, as that can also damage them.

4. Avoid Draining The Battery

Don’t get caught without a spare battery at your nephew’s piano recital.

Turn your hearing aids completely off before you go to sleep. Remove the batteries if you are going to go for a long time period without using your hearing aids. If you let your hearing aids sit for long time periods with the battery in them, the life of the battery can be decreased and their delicate electronics can be harmed by battery acid.

The life of your battery can be substantially extended by following these recommendations but it doesn’t hurt to bring a spare along, just in case.

5. Have Your Ears Professionally Cleaned

A little bit of wax is pushed into your ear canal every time you insert your hearing aid. Voices will eventually begin to sound muted as this earwax builds up. Set up an appointment for a cleaning with your hearing specialist if your hearing seems dull and muted.

The removal procedure is simple with the correct tools. It should only be done by a trained professional with the expertise to service and care for your hearing aids.

6. When You’re Putting in Your Hearing Aids, do it Over a Soft Surface

Don’t risk dropping your hearing aids in the toilet or sink. This can definitely result in dropping the hearing aid and damaging it. Over a couch, bed, or soft folded towel would be a suitable place to insert them.

7. Talk to a Specialist if You Aren’t Experiencing Improved Hearing

If you aren’t having the best experience with your hearing aids, don’t discontinue wearing them. Your situation can be enhanced. Make an appointment to come see us for an exam.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

How Your Weight Impacts Your Hearing

Tue, 11 May 2021 17:00:00 GMT

There are plenty of health reasons to stay in shape, but did you know weight loss supports improved hearing?

Studies have demonstrated that exercising and eating healthy can reinforce your hearing and that individuals who are overweight have an increased chance of suffering from hearing loss . Learning more about these associations can help you make healthy hearing decisions for you and your family.

Obesity And Adult Hearing

Women had a higher risk of developing hearing loss, according to a study done by Brigham And Women’s Hospital, if they have a high body mass index (BMI). The connection between body fat and height is what BMI measures. The higher the number the higher the body fat. The higher the BMI of the 68,000 women in the study, the higher their hearing impairment amount. The heaviest individuals in the study had a 25% greater instance of hearing loss.

Another reliable indicator of hearing loss, in this study, was waist size. Women with bigger waist sizes had a higher risk of hearing loss, and the risk got higher as waist sizes increased. And finally, incidents of hearing loss were lower in individuals who engaged in regular physical activity.

Obesity And Children’s Hearing

A study on obese versus non-obese teenagers, conducted by Columbia University Medical Center, determined that obese teenagers were twice as likely to experience hearing loss in one ear than teenagers who were not obese. Sensorineural hearing loss, which occurs when the delicate hair cells in the inner ear are damaged, was common in these children. This damage resulted in a decreased ability to hear sounds at low frequencies, which makes it difficult to understand what people are saying in crowded places, such as classrooms.

Hearing loss in children is particularly worrisome because kids frequently don’t realize they have a hearing problem. If the problem isn’t dealt with, there is a risk the hearing loss might get worse when they become adults.

What is The Connection?

Obesity is related to several health issues and researchers suspect that its connection with hearing loss and tinnitus lies with these health problems. High blood pressure, poor circulation, and diabetes are all linked to hearing loss and are frequently caused by obesity.

The sensitive inner ear contains various delicate parts such as nerve cells, small capillaries, and other parts which will quit working efficiently if they aren’t kept healthy. It’s essential to have strong blood flow . This process can be hindered when obesity causes constricting of the blood vessels and high blood pressure.

Decreased blood flow can also damage the cochlea, which accepts sound waves and sends nerve impulses to the brain so you can recognize what you’re hearing. Damage to the cochlea and the surrounding nerve cells usually can’t be reversed.

Is There Anything You Can do?

Women who stayed healthy and exercised frequently, according to a Brigham and Women’s Hospital study, had a 17% reduced likelihood of developing hearing loss in comparison with women who didn’t. You don’t have to run a marathon to decrease your risk, however. The simple routine of walking for at least two hours each week can decrease your chance of hearing loss by 15%.

Beyond losing weight, a better diet will, of itself, help your hearing which will benefit your entire family. If you have a child or grandchild in your family who is obese, talk about steps your family can take to promote a healthier lifestyle. You can teach them exercises that are fun for kids and work them into family get-togethers. They may do the exercises on their own if they enjoy them enough.

Consult a hearing professional to figure out if any hearing loss you might be experiencing is related to your weight. Better hearing can be the result of weight loss and there’s help available. This individual can do a hearing exam to confirm your suspicions and advise you on the measures necessary to deal with your hearing loss symptoms. A regimen of exercise and diet can be suggested by your primary care doctor if necessary.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

6 Reasons to Get a Hearing Test

Mon, 03 May 2021 19:35:00 GMT

Our lives are busy and chaotic – from our jobs to cooking food to social events. It most likely seems like there’s not enough time to have your hearing evaluated. And maybe you don’t even notice any hearing loss – so you think a hearing test can wait.

Here’s why you shouldn’t put it off:

1. Further Hearing Loss Can be Prevented

Because hearing loss typically progresses gradually, many people don’t grasp how bad it has become. Over time, they start compensating and making lifestyle changes without realizing it. And because they don’t realize they have hearing loss, they keep engaging in activities that worsen their hearing loss.

But knowing is half the battle.

It can be an eye-opener to get your hearing examined. There isn’t any way to reverse any hearing loss you might have already suffered, but you can slow its advancement.

It will be helpful to know how to keep your moderate hearing loss from getting worse.

Exercising, lowering your blood pressure , and dealing with chronic diseases more effectively can slow hearing loss progression.

Your ears will be protected from further damage by using ear protection when subjected to loud sounds and reducing your exposure.

2. You Don’t Even Know How Much You’re Missing

If you are experiencing moderate hearing loss, you might have slowly forgotten how much you enjoy listening to music. Not needing to ask friends and family to repeat themselves when they speak to you is something you may not even remember.

You might find yourself getting further away from doing your favorite activities and spending time with friends.

You can find out just how much hearing loss you have by getting a hearing assessment. In the majority of situations, we can help you hear better.

3. You Might Make Your Current Hearing Aid Experience Better

Perhaps you already use hearing aids but you really don’t like to wear them. You might not feel like it improves your listening experience. Visiting a hearing specialist and having your hearing re-tested will guarantee you have the hearing aids that work best for you and that they’re adjusted for your personal listening needs.

4. You Could be at Risk Already

And debilitating hearing loss is experienced by 8.5% of adults 55 to64. Hearing loss is typically due to environmental factors. It isn’t simply something that develops when you get older. Most of it is caused by exposure to loud sound.

If you are involved in the following activities, you’re at an increased risk:

Every one of these daily activities can cause hearing loss. You need to go have your hearing checked by a hearing professional as soon as you can if you detect a decline in your ability to hear regardless of what your age is.

5. Your General Health Will Improve

Individuals with untreated hearing loss have a significantly higher chance of:

Having your hearing tested is about more than only your hearing.

6. Strained Relationships Can be Repaired

Neglected hearing loss can test the patience of your family members and friends. Misunderstandings are more common. Individuals will become aggravated with the situation, including you. Regret and resentment can be the outcome. Rather than constantly having to repeat themselves, family and friends might start to exclude you from get-togethers.

But misunderstandings and stressed relationships can be prevented by getting a hearing exam and that’s the good news.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Signs of Aging Are Slowed Down by Hearing Aids

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 15:32:00 GMT

You’ve been searching for a way to maintain your youthfulness as you age.

Diet, exercise, and vitamins have all been part of your program. You’ve already spent too much on maintaining your hair and keeping wrinkles at bay. You’ve even tried out yoga. You can stay happy and youthful regardless of your age.

But what if you found out that there’s an easy method to remain happy and feeling young that’s affordable and backed by science. Yet, fewer than 16% of individuals who would benefit are taking advantage of it.

The “trick” is simple – they’re using their hearing aids to treat their hearing loss.

As we age, this might be the trick to remaining youthful and happy.

How Commonplace is Hearing Loss?

By the time you get to the age of 45, your risk of developing hearing loss goes up dramatically . It even affects children as young as 12 .

A study showed that out of all people between 45 and 54, hearing loss is experienced by 11% of them. By age 80 that percentage increases to 90%. Almost 25% of those aged 65 to 74, and 50 percent of people 75 and older, are dealing with disabling hearing loss.

Additionally, hearing loss is two times as common with men younger than 70 compared to women in the same age group.

While you probably relate hearing loss with aging, most hearing loss occurs due to exposure to loud and harmful sounds . Some individuals are exposed to more harmful sounds than others over the course of their lives.

Hearing loss isn’t an inevitability, but failing to treat your hearing loss has been shown by repeated studies, to impact your overall health, happiness, and youthfulness.

Yet only 1 out of 7 individuals who should be using hearing aids have them.

Your Hearing Aid is The Secret to Youthfulness And Happiness

The following outcomes have been directly linked to wearing hearing aids:

You’ll concur, being with people is one of the things that make life worthwhile. You feel younger and happier when you spend cherished time with those you love doing the activities you take pleasure in.

People with hearing loss who use their hearing aids are more likely to stay active and social .

Research has revealed that individuals with hearing loss who wear hearing aids are less likely to report sad feelings and loneliness, which is linked to depression.

Feeling like people are trying to avoid them or are mad at them is also not as likely. It’s not as common for them to practice self isolation.

Increased happiness is the outcome of less depression.

If you have a mom, dad, or aunt with dementia , you know how frightening it is for the family and the person in mental decline. It takes longer for a person with cognitive decline to process things and they are constantly forgetting what they said and did which makes them feel older.

As cognitive decline worsens, the individuals who are coping with it are no longer capable of doing the things that make them feel youthful and happy.

If the simple act of using your hearing aid can lessen your chances of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, shouldn’t you be wearing it?

The chances of falling and sustaining a severe injury becomes a serious concern as we get older. When we were younger, we were much more stable. A hospital stay and several weeks of rehab may be the outcome if a bad fall results in a fracture.

That’s not a place you want to be. Being in pain in the hospital isn’t at all fun.

When you can get around easily, you live a happier life. You’re more sure of your movements and less likely to be startled.

Hearing aids will make a hospital stay less likely and will let you spend more time with friends and family.

How many disputes start because you believed you heard someone say something unfavorable, but in reality, the person said something else? Or maybe you think someone is yelling at you because they have to raise their voice so you can hear them.

Untreated hearing loss puts a tremendous strain on your relationships with friends and family. It can create resentment, anger, sadness, and other adverse emotions. But you will have more positive interactions with friends and family if you can hear better which hearing aids will help you do. Whatever age you might be, this will help you remain happy and youthful.

Whatever you’ve lost, reclaim it

Have you been using your hearing aid? Many of the basic joys in life that you’ve been missing include:

You might think you can still hear these things clearly, but if you are experiencing hearing loss, they probably don’t sound as enjoyable as they once did.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Seniors Can Lower Their Chances of Health Problems by Doing This

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 23:26:00 GMT

For anyone suffering from hearing impairment, the message is straightforward: Get a hearing aid.

Why? A recent study revealed that people were less likely to develop health issues such as depression, anxiety, dementia, and dangerous falls if they began using hearing aids within three years of being diagnosed with hearing impairment. While these health concerns aren’t proven to be eliminated by hearing aids, fewer health problems have been linked to their use. Results from the study showed that hearing aid users were 18% less likely to develop dementia, 11% less likely to develop depression or anxiety, and 13% less likely to suffer a dangerous fall.

Avoid Making Excuses

If these numbers seem low to you, it’s essential to recall that your health is at risk, and every little bit counts. Prior studies have demonstrated a connection between hearing loss and other significant health problems , but this study verified it’s an ongoing, declining problem . It’s significant to remember that many individuals diagnosed with hearing loss don’t bother getting hearing aids. Why not? Not having the correct insurance to cover some of the expenses is a typical problem. And the cost might still be too high even with insurance.

Others go through the motions, getting fitted for hearing aids and taking them home only to leave them in the case because using them seems like too much of an inconvenience. Most people simply turn up the volume to solve the dilemma and don’t think about hearing loss as much of a problem.

While it may seem as if hearing loss is inescapable as you get older, there’s more to it than that, and cranking up the volume is not the correct solution.

The Value of Healthy Hearing

Clearly, a major element of communication is the ability to hear. If your failure to communicate causes you to miss an essential instruction by your doctor or direction by a family member, that’s a problem. As a result, you might not be capable of conveying your concerns and symptoms.

There are also some less obvious problems associated with inadequate communication. If trying to have a conversation on the phone leaves you feeling frustrated and embarrassed, you may begin to lose touch with individuals in your support system. Not being able to hear may even result in less brain stimulation, and we all know that exercising your mind can help fend off dementia.

Hearing Aid Benefits

Getting a hearing aid isn’t all about serious, long-term worries. Your long term outlook will certainly improve but hearing aids will instantly enhance your quality of life. You will have a more satisfying social life and feel less isolated if you can hear and participate in conversations. You will decrease your anxiety even further when you are able to precisely communicate your health concerns with your doctor and understanding his advice for treatment.

Is it time to consider a hearing aid? If you are dealing with any of the following symptoms, the answer is yes:

These and possibly other symptoms might be a signal that it’s time to consider getting a hearing aid. If any of them sound familiar, ask us if a hearing aid may be the right choice for you.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Try These Three Easy Steps to Limit Hearing Loss

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 22:02:00 GMT

The first thing to do, when you start to recognize that you have hearing loss, is to eliminate further damage. There are, after all, some simple measures you can take to safeguard your ears and minimize further hearing loss.

Step 1: Keep Your Ears Clean

Remember learning to make sure you clean behind your ears when you learned general hygiene (or at least should have learned). But it’s actually the inner ear we’re worried about cleaning when it comes to hearing health, rather than behind the ears.

Keeping your ears free of wax buildup can help your hearing in a number of different ways:

You never turn to the use of a cotton swab to try and dig out built up earwax. Further damage can be done by cotton swabs and they will frequently make it even harder to hear. Over the counter ear drops are a better opinion.

Step 2: Avoid Loud Noises

This one should almost be left off the list it’s so intuitive. But determining how loud is too loud is the real issue for most individuals. Over an extended time period, for instance, your ears can be damaged by driving on a busy freeway. Also, surprisingly, your lawn mower can take a toll on your hearing. As you can tell, it’s not just blasting speakers or loud rock concerts that harm your ears.

Here are a few ways to stay away from damaging noise:

Damage to the ears from noise doesn’t happen abruptly, it progresses slowly. So, even if your hearing “seems” good after a noisy event, it may not be. Only a hearing professional can give your ears a clean bill of health.

Step #3: If You Have Any Hearing Impairment – Have it Treated

Generally speaking, hearing loss is cumulative. So recognizing any damage early on will help prevent additional injury. That’s why getting treated is extremely important in terms of limiting hearing loss. Practical treatments (that you follow through with) will put your hearing in the best possible condition.

Here’s what you can expect:

You Will be Benefited in The Future by Decreasing Hearing Loss

Although it’s true that there’s no cure for hearing loss, getting treatment for your hearing loss will help prevent further damage. In many cases, hearing aids are one of the primary ways to achieve that. The correct treatment will help you preserve your present level of hearing and prevent it from getting worse.

Your allowing yourself the best possibility for healthy hearing into the future by wearing ear protection, getting the proper treatment, and exercising good hearing hygiene.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Feeling Anxious? Hearing Impairment May be The Culprit

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 15:43:00 GMT

Anxiety is defined as a persistent state of alertness. Elevated alertness is a good thing when there’s danger but some individuals get stuck in a continual state of alertness even when they’re not in any peril. You may find yourself filled with feelings of anxiety while doing daily tasks. Everything seems more overwhelming than it typically would and day-to-day life becomes an emotional struggle.

And anxiety, for others, can take more than an emotional toll – the symptoms could become physical . These symptoms include nausea, dizziness, insomnia, and heart palpitations. Some individuals start to feel an increasing sense of anxiety as their hearing declines while others struggle with some levels of anxiety all their lives.

Unlike some aging challenges which appear suddenly, hearing loss tends to creep up on you until all of a sudden your hearing specialist tells you that you need a hearing aid. This should be similar to learning you need glasses, but failing vision usually doesn’t cause the same level of anxiety that hearing loss does. It can occur even if you’ve never experienced serious anxiety before. For those already struggling with anxiety or depression, hearing loss can amplify it.

What’s That?

There are new concerns with hearing loss: Did I mishear that price? How many times can I say “huh”? Are they irritated with me for asking them to repeat themselves? Will my kids still call? These fears escalate as anxiety sets in, which is a common reaction, especially when day-to-day experiences become stressful. If you no longer accept invitations to dinner or bigger gatherings, you might want to assess why. Your struggle to keep up with conversations could be the reason why you keep turning down invitations if you’re being honest with yourself. While this could help temporarily, in the long-term, you will feel more separated, which will lead to additional anxiety.

Am I Alone?

Others are also going through this. It’s increasingly common for people to have anxiety. About 18% of the population copes with an anxiety condition. Recent research shows hearing loss increases the chance of being diagnosed with anxiety, particularly when neglected. It may work the opposite way also. Some studies have shown that anxiety increases your chances of developing hearing loss. Considering how treatable anxiety and hearing loss are, it’s a shame so many individuals continue to cope with both needlessly.

Options For Treatment

If your anxiety is a result of hearing loss you should make an appointment to be fitted for a hearing aid. Don’t procrastinate and if you find that your hearing has abruptly changed, come in as soon as you can. For many, hearing aids decrease anxiety by reducing miscommunications and embarrassment in social situations.

There is a learning curve with hearing aids that might add to your anxiety if you aren’t ready for it. It can take weeks to determine the ins and outs of hearing aids and get used to wearing them. So, don’t get discouraged if you struggle with them at first. If you’re still having issues with anxiety after you’ve had your hearing aids for a while, it’s time to make an appointment with your doctor. There are many methods to deal with anxiety, and your doctor might recommend lifestyle changes such as additional exercise, to benefit your individual situation.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

How The Pandemic Reveals Hearing Loss

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 23:22:00 GMT

You wear your mask when you go out, sometimes more than one, and you generally don’t mind. The only trouble is, sometimes it’s hard to hear what other people are saying. Voices are muffled and even distorted when you go to the store or doctor’s office. Sometimes, it’s so bad you can hardly grasp a single word. They’re also wearing masks, obviously. Our face coverings aren’t completely at fault, however. The real problem could be your hearing. Or, to say it differently: those muffled voices you’re hearing during the pandemic may be revealing your hearing impairment.

The Human Voice is Muffled by a Mask

Most good masks are manufactured to stop the spread of airborne particles or water droplets. Most evidence indicates airborne water droplets as a contributing factor in the instance of COVID-19 so that’s very useful (all these results, however, are still preliminary and studies are still being carried out). Limiting and stopping COVID-19, consequently, has been proven really effective by wearing masks.

Unfortunately, those same masks impede the movement of sound waves. The human voice will be a bit muffled by a mask. It’s not really a big concern for most individuals. But if hearing loss is an issue for you and muffled voices are suddenly all around you, it may be hard for you to comprehend anything being said.

Hearing Loss Makes Your Brain Work Overtime

But your difficulty understanding people wearing masks most likely isn’t only because voices are muffled. There’s more going on than that. You see, the brain is extremely good at compensating for changes in your hearing, up to a point.

Even if you can’t hear what’s happening, your brain will put the situation into context and use that information to interpret what’s being said. Facial expressions, body language, even lip movements are all synthesized by your brain automatically to help you compensate for what you can’t hear.

Many of these visual indicators are concealed when someone is wearing a mask. You can’t see the shape of someone’s lips or the position of the mouth. You don’t even know if they are smiling or frowning.

Mental Fatigue

Your brain has a very difficult time trying to translate what’s being said without that added visual information. That means you’re more likely to hear nothing but mumbles. Even if your brain can, somehow, make sense of what was said, your brain will get tired .

The fatigue of a brain trying to continuously compensate, under normal circumstances, can result in loss of memory and irritability. With masks on, your brain will become even more fatigued (it’s worthwhile to remember masks are essential protection, so keep them on).

Hearing Solutions

The pandemic is revealing hearing loss by bringing these concerns into focus. It’s not causing the condition in the first place, but it might have otherwise gone unnoticed because hearing loss typically advances quite slowly. When your hearing first starts to diminish, you might ignore the symptoms and raise the volume on the television (you may not even detect this occurring).

That’s why it’s important to visit us regularly. Because of the variety of screenings we carry out, we can identify problems with your hearing early, often before you notice it yourself.

If you are having a difficult time hearing what people are saying when they’re wearing a mask, this is particularly true. Together we can determine ways to make you more comfortable conversing with people wearing a mask. Hearing aids, for instance, can offer substantial benefits, allowing you to recover a lot of your functional hearing range. Hearing aids will make it much easier to hear, and understand the voices behind the masks.

Keep Your Mask on

As the pandemic exposes hearing loss, it’s important to remember you must keep your mask on. Masks are often mandated or required because they save lives. The last thing we should do, no matter how tempting, is take off our mask.

So keep your mask on, schedule an appointment with us, and wear your hearing aids. Sticking with these guidelines will keep you safe and enhance your quality of life.

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How to Make Him Aware That he Needs a Hearing Aid

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 16:01:00 GMT

Watching sports with Ted is incredibly frustrating. He has the volume turned up so high the walls shake, and you surely can’t tune in to the game. The announcer’s play-by-play calls are an ear shattering staccato against the deafening roar of the crowd.

It’s not fun. But the volume seems fine for Ted. He requires the TV to be tremendously loud so he can hear it, which makes it rather obvious he needs a hearing aid. How to talk to him about it is the difficulty. It should be a simple discussion, but he seems overly sensitive about the topic.

The following are some recommendations that could help.

You Can Suggest he Gets a Basic Hearing Test

Ted has to learn more about his hearing from an expert. He might not believe other people when they inform him he needs a hearing aid. If that’s the case, the strategy will be getting Ted (or anyone like him ) to come see us.

One of the following strategies might help you do that:

Chat About Hearing Loss Behaviors

Hearing loss happens slowly, often progressing so slowly it’s unnoticeable. Certain subconscious behaviors often develop when this occurs. You can hint in a subtle way that Ted needs a hearing aid by focusing on these behaviors.

Try something like the following:

When you have these conversations focusing on these behaviors, not the condition, will be the goal. Instead of discussing how Ted is experiencing hearing impairment, mention how his hearing loss impacts those around him.

Talk About Hearing Aid Technology

Sometimes, reluctance to wearing hearing aids comes from antiquated (but understandable) notions of what hearing aids do and how they influence one’s personal appearance. It might not be a bad idea to emphasize the innovative technology utilized by contemporary hearing aids.

Here are some examples:

Hearing aids, for many individuals, are an ideal extension to their other smart technology. Modern hearing aids are very helpful pieces of technology that help you enjoy live streaming.

Highlight The Long-Term Benefits

Lastly, it’s worth taking time to mention the long-term advantages of hearing aids, which have been shown to help people keep (or recover) their cognitive faculties. To put it bluntly, hearing is critical to a person’s mental health.

You will keep more of your hearing undamaged in the long run if you manage your hearing loss as soon as possible. When you have hearing impairment, your ears have a hard time processing specific wavelengths and hearing aids are calibrated to fill in those missing frequencies. Simply turning your television volume up isn’t a substitute for this valuable technology.

Getting treatment as soon as you begin experiencing hearing loss can help save your hearing, and understanding that will help convince people like Ted to seek help.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

The Hidden Cause of Solitude Among Adults

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 21:20:00 GMT

As we age, the chances increase that we will have to cope with hearing loss. Some amount of hearing loss is already impacting millions of people. Regrettably, people suffering from hearing loss commonly wait seven years after the first symptoms show up before looking for help.

Many older adults choose to disregard their hearing loss, which can negatively affect their social lives. Withdrawing from social situations because it’s hard to communicate and constantly asking people to repeat what they said are common warning signs.

Obviously, hearing is crucial. We’re strengthened by our ability to hear. With it, we can hang out with friends, go to work, and communicate with people we love. It also keeps us safe and in tune with the outside world. Even your ability to relax is affected by your hearing. Regrettably, we frequently take it for granted that we’ll always have strong hearing.

Most of you will reach a point in your lives when your hearing begins to diminish and it will have a physical and emotional effect on you. It has an effect on your general quality of life. Hearing loss can even lead to feelings of separation.

For these reasons, it’s important to recognize the early signs of hearing loss so potential treatment options can be considered. The good news is, most forms of hearing loss are treatable. If you are suffering from hearing loss and are frustrated about missing crucial discussions, you should consult with a hearing professional in your area right away. These pros will help identify your degree of hearing loss, as well as whether your hearing, and overall health, would benefit from wearing hearing aids.

For individuals who have age-related hearing loss, research has shown that wearing hearing aids has lots of benefits, including improvements in the ability to hear in social scenarios and interacting with others. Hearing aids make it easier for older adults to continue their regular routines and socially interact with friends, family members, and the other individuals with whom they communicate each day.

Mental health problems like loss of memory, depression, failing mental cognition, and even the occurrence of Alzheimer’s have been connected to hearing loss in studies conducted by Johns Hopkins University. These health issues can be avoided by managing hearing loss.

Communication is a major part of personal relationships, particularly with friends and family members. Frustration and miscommunication between family and friends are frequently the result of hearing loss.

Safety is also an issue for individuals afflicted with hearing loss. There are essential warning noises that occur in your life like sirens, alarms, horns, and the sound of traffic approaching which you need to be able to hear. Hearing aids will help keep you safer by allowing you to hear these sounds.

Hearing impairment can have an adverse effect on your earning. If you are dealing with hearing loss and are a member of the labor force, it can create frustration, missed details, and ultimately lower your ability to earn. The use of hearing aids can help.

It’s important that the individual with hearing loss take the first step and schedule a hearing test, but family members can also be a great help. If you are experiencing hearing loss, you need to take hearing a exam and commit to treatment (such as using hearing aids regularly), so you can go back to hearing all the sounds and conversations that are significant in your day-to-day life. Ultimately, it’s important to recognize that you aren’t by yourself. With help from family members, hearing professionals, and hearing aids, you can avoid feelings of isolation and once again socialize with your treasured family members and friends.

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How to Keep Alzheimer’s in Check

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 17:36:00 GMT

Make no mistake: Keeping your mind clear and preventing cognitive conditions including dementia and Alzheimer’s can be accomplished in numerous ways. Social engagement and involvement in the workforce are among the most significant. Regardless of the method, though, treating hearing loss through hearing aids makes these activities a great deal easier and contributes in its own way to battling cognitive problems.

Many studies show that the disorders listed above are all connected to neglected hearing loss. This article will outline the relationship between cognitive decline and hearing loss and how using hearing aids can minimize the probability of these conditions becoming an imminent issue.

The Relationship Between Hearing Loss And Cognitive Decline

The connection between hearing loss and cognitive decline has been studied several times over the years by scientists at Johns Hopkins. The same story was told by each study: cognitive decline was more prevalent with people who experience hearing loss. One study showed, in fact, that there was a 24% higher instance of Alzheimer’s in people who have diminished hearing.

Hearing loss alone does not cause dementia, but there is a connection between the two conditions. When you can’t effectively process sound your brain has to work overtime according to leading theories. That means your brain is spending more valuable energy on relatively simple activities, leaving a lot less of that energy for more challenging processes such as memory or cognitive functions.

Hearing loss can also have a significant impact on your mental health. Studies have shown that hearing loss is connected to depression, social isolation, anxiety, and may even affect schizophrenia. All of these disorders also produce cognitive decline – as mentioned above, one of the optimum ways to maintain your mental sharpness is to remain socially active. Frequently, individuals who have hearing loss will turn to self isolation because they feel self conscious around other people. The lack of human interaction can produce the other mental health problems listed above and eventually lead to cognitive impairments.

Keeping Your Mental Faculties Acute With Hearing Aids

One of the best resources we have to fight dementia and other cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer’s is hearing aids. The problem is that only one in seven of the millions of people 50 or older who deal with hearing impairment actually use a hearing aid. It could be a stigma or a previous bad experience that keeps people wearing hearing aids, but in fact, hearing aids have been shown to help people maintain their cognitive function by helping them hear better.

When your hearing is damaged for a prolonged amount of time, the brain could forget how to identify some everyday sounds and will need to learn them all over again. A hearing aid can either stop that scenario from occurring in the first place or help you relearn those sounds, which will allow your brain to focus on other, more important tasks.

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Environmental Allergies Can Bring About Hearing Issues

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:56:00 GMT

All year is allergy season in some places. From pollen to pet dander, allergies can range from a minor aggravation to a daily struggle that impacts your quality of life. Itchy eyes and a runny nose are the symptoms people are most familiar with and can be the first sign that you’re dealing with allergies.

However, some will undergo enhanced symptoms such as loss of hearing, poor balance, and tinnitus. These symptoms are a side effect of added pressure in your inner and middle ear.

Why is Your Hearing Affected by Allergies?

When your body senses an environmental allergen it responds by discharging a chemical called histamine. The familiar itchy eyes and runny nose are the outcomes of this release. Fluid buildup in the inner ear is a less known symptom. The fluid stops the allergen from getting deeper into your ear canal. The resulting pressure can result in problems with your equilibrium leading to a clogged ear, trouble hearing, and balance issues.

Treatment Solutions For Hearing Loss Caused by Allergies

There are lots of ways to treat the symptoms of allergies. The majority of people begin with over-the-counter products such as Claritin, Zyrtec, and Allegra. These medicines are used to manage mild cases and can start working in as little as one dose with the maximum effect appearing after a few days of use. Long term use of these medicines is also safe. Others, such as Benadryl, Sudafed, and Afrin, can be used short term for relief, but are not recommended for long term use as they can result in unwanted side effects.

There are also natural solutions that can be utilized by themselves or in combination with over-the-counter remedies. Saline solutions or a Neti pot are some examples. In some cases, even an ordinary hot shower can lead to improvement, especially when combined with a vapor tablet. You can also make changes to your environment such as getting an air purifier, cleaning dust off surfaces with a damp cloth, and washing your fabrics with hot water every two weeks. If you have pets and have trouble with pet dander, make sure you bathe your pet regularly.

Already Tried All That?

Over-the-counter and natural remedies might not work in some circumstances. When none of these solutions help over the course of several weeks professional assistance might be required. An allergist will decide if you are a good candidate for allergy shots. These shots will be delivered in slowly increasing doses once a week for up to six months before switching to a shot once a month. These shots work by introducing a small bit of allergen into your system which allows your body to learn how to cope with it. Even though it only takes about eight months for patients to feel some relief, this therapy will require a long term commitment of as much as five years.

If you still have pressure in your ears and none of these approaches help, it’s time to have a hearing exam.

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Finding Affordable Hearing Aids

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 22:53:00 GMT

When it comes to hearing loss, the numbers tell an interesting story . As an example, around the world, over 466 million people experience some kind of hearing issue. Or that nearly 10% of the population struggles with tinnitus , a chronic ringing in the ears? But unfortunately, hearing aids are used by only 16% of people who really need them.

There are several reasons why someone who requires a hearing aid may not use one. They might decide to suffer silently because they are worried about a possible stigma associated with aging or are too full of pride to use a hearing aid.

Another obstacle is the price. It can be relatively difficult to get assistance paying for hearing aids and they can be pretty costly.

Hearing aids are, however, the best available choice for the majority of people who have hearing loss, and for people who can’t afford hearing aids, there are other kinds of help available.

Deciding Against Hearing Aids Can be Costly

Unfortunately, the true cost of not using a hearing aid can be even more than the financial consequence of purchasing them. People who have hearing loss frequently face more difficulties earning a living and deal with more mental health disorders, like depression, solitude, and anxiety. When both the potential future health issues, and the quality of life challenges are added up, the cost of not getting hearing aids is significant. In fact, research has shown that ignoring hearing loss can increase your healthcare costs by up to 40%.

What makes that statistic even more alarming is that there are numerous ways to make hearing aids affordable.

How to Find Affordable Hearing Aids

If you need hearing aids but can’t afford them, there are a few ways you can still get them. The Starkey Hearing Foundation donates more than 100,000 hearing aids every year to individuals suffering from hearing loss who otherwise could not afford treatments. People who have limited incomes can get financial help or refurbished hearing aids from a few different groups.

Getting Affordable Hearing Aids – The First Move

Before you make contact with any of the services or institutions listed above, you should first get a hearing examination to identify the kind of hearing aid that is the best choice for you. Your hearing test results will point you in the right direction and you can then look at options. Whether insurance, Veteran’s associations, or other avenues can help is also something we can help with.

Whether you are eligible for coverage or not, there are frequently less costly solutions.

Let us help.

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Warning Signs You Should Get a Hearing Test

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 20:12:00 GMT

The last time you ate dinner with your family was a difficult experience. It wasn’t because your family was having a hard time getting along. No, the source of the difficulty was simple: it was boisterous, and you couldn’t hear anything. So you weren’t able to have very much meaningful conversation with any of your family members. It was frustrating. For the most part, you blame the acoustics. But you can’t entirely dismiss the possibility that perhaps your hearing is starting to go bad.

It’s not generally advisable to attempt to self diagnose hearing loss because it usually isn’t possible. But there are a few early warning signs you should keep on your radar. When enough of these red flags surface, it’s worth scheduling an appointment to get checked by a hearing specialist.

Early Signs of Hearing Loss

Not every sign and symptom of hearing loss is noticeable. But you might be dealing with some amount of hearing loss if you find yourself recognizing some of these signs.

Here are a few of the warning signs of hearing loss:

Next Up: Take a Examination

No matter how many of these early warning signs you might encounter, there’s really only one way to know, with confidence, whether your hearing is fading: get a hearing test.

You could very well be going through some amount of hearing loss even if you’re only experiencing one of these early warning signs. A hearing examination will be able to tell what level of impairment, if any, is present. Then it will become more obvious what has to be done about it.

This means your next family gathering can be a great deal more enjoyable.

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What’s That Crackling Noise?

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 21:57:00 GMT

Crackling in your ear? A condition called tinnitus can bring about many different sounds in your ears including buzzing, ringing, whooshing, and crackling. Here is some important information.

Where is that crackling, buzzing, or ringing sound coming from? If you have hearing aids, it can mean that they need to be adjusted or aren’t properly fitted. But if you don’t use hearing aids it could be tinnitus.

There’s much more to the ear than what you see on the outside. Here’s what it could mean when some of these more prevalent noises are playing in your ears.

What’s The Cause of The Snap, Crackle, And Pop in My Ear?

We can tell you this – it’s not Rice Krispies. It’s not unusual to hear a crackling or popping sound when the pressure in your ear changes. This can be because you had an altitude change, went underwater, or just yawned. A small part of your ear called the eustachian tube is the source of these noises. The crackling is caused by mucus-lined passageways opening up, permitting air and fluid to disperse and neutralize the pressure in your ears.

It’s an automatic process, but in some cases, like if you have congestion from allergies, a cold, or an ear infection, your eustachian tubes can literally get gummed up from an excess of mucus in your system (don’t forget, that there’s a connection between your ears, throat, and nose). In severe cases where decongestant sprays, chicken soup, or antibiotics don’t provide relief, a blockage could call for medical treatment such as surgery.

What Does it Mean When I Hear Vibrations in My Ear?

Vibrations in the ear are sometimes a telltale sign of tinnitus. Technically speaking, tinnitus is the scientific term for when someone hears abnormal sounds, such as vibrations, in their ears that do not come from any external sources. It’s typically characterized as a ringing in the ears and can, in some instances, be minimal, and in others, debilitating.

Is There Anything I Can do?

If you use hearing aids, again, checking those is the first step. You may hear these kinds of sounds for a number of reasons: the hearing aids aren’t sitting properly inside of your ears, the volume is too loud, your hair is brushing against them, or your batteries are running low. If you don’t use hearing aids, excessive earwax might be the problem.

It seems logical that too much wax could make it hard to hear and cause irritation or even inner ear infections, but how can earwax make a noise? If it is touching your eardrum, it can actually inhibit the eardrum’s ability to function, which is what causes the buzzing or ringing. The good news is, earwax problems are easily fixed.

If you’re hearing unusual noises, contact us. We can check your hearing aid to make certain it’s working correctly.

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Try This if You Are Experiencing Problems With Your Hearing Aids

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 13:44:00 GMT

Hearing aids have been shown to benefit your health in unsuspected ways including enhancing cognitive abilities, minimizing depression, and limiting your risk of falls. Which is why when your hearing aids seem like they malfunction, it’s so frustrating. When you start detecting screeching feedback, or when your hearing aids suddenly stop working, quick solutions can make the difference between a lovely family dinner or a difficult one.

Fortunately, some of the most fundamental hearing aid problems can be eased with a few basic troubleshooting measures. figuring out what’s wrong with your hearing aid as fast as you will get you back to what’s important all the sooner.

Maybe The Batteries Need to be Swapped Out

One of the most common problems with hearing aids is a low battery . Some hearing aids come with rechargeable batteries. Other devices are designed to have their batteries changed. If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, it most likely means the batteries are the reason for your hearing aid problems.

Here’s what you do about it:

Every Surface Needs to be Cleaned

Hearing aids, naturally, spend a lot of time in your ears. And there’s a lot happening in there (your ears are like party rooms, only more hygienic). So while helping you hear, it’s no surprise that your hearing aid can get a bit dirty. Most hearing aid models are manufactured to handle some earwax accumulation, but it’s a good idea to have a routine cleaning schedule also. A few issues linked to buildup and dirt may include:

Some solutions:

Try Giving Yourself Some Time

Sometimes, the problem isn’t a problem with the hearing aid. When you first put in your hearing aids, your brain needs to get used to hearing the outside world again. As your mind adjust, you might notice that specific sounds are unpleasantly loud (the hum of the refrigerator, for instance). You may also detect that particular consonant sounds might seem overly pronounced.

These are all clues that your brain is racing to catch up to sound again and, in time, you’ll adjust.

But it’s important to get help with any issues before too much time passes. If your hearing aids are uncomfortable or you’re getting continuous noise issues or things don’t seem to be working exactly the way they ought to be, we can help get you back on track and make sure you’re enjoying, not enduring, your hearing aids.

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Hearing Loss And Over-The-Counter Pain Medications

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 22:51:00 GMT

When you’re in pain, you may reach for ibuprofen or aspirin without thinking much about it, but new research has revealed risks you need to recognize.

You’ll want to think about the risks to your hearing that many over-the-counter and prescription pain medication present before you decide to use them. Younger men, amazingly, could have a higher risk factor.

What Studies Say About Hearing Loss And Pain Killers

A thorough, 30-year cooperative study was conducted among researchers from esteemed universities such as Harvard, Brigham Young, and Vanderbilt. A bi-yearly survey was sent to 27,000 participants between the age of 40 and 74 which included health and lifestyle questions.

Because the questionnaire was so broad, researchers were uncertain of what they would find. But the data demonstrated that over-the-counter pain relievers and loss of hearing had a strong connection.

The data also revealed something even more surprising. Men 50 or younger were approximately twice as likely to have hearing loss if they regularly used acetaminophen. Those who regularly used aspirin had a 50% chance of suffering from hearing loss. And there is a 61% chance that hearing loss will develop in those who use NSAIDs (ibuprofen and naproxen).

Another surprising thing that was discovered was that high doses used occasionally were not as harmful for your hearing as low doses taken frequently.

It’s significant to note this connection, but it doesn’t definitively reveal whether the pain relievers actually caused the hearing loss. More studies are required to prove causation. But we really need to rethink our use of these pain relievers after these persuasive results.

Pain Relievers And Hearing Loss – Current Theories

Experts have several plausible theories as to why pain relievers may cause hearing damage .

Your nerves communicate the feeling of pain to your brain. Blood flow to a particular nerve is obstructed by over-the-counter pain relievers. This interrupts nerve signals that normally communicate with the brain, so you feel a reduced pain level.

There might also be a reduction of blood flow to the inner ear according to scientists. Lowered blood flow means less oxygen and nutrients. Cells will die from malnourishment if this blood flow is decreased for prolonged periods.

Acetaminophen, which showed the most appreciable correlation, may also reduce the production of a particular protein that helps shield the inner ear from loud noises.

What You Can do?

Probably the biggest point to keep in mind is that men under 50 were more likely to suffer hearing loss from pain relievers. This verifies that hearing loss doesn’t just impact the elderly. But as you get older, if you take the appropriate steps you will have a better chance of maintaining your hearing.

While we aren’t suggesting you entirely stop taking pain relievers, you should acknowledge that there could be unfavorable effects. Use pain medication only when you absolutely need to and when dealing with prescription medication, only as prescribed.

Seek out other pain relief solutions, including gentle exercise. You should also reduce the consumption of inflammation-producing foods and boost Omega-3 fat in your diet . Decreased pain and better blood flow have been demonstrated to come from these methods.

Lastly, is an appointment to see us each year to have your hearing examined. Remember, you’re never too young to have your hearing checked. The best time to begin talking to us about preventing further hearing loss is when you under 50.

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What’s Causing That Frustrating Noise in my Ears?

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 16:03:00 GMT

As you probably appreciate, prolonged periods of stress are not healthy for the body. Stress can cause extreme muscle pain and headaches. But did you realize stress can also trigger tinnitus, a ringing, buzzing, or clicking in the ears?

Tinnitus can be triggered by many different health factors, such as stress, sinus infections, or loud sounds . Let’s examine several potential causes of that aggravating noise in your ears.

Unhealthy Stress – How to Recognize it

You may be asking yourself how stress contributes to tinnitus. We generally don’t consider the negative influence stress can have on our bodies or how it can result in troublesome, painful, or even severe medical conditions. Stress isn’t something you should neglect.

Healthy Stress

Stress that persists a few minutes, or even several hours, can actually play an important role in accomplishing demanding tasks. Stress can provide a boost of energy and adrenalin to complete tasks and projects that really need to be finished.

There is a difference, though, between healthy , short-term stress and unhealthy , damaging stress . Healthy stress helps you reach a goal without harming your body. Unhealthy stress is harmful for your body.

Unhealthy Stress

Unhealthy stress is a consequence of the fear of something that, more often than not, never actually happens. Unhealthy stress is generated when an individual stays in a heightened state of anxiety for an extended period of time.

In dangerous situations, the fight or flight response is a normal reaction but it also is associates with unhealthy stress. When someone remains in a hyper-stressful state for a long period, it can lead to harmful physical symptoms.

Worrying

Worrying is a very universal cause of unhealthy stress. The significance of an interaction or situation can often be exaggerated. We may tell ourselves we destroyed a chance at a promotion because of something we said. When you worry in this way your invasive thoughts can really run away from you.

Invasive Thoughts And Unhealthy Stress

We may think that we are falling behind and failing to fulfill our everyday tasks. Fixation, perpetual internal dialog, and even panic are a typical part of this kind of stress. If we don’t take some positive steps to manage this stress it will continue to wear down our body.

Typically, unhealthy stress impacts the upper part of the body by producing muscle tension and pain . The shoulders, neck, head, and jaw are areas that can be impacted.

Anger And Jaw Tension

Have you ever heard someone depict their anger as jaw clenching ? Jaw strain is a prevalent symptom of stress, worry, anger, and invasive thoughts.

Pressure can be put on the fragile bones of the inner ear and eardrum by sustained tension. Ringing in the ears can be the result.

Sinus Infections And Ear Strain

Sinus infections cause lots of unfavorable symptoms, from a soar throat to a stuffy nose.

Sinus pressure, headaches, and pressure in the ears are common symptoms of a sinus infection. These problems can lead to buzzing, clicking, or ringing in the ears .

When you have a sinus infection, your nasal congestion often spreads to your ears. Clogging in the ears and extreme pressure on the eardrum will build up because of the excessive earwax this produces. Pressure on the fragile bones of the inner ear can trigger tinnitus symptoms.

You might not need to see a hearing specialist if the ringing is being caused by a sinus infection, as the symptoms could clear up by themselves. But you should certainly schedule an appointment with us if the ringing lasts for more than a few days.

Extended Exposure to Loud Noises

The intermittent music concert is probably not going to cause long-term ear-ringing. However, you could be putting stress on the fragile parts of your ear if you frequently expose yourself to intense sound.

When you expose your ears to intense noises regularly, your eardrums and the bones of the inner ears are strained, which can result in ringing, buzzing, or clicking .

Beyond the periodic ringing in your ears, exposure to intense sounds over a long period of time can trigger temporary or lasting loss of hearing. It’s essential to safeguard your hearing from the elements and listen to music at a reasonable volume level.

Protecting Your Ears

Whether caused by stress, muscle tension, an illness, or loud noises , tinnitus shouldn’t be ignored. It’s best to get your ears tested by a hearing professional regularly. For your peace of mind, you should get checked, particularly if you think that your tinnitus is being triggered by a significant underlying medical problem.

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Why is it a Good Idea to Link-up Your Hearing Aid to Your Smart Home?

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 16:12:00 GMT

Recall how the fascinating new future technology was going to bring civilization into the “world of tomorrow”? We’re presently living in a “golden age” of technology, and the evolution of hearing aids is an important part of it.

Nowadays, dozens of hearing aid designs come with the capability of connecting directly to your smartphone, computer, or TV. This will put the sound of these devices directly in your ears so people around you will feel more relaxed and won’t need to ask you to turn the volume down.

For the purpose of entertainment, these functions are great, but lots of users fail to set them up because they think that it’s too difficult. This could be an expensive mistake.

Create Another Layer of Security With Enhanced Connectivity

According to the Fire Protection Research Foundation , the smoke alarm can’t be heard by a substantial number of people over 50. Are there any rooms in the house where it would be hard to hear your smoke alarm? This can sometimes be a challenge even if you have a hearing aid. Luckily, this life threatening hazard is already being reduced by new technology.

Each year, new devices are designed and made available to the public. Smart home setups usually come with smoke detectors that can connect to newer hearing aids. This means you’ll hear the alarm wherever you are in your home. The technical technique is similar to how hearing aids stream audio from your computer, tablet, or TV to your hearing aid. The only difference is when you connect your hearing aids to your smoke alarms, it could save your life.

Smart Home Doorbells Can Stream to Hearing Aids

Connecting your hearing aid to all of the technology in your smart home gives you more than just a safety factor, it also has a convenience and entertainment element, particularly at your front door. Doorbells that can connect to Wi-fi are showing up in more and more homes. The advantage of these doorbells is that they have audio and video features.

The good news for hearing aid wearers with smart home devices is that it’s another device your hearing aid can sync to. Not sure who’s at the door? A Wi-fi doorbell would send audio directly to your hearing aid so you would see who’s at the door instantly.

Why It’s Worth Setting up up

Many individuals fail to use these functions because they take a bit of time and effort to set up. But if you want a safer, more comfortable, and more enjoyable life, you need to realize that connecting your hearing aid to your smart home can help you have it.

The best part? When you buy your hearing aids, we can show you exactly how to set them up. Even if you’re still not sure after you get home, the internet is a great resource for set-up help.

In short, if you’ve purchased a new hearing aid that has wi-fi capabilities, you’re losing out if you don’t set them up.

When to Update Your Hearing Aids

Older hearing aid models don’t have as many connectivity options. Also, the audio quality of hearing aids is improving every day. If you’re having trouble with hearing in specific settings or want to check out some of the new features you’re missing, schedule an appointment with us to improve your hearing as well as your quality of life.

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How Memory is Impacted by Hearing Loss

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:17:00 GMT

Did you turn the TV up last night? It may be a sign of hearing loss if you did. The challenge is… you can’t quite remember. And that’s been happening more frequently, also. While working yesterday, you weren’t able to remember your new co-worker’s name. You met her recently, but still, it seems like you’re losing your grip on your hearing and your memory. And there’s only one common denominator you can think of: you’re getting older.

Now, sure, age can be connected to both hearing loss and memory malfunction. But it’s even more significant that these two can also be related to each other. At first, that may sound like bad news (you have to cope with hearing loss and memory loss at the same time…great). But the reality is, the connection between memory and hearing loss can often be a blessing in disguise.

The Connection Between Memory And Hearing Loss

Your brain starts to become taxed from hearing impairment before you even realize you have it. Though the “spillover” effects may start out small, over time they can expand, encompassing your brain, your memory, even your social life.

How does a deficiency of your hearing impact such a large part of your brain? Well, there are several distinct ways:

Your Body Has An Early Warning System – It’s Called Memory Loss

Obviously, having hearing loss isn’t the only thing that leads to memory loss. Physical or mental fatigue or illness, among other things, can cause memory loss. Eating better and sleeping well, for instance, can usually increase your memory.

This can be a case of your body putting up red flags. Your brain starts raising red flags when things aren’t working properly. And one of those red flags is failing to remember what your friend said yesterday.

But these warnings can help you know when things are beginning to go wrong with your hearing.

Memory Loss Frequently Points to Hearing Loss

It’s often difficult to recognize the early signs and symptoms of hearing loss. Hearing loss doesn’t happen over night. Once you actually notice the associated symptoms, the damage to your hearing is usually more advanced than most hearing specialists would like. But if you have your hearing tested soon after noticing some memory loss, you may be able to catch the issue early.

Retrieving Your Memory

In situations where your memory has already been affected by hearing loss, either via mental fatigue or social separation, the first task is to deal with the underlying hearing issue. The brain will be capable of getting back to its regular activity when it stops straining and struggling. Be patient, it can take a while for your brain to adjust to hearing again.

The warning signs raised by your memory loss could help you be a little more aware of protecting your hearing, or at least managing your hearing loss. As the years begin to add up, that’s definitely a lesson worth remembering.

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Am I Hearing Tinnitus Sounds?

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 22:00:00 GMT

Most people describe tinnitus as a ringing or buzzing sound. But that classification, though useful, is woefully inadequate. Those two sounds are not the only ways tinnitus manifests. Instead, this specific hearing ailment can make a veritable symphony of different noises. And that’s important to note.

Because, as useful as that “ringing and buzzing” shorthand might be, such a limited description could make it challenging for some people to identify their tinnitus symptoms. If Barb from down the road hears only whooshing or crashing in her ears, it may not even occur to her that tinnitus is responsible. So having a more thorough idea of what tinnitus sounds like can be positive for everyone, Barb included.

Tinnitus Might Cause You to Hear These Sounds

Generally speaking, tinnitus is the sense of noise in the ears. In some cases, this noise really exists (this is known as objective tinnitus ). And in other situations, it can be phantom noises in your ears (that is, the sound doesn’t truly exist and isn’t heard by others – that’s known as subjective tinnitus ). The variety of tinnitus you’re dealing with will most likely (but not always) have an impact on the noise you hear. And there are a lot of conceivable sounds you could hear:

This list is not complete, but it certainly starts to give you a notion of just how many potential sounds someone with tinnitus could hear.

Over Time Tinnitus Sounds Can Change

It’s also entirely possible for one patient to experience multiple tinnitus-related sounds. Last week, as an example, Brandon was hearing a ringing sound. He met up with friends at a noisy restaurant last night and is now hearing a loud static noise. Tinnitus noises can and do change, sometimes regularly.

The explanation for the change isn’t always well understood (mainly because the causes of tinnitus aren’t always well known).

Canceling Out Tinnitus

Tinnitus treatments will normally take two possible approaches: masking the noise or helping your brain determine how to ignore the noise. And in either situation, that means helping you identify and familiarize yourself with the sounds of your tinnitus, whatever they may be.

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Hard of Hearing or Hard to Hear?

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 18:42:00 GMT

You want to be courteous when you are talking with friends. You want your customers, colleagues, and manager to recognize that you’re fully involved when you’re at work. You often find yourself needing family to repeat themselves because it was less difficult to tune out parts of the conversation that you couldn’t hear very well.

On zoom calls you move in closer. You look closely at body language and facial cues and listen for verbal inflections. You read lips. And if that doesn’t work, you nod as if you heard every word.

Don’t fool yourself. Your struggling to keep up because you missed most of the conversation. You might not realize it, but years of cumulative hearing loss can have you feeling isolated and frustrated, making tasks at work and life at home needlessly overwhelming.

According to some studies, situational factors such as room acoustics, background noise, contending signals, and environmental awareness have a strong influence on how a person hears. These factors are relevant, but it can be far worse for individuals who suffer from hearing loss.

There are some tell-tale habits that will raise your awareness of whether you’re in denial about how your hearing impairment is affecting your professional life:

Hearing loss probably didn’t happen overnight even though it could feel as if it did. The majority of people wait 7 years on average before acknowledging the problem and finding help.

This means if your hearing loss is an issue now, it has most likely been going un-addressed and untreated for some time. So begin by scheduling an appointment now, and stop kidding yourself, hearing loss is no joke.

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My Ears Feel Clogged – What is That?

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 17:05:00 GMT

It’s been more than a day. Your right ear is still totally clogged. You haven’t been able to hear a thing in that direction since yesterday morning. You’re left feeling off-balance as your left ear works overtime to pick up the slack. It didn’t clear up after a night’s sleep as you were hoping it would. So will your blocked ear improve soon?

Exactly how long your blockage will last depends, not surprisingly, on what the cause of the blockage is. You could need to seek out medical attention if your blockage isn’t the kind that clears itself up quickly.

As a general rule, though, if your blockage persists, you should get some help.

When Should I Be Concerned About a Blocked Ear?

If you’re on day two of a blocked ear, you might start thinking about potential causes. You’ll most likely begin to think about your activities over the last couple of days: were you involved in anything that could have led to water getting stuck in your ear, for instance?

You might also consider your health. Are you suffering from the kind of discomfort and pain (or fever) that might be related to an ear infection? If that’s the scenario, you may want to schedule an appointment.

Those questions are truly just the beginning. There are plenty of possible causes for a blocked ear:

The Fastest Way to Get Your Ears Back to Normal

Your ears will probably go back to normal if the blockage is caused by air pressure. If an ear infection is behind your clogged ears, you may have to wait until your body fights off the virus or bacteria at work (and, if it’s the latter, antibiotics can be very helpful). This could take up to a couple of weeks. You may have to wait even longer than that if you have a sinus infection.

A bit of patience will be necessary before your ears get back to normal (though that may feel counterintuitive), and your expectations should be, well, adjustable.

Not doing anything to worsen the situation is your most important first step. When your ears begin feeling blocked, you may be tempted to pull out the old cotton swab and start trying to manually clean your ears out. All sorts of problems, from ear infections to hearing loss, can be caused by cotton swabs so this can be an especially dangerous strategy. If you use a cotton swab, you’re probably going to make the situation worse.

It’s Possible That Your “Blockage” is Hearing Loss

So you could be getting a bit antsy if it’s been a day and you still have no clue what might be causing your blockage. But the basic rule of thumb is that if things persist, it might be a wise idea to come in for a consultation. And treat any sudden hearing loss as an emergency – seek out medical attention.

Early signs of hearing loss can also feel like clogged ears. And as you probably understand from our other posts, neglected hearing loss can cause other health problems, especially over time.

Being careful not to worsen the issue will normally allow the body to clear up the situation on its own. But when that fails, treatment may be necessary. Depending on the cause of your blockage, this might take a varying amount of time.

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Hearing Aids Provide Relief From Ringing in The Ears

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 23:30:00 GMT

Most estimates put the amount of individuals affected by tinnitus in the millions or around one in every seven people. In some countries, the numbers are even higher and that’s pretty alarming.

Sometimes tinnitus is temporary. But if you’re dealing with persistent tinnitus symptoms it becomes crucial to find a solution as soon as possible. Luckily, there is a remedy that has proven to be really effective: hearing aids.

There are some links between hearing loss and tinnitus but they are actually distinct conditions. It’s possible to have tinnitus with average hearing or to have hearing loss without also getting tinnitus. But the two conditions occur together often enough that hearing aids have become a dependable solution, treating hearing loss and stopping tinnitus in one fell swoop.

How Can Tinnitus be Helped by Hearing Aids?

According to one study, 60% of people with tinnitus noticed some measure of relief when they started using hearing aids. For 22% of those people, the relief was considerable. But, hearing aids aren’t made specifically to handle tinnitus. Association appears to be the principal reason for this benefit. So if you have tinnitus along with hearing loss then that’s when your hearing aids will most successfully treat the tinnitus symptoms.

Here’s how hearing aids can help get rid of tinnitus symptoms:

The Advantages of Modern Hearing Aids

Modern hearing aids are smart . They include cutting edge hearing assistance algorithms and the latest technology. But it’s the ability to customize a hearing aid to the distinct user’s needs that makes modern hearing aids so effective (sometimes, they recalibrate according to the level of background noise).

Whatever your particular hearing levels are, personalized hearing aids can easily be calibrated to them. The better your hearings aid works for you , the more likely they are to help you cover up the humming or buzzing from tinnitus.

What is The Best Way to Get Rid of Tinnitus?

This will probably depend on your degree of hearing loss. If you haven’t had any hearing loss, you’ll still have accessible treatment options for your tinnitus. That could mean custom-made masking devices, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or medication.

However, hearing aids may be able to take care of both situations if you have tinnitus and hearing loss at the same time. Managing your hearing impairment with a good pair of hearing aids can often stop tinnitus from making your life miserable.

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Hearing Loss is Not The Only Health Concern Connected To Noise

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 16:59:00 GMT

When you were younger you most likely had no idea that turning the volume up on your music could lead to health concerns. You were simply having fun listening to your tunes.

As you grew, you probably indulged in nights out at loud movies and concerts. It may even be common for you to have experienced loud noise at work. Long term health problems were the furthest thing from your mind.

You more likely know differently today. Noise-induced hearing loss can appear in children as young as 12 . But sound is so powerful it can actually be used as a weapon.

Can Sound Make You Ill?

In fact, it Can. Certain sounds can evidently make you ill according to doctors and scientists. Here’s the reason why.

How Health is Impacted by Loud Noise

The inner ear can be damaged by very loud sounds. After sound goes through the membrane of the eardrum it’s picked up by little hairs in the ears. These hairs never regenerate once they are destroyed. This is what causes the sensorineural hearing loss that many people deal with as they age.

Over 85 dB of volume for an 8 hour period of time will begin to cause permanent impairment. It only takes 15 minutes for lasting damage to occur at 100 dB. A rock concert is about 120 decibels, which brings about instantaneous, permanent damage.

Noises can also impact cardiovascular health. Exposure to loud sounds can increase stress hormones, which can result in High blood pressure, clogged arteries, obesity, and more. So when individuals who are exposed to loud noise complain about memory loss and headaches, this may explain why. Cardiovascular health is directly connected to these symptoms.

Actually, one study showed that sound volumes that begin to affect the heart, and hormones are as low a 45 decibels. That’s approximately the volume of someone with a quiet inside voice.

How Sound Frequency Affects Health

A few years ago, diplomats in Cuba became sick when exposed to sounds. This sound was not at a really loud volume. They could drown it out with a tv. So how could this kind of sound make people sick?

The answer is frequency .

High Frequency

High frequency sounds like the one experienced in Cuba can do appreciable harm at lower volumes.

Have you ever cringed when somebody scratched their nails on a chalkboard? Have you been driven nuts by somebody continuously dragging their finger across a folded piece of paper? Have you ever had to cover your ears during a violin recital?

Damage was happening to your hearing if you’ve ever felt pain from high-pitched sound. If you experienced this for an extended period of time, frequently exposed yourself to it, or were exposed at a high volume, then the damage could have become permanent.

Research has also found that you don’t even need to be able to hear the sound. High-frequency sounds coming from trains, sensors, machinery, and other man-made devices could be emitting frequencies that do damage with sustained exposure .

Low Frequency

Very low-frequency sound called “infrasound” can also affect your health. It can vibrate the body in such a way that you feel nauseous and disoriented. Some even get flashes of light and color that are common in migraine sufferers.

Safeguarding Your Hearing

Be mindful of how you feel about particular sounds. Reduce your exposure if specific sounds make you feel pain or other symptoms. Pain is frequently a warning sign of damage.

In order to understand how your hearing could be changing over time, contact a hearing specialist for an examination.

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This One Little Thing Can Lessen Your Trips to ER

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 17:13:00 GMT

Trips to the ER cause you to miss work, and also personal pain. What if you could reduce your chances of falls, accidents, anxiety, depression, and even dementia while also eliminating trips to the ER.

Surfacing research makes the case that, for people with severe hearing loss, wearing their hearing aid could be the difference between staying involved and healthy and winding up spending many nights in the emergency room.

The Study

This University of Michigan research assembled participants which ranged from 65-85. Severe hearing loss was a widespread problem between them. But out of all of those people who participated, only 45% of them used their hearing aids regularly.

This is in agreement with similar studies which have found that only about 30% of individuals who have hearing aids actually wear them .

12 fewer, of the 585 individuals who did use their hearing aid, had Er visits or unplanned hospitalizations.

This might seem like a moderate number. But statistically, this is significant.

And that’s not all. They also discovered that those who wore their hearing aids spend, on average, one day fewer in the hospital . They were more likely to keep regular appointments with their doctors, which likely decreased their time in ER.

How Can Hearing Aids Reduce The Need For Emergency Care Visits?

The first one is obvious. If a person is staying on top of their health, they’re more likely to stay away from ER.

Also, individuals who use their hearing aids stay more socially involved. When a person is socially connected they are usually more committed to keeping keep their appointments and also have more support from friends and family getting to the doctor.

For those bringing themselves, it means that they can drive more safely with less stress about what they can’t hear.

One study carried out in the U.S. found that depression is twice as likely in individuals who don’t wear their hearing aid . Health problems linked to lack of self care is commonly an outcome of depression.

The third thing is, various studies have shown that wearing your hearing aid can lessen fall risk and dementia. The region of the brain that’s responsible for hearing will begin to decline from lack of use as hearing declines. The rest of the brain is ultimately affected. The disorientation related to falls and symptoms of dementia are frequently the outcome.

Long hospital stays often accompany falls and falling is a leading cause of senior death.

These are just a few of the reasons that hearing aids help decrease ER visits.

Why do so Many Individuals Avoid Wearing Hearing Aids?

There’s truly no good reason.

Some don’t use them because they think that hearing aids make them appear older than they are. This notion persists in spite of the fact that nearly 25% of individuals over 65 have significant hearing loss, and 50% of those 75 and above have it. Hearing loss isn’t unusual. It happens to lots of people . And thanks to the increase in noise pollution and earbud usage, hearing loss is on the rise with people in their twenties.

Ironically, constantly asking people to repeat what they said often makes a person look much older than they are.

Some individuals cite the price of hearing aids. However, financing is available for hearing aids and prices have come down in the past few years.

Some people don’t like the way hearing aids sound. This can typically be corrected by simply working with your hearing specialist to learn how to more effectively use your hearing aid in various settings. Hearing aids don’t always fit and sound optimal on the first fitting and sometimes need a few tries.

If something is stopping you from wearing your hearing aid, it’s time to make an appointment with your hearing specialist.

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The Problem With Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 18:13:00 GMT

We’re observing more examples, on TV and online, of over-the-counter hearing aids. These devices are meant to make it easier to get assistance with hearing loss. They also maximize the affordability of hearing help. However, using over-the-counter hearing aids has caused quite a bit of concern among both medical professionals and the government. Some states are even releasing warnings because they have taken complaints from people who have used them. Some of these concerns are discussed below.

Don’t Skip a Hearing Exam

One main concern of over-the-counter hearing aids is that you neglect important steps in the process, like getting a hearing consultation and hearing test. It will be impossible to recognize what the best plan for your hearing loss is without these steps. Additionally, your hearing loss might be linked to other health concerns which you could miss. We can also help you figure out what the best settings will be when you come in for an exam.

There Are Different Levels And Types of Hearing Loss

Many people think that hearing loss is just a reduction of the volume of sounds you hear. When you do that on your stereo (or your phone, as the kids do), the effect is immediate: everything goes quiet.

But changing the eq levels on a high end stereo is more like real hearing loss. This occurs because different wavelengths and frequencies are impacted with hearing loss. So you may actually be doing further damage to your hearing if your hearing aid is not precisely calibrated.

The exact frequencies that are being boosted by the OTC hearing aid will typically be printed on the packaging (at least on higher quality versions). If you have a recent audiogram you can try to do it by yourself. And you may still need some help with the programming. When your hearing loss is especially complex, OTC hearing aids might not offer the kind of personalization you’ll need.

How to be Smart With Your Hearing Aid Decisions

Right now, consumers have the largest selection of hearing aid choices ever. But because there are so many choices, it also makes choosing the right one that much more difficult. You’ve probably experienced this type of “analysis paralysis” when flipping through the channels and attempting to pick something to watch.

You can make some smart choices with your hearing aids by doing the following:

Make sure you’re not buying a hearing amplifier. One issue that customers have encountered is telling the difference between an OTC hearing aid and a hearing amplifier. A hearing amplifier will turn the volume up on all wavelengths of sound, not just specific frequencies like a hearing aid can. And after a while, that can impair your hearing. Obviously, you only need to boost the frequencies you have trouble hearing. If your hearing is poor in the high register, you obviously don’t require to increase the lower frequencies which could harm your hearing.

Keep us in the loop. Whether you opt to go OTC or not, it’s very beneficial to speak with us first. We can find out how complex your hearing impairment is with a basic hearing test. An OTC hearing aid might not be a good match. You will be in a better position to choose which option fits your needs when you have an audiogram.

The best choice is usually not going to be OTC hearing aids. But with some professional help and knowledge, most of these challenges can be conquered. Hearing is essential to your over-all health. It’s worth taking the extra step and get evaluated first.

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New Research Into Tinnitus Leads to New Treatments

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 22:24:00 GMT

Tinnitus isn’t new. But it might be the first time you have had to cope with it. A relentless buzzing or ringing is usually how tinnitus is experienced but not always. The sound can be, at times, very loud. Symptoms vary substantially, but here’s the point: you are probably looking for new ways of coping with your tinnitus if it’s something that’s troubling you.

In that, you’re lucky because while tinnitus doesn’t yet have a universal cure, there are a few novel treatments that can help you deal with symptoms. Your tongue is even involved in certain of those therapies.

The Most Recent Way to Manage Tinnitus

One of the most recent treatment options for tinnitus sounds a bit odd at first but does seem to show some hope. This device, designed at the Trinity College School of Medicine in Dublin, stimulates both the tongue and ear. Technically, it’s called bi-modal neuromodulation.

The results were rather impressive with this device according to the first tests. 12 weeks was about how long most individuals were treated. Within those 12 months, those same individuals noticed a dramatic decrease in tinnitus symptoms. But this type of therapy is still in the testing phase and not widely available yet.

How Can I Find Tinnitus Relief Now?

Unfortunately, it will most likely be quite some time before novel solutions such as this are widely available. So how can you control your tinnitus right now?

Fortunately, there are some newer tinnitus management devices available now. And the most common way to manage your tinnitus is a modern hearing aid.

Here’s the way it works:

Your hearing aid can provide you with something else to listen to. One reason why tinnitus is more obvious as you lose your hearing is that the stays loud while everything else becomes quieter. A hearing aid can raise the volume on the rest of the audio spectrum. By boosting the volume of external sounds, your tinnitus sounds will often fade into the background.

Your hearing aid can mask the sound. If your hearing loss is fairly moderate, then a masking device might be the best way to deal with your symptoms. A masking device essentially looks like a hearing aid. And many hearing aids can be augmented with masking technology. Your tinnitus symptoms can be masked by sounds produced by this type of technology. Sometimes this will be a tone, in other cases, it might be some white noise. Whatever is going to best hide the ringing in your ears.

This is, obviously, only the beginning. We can help you find the best option for you so get in touch with us.

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Your Hearing Can Also be Impacted by COVID-19

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 18:56:00 GMT

One of the most uncommon symptoms of COVID-19 is that it can temporarily deaden your senses of taste and smell. We recognize that one of the first symptoms is loss of smell. But COVID-19 impacts more than just your sense of taste and smell. New studies are uncovering an unusual, but longer-term issue: permanent sensorineural hearing loss.

How is Hearing Loss Caused by COVID-19?

Scientists are learning more about COVID-19 every single day. But there’s still a lot we don’t know. The virus itself was only first observed late in 2019. Usually, scientists work for years, if not decades, to thoroughly describe a new pathogen. One thing we do know about COVID is that it impacts different individuals in a lot of different ways (making it a particularly tricky and challenging problem).

You may experience a wide array of symptoms. And permanent hearing loss can be one of them. Why this happens is still not evident. The virus might be triggering a response called “cellular stress”. Some cells (like the cells in your ear) will begin to deteriorate, according to this hypothesis, because the virus places so much stress on the body. But this kind of hearing loss might also be the result of your body’s own immune reaction. Considerable damage can be done to your body when your immune system overcompensates.

Also, when other COVID symptoms are almost gone, this hearing loss can still become apparent. Again, we aren’t really sure why this happens. We also don’t have a solid grasp of what kind of underlying circumstances would cause COVID-related hearing loss to become more or less likely to occur.

Can This Hearing Loss be Managed?

Sensorineural hearing loss from COVID-19 can certainly be permanent. There might be a few treatment options depending on certain variables. It’s already been discovered that early steroid treatments seem to help protect your hearing from added damage. It’s essential to see a doctor as soon as possible if you experience sudden hearing loss.

Getting a hearing exam after your COVID has passed is always a smart idea.

But it’s worth mentioning that there are a couple of qualifiers to all of this. First of all, hearing loss does seem to be a relatively uncommon symptom of COVID. We don’t know yet how prevalent this particular symptom is at this point. But as scientists learn more about COVID-19 the science will adjust.

Can You Prevent COVID-Induced Hearing Loss?

If you have sudden changes in your hearing and you have COVID-19 contact your doctor and make an appointment for a hearing test with us. An early response may help reduce lasting hearing loss.

Try to stay healthy: The best way to protect against COVID-related hearing loss is to do whatever you can to steer clear of getting COVID in the first place. This means following guidelines when it comes to social gatherings, physical distancing, and wearing a mask.

While this specific symptom is uncommon, it still occurs. And you will be that much better off with more knowledge about hearing loss and COIVID. If you think you’ve already suffered hearing damage, it’s probably a wise decision to come in and get tested.

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Can Noise Related Hearing Loss be Cured?

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 23:55:00 GMT

It’s extremely common for people to have loss of hearing brought on by repeated exposure to loud noise. If you are always exposed to noise that exceeds 85 decibels, your hearing might be irreversibly impaired.

Exactly How Does Noise-Related Hearing Loss Work?

There are tiny hair cells in your inner ear which can be irreversibly harmed by loud noise. This is called sensorineural hearing loss.

Noise-induced hearing loss can be caused by long-term exposure to extremely high levels of noise , which causes a gradual decline of your hearing. Immediate damage can also happen if you are exposed to a burst of extremely damaging noise all at once.

More than 17 percent of individuals between 20 to 69 have hearing loss that is a result of their recreational or work activities. Some examples of noises that can result in hearing loss might include:

Can it be Reversed?

Even though scientists are making advancements, presently, there is no cure for noise induced hearing loss. If you’ve been exposed to a loud noise, you should see a doctor as soon as possible, because some of the long-term damage is caused by swelling in the ear. You may be able to limit the damage that occurs by reducing inflammation. Waves of sound are sent to the brain by the little hair cells in the ear. If noise damages or destroys them, they won’t regenerate. Meaning that your ability to hear will be permanently impacted. Safeguarding your ears, then, should be a priority, and seeing a specialist if you’re presently having hearing problems.

Research to Tackle The Issue

This condition is currently not curable. But repairing noise-related hearing loss is top priority for scientists. For example, some studies are in clinical trials right now that are evaluating whether a drug can repair the growth of the tiny hairs in the ear. Age-related hearing loss and loud noise can harm these hairs, but regrowth would help repair hearing if scientists are capable of getting the drug to work.

What Hearing Remains Needs to be Protected

While hearing loss that is a result of noise cannot be restored (yet), you are capable of taking specific steps to avoid hearing loss or save the remaining hearing that you have. You can:

Lowering the volume on your devices, wearing ear protection, and staying away from overly loud noise is the best way to protect your hearing. But if you are exposed, make an appointment for a hearing test.

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How Can I Know if my Hearing Aid Needs Professional Repair?

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 23:30:00 GMT

If you have hearing aids but you’re still having difficulty hearing, your hearing aids might need professional maintenance.

You take care of your hearing aids . You’re really careful with your hearing aids. You charge them nightly and clean them every day.

That’s why it’s so discouraging that, abruptly and distressingly, your hearing aids are no longer working the way they should. Thankfully, there are some things you can do to resolve the problem. Just remember: avoiding damage is your first task (or you may have to replace them).

Your Hearing Aid Might Need Troubleshooting

Make sure you consult your owner’s manual when performing maintenance and troubleshooting as every model of hearing aid can be a bit different. On most models, these things can be checked:

Again, check your owner’s manual on how you might approach each of these problems. In certain cases, you might be capable of performing maintenance on your own. (Your owner’s manual is the best place to start.)

Does my Hearing Aid Need Repair – How do I Know?

Your hearing aid will most likely require professional repair if you continue to have problems with it after doing these basic maintenance duties. Because you depend on your hearing aids for all of your everyday conversations and social activities, this probably doesn’t sound very appealing.

But it’s beneficial to recognize that repair doesn’t always imply sending your hearing aid away. In some cases, we can repair it while you wait.

So in those situations, you will be able to get your hearing aid back in the same day (this is why it’s a smart idea to bring your hearing aid in so we can determine the damage).

There are still some circumstances where same day repair is not possible. And on those occasions, you could find yourself needing a backup pair of hearing aids. An old pair might be able to do a decent job as a backup so if you have an old pair, bring them in with you. There may even be a loaner pair at our office that we can loan you until yours come back.

Don’t Put Off Getting Help For Your Hearing Aids

If your hearing aids are beginning to fade, the sound quality is starting to fail, it’s important to have it repaired.

That’s because you really want to eliminate any downtime. Untreated hearing loss can influence your total health, and that includes your mental health. More to the point, once your hearing aids are left in a box somewhere, it’s way too easy to pretend they don’t exist, all the while, your hearing grows worse and worse.

The best way to keep your hearing healthy is to keep those hearing aids working. Keeping them charged and clean and if necessary, bringing them in for maintenance is the easiest way to do that.

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How do Hearing Aids Help Tinnitus?

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 15:59:00 GMT

You’ve most likely heard some ringing in your ears at some time in your life or another. That ringing is called tinnitus. At any given time 15-20% percent of people, according to many studies, experience tinnitus. Even though the majority of people only hear this ringing intermittently, some people suffer from chronic tinnitus that doesn’t go away. Fortunately, there is a common and simple treatment for tinnitus: hearing aids .

Dealing With Persistent Tinnitus

Some of the countless reasons why tinnitus develops are pretty easy to understand, others not as much. Tinnitus can also manifest as a wide variety of subjective and objective sounds, from pounding to clanging to metallic buzz-saw noises, whatever beautiful symphony your ears can create.

The louder and more intense the sounds are, the more intrusive tinnitus tends to get. Over time, tinnitus can cause declines in mental health, create trouble communicating, and interfere with your daily life.

Hearing Aids And Tinnitus

While there is normally no way to cure the underlying cause of tinnitus, hearing aids have become quite adept at addressing tinnitus symptoms. Hearing aids are capable of accomplishing this in several ways.

Bringing The Ringing to a Less Noticeable Level

The symptoms of tinnitus will frequently appear along side of hearing loss issues. Sometimes, they have the same root cause, but often they don’t. Either way, as your hearing worsens, your tinnitus may become more pronounced. There’s less competition, and that buzzing or ringing can really stand out (it’s like winning American Idol in a year with sub-par contestants).

When you’re using hearing aids the sounds of the outside world will be turned up. Once again your tinnitus will, to your relief, get lost in the details. Now you can get back to enjoying your life again.

Canceling Out The Noise

Of course, there’s a difference between overwhelming your tinnitus and masking your tinnitus. That’s the reason why many modern hearing aids will use a specialized twist on noise-canceling tech to help manage the ringing and buzzing. We can teach you how to tune your hearing aid to emit particular white noises that help lessen your tinnitus. Basically, by generating particular kinds of sound, your hearing aid can help reduce the volume of your tinnitus symptoms.

This feature isn’t available on all hearing aids, so you’ll need to check with us to find out what will work best for you.

There’s no cure for most kinds of chronic tinnitus. But you still can find a way to manage it. The buzzing, ringing, and other tinnitus-related sounds will be gone and you will be able to enjoy a full life with hearing aids that are calibrated precisely. For most people who live with tinnitus, hearing aids are a good choice.

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Why Your Mood Can be Improved by Having Your Hearing Tested

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 18:41:00 GMT

Hearing Aids can help lessen the negative effects of the prevalent condition of hearing loss. Still, a lot of hearing loss goes undiagnosed and neglected – and that can result in greater depression rates and feelings of solitude in those who suffer from hearing loss.

And it can quickly become a vicious circle where isolation and depression from hearing loss bring about a breakdown in personal and work relationship causing even worse depression and solitude. This is a problem that doesn’t need to happen, and getting that hearing loss treated is the key to ending the downward spiral.

Hearing Loss Has Been Linked to Depression by Many Studies

Researchers have found in numerous studies that untreated hearing loss is linked to the development of depressive symptoms – and this isn’t a new phenomenon. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and paranoia were, according to one study, more likely to affect individuals over the age of 50 who have untreated hearing loss. They were also more likely to refrain from social experiences. Many stated that they felt as if people were getting frustrated with them for no apparent reason. However, those who got hearing aids reported improvements in their relationships, and the people around them – friends, co-workers, and family – also noticed improvements.

Another study discovered that individuals between the ages of 18 and 70, reported a more acute sense of depression if they suffered from hearing loss of greater than 25 dB. Individuals over the age of 70 with a self-reported hearing loss didn’t show a major contrast in depression rates in comparison to individuals who didn’t suffer from hearing loss. But that still indicates that a large part of the population is not getting the assistance they need to better their lives. And people who participated in a different study revealed that those participants who managed their hearing loss using hearing aids had a lower rate of depression.

Mental Health is Impacted by Resistance to Using Hearing Aids

With documented results like those, you might imagine that people would need to deal with their hearing loss. But people don’t get help for two principal reasons. First, some people simply don’t think their hearing is that impaired. They have themselves convinced that others are mumbling or even that they are talking softly on purpose. The other factor is that some people may not recognize that they have a hearing impairment. To them, it seems as if other people don’t want to talk to them.

If you are somebody who regularly thinks people are speaking quietly or mumbling and it’s causing you to feel anxiety or even depression, it’s time for a hearing exam. If there is hearing loss, that person needs to discuss which hearing aid is right for them. You could possibly feel a lot better if you consult a hearing specialist.

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Health Care Results Are Substantially Influenced by Untreated Hearing Loss

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 15:14:00 GMT

Important health information is missed by about 43% of patients who are 60 or older, as reported by recent studies. At a time when heeding medical guidance is so essential, patients might be missing important details related to their care.

Hearing Loss – A Worldwide Epidemic

Hearing loss isn’t a small matter. Globally, one third of individuals who are 65 or older have debilitating hearing loss.

But shockingly, if we go a little deeper we discover that only 30% of those people who suffer from debilitating hearing loss have taken steps to improve their situation. This trend isn’t good news for medical care as we’ll illustrate next.

With Health Care – Communication is Essential

Miscommunication is one of the primary causes of medical errors, and medical errors are still one of the leading causes of death. A study from Harvard showed that as many as 37% of serious injuries that were caused by medical errors could have been avoided with improved communication. An improved ability to communicate essential information with patients could save lives.

How Medical Care is Impacted by Hearing Loss

When you are talking to pharmacists, nurses, or doctors there is some info you won’t want to miss so let’s not dwell on statistics.

When it comes to reaching health objectives, the advice of health care professionals is a vital factor. They might talk about what healthy levels are for things like blood sugar or blood pressure. They may tell you to avoid certain foods to prevent spikes in these numbers that can do you harm. Dealing with your condition could get away from you if you miss important advice.

These medical providers might explain danger zones that suggest that you need medical care. You might not get the assistance that you require because you didn’t completely understand what your doctor was saying.

Your pharmacist may try to warn you about dangerous side effects or drug interactions. You believe you heard everything but you lose an important detail and end up in the hospital.

Your physical therapist puts you on a strength-building program but warns you not to engage in a certain activity. You might suffer a serious fall because you missed that advice.

Why Communicating Medical Information is Especially Demanding

Taking medical data in the correct context is particularly difficult. When you miss some piece of information due to your hearing loss, you use context to attempt to fill in what you missed. Compensating for hearing loss is something your brain is in fact pretty good at. You may even come to believe that you heard something that you really didn’t hear, it’s that good at compensating.

The meaning of a sentence can be completely changed, when addressing medical information, with something as basic as a “don’t” or “not”. One misunderstood number could completely change a dosage, a goal, or a danger zone.

The smallest detail makes a big difference when it comes to medical care. When those little details are missed, it can produce serious medical issues.

Having Your Hearing Loss Addressed

You could be missing essential medical advice if you suffer from hearing loss. It’s time to deal with that and get your hearing back.

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There Are Unexpected Advantages to Hearing Aids

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:06:00 GMT

Hearing aids could benefit about 28 million people. What this means is that 28 million people would here their world clearer if they had hearing aids. But there are also a number of other, somewhat unexpected health advantages that you can begin to take advantage of thanks to your hearing aids.

It turns out that something as easy as wearing your hearing aids could be good for your physical and mental health. These little gadgets can help prevent (or delay) everything from injury from a fall to depression. In many ways, your hearing aids can help you stay on your feet.

Hearing Aids And Mental Health Advantages

Modern medical studies have firmly established a link between cognitive decline and hearing loss. The current thinking is that, for a mixture of mental, social, and physical reasons, hearing loss can trigger an increased danger of mental illness, such as anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, and dementia.

So it’s no surprise that recent analyses has suggested that hearing aids could have substantial mental health advantages.

Dementia Risks Decreased

Your risk of dementia can be reduced, according to one study, by almost 20%. That’s a wonderful benefit when the only thing you need to do is remember to wear your hearing aids on a daily basis.

In other studies, the onset of dementia was slowed by as much as two years by using hearing aids. This is really encouraging and with more research done to replicate and clarify these figures, we can come a long way in the battle against cognitive decline and illness.

Decrease Anxiety And Depression

Many people suffer from depression and anxiety even if they don’t have hearing loss. But there is plenty of evidence to indicate that those who have hearing loss are at a higher risk of developing both depression and anxiety as time goes on.

When you have hearing aids, you tend to stay more mentally focused and socially engaged. If those factors were contributing to depression and anxiety, they can help.

You’ll be Less Lonely

While dementia might sound much more severe, isolation can be a serious problem for individuals who suffer from neglected hearing loss, social solitude often being the cause and adding fuel to the fire. That social separation can cause significant changes to your disposition. So it can be a huge benefit if your hearing aids can help you continue to be socially active.

And this is an excellent reason why, for example, your hearing aid can help protect against conditions like depression. To a certain extent, all of these health problems are linked in some way.

Hearing Aids And Physical Benefits

There’s some data which indicates that as hearing loss symptoms become more obvious, your risk of stroke goes up. But that particular research is obviously on the preliminary side. The most pronounced (and noticeable) physical benefit of hearing aids is a little simpler: you’ll fall less often.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

As you age falling down can have a disastrous effect on your health. So your overall health can be protected by reducing damage from falls or preventing them altogether.

Wear Your Hearing Aids Everyday

These advantages, it’s worth mentioning, apply to people who suffer from hearing impairment. Hearing aids won’t, for instance, help someone with healthy hearing avoid falling.

But using your hearing aids, if you do have hearing loss, is the smartest thing you can do for general health.

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Your Hearing And Anxiety

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 00:45:00 GMT

There are two kinds of anxiety. When you are coping with an emergency situation, that feeling that you get is called common anxiety. And then there’s the type of anxiety that isn’t really linked to any one worry or event. Regardless of what’s happening around them or what they’re thinking about, they often feel anxiety. It’s just present in the background throughout the day. This second type is generally the kind of anxiety that’s not so much a neuro-typical reaction and more of a mental health problem.

Both forms of anxiety can be very detrimental to the physical body. Long periods of persistent anxiety can be particularly bad. When it’s anxious, your body secretes all kinds of chemicals that raise your alert status. It’s a good thing in the short term, but damaging over extended periods of time. Specific physical symptoms will begin to manifest if anxiety can’t be treated and lasts for longer periods of time.

Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

Some symptoms of anxiety are:

But persistent anxiety doesn’t always appear in the ways that you may predict. In fact, there are some pretty interesting ways that anxiety might actually wind up impacting things as apparently vague as your hearing. For instance, anxiety has been linked to:

Hearing Loss And Anxiety

Since this is a hearing website, we typically tend to give attention to, well, the ears. And your ability to hear. So let’s talk a bit about how anxiety impacts your hearing.

The solitude is the first and foremost issue. People tend to pull away from social experiences when they have hearing loss, tinnitus or balance issues. You might have experienced this with your own family. Perhaps a relative just stopped talking as much because they were embarrassed that they have to constantly repeat themselves. Problems with balance present similar difficulties. It can be difficult to admit to your friends and family that you have a hard time driving or even walking because you’re experiencing balance troubles.

Social isolation is also associated with anxiety and depression for other reasons. Usually, you aren’t going to be around anyone if you aren’t feeling like yourself. Sadly, one can wind up feeding the other and can turn into an unhealthy loop. The negative effects of isolation can occur rapidly and will lead to numerous other issues and can even result in cognitive decline. For somebody who struggles with anxiety and hearing loss, battling against that move toward isolation can be even more difficult.

Getting The Proper Treatment

Finding the proper treatment is significant especially given how much anxiety, hearing loss, tinnitus and isolation feed on each other.

All of the symptoms for these ailments can be helped by getting treatment for your tinnitus and hearing loss. And in terms of depression and anxiety, connecting with others who can relate can be really helpful. Certainly, dealing with these symptoms can help with the sense of isolation that might make persistent anxiety more extreme. So that you can determine what treatments are best for you, check with your doctor and your hearing specialist. Depending on what your hearing test shows, the best treatment for hearing loss or tinnitus could be hearing aids. And for anxiety, medication and other forms of therapy could be necessary. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has also been proven to help deal with tinnitus.

Here’s to Your Health

We know, then, that anxiety can have very real, very serious consequences for your physical health in addition to your mental health.

Isolation and cognitive decline have also been recognized as a consequence of hearing loss. When you add anxiety to the recipe, you can have a pretty difficult situation. Luckily, treatments exist for both conditions, and getting that treatment can make a big, positive effect. Anxiety doesn’t have to have long lasting effects on your body and the impact of anxiety on your body can be counteracted. The sooner you get treatment, the better.

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The Adverse Impacts of Neglecting Hearing Loss

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 17:50:00 GMT

It’s a regrettable fact of life that hearing loss is part of the aging process. Roughly 38 million individuals in the United States deal with some form of hearing loss, but since hearing loss is expected as we get older, many people choose to just deal with it. Ignoring hearing loss, however, can have serious adverse side effects on a person’s over-all well-being beyond their inability to hear.

Why is the decision to simply cope with hearing loss one that lots of people choose? According to an AARP study, more than one-third of senior citizens think of hearing loss as a minor issue that can be dealt with easily enough, while price was a worry for more than half of people who participated in the study. The costs of ignoring hearing loss, though, can be a lot higher because of complications and adverse reactions that come with ignoring it. Here are the most common adverse effects of ignoring hearing loss.

Fatigue

The dots will not be connected by most people from fatigue to hearing loss . Instead, they will attribute fatigue to countless different ideas, like slowing down because of aging or a side-effect of medication. But actually, if you need to work extra hard to hear, it can drain your physical resources. Recall how tired you were at times in your life when your brain had to be totally concentrated on a task for prolonged periods of time. Once you’re finished, you likely feel drained. When you are struggling to hear, it’s a similar situation: your brain is working to fill in the blanks you’re missing in conversations – which, when there is enough background noise, is even more difficult – and just trying to process information uses precious energy. Taking care of yourself requires energy that you won’t have with this type of chronic exhaustion. To adjust, you will avoid life-essential routines like working out or eating healthy.

Decline of Cognitive Function

Countless studies by Johns Hopkins University linked hearing loss to diminishe cognitive functions , accelerated brain tissue loss, and dementia. While these links are correlations, instead of causations, scientists believe that, again, the more frequently you need to fill in the conversational blanks, which consumes mental resources, the less you have to focus on other things including comprehension and memorization. And as people age, the increased draw on cognitive resources can accelerate the decline of other brain functions and can lead to gray matter loss. Moreover, it’s believed that the process of mental decline can be slowed and mental fitness can be preserved by sustained exchange of ideas, normally through conversation. The fact that a link between cognitive function and hearing loss was found is promising for future research since hearing and cognitive specialists can work together to narrow down the factors and develop treatment options for these ailments.

Mental Health Problems

The National Council on the Aging conducted a study of 2,300 seniors who suffered some form of hearing loss and found that those who left their condition untreated were more likely to also suffer from mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and paranoia, which negatively affected their social and emotional well-being. It makes sense that there is a connection between mental health and hearing loss problems since, in social and family situations, individuals who cope with hearing loss have a hard time interacting with others. This can lead to feelings of isolation, which can eventually lead to depression. If neglected, anxiety and even paranoia can appear due to these feelings of isolation and exclusion. If you are dealing with anxiety or depression, you should talk to a mental health professional and you should also know that hearing aids have been shown to help people recover from some forms of depression.

Cardiovascular Disease

Our bodies are one interconnected machine – if one part stops functioning like it should, it could have a detrimental impact on another apparently unrelated part. This is the situation with our hearts and ears. For instance, hearing loss will happen when blood doesn’t easily flow from the heart to the inner ear. Diabetes, which is also connected to heart disease, can affect the inner ear’s nerve endings and cause information sent to the brain from the ear to become scrambled. If heart disease is ignored serious or even possibly fatal consequences can occur. So if you have detected some hearing loss and have a history of heart disease or heart disease in your family you should seek advice from both a cardiac and hearing specialist in order to determine whether your hearing loss is connected to a heart condition.

If you want to start living a healthier life, contact us so we can help you resolve any negative effects of hearing loss that you may suffer.

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It Could be Time to Upgrade Your Hearing Aids, But How do You Know?

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 21:54:00 GMT

If you still have an old-school ear trumpet in hand than plainly, it’s time to upgrade. When you use conventional hearing aids, making that call is more tricky. Your decade old hearing aids still work, right?

Maybe you are better off having obsolete hearing aids than having none, what’s the real cost? Hearing aid technology has progressed in the last several years. Some of the functions of modern hearing aids hadn’t even been designed a decade ago. For one thing, they’ve gone to digital from analog. Think about some reasons why it’s time for you to be thinking about an upgrade.

The Old Hearing Aid is Not That Dependable

Cheaper or older hearing aids often have an irritating buzzing sound. How about that feedback any time you get close to a phone, that’s a lot of fun. That loud feedback occasionally occurs for no apparent reason. What caused it this time?

You’ve Become Desensitized to its Poor Quality

You’ve become accustomed to pondering why the sound of traffic is so noisy or to going off quietly while everyone else has interesting conversation. Recall the time your grandchild sang you a great song she learned at school, but you could only hear every other word because your hearing aids kept cutting out. You still clapped, though.

Old hearing aids have all of these kinds of problems. Ten years ago the attention was on raising the volume. Today, hearing aids perform magic tricks such as filtering out background noise, so no more noisy air conditioner.

The Old Ones Are Wasting Money

Cost is always an issue when considering an upgrade. The new tech is not cheap, but neither is using an old, out-of-date hearing aid. You will be constantly replacing batteries when you have an analog hearing aid. If you are buying new batteries on a daily basis, or even more often than that, the costs can get very high.

Out of date hearings aids can potentially need repair, also. If you think of your hearing aid like you think of a 1992 car you would get the point. It’s in the shop more than it’s in your ear and repairs expensive.

Nowadays, we Have Smart Tech

Most contemporary hearing aids come with Bluetooth functionality. You won’t get that in an analog unit. Your tablet, phone, and even your computer can be connected, via Bluetooth, to your hearing digital aid.

The Secret to Everything is Communication

It has been found by research, that you may earn less money if you have hearing loss. So it’s obvious that it would be an asset to your career if you had newer hearing aids. It will be easier to hear what customers and your boss are saying. You won’t have to be concerned about missing some essential information or if your hearing aid battery will die when you need it most.

And clearly you will have a better quality of life if you have strong communication skills. You won’t need to go sit by yourself when people are having conversations. Don’t hesitate to get right in and engage with others.

You Just Want Your Hearing Aid to be Cooler

When you look in the mirror at your old hearing aid, what words come to mind? Embarrassing? Totally obvious? Oh my god? One of the most significant perks that come with upgrading old hearing aids is style and versatility. You can purchase hearing aids in lots of colors, shapes, and sizes today. You can wear a visible one in your favorite color or an internal one hidden from sight inside your ear.

How to Know That it’s Time to Upgrade

Now you know all the reasons why you should want a hearing aid upgrade, but not what to specifically look for that says your device may end up being called an antique. The time has come and here are the signs:

It’s an easy choice. If you’ve had your hearing aids for seven years or more, it’s time to trade up and hear better.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

The One Thing You Need to Recognize About Hearing Loss

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 21:39:00 GMT

Growing up into adulthood, you probably started to associate hearing loss with getting old. Older adults in your life were probably wearing hearing aids or having a difficult time hearing.

In your youth, getting old seems so distant but as time passes you start to recognize that hearing loss is about much more than aging.

This is the one thing you should know: Admitting that you have hearing loss doesn’t mean that you’re old.

Hearing Loss is an “Any Age Issue”

In 13% of cases, audiologists can already notice hearing loss by age 12. You’ll recognize, this isn’t because a 12 year old is “old”. Teenage hearing loss has risen 33% in the last 30 years.

What’s happening here?

Debilitating hearing loss has already set in for 2% of individuals between the ages of 45 and 55 and 8% of people between the ages of 55 and 64.

It’s not an aging problem. What you may think of as age-related hearing loss is 100% preventable. And you have the power to significantly decrease its advancement.

Noise exposure is the typical cause of age associated or “sensorineural” hearing loss.

Hearing loss was, for many years, considered to be an inevitable part of aging. But these days, science knows more about how to safeguard your hearing and even restore it.

How Noise Causes Hearing Loss

Step one to safeguarding your hearing is understanding how something as “innocuous” as noise results in hearing loss.

Sound is composed of waves. Your ear canal receives these waves. They go past your eardrum into your inner ear.

Here, small hair cells in your inner ear vibrate. The speed and intensity of these vibrations will then encode a neurological signal. Your brain can translate this code into words, running water, a car horn, a cry or whatever else you may hear.

But when the inner ear is exposed to sounds that are too intense, these hair cells move too rapidly. This level of sound destroys these hairs and they will eventually stop working.

When these hairs die you won’t be able to hear.

Noise-Activated Hearing Loss is Permanent, Here’s Why

If you cut yourself, the cut heals. But these tiny hair cells won’t heal or grow back. Over time, as you subject your ears to loud sounds, more and more of these hairs perish.

Hearing loss gets worse as they do.

Hearing Damage Can be Caused by These every day Noises

Many people are surprised to find out that daily activities can lead to hearing loss. These things probably seem completely harmless:

You don’t need to quit these things. Luckily, you can reduce noise induced hearing loss by taking some safety measures.

How to Keep Hearing Loss From Making You “Feel” Older

Admitting you have hearing loss, if you’re already dealing with it, doesn’t have to make you feel old. As a matter of fact, you will feel older a lot sooner if you fail to recognize your hearing loss because of complications like:

These are all considerably more prevalent in those with neglected hearing loss.

Reduce Further Hearing Injury

Start by learning how to avoid hearing loss.

Get a Hearing Examination

Are you in denial or just procrastinating? Don’t do it. Be active about reducing further harm by acknowledging your situation.

Consult With Your Hearing Professional About Solutions For Your Hearing.

Hearing impairment has no “natural cure”. If hearing loss is severe, it may be time to invest in a hearing aid.

Do a Comparison of The Cost of Buying Hearing Aids to The Benefits

Lots of people are either in denial concerning hearing loss, or they choose to “tough it out”. They don’t want people to think they are old because they have hearing aids. Or they think they cost too much.

But when they comprehend that hearing loss will worsen faster and can cause many relationship and health challenges, it’s easy to see that the pros well outweigh the cons.

Schedule a hearing exam with a hearing professional. And you don’t have to be concerned that you look old if you wind up needing hearing aids. Modern hearing aids are sophisticated and state-of-the-art pieces of modern technology.

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It’s a Wise Financial Choice to Get Hearing Aids

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 01:35:00 GMT

For the money you pay for hearing aids, are they really worth it. The price is commonly a worry for individuals who have hearing loss. Even so, when you invest in a house you don’t see the price and say, “well, being homeless is less expensive”! Cost is not the only value consideration with regards to purchasing hearing aids.

You really need to ask yourself what the cost of not getting hearing aids will be and what the actual value of using hearing aids is.” If you choose not to purchase hearing aids, there will be a financial cost, as it turns out. Your choices should also factor in these costs. Understand why you will save money in the long run if you decide to buy hearing aids.

If You Decide to Buy Cheaper Hearing Aids, You Will End up Spending More

While searching the hearing aids market, you will probably come across cheaper devices that appear to be less expensive. You could even buy a hearing aid off of the internet that cost less than a dinner.

You get what you pay for in quality when you buy cheap hearing devices. When you purchase these devices, you’re actually buying an amplification device like earbuds, not an actual hearing aid. They just crank up all of the sound around you, including noises you don’t want amplified.

Customized programming is the best function of a high-quality hearing aid, that you don’t have if you use a cheap hearing device. If your hearing aids can be programmed to target your distinct hearing needs, you will have a much higher quality experience.

The batteries in store bought hearing aids are also low quality. It becomes very expensive when you need to keep replacing dead batteries. You could wind up switching out batteries a couple of times each day if you go with a cheap amplification device. You’ll have to bring extra batteries around because they will normally fail when you need them most. If you’re constantly replacing dead batteries, are you actually saving money over time?

Higher quality hearing aids last a lot longer because they have more efficient electronics. Many even come with rechargeable batteries, doing away with the need for constant replacements.

Career Issues

You could end up earning less if you decide not to wear hearing aids or to wear cheap ones. A 2013 study published in The Hearing Journal states that individuals that have hearing loss don’t earn as much money – as much as 25 percent less, and are more likely to be without a job .

Why? There are lots of variables involved, but communication is vital in just about every trade and that’s the dominant factor. If you’re going to give good results, you need to be able to hear what your manager is saying. And in order to assist consumers or clients, you must poses strong listening skills. If you spend the entire discussion attempting to decipher what words people are saying, you’re probably missing the entire content. Simply put, if you cannot take part in discussions, it’s really hard to succeed at work.

There will also be a physical toll from trying to here on the job. Even if you are able to get through a day with compromise hearing, the anxiousness that happens if you worry about whether you heard something right and the energy necessary to make out as much as you can, will make you fatigued and stressed out. Some impacts of stress:

As a result, your income will decline due to the impact on your work efficiency.

Having to go to the ER more frequently

Loss of hearing comes with safety issues. If you don’t have quality hearing aids, it will become hazardous for you to go across the street or drive a vehicle. How can you stay clear of something if you’re not able to hear it? What about public warning systems like a tornado alert or smoke alarm?

For jobs like a manufacturing factory or a construction site, you need to be able to hear in order for you and your coworkers to stay safe. That means that not using hearing aids isn’t just a safety hazard but also something that can restrict your career options.

Financial safety is also a factor here. Did you overpay the waitress for dinner because you had a difficult time hearing her? Do you really need all those new television features that you failed to hear the salesperson discussing with you? Perhaps the lower priced model would be all you would require, but it is hard to know if you can’t hear the person discuss the difference.

The Health of Your Brain

The increased risk of dementia is one of the most critical problems with hearing loss. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that Alzheimer’s disease costs people more than 56,000 dollars each year. Dementia accounts for 11 billion dollars in Medicare costs annually.

Loss of hearing is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and a variety of other kinds of dementia. Somebody who has neglected their hearing loss for a long time raises their chance of brain impairment by five fold. A modest hearing loss has three times the possibility of ending up with dementia, and even a slight hearing issue doubles your chances. Hearing aids decrease these dangers.

There’s little doubt that a hearing aid will set you back a bit. If you examine all the worries that come with going without one or buying a lower quality device, it’s obviously a sound financial choice. Consult a hearing care professional to learn more about hearing aids.

If You Have Untreated Hearing Loss Your Healthcare Expenses Could be up to 40% More

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 14:24:00 GMT

The impact hearing loss has on overall health has been examined for years. New research takes a different approach by looking at what untreated hearing loss can do to your healthcare spending. Individuals, as well as the medical community, are looking for ways to reduce the soaring costs of healthcare. A study put out on November 8, 2018, says a solution as simple as managing your hearing loss can make a significant difference.

How Health is Impacted by Hearing Loss

Neglected hearing loss comes with unseen hazards, as reported by Johns Hopkins Medicine . Researchers spent 12 years following adults with anywhere from mild to severe hearing loss and discovered it had a significant effect on brain health. For example:

The study reveals that the brain atrophies at a faster rate when a person suffers from hearing loss. The brain is put under stress that can lead to damage because it has to work harder to do things such as maintaining balance.

Also, quality of life is affected. Stress and anxiety are more likely in a person who can’t hear well. They are also prone to depression. All these things add up to higher medical expenses.

The Newest Study

The newest research published November in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that it starts to be a budget buster if you decide not to address your hearing loss. This study was also led by researchers from Johns Hopkins in collaboration with AARP, the University of California San Francisco and Optum Labs.

77,000 to 150,000 patients who had untreated hearing loss were examined. Just two years after the diagnosis of hearing loss, patients generated almost 26 percent more health care costs than people with normal hearing.

Over time, this number continues to grow. Healthcare expenses rise by 46 percent after a ten year period. When you break those numbers down, they add up to an average of $22,434 per person.

Some factors that are associated with the increase are:

A link between untreated hearing loss and a higher rate of mortality is suggested by a second study conducted by the Bloomberg School. They also uncovered that people with untreated hearing loss also suffered from:

The research by Johns Hopkins matches with this one.

Hearing Loss is on The Rise

According to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders :

The number rises to 25 percent for those aged 65 to 74 and 50 percent for anybody above the age of 74. Those numbers are predicted to rise in the future. By the year 2060, as many as 38 million people in this country may have hearing loss.

Using hearing aids can alter these numbers, though, which the study doesn’t indicate. What is understood is that some health issues linked to hearing loss can be decreased by using hearing aids. To figure out whether wearing hearing aids lessens the cost of healthcare, further research is necessary. There are more benefits to wearing them than not, undoubtedly. To find out if hearing aids would benefit you, make an appointment with a hearing care specialist right away.

How Can I Make My Hearing Aids More Comfortable?

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:18:00 GMT

Tanya is sitting with her hearing specialist, being fitted for her very first set of hearing aids. And she’s experiencing a little anxiety. Her anxiety isn’t actually that bad. But hearing aids are new to her, and she’s somewhat worried that she will feel uncomfortable with a high tech gadget sitting in her ear canal, particularly since she’s never been a big fan of earbuds or earplugs.

These concerns are not only felt by Tanya. Fit and general comfort are concerns for many new hearing aid users. Tanya has every desire of wearing her hearing aids. She’s looking forward to hearing her son’s jokes and listening to her television at a volume not likely to cause trouble with the neighbors. But will those hearing aids be fit her ears comfortably?

How to Adjust When You First Wear Your Hearing Aids

So, is wearing hearing aids uncomfortable? The short answer is: some people find them to be a little uncomfortable at first. As with many things in life, there’s an adjustment time, meaning your early level of comfort will fluctuate. But over time, you’ll get used to the feeling of your hearing aids and become more comfortable.

Often it’s just nice to know that these adjustments are coming. Knowing what you should expect will help your adjustment period be easier.

There are two stages to your adjustment:

In order to enhance your general comfort and speed up the adjustment period, get in touch with your hearing specialist if you’re having trouble with the physical positioning or sound quality of your hearing aids.

Can I Make my Hearing Aids More Comfortable?

Fortunately, there are a few strategies that have proven to be fairly effective over the years.

Making Your Hearing Aids More Comfortable

Your hearing aids may feel a little uncomfortable for the first few days or weeks. But the faster you adapt to your new hearing aids, the faster they’ll become a comfortable part of your day to day life. Wearing them every day is crucial to make that transition work.

Before you know it, you’ll be thinking about is having good conversation with friends.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

These Chemicals Can Harm Your Hearing

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 16:39:00 GMT

Most people are familiar with the common causes of hearing loss but don’t recognize the hazards that commonplace chemicals pose to their hearing. There is an greater exposure risk for people who work in metal fabrication , automotive-plastics , petroleum, and textiles . Your quality of life can be enhanced by recognizing what these chemicals are and how to protect yourself.

Select Chemicals Are Harmful to Your Hearing. Why?

Something that has a toxic effect on the nerves of the ears or the ears themselves is known as ototoxic . At work or at home, people can come in contact with ototoxic chemicals. They might absorb these chemicals through the skin, ingest, or inhale them. These chemicals, once they get into the body, will go into the ear, affecting the delicate nerves. The impact is even worse when it comes with high levels of noise exposure, leading to temporary or permanent loss of hearing.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, defined five kinds of chemicals which can be detrimental to your hearing:

If You Are Subjected to These Ototoxic Chemicals, What Should You do?

Taking precautions is the key to safeguarding your hearing. If you work in a sector like plastics, automotive, fire-fighting, pesticide spraying, or construction, consult your employer about exposure levels to these chemicals. Make sure you utilize every safety material your job supplies, like protective garment, gloves, and masks.

Be certain you adhere to all of the instructions on the labels of your medications before you use them. When you are using any chemicals, if you don’t understand the label, get help, and use correct ventilation . Noise and chemicals can have a cumulative effect on your hearing, so if you are around both at the same time, take extra precautions. Try to get ahead of any potential problems by having a regular hearing exam if you are on medications or if you can’t steer clear of chemicals. Hearing specialists have experience with the numerous causes of hearing loss and can help you figure out a plan to avoid further damage.

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Brain Games Aren’t as Effective as This For Mental Agility

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 01:22:00 GMT

Because it’s simple, soduku is one of the world’s most popular puzzle games. All you need to play is some grids, some numbers, and a pencil. For many individuals, a Sudoku puzzle book is a way to pass the hours. It’s an additional perk that it’s good for your brain.

“Brain workouts” have become a popular way of addressing cognitive decline. But there are other methods of delaying mental decline. Recent studies have demonstrated that hearing aids may be able to provide your brain with a little boost in mental activation, slowing the progression of cognitive decline.

Cognitive Decline, What is it?

Your brain is a “use it or lose it” organ. Without stimulation, neural pathways tend to fizzle out. That’s why Sudoku tends to keep you mentally active: it causes your brain to think, to creatively develop and strengthen a plethora of neural pathways.

There are certain things that will accelerate the process that would be an ordinary amount of cognitive decline connected with getting older. An especially potent danger for your cognitive health, for instance, is hearing loss. Two things take place that powerfully affect your brain when your hearing begins to go:

These two factors, when put together, can cause your brain to change in significant ways. Loss of memory, trouble concentrating, and ultimately an increased danger of dementia have been linked to this sort of cognitive decline.

Is Mental Decline Reversable With Hearing Aids?

So, this cognitive decline takes place because your hearing loss is going untreated. And it’s fairly clear what needs to be done to reverse these declines: get your hearing impairment treated. For the majority of people with hearing loss, that means a brand new pair of well-calibrated hearing aids.

The amount that hearing aids can slow mental decline is both unexpected and well-corroborated. Scientists at the University of Melbourne surveyed around 100 adults between the ages of 62-82, all of whom had some kind of hearing loss. Over 97% of those adults who used their hearing aids for at least 18 months revealed a stabilization or even reversal of that mental decline.

Just wearing hearing aids resulted in an almost universal improvement. That tells us a couple of things:

Doesn’t Mean Sudoku is a Bad Idea

The University of Melbourne study isn’t the only one of it’s kind. If you have untreated hearing loss, many studies have demonstrated that wearing hearing aids can help decrease cognitive decline. But many people have hearing loss and just don’t recognize it. You may not even notice the early symptoms. So it’s worth making an appointment with your hearing specialist if you’ve been feeling a bit forgetful, spacey, or stressed.

That hearing aids are so successful doesn’t automatically mean you should give up on your Sudoku or other brain games. Keeping your brain agile and involved in numerous different ways can help expand the total cognitive strength of your executive functions. Both hearing aids and Sudoku can help you work out your brain and keep yourself mentally fit.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

Is There a Cure For The Ringing in my Ears?

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:48:00 GMT

How can I get rid of the ringing in my ears? Although we don’t yet know how to cure tinnitus, it’s symptoms can be minimized by learning what triggers it and worsens it.

Experts calculate that 32 percent of people have a constant ringing, buzzing, or whooshing sound in their ears. This condition is called tinnitus, and it can wreak havoc. People who have this condition could have associative hearing loss and often have difficulty sleeping and concentrating.

Because it is normally related to some other affliction , there is no real cure for the tinnitus itself, but there are steps you can take to quiet the noise.

Avoid These Things to Reduce The Ringing

The first step in managing that continuous ringing in your ears is to stay away from the things that are known to cause it or make it worse. Loud noise is one of the most common things that aggravate tinnitus. If you’re exposed to a loud work environment, wear earplugs and also try to avoid using headphones or earpods.

You should also consult your doctor concerning your medications, as certain antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and high doses of aspirin can make the ear ringing worse. Be sure you speak with your doctor before you discontinue your medication.

Here are some other common causes:

Tinnitus And Problems With The Jaw

If for no other reason than their physical proximity, your ears and jaw exhibit a certain amount of interplay between each other (they’re ideal neighbors, usually). This is why jaw problems can lead to tinnitus. TMJ, which is an affliction that causes the cartilage of the jaw to deteriorate, is a good example of this type of jaw problem. Tinnitus can be the outcome of the stress of basic activities like chewing.

What can I do? If your tinnitus is caused by TMJ symptoms, then the best way to achieve relief is to seek out medical or dental treatment for the root cause (no pun intended).

Stress And That Ringing in my Ears

The impacts of stress on the body are very real and very serious. Increase of tinnitus symptoms can be caused by surges in breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. Stress, as a result, can trigger, worsen, and extend bouts of tinnitus.

What can be done? If your tinnitus is triggered by stress, you should find ways of de-stressing. Taking some time to decrease the stress in your life (whenever you can) will also help.

Excess Earwax

It’s completely normal and healthy for you to have earwax. But excessive earwax can aggravate your eardrum, and begin to cause buzzing or ringing in your ears. The resulting tinnitus can worsen if the earwax continues to accumulate or becomes hard to wash away normally.

How can I deal with this? The easiest way to minimize the ringing in your ears caused by excessive earwax is to make sure your ears are clean! ( Don’t use cotton swabs in your ears.) In certain instances, you might need to get a professional cleaning so that you can get the buzzing and ringing to go away (some people just normally make a lot more earwax than others).

High Blood Pressure Causes Tinnitus to Worsen

Various health issues, such as tinnitus, can be caused by hypertension and high blood pressure. High blood pressure can intensify the buzzing or ringing you’re already hearing, making it difficult to dismiss. High blood pressure has treatment which may reduce tinnitus symptoms in related situations.

What’s my solution? High blood pressure is not something you want to ignore. Medical treatment is recommended. But you could also change your lifestyle a little: stay away from foods that have high fat or salt content and exercise more. Hypertension and stress can increase your blood pressure triggering tinnitus, so try to find lifestyle changes and ways of relaxing to reduce stress (and, thus, hypertension-related tinnitus).

Will Using a Masking Device or White Noise Device Help my Tinnitus?

If you distract your brain and ears , you can decrease the impact of the continual noise in your ears. You don’t even have to get special equipment, your radio, TV or laptop can act as masking devices. If you prefer, there are hearing aids or specialized devices you can purchase to help.

You need to take it seriously if you have continuous ringing, buzzing, or whooshing in your ears. If you’re suffering from hearing loss or have health problems that are acting up, it might be a warning sign. Before what began as an annoying problem becomes a more serious issue, take steps to safeguard your ears and if the ringing persists, find professional hearing help.

Are Your Hearing Aid Batteries Draining Too Fast?

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 18:20:00 GMT

Do you feel as if your hearing aid batteries won’t keep a charge as long as they should? Here are a few unexpected reasons that might occur. What is the average amount of time that your hearing aid batteries should keep a charge? Anywhere from 3 to 7 days is standard. That range is pretty wide. So wide, in fact, that it’s unpredictable and leaves you in a significant predicament. You could be on day 4 at the grocery store when unexpectedly, things go quiet and you’re unable to hear the cashier. Or it’s day 5 and you’re having a call with friends when all of a sudden you find yourself feeling very alone because you can no longer follow the conversation. Occasionally the batteries don’t even make that 3 day mark. Like when you’re watching TV on day 2 and suddenly you can’t hear the show your that’s on. It isn’t just annoying. You’re missing out on life because you don’t know how much juice is left in your hearing aids. Here are the likely culprits if your hearing aid batteries die too soon.

A Battery Can be Depleted by Moisture

There aren’t very many species that release moisture through their skin but humans do. We do it to cool off. We do it to clear out excess toxins or sodium in the blood. In addition, you might live in a humid or rainy climate where things are even more moist. The air vent in your hearing aid can get clogged by this additional moisture and it will be less reliable. It can even deplete the battery directly by interacting with the chemicals that generate electricity. Here are a few measures you can take to prevent moisture-caused battery drain:

Advanced Hearing Aid Functions Can Deplete Batteries

Current digital hearing aids help people hear a lot better than ones that came out just 10 years ago. But these extra features can cause batteries to drain faster if you’re not paying attention. You can still use your favorite features. But remember, you will have to change the battery sooner if you are streaming music from your phone all day. Bluetooth, multichannel, tinnitus relief, noise canceling — all of these additional features can drain your battery.

Batteries Can be Impacted by Altitude Changes

Your batteries can be drained if you go from low to high altitudes especially if they are already low on juice. Take some spare batteries if you are going on a plane or high up into the mountains.

Are The Batteries Really Low?

Some models will give you an alert when the battery begins to get too low. These warnings are, under normal circumstances, a “heads up”. They’re not telling you the battery is dead. Moreover, sometimes an environmental change in altitude or humidity briefly causes the charge to drop and the low battery alarm gets triggered. In order to end the alarm, take the batteries out, and then put them back in. You may be able to get a few more hours or possibly even days of battery life.

Handling Batteries Improperly

Wait until you’re about to use your hearing aid to remove the tab from the battery. Make sure you wash your hands before handling your hearing aids or batteries to protect against getting dirt or hand oil on them. Hearing aid batteries should never be frozen. This trick may increase the life of some types of battery but it doesn’t work with hearing aid batteries. Simple handling mistakes such as these can make hearing aid batteries drain more quickly.

It’s Not a Good Plan to Purchase a Year’s Supply of Batteries

Buying in bulk is usually a smart money move if you can afford to do it. But the last few batteries in the pack probably won’t have full power. Unless you don’t mind wasting a few, try to stick to a six month supply.

Shopping For Hearing Aid Batteries on The Web

It’s not a general critique of purchasing things online. You can get some great deals. But some less honest people sell batteries on the internet that are very close to the expiration date. Or even worse, it has already passed. So buyer beware.
Both alkaline (AA, AAA, etc.) and zinc hearing aid batteries have a date they will expire. You wouldn’t buy milk without looking at the expiration date. You should do that with batteries too. Be certain that the date is well in the future to get the most use out of the pack. If the website doesn’t state an expiration date , message the vendor, or buy batteries directly from us. Make sure you know and trust the seller.

Modern Hearing Aids Are Rechargeable

Hearing aids could drain too quickly for a number of reasons. But by taking some precautions you can get more energy out of each battery. You might also consider rechargeable hearing aids if you’re in the market for a new set. You put them on a charger every night for a full charge the next day. The rechargeable batteries only need to be changed every few years .

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Here’s What You Should Know About Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 19:00:00 GMT

We all enjoy convenience. So it’s easy to realize the appeal of hearing aids that you can get at your local store or pharmacy. No fitting, no waiting, just instant gratification. But this rosy vision of the future might require deeper investigation.

A little care is important because over-the-counter hearing aids may start popping up in stores near you. And that puts a lot of responsibility on consumers like you to understand all of the facts. Those decisions have fairly high stakes; get it wrong and your hearing could suffer. But great responsibility comes with great convenience.

What’s an Over-The-Counter Hearing Aid?

To some degree, an over-the-counter hearing aid has some similarities with other hearing aids. So that they can counteract the effects of hearing loss, these devices are manufactured to amplify sound. In this regard, OTC hearing aids are better than they once were.

But the process of choosing an OTC hearing aid is a bit more complicated than buying a bottle of Tylenol. It should work like this:

In theory, this process will help you pick a hearing device that’s correct for your level of hearing loss and that will function well in all conditions. The real issues can start when you actually visit your local store to try and buy the best device for you.

The Part About Responsibility

Theoretically, this most likely all sounds pretty great. Some people might be able to enjoy healthier hearing while cutting costs with OTC hearing aids. But we weren’t kidding around when we said it places a large amount of responsibility on the shoulders of consumers.

When a consumer goes straight from an audiogram to an OTC hearing aid, here’s what they miss out on:

When you come in for some hearing guidance, these are only some of the things we will help you with.

We’re not saying that over-the-counter hearing aids are a bad thing. But when you are selecting your device, you should use some caution, and keeping your hearing specialist in the loop will be a smart way to make certain you’re getting the care you need as well as the technology you want.

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Are Headphones And Earbuds Harmful For Your Health?

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 19:52:00 GMT

Is there a gadget that exemplifies the current human condition better than headphones? These days, headphones and earbuds let you separate yourself from everyone around you while simultaneously enabling you to connect to the entire world of sounds. You can keep up with the news, watch Netflix, or listen to music anywhere you are. They’re wonderful. But the way we generally use them can also be a health risk.

This is particularly true with regards to your hearing health. And this is something that the World Health Organization has also reported. Headphones are everywhere so this is especially troubling.

Some Dangers With Earbuds or Headphones

Frances loves to listen to Lizzo all the time. When she’s really jamming out she usually cranks up the volume (there’s a certain enjoyment in listening to your favorite tune at full volume). She’s a considerate person, though, so Frances uses high-quality headphones to listen to her tunes.

This is a fairly normal use of headphones. Sure, there are plenty of other purposes and places you could use them, but the fundamental purpose is the same.

We use headphones because we want a private listening experience (so we are able to listen to anything we want) and also so we don’t bother the people near us (usually). But that’s where the hazard is: we’re exposing our ears to a significant amount of noise in an extended and intense way. Hearing loss can be the result of the damage caused by this prolonged exposure. And a wide variety of other health problems have been connected to hearing loss.

Protect Your Hearing

Hearing health, according to healthcare specialists, is an integral component of your general health. Headphones are easy to get and that’s one reason why they create a health hazard.

What can you do about it is the real question? In an effort to make headphones a little safer to use, researchers have provided several steps to take:

You may want to consider reducing your headphone usage entirely if you are at all concerned about your health.

I Don’t Actually Need to be Concerned About my Hearing, Right?

When you’re younger, it’s easy to consider damage to your hearing as unimportant (which you should not do, you only have one pair of ears). But numerous other health factors, including your mental health, can be affected by hearing problems. Problems including have been linked to hearing impairment.

So your overall wellness is forever linked to the health of your ears. Whether you’re listening to a podcast or your favorite music, your headphone could become a health risk. So turn down the volume a little and do yourself a favor.

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Look Out For These Signs if You Are Responsible For a Senior

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 15:53:00 GMT

It’s referred to as the “sandwich generation”. When you’re in your twenties and thirties, your time is spent raising kids. Then, caring for your senior parent’s healthcare requirements occupies your time when you’re in your forties and fifties. The term “sandwich generation” is appropriate because you’re sandwiched between caring for your kids and caring for your parents. And it’s increasingly common. For caretakers, this implies spending a lot of time thinking about Mom or Dad’s overall healthcare.

Setting up an appointment for Dad to go to an oncologist or a cardiologist feels like a priority, so you aren’t likely to forget anything like that. But things like making certain Dad’s hearing aids are charged or going to the yearly hearing exam can sometimes just fall through the cracks. And those little things can have a profound affect.

Hearing Health is Crucial For a Senior’s Total Health

More and more published research has echoed one surprising truth: your hearing is vitally important. In addition, your hearing is crucial in a way that transcends your ability to listen to music or communicate. Neglected hearing loss has been connected to numerous physical and mental health issues, such as depression and loss of cognitive abilities.

So you may be unknowingly increasing the risk that she will develop these issues by missing her hearing exam. If Mom isn’t hearing as well these days, it will limit her ability to communicate and be very isolating.

This type of social isolation can occur very quickly when hearing loss begins. So if you notice Mom starting to get a little distant, it may not have anything to do with her mood (yet). Her hearing may be the real problem. And that hearing-induced separation can itself eventually lead to cognitive decline (your brain is a very use-it-or-lose-it kind of organ). When it comes to the health of your senior parents, it’s important that those signs are identified and treated.

Prioritizing Hearing Health

Okay, we’ve convinced you. You recognize that hearing loss can snowball into more severe issues and hearing health is essential. How can you make sure hearing care is a priority?

There are a few things you can do:

Preventing Future Health Issues

As a caregiver, you already have plenty to deal with, especially if you’re part of that all-too-common sandwich generation. And if hearing impairment isn’t causing direct issues, it can seem slightly unimportant. But the research shows that a wide variety of more significant future health problems can be avoided by managing hearing loss now.

So by making sure those hearing exams are scheduled and kept, you’re avoiding expensive medical problems later. Perhaps you will stop depression early. You might even be able to reduce Mom’s risk of developing dementia in the near future.

For many of us, that’s worth a visit to a hearing specialist. And it’s easy to give Mom a quick reminder that she needs to be conscientious about wearing her hearing aids. Once that hearing aid is in, you might be able to have a nice conversation, too. Perhaps over lunch. Maybe over sandwiches.

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Depression Has a Link to Hearing Loss

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 19:00:00 GMT

It’s a chicken-or-egg scenario. You have some ringing in your ears. And it’s making you feel pretty low. Or, maybe you were feeling a little depressed before that ringing started. You’re just not sure which started first.

That’s precisely what experts are trying to figure out when it comes to the connection between tinnitus and depression. That there is a link between tinnitus and major depressive conditions is fairly well established. The idea that one often comes with the other has been born out by numerous studies. But it’s much more challenging to recognize the exact cause and effect relationship.

Is Depression Caused by Tinnitus?

One study , published in the Journal of Affective Disorders seems to contend that a precursor to tinnitus may be depression. Or, to put it a different way: They discovered that you can at times identify an issue with depression before tinnitus becomes apparent. It’s likely, as a result, that we simply notice depression first. In the publication of their study, the researchers suggest that anybody who goes through a screening for depression may also want to be tested for tinnitus.

Shared pathopsychology could be the base cause of both disorders and the two are commonly “comorbid”. Which is just a technical way of saying that tinnitus and depression may have some shared causes, and that’s the reason why they appear together so frequently.

Needless to say, more research is required to determine what that shared cause, if it exists, actually is. Because, in certain cases, it might be possible that depression is actually brought about by tinnitus; in other circumstances the reverse is true and in yet others, the two occur at the same time but aren’t linked at all. Right now, the relationships are just too murky to put too much confidence behind any one theory.

If I Have Tinnitus Will I Experience Depression?

In part, cause and effect is tough to understand because major depressive disorder can develop for a wide variety of reasons. Tinnitus can also develop for many reasons. In most cases, tinnitus manifests as a buzzing or ringing in your ears. Occasionally, the sound varies (a thump, a whump, various other noises), but the root concept is the same. Noise damage over a long period of time is normally the cause of chronic tinnitus that won’t go away.

But chronic tinnitus can have more severe causes. Permanent ringing in the ears is sometimes caused by traumatic brain injury for instance. And tinnitus can occur sometimes with no recognizable cause.

So if you have chronic tinnitus, will you develop depression? The answer is a complicated one to predict because of the wide array of causes for tinnitus. But what seems fairly clear is that if you don’t treat your tinnitus, your risks will probably increase. The following reasons might help make sense of it:

Treating Your Tinnitus

What the comorbidity of tinnitus and depression tells us, luckily, is that by managing the tinnitus we might be able to offer some respite from the depression (and, possibly, vice versa). From cognitive-behavioral therapy (which is designed to help you disregard the sounds) to masking devices (which are made to drown out the sound of your tinnitus), the right treatment can help you lessen your symptoms and stay centered on the joy in your life.

Treatment can move your tinnitus into the background, to put it in a different way. Meaning that you’ll be capable of keeping up more easily with social situations. You will have a much easier time following your favorite TV show or listening to your favorite music. And your life will have much less disturbance.

Taking these measures won’t always prevent depression. But research indicates that managing tinnitus can help.

Remember, Cause And Effect Isn’t Clear

Medical professionals are becoming more serious about keeping your hearing healthy due to this.

At this point, we’re still in a chicken and egg scenario when it comes to tinnitus and depression, but we’re pretty confident that the two are related. Whether the ringing in your ears or the depression began first, managing your tinnitus can help considerably. And that’s the crucial takeaway.

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The Link Between Life Expectancy And Hearing Loss

Wed, 27 May 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Most people just accept hearing loss as a part of getting old like gray hair or reading glasses. But a study from Duke-NUS Medical School reveals a connection between general health and hearing loss.

Communication troubles, cognitive decline, and depression have a higher occurrence in senior citizens with vision or hearing loss. You may already have read about that. But did you know that hearing loss is also linked to shorter life expectancy?

People who have untreated hearing loss, according to this study, might actually have a shorter lifespan. And, the likelihood that they will have difficulty performing activities required for everyday life nearly doubles if the person has both hearing and vision impairment. It’s an issue that is both a physical and a quality of life concern.

While this may sound like sad news, there is a positive spin: several ways that hearing loss can be managed. More significantly, serious health problems can be found if you have a hearing exam which could inspire you to lengthen your life expectancy by paying more attention to your health.

What’s The Connection Between Hearing Loss And Weak Health?

While the research is interesting, cause and effect are still unclear.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins note that other problems like increased risk of stroke and heart disease were seen in older people who were suffering hearing loss.

These results make sense when you know more about the causes of hearing loss. Countless instances of tinnitus and hearing loss are tied to heart disease since high blood pressure affects the blood vessels in the ear canal. When the blood vessels are shrunken – which can be due to smoking – the body needs to work harder to squeeze the blood through which results in high blood pressure. Older adults who have heart conditions and hearing loss frequently experience a whooshing noise in their ears, which can be caused by high blood pressure.

Hearing loss has also been linked to dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms of cognitive decline . There are a number of reasons for the two to be linked according to health care professionals and hearing specialists: the brain needs to work overtime to understand conversations and words for one, which allows less mental capacity to actually process the words or do anything else. In other scenarios, difficulty communicating causes people with hearing loss to socialize less. There can be a serious impact on a person’s mental health from social isolation leading to depression and anxiety.

How Hearing Loss Can be Managed by Older Adults

There are a few options available to manage hearing loss in older adults, but as the studies reveal, the smartest thing to do is address the issue as soon as you can before it has more extreme consequences.

Hearing aids are one form of treatment that can be very effective in fighting your hearing loss. There are numerous different styles of hearing aids available, including small, subtle models that connect with Bluetooth technology. In addition, hearing aid technology has been enhancing basic quality-of-life issues. As an example, they let you hear better during your entertainment by allowing you to connect to your phone, computer, or TV and they filter out background noise better than older versions.

Older adults can also go to a nutritionist or consult with their physician about changes to their diet to help prevent additional hearing loss. There are links between iron deficiency anemia and hearing loss, for instance, which can usually be treated by adding more iron into your diet. Changes to your diet could also positively affect other health conditions, leading to an overall more healthy lifestyle.

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Here’s Why Your Memory Can Sharpen With Hearing Aids

Wed, 20 May 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Chris has been a bit forgetful lately. For two months in a row, she forgot her doctor’s appointment and has to reschedule. And she even overlooked running the dishwasher before bedtime (looks as if she’ll be handwashing her coffee cup this morning). Things have been falling through the cracks. Chris has been feeling mentally exhausted and depleted all the time but, strangely, she doesn’t feel forgetful.

It can be hard to recognize that feeling until it’s sneaking up on you. But in spite of how forgetful you might feel, the problem isn’t actually about memory. The real problem is your hearing . And that means there’s one little device, a hearing aid, that can assist you to substantially improve your memory.

How to Enhance Your Memory And Overall Cognitive Function

So, step one to improving your memory, and getting everyone’s name right at your next meeting or to make sure you arrange that day off for your eye exam, is to have your hearing tested. If you have hearing loss a hearing test will let you know how bad your impairment is.

Chris hasn’t detected any signs of hearing loss yet so she hesitates to schedule an appointment. She can hear in crowded rooms fairly well enough. And she’s never had a hard time listening to any of her team members at work.

But she might have some level of hearing loss even though she hasn’t noticed any symptoms yet. As a matter of fact, memory loss is frequently one of the very first detectable symptoms of hearing loss. And strain on the brain is the base cause. This is how it works:

Your brain only has a limited amount of processing power which can really be dragged down by that kind of burden. So you don’t have as much mental energy for things such as, well, memory or for other cognitive processes.

Dementia And Hearing Loss

When loss of memory is extreme, the result could be dementia. And dementia and hearing loss do have a connection, though there are a number of other factors at work and the cause and effect relationship continues to be rather uncertain. Still, there is a higher danger of cognitive decline in individuals who have untreated hearing loss, starting with some moderate memory loss and increasing to more extreme cognitive issues.

Hearing Aids And Fending Off Fatigue

That’s the reason why managing your hearing loss is essential. Significant improvement of cognitive function was noted in 97.3% of individuals with hearing loss who wore hearing aids for at least 18 months according to one study.

Similar results have been seen in several other studies. It’s unquestionably helpful to wear hearing aids. When your brain doesn’t have to work quite as hard, your total cognitive function improves. Sure, a hearing aid isn’t an absolute cure, memory problems and cognitive decline can be a complex mixture of factors and variables.

The First Sign of Hearing Loss is Often Memory Loss

This sort of memory loss is commonly not permanent, it’s an indication of exhaustion more than an underlying change in the way your brain operates. But that can change if the underlying problems remain un-addressed.

Loss of memory, then, can be somewhat of an early warning system. When you first begin to detect those symptoms, you should schedule an appointment with your hearing professional. As soon as your fundamental hearing issues are addressed, your memory should go back to normal.

And your hearing will most likely improve also. The decline in your hearing will be slowed considerably by wearing hearing aids. These little devices, in this way, will enhance your general health not just your hearing.

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Hearing Loss is Connected to These Conditions

Wed, 13 May 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Your body is similar to an ecosystem. In nature, all of the fish and birds will suffer if something happens to the pond; and all of the animals and plants that rely on the birds will disappear if the birds disappear. The human body, commonly unbeknownst to us, functions on very similar methods of interconnection. That’s why a large number of illnesses can be linked to something which at first seems so isolated like hearing loss.

In some respects, that’s simply more evidence of your body’s ecosystem-like interdependence. Your brain might also be affected if something affects your hearing. These conditions are referred to as comorbid, a fancy (and specialized) term that demonstrates a link between two disorders without necessarily articulating a cause-and-effect relationship.

We can find out a lot concerning our bodies’ ecosystem by understanding conditions that are comorbid with hearing loss.

Hearing Loss And The Conditions That Are Connected to it

So, let’s suppose that you’ve been recognizing the signs of hearing loss for the past several months. You’ve been having a difficult time hearing conversation when you go out to eat. You’ve been turning the volume up on your television. And certain sounds just feel a little more distant. It would be a good choice at this point to make an appointment with a hearing specialist.

Your hearing loss is connected to a number of health problems whether you recognize it or not. Comorbidity with hearing loss has been documented with the following health conditions.

Is There Anything That You Can do?

It can seem a bit intimidating when you add all those health conditions together. But it’s worthwhile to keep one thing in mind: managing your hearing loss can have enormous positive influences. Even though researchers and scientists don’t exactly know, for instance, why hearing loss and dementia show up together so often, they do know that managing hearing loss can dramatically lower your risk of dementia.

So regardless of what your comorbid condition may be, the best way to go is to get your hearing checked.

Part of an Ecosystem

This is why health care specialists are reconsidering the importance of how to treat hearing loss. Your ears are being viewed as a part of your overall health profile instead of being a specific and limited concern. We’re starting to think about the body as an interrelated environment in other words. Hearing loss isn’t always an isolated scenario. So it’s significant to pay attention to your health as a whole.

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Stigma About Using Hearing Aids Waning

Wed, 06 May 2020 19:00:00 GMT

In the past, hearing aids have carried a stigma. Some people simply link them with old age. What is the result?

Lots of people of every age put themselves at risk from a number of health concerns because they decide not to get hearing aids and decide to live with hearing loss. This is reinforced by the numbers: 30 million individuals in the US dealing with hearing loss, yet only about 15 percent of that group has ever used a hearing aid.

Also, an increasing number of young people are coping with hearing loss: a WHO report from 2015 forecasted that too much use of headphones and overly loud music shows and festivals will cause over 1.1 billion teens and young adults to permanently injure their hearing.

However, progressing technology and changing perceptions have started to frame hearing aids in a new light, and people are starting to look at them in a similar way they look at eye-glasses.

If You Require Hearing Aids, You Should Use Them, Here’s Why

There are a lots of reasons why wearing hearing aids is a smart idea, some of them obvious and some of them surprising.

Here are a few of the most common reasons:

Are these reasons sounding beneficial to you? Even someone with slight hearing loss can get some benefit from using hearing aids.

What many people don’t know is that hearing loss is connected to mental decline, mental health issues, and conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease .

Studies point to a few different reasons why this may occur, including that the brain gets overtaxed and overtired because it’s always attempting to comprehend sounds. It’s possible that the brain cells shrink and die because they don’t receive enough stimulus, or it might be due to the number one cause of depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems which is social isolation.

Hearing aids can change things for the better by letting you hear clearly and understand the words and sounds near you. Your brain won’t have to make use of additional resources and will be capable of processing sounds in a normal way, while you will start to enjoy conversations and social activities again because you will gain more confidence.

Hearing Aids Have Advanced in Sophistication

By now it should be apparent why people of any age need to use hearing aids if they need them. Now we’re going to tell you about the how; for example, how hearing aid technology has advanced to the point where they’re nothing like your grandparents’ hearing aids.

If really think you would like one of those large over the ear hearing aids, you can still purchase one. They do their job adequately and have progressed to the point where most of them don’t have a problem filtering out background sounds such as wind or determining which direction sound comes from. Conversely, there are new and improved versions of hearing aids that are nearly unnoticeable, yet contain a lot of technology to work with today’s digital environment.

Do you want to connect your hearing aid to your smartphone, tablet, television, or even your car’s GPS? Then you’re in luck since the majority of modern hearing aids have Bluetooth technology that permits them to connect to a range of devices. There are even higher-end versions that can stream music, keep track of your physical activity, and automatically take and make phone calls for you. Smart hearing aids are becoming a must for anybody who has hearing loss because much like your smartphone or smartwatch, they’re just designed to do more. Are you ready to face hearing loss and get yourself a hearing aid? Contact us to discover what type of hearing aid will be the right one for you.

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Hearing Loss is a Public Health Concern, Here’s Why

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Ordinarily, hearing loss is thought of as a problem that influences our personal life. It’s a problem that is between you and your hearing professional and it’s about your state of health. It’s a private, personal subject. And on an individual level that’s accurate. But when we talk about hearing loss in a broader context, as something that affects 466 million people , we need to understand it as a public health concern.

That simply means, broadly speaking, that hearing loss should be viewed as something that has an impact on society as a whole. So as a society, we should think about how to handle it.

The Consequences of Hearing Loss

William has hearing loss. He just learned last week and he’s resolved that he doesn’t really want to mess around with any of those hearing aids right now (against the advice of his hearing professional). Unfortunately, this affects William’s job efficiency; he’s starting to slow down in his work and is having a hard time following along in meetings, etc.

He also stops venturing out. There are just too many layers of conversation for you to try and keep up with (he feels like people talk too much anyway). So rather than going out, William isolates himself.

These decisions will add up after a while.

What Makes Hearing Loss a Public Health Situation?

While these costs will certainly be felt on an individual level (William might miss his friends or lament his economic situation), everyone else is also influenced. William isn’t spending as much at local shops because he has less money. More attention will have to be given to William by his family because he doesn’t have as many friends. His health can be affected overall and can result in increased healthcare costs . If he’s not insured, those costs get passed on to the public. And so, in a way, William’s hearing loss impacts people around him quite profoundly.

Now take William and multiply him by 466 million and you will have a sense of why public health officials take hearing loss very seriously.

Dealing With Hearing Loss

The good news is, this specific health problem can be addressed in two easy ways: treatment and prevention. When hearing loss is treated effectively (typically through the use of hearing aids), the outcome can be quite dramatic:

Encouraging good physical and mental health starts with treating your hearing loss. It seems logical, then, that an increasing number of medical professionals are prioritizing the care of your hearing.

It’s just as important to consider prevention. Information about how to safeguard your hearing from loud harmful noise can be found in countless public health commercials. But common noises such as mowing your lawn or listening to headphones too loud can even result in hearing loss.

You can get apps that will keep track of sound levels and warn you when they get too loud. One way to have a huge effect is to protect the public’s hearing, often with education.

A Little Help Goes a Long Way

In some states they’re even extending insurance to cover hearing healthcare. That’s a strategy based on strong research and strong public health policy. When we change our thinking about hearing loss, and about preventing hearing loss, we can drastically affect public health in a good way.

And everyone is helped by that.

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Hearing Aids Aren’t What They Used to Be – They’re Better

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Have you utilized your ear trumpet lately? No? You don’t use one? Because that technology is hundreds of years old. Okay, I suppose that seems logical. Ear trumpets are a bit… archaic.

The basic shape of the modern hearing aid was designed in the 1950s. And that old model hearing aid is generally the one we remember and picture. But visualizing a hearing aid in this way isn’t realistic because those old hearing aids are antiquated technology. We need to really advance our thinking if we want to get an accurate picture of how how much better modern hearing aids are.

The History of Hearing Aids

So that you can better comprehend just how advanced hearing aids have become, it’s useful to have some perspective about where they started out. If we follow the history back far enough, you can most likely find some type of hearing assistance device as far back as the 1500s (whether any of them ever really helped you hear better is probably unlikely).

The first moderately effective hearing assistance apparatus was probably the ear trumpet. This device was shaped like, well, a long horn. The wide end faced the world and the narrow end was oriented into your ear. These, er, devices were not really high tech, but they did offer some measurable assistance.

The real revolution came once someone invited electricity to the party. The hearing aid as we now know it was essentially developed in the 1950s. They were rather rudimentary, relying on transistors and large, antiquated batteries to get the job done. But a hearing aid that could be conveniently worn and hidden started with these devices. The hearing aids of the 1950s might have looked comparable to modern hearing aids but the technology and capability is worlds apart.

Hearing Aid’s Modern Features

Put simply, modern hearing aids are technological masterpieces. And they continue making improvements. Since the late twentieth century, modern hearing aids have been utilizing digital technologies in a few profound ways. The first, and the most crucial way, is straight forward: power. Earlier versions had batteries that had less power in a bigger space than their present counterparts.

And a long list of innovative advances come with increased power:

The older style hearing aids no longer exemplify what hearing aids are, in the same way as rotary phones no longer capture what long distance communication looks like. Hearing aids have changed a lot. And that’s a positive thing–because now they’re even better.

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Is Hearing Loss Connected to The Atrophy of Brain Function?

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Hearing loss is thought of as a typical part of the aging process: as we get older, we begin to hear things a little less distinctly. Maybe we need to keep asking the grandkids to repeat themselves when they talk, or we have to start turning up the volume on the TV, or maybe…we begin to…what was I going to say…oh ya. Perhaps we start to lose our memory.

Loss of memory is also often thought to be a regular part of aging as dementia and Alzheimer’s are a lot more prevalent in the older population than the general population at large. But what if the two were somehow connected? And what if you could deal with your hearing loss while taking care of your mental health and preserving your memories?

Cognitive Decline And Hearing Loss

With nearly 30 million people in the United States suffering from hearing loss, mental decline and dementia, for most of them, isn’t linked to hearing loss. However, the connection is very clear if you look in the right direction: research has shown that there is a substantial risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-like ailments if you also have hearing loss – even if you have fairly mild loss of hearing.

Mental health problems such as depression and anxiety are also pretty prevalent in people who have hearing loss. Your ability to socialize can be seriously impacted by hearing loss, cognitive decline, and other mental health issues and that’s the real key here.

Why is Cognitive Decline Linked to Hearing Loss?

While cognitive decline and mental health problems haven’t been definitively proven to be connected to hearing loss, experts are looking at several clues that point us in that direction. There are two primary circumstances they have pinpointed that they believe lead to issues: failure to socialize and your brain working overtime.

research has shown that loneliness results in depression and anxiety. And when people are dealing with hearing loss, they’re less likely to socialize with others. Lots of people can’t enjoy events like attending a movie because they find it too hard to hear the dialog. These situations lead down a path of solitude, which can result in mental health issues.

researchers have also discovered that the brain often has to work extra hard because the ears are not functioning normally. When this takes place, other areas of the brain, like the one responsible for memory, are utilized for hearing and comprehending sound. This causes cognitive decline to take place a lot faster than it normally would.

Wearing Hearing Aids to Stop Cognitive Decline

Hearing aids are our first line of defense against cognitive decline, mental health concerns, and dementia. Studies show that patients increased their cognitive functions and had a reduced rate of dementia when they used hearing aids to combat their hearing loss.

In fact, we would most likely see fewer instances of dementia and cognitive decline if more people wore hearing aids. Between 15% and 30% of individuals who need hearing aids actually use them, which accounts for between 4.5 million and 9 million people. The World Health Organization estimates that there are close to 50 million individuals who have some form of dementia. If hearing aids can decrease that number by even just a couple of million people, the quality of life for lots of individuals and families will develop exponentially.

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Why is There Ringing in my Ears?

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Let’s set the scene: you’re in your bed at night attempting to chill out after a long, tiring day. Your eyelids are starting to get heavy and you know that sleep is right around the corner. Then as you’re lying there in the quiet of the night, you start to notice the sound of ringing in your ears. Your TV, radio, and phone are all off so you’re sure it’s nothing inside your room. No, this sound is coming from inside your ears and you’re not sure how to stop it.

If this scenario sounds familiar, then odds are that you’re one of the 50 million people who are afflicted by tinnitus . This problem causes you to hear buzzing, whooshing, and ringing sounds, among others, within your ears. The majority of people who have tinnitus consider it a mere annoyance; it comes and goes but doesn’t really impact their day-to-day lives. But this is not the situation with everyone who has tinnitus. For some, it can cause them to Disengage socially, have a hard time working, and to lose sleep.

What Causes Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is still a bit of a mystery, but this problem has been narrowed down to a few causes. It shows up mostly in individuals who have damaged hearing , and also people who suffer from heart conditions. It’s believed that tinnitus happens due to reduced blood flow around the ears, which makes the heart pump blood harder so that it can get where it needs to go. People who have iron-deficiency anemia often experience tinnitus symptoms since their blood cells do not carry enough oxygen throughout their body, which, again, works the heart harder to get nutrients to the right place, often leading to tinnitus.

Tinnitus also happens as a symptom of other conditions, such as ear infections, canal blockages, and Meniere’s disease. All of these ailments affect the hearing and result in scenarios where tinnitus becomes more prevalent. Sometimes treatment can be challenging when the cause of tinnitus isn’t easily discernible, but that doesn’t mean treatment isn’t possible.

What Treatments Are Available For Tinnitus?

Depending on the root cause of your tinnitus, there might be a number of possible treatment options. One important thing to take note of, however, is that there is presently no known cure for tinnitus . But these treatments will still offer a good chance for your tinnitus to get better or disappear completely.

Research has revealed that hearing aids help cover up tinnitus in individuals who suffer from hearing loss.

If covering up the noise doesn’t help, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to help people deal with the buzzing in their ears that does not fade away with other treatments. This mental health type of treatment can help people who suffer from tinnitus to function more normally on an everyday basis by helping them transform their negative thinking into a more positive outlook.

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Forget Wrinkle Creams: Try This to Combat Aging

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:00:00 GMT

It seems as if we’re constantly trying to stay youthful. We spend a great number of hours trying everything we can to stay youthful. From specialized diets to fad workout programs to Botox to wrinkle creams. Still, with that amount of time and effort, we tend to avoid doing one easy thing that might really work: protecting our ears.

Most people most likely think of hearing loss as inevitable as we age. But it’s not that simple. You can keep your hearing in great condition and help avoid damage by protecting and taking care of your ears. And great hearing can have significant anti-aging effects as time goes by.

Aging And Hearing

When we speak about “aging” we don’t normally mean the actual passage of time. Instead, “aging” typically describes the appearance of certain physical, mental, or emotional characteristics that we associate with getting older. Pain in your joints is a perfect example of this. When your knees begin to bother you, you may relate that with “growing old”. But lifestyle has as much to do with this as age does.

Many types of hearing loss fall under this category. As you age, damage accumulates. And in most cases, it’s the build-up of damage that causes the actual hearing degeneration. And that’s when the problems can start to grow out of control. A number of other indications of aging have been associated with hearing loss:

What to do About Age Related Hearing Loss

You’re actually emphasizing damage prevention when you fight the “signs of aging” in your ears. And luckily, there are a few ways to achieve that. For instance, you can:

Your ears can be protected by all of these actions. But there’s one more thing you can do to keep your ears in good condition: come see us for a hearing examination. Catching hearing loss before it’s perceptible can be accomplished by getting regular examinations. Even if your hearing is perfectly fine, an exam will still be able to provide a useful baseline to compare against future results.

Keep Your Hearing Healthy by Wearing Hearing Aids

We live in a noisy world. Your ability to avoid damage is crucial, but you may ultimately detect some hearing loss in spite of your best efforts. If that’s the case, it’s essential that you get help as soon as you can. Some of the age related problems associated with hearing loss can be prevented with a good pair of set aids.

Hearing aids can assist your hearing to function more youthfully, kind of like a facelift for your ears. And dementia, depression, and other issues can be avoided. The example isn’t ideal, because hearing aids are needed and a facelift isn’t, but you get the idea. You might look younger if you use wrinkle cream. But your best choice, if want to feel younger, is to deal with your hearing loss and safeguard your hearing.

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What’s a Safe Listening Level?

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Have you ever seen the “Beware of Sharks” sign when you’re at the ocean? It’s easy to understand that you shouldn’t ignore a caution like that. You might even think twice about swimming at all with a sign like that (if the warning is written in big red letters that’s particularly true). Inexplicably, though, it’s difficult for people to heed warnings concerning their hearing in the same way.

Current studies have found that millions of people neglect warning signs regarding their hearing (this research specifically looked at populations in the United Kingdom, but there’s little doubt the problem is more global than that). Part of the issue is knowledge. To be afraid of sharks is rather intuitive. But most people don’t have an overt fear of loud noises. And the real question is, what volume level is too loud?

Loud And Dangerous Sound is All Around us

Your ears are not just in peril at a live concert or on the floor of a machine shop (although both of those situations are, without a doubt, hazardous to your hearing). There are potential dangers with many every-day sounds. That’s because it’s not exclusively the volume of a sound that is dangerous; it’s also how long you’re exposed. Your hearing can be damaged with even low level noises like dense city traffic if you experience it for more than a couple of hours at a time.

Read on to find out when sound becomes too loud:

What Does 85 dB Sound Like?

In general, you’re in the danger zone when you’re dealing with any sound 85 dB or higher. But it can be hard to recognize how loud 85 dB is and that’s the issue. A shark is a tangible thing but sound is not so tangible.

And that’s one reason why hearing warnings commonly go neglected, specifically when the sound environment isn’t loud enough to cause pain . There are a couple of potential solutions to this:

When in Doubt: Protect

Apps and signage aren’t a foolproof answer. So if you’re in doubt, take the time to safeguard your ears. Over a long enough duration, noise damage will almost certainly create hearing issues. And these days, it’s never been easier to injure your ears (it’s a straight forward matter of listening to your tunes too loudly).

You shouldn’t increase the volume past half way, especially if you’re listening all day. If you keep turning it up to hear your music over background noise you need different headphones that can block out noise.

So when volume becomes too loud, it’s important to recognize it. And to do this, you need to raise your own recognition and knowledge level. Protecting your ears, wearing ear protection, or limiting your exposure, is not that difficult. That begins with a little recognition of when you should do it.

That should be easier today, too. That’s even more accurate now that you have some awareness.

Think you might have hearing loss? Schedule a test.

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Will Tinnitus Subside by Itself?

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 19:00:00 GMT

The ringing just won’t subside. It’s been over two days and you can still hear that unpleasant ringing in your ears. You know the sound is tinnitus, but you’re starting to question just how long lasting tinnitus normally is.

Tinnitus can be brought about by damage to the stereocilia in your ears (they’re the tiny hairs that pick up air vibrations which your brain then converts into intelligible sound). That injury is typically the outcome of excessively loud sound. That’s why you notice tinnitus most commonly after, as an example, attending a concert, eating at a loud restaurant, or sitting next to a roaring jet engine while you’re taking a trip.

Under Typical Circumstances, How Long Will Tinnitus Persist?

There isn’t any cure for tinnitus. But that doesn’t mean it won’t ever go away. There will be a wide variety of factors that will establish how long your tinnitus will last, like your general health and the root cause of your tinnitus.

But if you just arrived home from a noisy day of traveling and you find your ears ringing, you can usually expect your tinnitus to fade away in a day or two. 16 to 48 hours typically is how long tinnitus will persist. But it’s also not abnormal for symptoms to stick around, sometimes for as much as two weeks. Additional exposure to loud sounds could also cause tinnitus to flare up again, essentially resetting the clock.

If tinnitus lingers and is affecting your quality of life, you need to consult a specialist.

Why is Tinnitus Sometimes Permanent?

Normally, tinnitus is short-lived. But in some cases it can be long-lasting. When the root cause is not ordinary that’s especially true either in terms of origin or in terms of severity. Here are some examples:

Permanent tinnitus is substantially less common than its more short-term counterpart. But permanent or chronic tinnitus still effects millions of Us citizens every year.

How Can You Get Your Tinnitus to go Away?

Whether your tinnitus is short term or long lived, you may want to get relief as quickly as possible. Despite the fact that there’s no cure for tinnitus, there are a few things you can do to lessen symptoms (though they will probably last only so long):

To be sure, if you have long lasting tinnitus, none of these techniques will cure your tinnitus. But diminishing and controlling your symptoms can be equally significant.

How Long Before Your Tinnitus Goes Away?

In most scenarios, though, your tinnitus will go away without you needing to do anything about it. Your hearing should go back to normal within 16 to 48 hours. Nevertheless, if your tinnitus lingers, you’ll want to seek out a solution. The sooner you discover a treatment that is effective, the sooner you can get relief. If you think you have hearing loss (which is often associated with tinnitus) you should have your hearing tested.

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Isolation is Dangerous For Your Health. Combat it With This

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 19:00:00 GMT

You’re missing phone calls now. Often times, it’s that you can’t hear the phone ring. In other cases coping with the garbled voice on the other end is simply too much of a hassle.

But it’s not just your phone you’re avoiding. You missed out on last week’s bowling night, too. More and more often, this type of thing has been occurring. You can’t help but feel somewhat… isolated.

The root cause, of course, is your loss of hearing. You haven’t quite figured out how to incorporate your diminishing ability to hear into your everyday life, and it’s leading to something that’s all too common: social isolation. Getting away from loneliness and back to being social can be difficult. But we have a number of things you can try to make it happen.

First, Acknowledge Your Hearing Loss

In many cases, social isolation first manifests when you aren’t quite certain what the root cause is. So, recognizing your hearing loss is a big first step. Making an appointment to get fitted for hearing aids and keeping them properly maintained are also strong first steps.

Acknowledgment might also take the form of telling people in your life about your loss of hearing. In many ways, hearing loss is a kind of invisible ailment. Someone who is hard of hearing doesn’t have a particular “look”.

So when people look at you it’s not likely they will notice that you have hearing loss. Your friends may start to think your isolation is a step towards being antisocial. Talking about your hearing loss can help people around you understand what you’re going through and place your reactions in a different context.

Your Hearing Loss Shouldn’t be Kept Secret

An essential first step is being honest with yourself and others about your hearing loss. Making sure your hearing remains consistent by having regular hearing assessments is also essential. And it may help curb some of the first isolationist tendencies you might feel. But there are a few more steps you can take to tackle isolation.

Make Your Hearing Aids Visible

The majority of people feel like a smaller less visible hearing aid is a more ideal choice. But it could be that making your hearing aid a little more visible could help you convey your hearing impairment more deliberately to others. Some individuals even individualize their hearing aids with custom designes. You will persuade people to be more considerate when conversing with you by making it more apparent that you are hard of hearing.

Get The Appropriate Treatment

Dealing with your hearing loss or tinnitus is going to be a lot harder if you aren’t properly treating that hearing ailment. Treatment could look very different depending on the person. But wearing or properly adjusting hearing aids is usually a common factor. And your day-to-day life can be greatly affected by something even this simple.

Let People Know How They Can Help You

Getting yelled at is never enjoyable. But individuals with hearing loss regularly deal with people who think that this is the preferred way to communicate with them. That’s why it’s essential that you advocate for what you require from those around you. Maybe texting to make plans would be a better option than calling. You will be less likely to isolate yourself if you can get everyone in the loop.

Put People In Your Path

It’s easy to stay away from everybody in the age of the internet. That’s why intentionally placing people in your path can help you steer clear of isolation. Instead of ordering groceries from Amazon, shop at your local grocery store. Meet up for a weekly game of cards. Make those plans part of your calendar in a deliberate and scheduled way. There are lots of easy ways to see people like taking a walk around your neighborhood. Besides helping you feel less isolated, this will also help you to discern words precisely and continue to process sound cues.

It Can be Hazardous to Become Isolated

If you’re isolating yourself because of untreated hearing impairment, you’re doing more than limiting your social life. Anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, and other mental issues have been linked to this kind of isolation.

So the best way to keep your social life humming along and keep yourself happy and healthy at the same time is to be realistic about your hearing condition, recognize the truths, and stay in sync with family and friends.

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This Familiar Problem For Music Lovers Can Be Avoided

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Do you turn up the volume when your favorite song comes on the radio? You aren’t on your own. When you pump up the music, you can feel it in your gut. And it’s fun. But, here’s the situation: there can also be significant damage done.

The connection between music and hearing loss is closer than we once thought. That has a lot to do with volume (this is based on how many times per day you listen and how intense the volume is). And it’s one of the reasons that many of today’s musicians are changing their tune to protect their hearing.

Musicians And Hearing Loss

It’s a fairly famous irony that, later in life, classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven was hard of hearing . He was only able to hear his compositions internally. On one occasion he even had to be turned around so he could see the thunderous applause from his audience because he wasn’t able to hear it.

Beethoven may be the first and most famous example of the deaf musician, but he definitely isn’t the last. In more recent times lots of musicians who are widely recognized for playing at very loud volumes are coming out with their stories of hearing loss.

From Eric Clapton to Neil Diamond to will.i.am , the stories all sound remarkably similar. Musicians spend a large amount of time coping with crowd noise and loud speakers. Noticeable damage including tinnitus and hearing loss will ultimately be the result.

Even if You’re Not a Musician This Could Still be an Issue

As a non-rock star (at least when it comes to the profession, everybody knows you’re a rock star in terms of personality), you might have a hard time relating this to your personal concerns. You’re not performing for large crowds. And you’re not standing in front of a wall of amplifiers.

But your favorite playlist and a set of earbuds are things you do have. And that’s the problem. Thanks to the modern capabilities of earbuds, nearly everyone can enjoy life like a musician, flooded by sound and music at way too high a volume.

The ease with which you can expose yourself to detrimental and constant sounds make this one time cliche grievance into a considerable cause for worry.

So How Can You Safeguard Your Ears While Listening to Music?

As with most situations admitting that there’s an issue is the first step. Raising awareness can help some people (particularly younger, more naive people) become aware that they’re putting their hearing in danger. But you also need to take some further steps too:

Limit Exposure

In a lot of ways, the math here is quite simple: the more often you put your ears at risk, the more extensive your hearing loss could be later in life. Eric Clapton , as an example, has entirely lost his hearing. He probably wishes he begun wearing earplugs a lot sooner.

Reducing exposure, then, is the best way to limit damage. For musicians (and for individuals who happen to work around live music), that can be challenging. Ear protection might provide part of a solution there.

But all of us would be a lot better off if we simply turned the volume down to sensible levels.

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Will I Require New Hearing Aids Soon?

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Hearing aids, if you take care of them properly, can last for years. But they quit being useful if they no longer treat your degree of hearing loss. As with prescription glasses, your hearing aids are programmed to your specific hearing loss, which should be tested regularly. Here’s how long you can anticipate your hearing aids will last assuming they are programed and fitted correctly.

Is There an Expiration Time For Hearing Aids?

There’s a shelf life for pretty much any product. It could take a couple of weeks for the milk in your fridge to expire. Canned products can last between several months to a number of years. Within the next few years or so, even your new high-def TV will have to be swapped out. It’s certainly not surprising, then, that your hearing aids also have a shelf life.

2 to 5 years is generally the shelf life for a pair of hearing aids, however you might want to upgrade sooner with the new technology coming out. But the shelf life of your hearing aids will be determined by a number of possible factors:

Generally, the typical usage of your hearing aid determines the exact shelf life. But failing to wear your hearing aids may also minimize their projected usefulness (putting them unmaintained in a humid drawer, for example, may very well curtail the life expectancy of your hearing devices, specifically if you leave the battery in).

Hearing aids should also be inspected and professionally cleaned every now and then. This helps make certain they still fit correctly and don’t have a build-up of wax blocking their ability to work.

Replacing Hearing Aids Before They Wear Out

There could come a time when, years from now, your hearing aid performance begins to decline. Then you will need to look for a new set. But there will be scenarios when it will be advantageous to buy a more modern hearing aid before your current one shows signs of wear. Some of those scenarios might include:

You can understand why the timetable for replacing your hearing devices is difficult to predict. Normally, that 2-5 year range is fairly accurate contingent upon these few variables.

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This Should be Prioritized if You Are The Main Care Giver For a Senior

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Do you have a senior over the age of 70 in your care? There’s a lot to take into consideration. Bringing a loved one to a cardiologist or setting up an appointment with an oncologist seems like a priority, so you’re not likely to forget anything like that. What falls through the cracks, though, are the little things, such as the annual appointment with a hearing professional or making sure Mom’s hearing aids are charged. And those small things can make a big difference.

For The Health of a Senior, Hearing is Essential

More and more published research has echoed one surprising truth: your hearing is vitally important. Additionally, your hearing is essential in a way that goes further than your ability to communicate or listen to music. Depression and loss of cognitive abilities are a couple of mental health issues that have been associated with neglected hearing loss.

So when you miss Mom’s hearing appointment, you might unwittingly be increasing her chances of developing these problems, including dementia. If Mom isn’t capable of hearing as well now, she could begin to isolate herself; she stops going to movies, doesn’t meet with her friends for coffee, and eats dinner by herself in her bedroom.

When hearing loss takes hold, this kind of social separation happens very quickly. So if you notice Mom or Dad starting to get a little distant, it might not have anything to do with their mood (yet). Hearing loss might be the problem. And that hearing-induced isolation can itself potentially result in mental decline (your brain is a very use-it-or-lose-it type of organ). So identifying the signs of hearing loss, and making certain those signs are treated, is crucial with regards to your senior parents’ mental and physical health.

How to Make Sure Hearing Will be a Priority

By now you should be persuaded. You’re taking it as a given that hearing is crucial and that neglected hearing loss can snowball into other problems. What measures should you take to make hearing a priority? Here are various things you can do:

Protecting Against Future Health Concerns

Being a caregiver probably isn’t your only job so you likely have a lot on your plate. And hearing concerns can feel a bit trivial if they aren’t causing immediate stress. But there’s rather clear evidence: dealing with hearing conditions now can prevent a wide range of serious problems in the long run.

So when you take a loved one to their hearing consultation, you could be preventing much more costly health conditions in the future. Depression could be prevented before it even begins. And Mom’s risk of dementia in the near future will also be lessened.

For most of us, that’s worth a trip to a hearing specialist. And it’s certainly worth a quick reminder to Mom that she needs to be using her hearing aid more diligently. And that hearing aid will make your conversations with her much easier and more enjoyable.

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Don’t Ignore Your Hearing Loss

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 19:00:00 GMT

You know what it’s like to attempt to ignore a toothache? They can be pretty rough. At some point, you’re unquestionably pleading to go to the dentist. The same thing takes place when your eyesight begins to blur. When you have problems reading street signs, you’ll probably schedule a consultation with an ophthalmologist. But the issue is, when your hearing begins to go you may not show such urgency.

This would probably be an oversight. Untreated hearing loss can be responsible for significant health issues (especially mental problems). Of course, you can only neglect your diminishing hearing if you’re actually aware of it. And that’s problem number two.

Indications You Could Have Hearing Loss

We tend to take our hearing for granted. A high volume music festival? No worry. Blasting ear pods? That’s just how you prefer your podcasts. But each of those choices, especially over time, will have a significant impact on your general hearing.

Regrettably, those impacts might be difficult to notice. Hearing loss can creep up on you gradually, with symptoms that progress so gradually as to be basically invisible. So you should take some time to learn some primary red flags (and to be certain you don’t neglect them):

These signs, red flags, or warnings are all fairly well known. If your hearing loss comes on especially gradually, your brain will immediately begin to compensate for any hearing loss that develops, making you rather unaware, at first, to your symptoms. That’s the reason why you should schedule an appointment with your hearing care professional because these warning symptoms should be taken seriously.

If You Neglect Your Hearing Loss, What’s Going Happen?

Some people are, certainly, obstinate. Or the idea of wearing hearing aids is simply too unwelcome. They assume that wearing hearing aids makes them look old. But in actuality, most contemporary hearing aids are virtually unseen (and it’s helpful when you can hear and take part in conversations).

Still, if you neglect hearing loss it could lead to several issues:

Hearing Loss Shouldn’t be Ignored

Later on, clearly, bigger and more substantial problems can be brought about by hearing loss. Conversely, your quality of life can be substantially improved by acknowledging and treating your hearing loss. When you hear better, your relationships improve and your every day life seems more full. And increasing your awareness, either by consulting a hearing specialist or downloading a noise-monitoring app, can improve your complete hearing health.

You definitely shouldn’t ignore the health problem of hearing loss. A happier life starts when you find the correct treatment. Deal with your hearing loss before it gets too severe to ignore.

What Can I do With Used Hearing Aids?

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Is it possible to recycle used hearing aids? Whether they were owned by a passed family member or you decided to update your hearing aids to something fancier such as a cochlear implant, the solution is the same: donate your pre-owned hearing aids rather than throwing them away.

There are lots of people dealing with hearing loss who would benefit from donated hearing aid, and a few institutions out there that acquire and circulate those hearing aids to the people in need. Keep reading to discover how and why to donate used hearing aids.

Why You Should Look Into Donating Your Pre-Owned Hearing Aids

First, here are a few important statistics about hearing loss and hearing aids in the United States:

I think we should be worried. Because health problems like mental decline, greater risk of falling, and depression have been connected to untreated loss of hearing. The relevance of your hearing to your overall health is supported by new research being released all of the time. These health problems can be eliminated and in certain situations reversed by hearing aids.

And the final convincing point is that hearing loss can cost the typical family $12,000 in income every single year. But hearing aids can actually decrease that cost by as much as 50%.

For a family that loses out on $12,000 every year, it may just not be feasible for them to afford a hearing aid.

Your pre-owned hearing aid can have an enormous effect, in the overall health, quality of life and financial stability, for an individual in need who could not otherwise afford a hearing aid. It might also help a child in school that has difficulty hearing, which could affect their ability to enter into higher education and make a decent living when they get older.

How to Donate Your Used Hearing Aid

There are lots of volunteer organizations and manufacturers who help recycle old hearing aids. Stop by and we can help you find a recycling strategy. Or give us a call.

Why Can I Hear The Clock Ticking, But Not The TV?

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 19:00:00 GMT

If you can hear voices and understand some words but not others, or you can’t differentiate between someone’s voice and surrounding noise, your hearing problem may be in your ear’s ability to conduct sound or in your brain’s capability of processing signals, or both.

Your ability to process sound is governed by several variables like overall health, age, brain function, and genetics. If you have the aggravating experience being able to hear a person’s voice but not being able to process or understand what that person is saying you might be dealing with one or more of the following kinds of hearing loss.

Conductive Hearing Loss

When we yank on our ears, repeatedly swallow, and say again and again to ourselves with increasing annoyance, “There’s something in my ear,” we may be experiencing conductive hearing loss. Problems with the middle and outer ear such as fluid in the ear, a buildup of wax, ear infections, or eardrum damage all reduce the ear’s ability to conduct sound to the brain. Depending on the severity of problems going on in your ear, you could be able to make out some people, with louder voices, versus hearing partial words from others speaking in normal or lower tones.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Unlike conductive hearing loss, which impacts the middle and outer ear, Sensorineural hearing loss impacts the inner ear. Sounds to the brain can be stopped if the auditory nerve or the hair like nerves are injured. Sounds can seem too soft or loud and voices can sound too muddy. If you cannot differentiate voices from background noise or have a hard time hearing women and children’s voices particularly, then you may be suffering from high-frequency hearing loss.

Popping Your Ears, Here’s How You do it

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Have you ever been on an airplane and you start to have problems with ear pressure? Where your ears suddenly feel blocked? Possibly someone you know recommended you try chewing gum. And while that sometimes works, you probably don’t recognize why. If your ears feel blocked, here are a few tips to make your ears pop.

Pressure And Your Ears

Turns out, your ears are pretty wonderful at regulating air pressure. Thanks to a handy little piece of physiology called Eustachian tubes , the pressure inside of your ears is able to regulate, modify, and equalize to the pressure in their environment. Usually.

There are some circumstances when your Eustachian tubes might have problems adjusting, and irregularities in the pressure of the air can cause issues. If you’re sick, for example, or there is a lot of fluid buildup in the back of your ears, you could start suffering from something known as barotrauma , an uncomfortable and often painful feeling of the ears due to pressure difference. This is the same thing you feel in small amounts when flying or driving around really tall mountains.

The majority of the time, you won’t recognize changes in pressure. But you can experience pressure, pain, and crackling if your Eustachian tubes aren’t functioning efficiently or if the pressure differences are abrupt.

What is The Source of That Crackling?

You may become curious what’s causing that crackling because it’s not prevalent in everyday situations. The sound is frequently compared to a “Rice Krispies” style sound. Normally, air going around blockages of the eustachian tubes is the cause of this crackling. The cause of those obstructions can range from congestion to Eustachian tube malfunction to unregulated changes in air pressure.

Equalizing Ear Pressure

Any crackling, especially if you’re at high altitudes, will normally be caused by pressure imbalances. In that scenario, you can try the following technique to equalize ear pressure:

Medications And Devices

There are devices and medications that are made to manage ear pressure if none of these maneuvers help. The cause of your barotrauma and it’s severeness will establish if these medications or techniques are right for you.

Special earplugs will do the job in some situations. Nasal decongestants will be appropriate in other situations. Your situation will dictate your remedy.

What’s The Trick?

Finding what works best for you and your eustachian tubes is the real secret.

But you should schedule an appointment for a consultation if you can’t get rid of that feeling of blockage in your ear. Because loss of hearing can begin this way.

Call Today to Set Up an Appointment

What is Ear Candling?

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 19:00:00 GMT

In some groups, the practice called “ear candling” is persistently believed to be an effective way to reduce earwax. What is ear candling, and is it effective?

Do Earwax Candles Work?

Spoiler alert: No. They absolutely don’t work.

Why then do normally reasonable people routinely think in this pseudo-science. It’s hard to say with much precision. But even though the rational decision is fairly clear, understanding more about the risks of earwax candling will help us make an educated choice.

What is Earwax Candling?

So the basic setup goes like this: Maybe you aren’t certain how to get rid of all your accumulated earwax. You’ve read that it’s risky to use cotton swabs to clean your earwax out. So you begin looking for an alternative and stumble on this technique known as earwax candling.

Earwax candling supposedly works as follows: By sticking a candle into your ear (wick side out), you cause a pressure differential. This pressure differential then pulls the wax out. In theory, the pressure difference is enough to break up any wax that might be log-jamming in your ear. But this dangerous practice is not a good way to clean your ears.

Why Isn’t Ear Candling Effective

There are a few problems with this process, including the fact that the physics simply don’t work . You would need a considerable amount of pressure to move earwax around and a candle just isn’t capable of generating that kind of pressure. Second, creating that kind of pressure differential would require some kind of seal, which doesn’t occur during candling.

Now, the candles used in these “procedures” are supposedly special . All of the wax that was in your ear can be located within the hollow portion of the candle which can be broken apart when you’re finished with your 15 minutes of ear candling. The only issue is that the same debris shows up in both used and unused candles. So the whole practice amounts to fraud.

Scientific research has been unable to prove any benefit involving earwax candling.

So we Know Ear Candling Doesn’t Work But Dangerous is it?

So, you may as well give it a try, right? Well, whenever you get hot candle wax near your ears, you’re looking for trouble. You might be ok if you decide to try earwax candling. Plenty of people do. But there are certainly risks involved and it’s certainly not safe.

Here are a few negative effects of ear candling:

You Can Clean Your Ears Without Needing a Candle

The majority of people will never actually have to worry about cleaning earwax from their ears. That’s because the human ear is basically a self cleaning system. Nevertheless, there are certain people who will have abnormally heavy earwax production or buildup to deal with.

If it happens that you have excessive earwax there are practices that have been proven to work safely. For example, you could use a fluid wash. Or you could see a specialist who will be able to use specialized tools to get excess wax or wax blockages out of the way.

You should continue to stay away from cotton swabs. And open flames are not ok either. Earwax candling is a procedure that has no benefit and will put your ears, and your entire person, at substantial risk of injury and damage. Try burning candles for their sent or for enjoyment but never as a method to clean your ears.

When do You Need to Protect Your Ears?

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 19:00:00 GMT

Realizing you should safeguard your hearing is one thing. It’s a different story to know when to protect your ears. It’s more difficult than, let’s say, recognizing when you need sunscreen. (Is the sun out and are you going to be outdoors? Then you need sunblock.) Even knowing when you need eye protection is easier (Doing some hammering? Working with a saw or dangerous chemicals? Wear eye protection).

It can feel as though there’s a significant grey area when addressing when to wear ear protection, and that can be risky. Frequently, we’ll defer to our natural tendency to avoid hearing protection unless we’re given information that a specified place or activity is dangerous.

Risk Assessments

In general, we’re not very good at assessing risk , especially when it comes to something as intangible as damage to the ears or the possibility of long term sensorineural hearing loss. To prove the point, check out some examples:

You might presume that person A (let’s call her Ann, to be a little less formal) may be in more hearing danger. Ann leaves the performance with her ears ringing, and she’ll spend the majority of the next day, trying to hear herself talk. It seems reasonable to presume that Ann’s recreation was very risky.

The noise that person B (let’s just call her Betty), is exposed to is not as loud. Her ears don’t ring. So her ears must be safer, right? Well, not quite. Because Betty is mowing all day. So despite the fact that her ears never ring out with pain, the injury builds up slowly. If experienced too often, even moderately loud noise can have a negative affect on your ears .

Person C (let’s call her Chris) is even less clear. Lawnmowers have instructions that point out the hazards of ongoing exposure to noise. But while Chris works in a quiet office, she has a really noisy, hour-long commute each day on the train. Also, although she works behind her desk all day, she listens to her music through earbuds. Does she need to consider protection?

When is it Time to Worry About Safeguarding Your Ears?

Generally, you need to turn the volume down if you have to shout to be heard. And you really should consider using earmuffs or earplugs if your surroundings are that loud.

The cutoff needs to be 85dB if you want to get scientific. Sounds above 85dB have the ability, over time, to cause damage, so in those circumstances, you should think about using ear protection.

Your ears don’t have a built-in decibel meter to alert you when you reach that 85dB level, so countless hearing specialists suggest downloading special apps for your phone. You will be able to take the required steps to safeguard your hearing because these apps will inform you when the noise is getting to a hazardous volume.

A Few Examples

Even if you do download that app and take it with you, your phone might not be with you wherever you go. So we may formulate a good standard with a couple of examples of when to safeguard our ears. Here we go:

A good baseline might be established by these examples. When in doubt, though, you should defer to protection. In most cases, it’s better to over-protect your hearing than to leave them exposed to possible damage down the road. Protect today, hear tomorrow.

Will The Ringing in my Ears Subside?

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 19:00:00 GMT

When you first notice that ringing in your ears you might have a very common reaction: pretend that it’s no big deal. You go through your day the same as usual: you do your shopping, you make dinner, you attempt to have a discussion with your friends. All the while, you’re attempting to push that ringing in your ear out of your mind. Because there is one thing you feel sure of: your tinnitus will fade away on its own.

After a few more days of unremitting buzzing and ringing, however, you start to have doubts.

This situation happens to other people as well. At times tinnitus will go away on its own, and other times it will linger on and that’s why it’s a tricky little disorder.

When Tinnitus is Likely to Go Away by Itself

Around the world, almost everyone has had a bout of tinnitus because it’s extremely common. Tinnitus is a temporary condition, in most situations, and will eventually vanish on it’s own . The most common scenario is the rock concert: you go to your local arena to see your favorite band and you discover, when you get back home, that there is a ringing in your ears.

The type of tinnitus that is linked to temporary injury from loud noise will often subside within a few days (and you chalk it up to the price of seeing your favorite band play live).

Of course, it’s precisely this type of noise damage that, over time, can cause hearing loss to move from temporary (or acute, as they say) to chronic. Too many of those kinds of concerts and you may wind up with permanent tinnitus.

sometimes, Tinnitus Doesn’t Simply go Away

If your tinnitus continues for over three months it’s then identified as chronic tinnitus (but you should get it examined by an expert long before that).

Around 5-15% of people globally have recorded signs of chronic tinnitus. The exact causes of tinnitus are still not well known although there are some known connections (like loss of hearing).

When the triggers of your tinnitus aren’t clear, it usually means that a fast “cure” will be evasive. If your ears have been buzzing for more than three months and there’s no identifiable cause, there’s a strong chance that the sound will not subside by itself. But if this is your situation, you can protect your quality of life and control your symptoms with some treatment possibilities (such as noise canceling devices and cognitive behavioral therapy).

The Reason For Your Tinnitus is Important

It becomes much simpler to reduce the symptoms of tinnitus when you are able to identify the underlying causes. As an example, if your tinnitus is created by a stubborn, bacterial ear infection, treatment with an antibiotic will usually solve both issues, bringing about a healthy ear and crystal-clear hearing.

Some causes of acute tinnitus might consist of:

So…Will The Buzzing in My Ears Subside?

Generally speaking, your tinnitus will recede on its own. But it becomes increasingly more likely that you’re experiencing chronic tinnitus the longer these tinnitus sounds remain.

You can convince yourself that everything is fine and hope that the buzzing will just stop. But there could come a point where your tinnitus starts to become uncomfortable, where it’s hard to focus because the sound is too distracting. In those situations, wishful thinking may not be the complete treatment plan you need.

In most situations, however, as a matter of fact, throughout most of your life, your tinnitus will normally go away on its own, a typical response to a loud environment (and your body’s method of telling you to avoid that environment from now on). Only time will tell if your tinnitus is chronic or acute.

Does Wearing a Hearing Aid Help Quality of Sleep?

Wed, 25 Dec 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Sleep is valuable. There’s a disagreeable feeling to waking up groggy because you got less than seven to eight hours sleep that even several cups of coffee can’t help. So you were aghast when your loss of hearing started making you lose sleep.

Understandably so. But there’s something that can help, luckily: a hearing aid. According to the most recent surveys and research, these little devices can probably help you sleep better.

How is Sleep Affected by Loss of Hearing?

Even though you feel fatigued all day and are completely drained by bedtime, you still toss and turn and have a hard time falling asleep. All of these issues started around the same time you also started to notice that your mobile phone, radio, and television were becoming difficult to hear .

Turns out, you’re not imagining it. There is a well-documented link between hearing loss and insomnia, even if the precise sources aren’t precisely clear. There are, naturally, a couple of theories:

Can Your Sleep be Improved by Wearing Hearing Aids?

According to one study, 44% of individuals with hearing loss who don’t wear hearing aids reported being satisfied with their sleep in comparison to 59% sleep satisfaction among those who did wear a hearing aid. So are hearing aids a sleep aid or what?

well, not quite. If your hearing is totally healthy, using hearing aids isn’t going to cure your insomnia.

But if you are suffering from hearing loss, your hearing aids can target numerous concerns that might be contributing to your insomnia:

Wearing Hearing Aids to Achieve a Better Night Sleep

In terms of sleep, how many hours isn’t the only thing to consider. Depth of sleep is as relevant as how many hours you sleep. Hearing aids can enhance your ability to attain a restful nights sleep because loss of hearing without hearing aids can reduce deep sleep.

It’s worthwhile to note that while they’ll help improve your sleep, most hearing aids are not designated to be worn overnight. They aren’t going to help you hear better when you’re in bed (for example, you won’t hear your alarm clock more clearly). And, as time passes, wearing your hearing aids at night can reduce their performance. You get deeper sleep if you wear them during the day.

Go to Bed!

Sleep is valuable. Your stress level, your immune system, and your ability to think clearly will all be helped by sufficient sleep. Proper sleep habits have even been linked to lower risks for heart disease and diabetes.

When your loss of hearing begins to affect your sleep schedule, it’s not just a small irritation, insomnia can frequently lead to serious health concerns. Thankfully, most surveys report that people who use hearing aids have improved quality of sleep.

When I’m in a Crowd I Have a Hard Time Hearing

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Selective hearing is a term that usually gets tossed about as a pejorative, an insult. When your mother used to accuse you of having “selective hearing,” she was suggesting that you paid attention to the part about going to the fair and (perhaps purposely) disregarded the bit about doing your chores.

But actually it takes an incredible act of cooperation between your ears and your brain to have selective hearing.

The Difficulty Of Trying to Hear in a Crowd

This scenario probably feels familiar: you’re feeling burnt out from a long day at work but your friends all really want to go out for dinner and drinks. And of course, they want to go to the loudest restaurant (because it’s popular and the deep-fried cauliflower is delicious). And you strain and struggle to follow the conversation for over an hour and a half.

But it’s very difficult and exhausting. This indicates that you could have hearing loss.

You think, maybe the restaurant was simply too loud. But… everyone else seemed to be having a fine go of it. You seemed like the only one experiencing trouble. Which gets you thinking: Why do ears that have hearing impairment have such a difficult time with the noise of a packed room? It seems as if hearing well in a crowd is the first thing to go, but what’s the reason? Scientists have begun to reveal the answer, and it all starts with selective hearing.

Selective Hearing – How Does it Work?

The term “selective hearing” is a process that doesn’t even happen in the ears and is scientifically called “hierarchical encoding”. The majority of this process happens in the brain. At least, that’s in line with a new study carried out by a team from Columbia University.

Scientists have known for some time that human ears basically work like a funnel: they collect all the impulses and then send the raw information to your brain. In the auditory cortex the real work is then accomplished. That’s the part of your gray matter that processes all those signals, translating impressions of moving air into recognizable sounds.

Because of considerable research with CT and MRI scans, scientists have recognized for years that the auditory cortex plays a significant role in hearing, but they were stumped with regards to what those processes actually look like. Thanks to some innovative research methods involving participants with epilepsy, scientists at Columbia were able to find out more about how the auditory cortex functions when it comes to discerning voices in a crowd.

The Hearing Hierarchy

And the insight they found out follows: the majority of the work done by the auditory cortex to isolate distinct voices is performed by two separate parts. And in loud conditions, they allow you to separate and intensify certain voices.

When you begin to suffer from hearing problems, it’s harder for your brain to differentiate voices because your ears are missing certain wavelengths of sound (high or low, depending on your hearing loss). Your brain can’t assign individual identities to each voice because it doesn’t have enough information. Consequently, it all blurs together (which makes discussions tough to follow).

A New Algorithm From New Science

It’s standard for hearing aids to have functions that make it less difficult to hear in a crowd. But hearing aid manufacturers can now incorporate more of those natural functions into their algorithms because they have a greater concept of what the process looks like. For instance, hearing aids that do more to distinguish voices can help out the Heschl’s gyrus a little bit, bringing about a better ability for you to understand what your coworkers are talking about in that noisy restaurant.

Technology will get better at mimicking what happens in nature as we discover more about how the brain works in conjunction with the ears. And better hearing outcomes will be the outcome. Then you can focus a little more on enjoying yourself and a little less on straining to hear.

In All Demographics Hearing Loss is on The Rise

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Hearing loss is traditionally considered an older person’s issue – in fact, it’s estimated that nearly 50% of people aged 75 and up struggle with some form of hearing loss . But a new study reveals that younger people are at risk for hearing loss – and, alarmingly, they are losing their hearing in spite of the fact that it’s totally avoidable.

The National Foundation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing recently carried out research on 479 freshmen spanning three high schools and found that there were signs of hearing loss in 34% of them. The cause? Mobile devices with headphones or earbuds connected are thought to be the most likely culprit. And older people are also susceptible.

In Individuals Who Are Under The Age of 60, What Causes Hearing Loss?

There’s a simple rule regarding earbud volume for teenagers and everyone else – if others can hear your music, then the volume is too high. Your hearing can be injured when you listen to noises higher than 85 decibels – about the volume of a vacuum cleaner – over a long time period. A normal mobile device with the volume turned up all the way registers at around 106 decibels. In this scenario, damage starts to occur in less than 4 minutes.

While this sounds like common sense stuff, the truth is kids spend as much as two hours a day using their devices , often with their earphones or earbuds connected. They’re listening to music, playing games, or watching videos during this time. And this time is getting longer each year according to current research. Studies reveal that dopamine is triggered by smartphones and other devices that have screens, in the brain’s of younger kids, which is exactly what addictive drugs do. It will be more and more challenging to get kids to put down their screens, and their hearing could suffer as a result.

How Much Are Young Kids at Risk of Hearing Loss?

Clearly, loss of hearing offers numerous struggles to anyone, irrespective of the age. Younger people, though, have to deal with additional problems regarding job prospects, after school sports, or even academics. The student is disadvantaged if they have a difficult time hearing and comprehending concepts during class due to early loss of hearing. And because sports involve a lot of listening to coaches and teammates calling plays, sports become far more challenging. Teenagers and younger adults who are joining the workforce will have unnecessary challenges if their loss of hearing has a detrimental impact on their confidence.

Loss of hearing can also cause persistent social troubles. Kids with impaired hearing often end up requiring therapy because they have a more difficult time with their friends because of loss of hearing. Mental health problems are common in people of all ages who suffer from hearing loss because they commonly feel isolated and experience depression and anxiety. Mental health treatment and hearing loss management often go hand in hand, especially during the important developmental stages experienced by teenagers and kids.

Preventing Hearing Loss

The first rule to adhere to is the 60/60 rule – offending devices should be at less than 60% of their max volume for no more than 1 hour every day. If you can hear your kids music, even if if the volume is at 60%, you should ask them to turn down the volume.

Also older style over-the-ear headphones might be a better choice than earbuds. Traditional headphones can produce almost 10% less decibels in comparison to in-ear models.

Throughout the day in general, you should do anything you can to limit your exposure to loud noise. You can’t control everything, so try and make the time you’re listening to music free of headphones. And, see us right away if you think you’re already suffering from hearing loss.

The Association Between Tinnitus And Food

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 19:00:00 GMT

There is an inconsistency in symptoms of tinnitus; they seem to appear and vanish, often for no discernible reason at all. At times, it seems like, for no evident reason what so ever, your ears just start buzzing. As you lie in bed, you consider your day, and there are no clear triggers for this event: There is no noticeable reason why, at 9 PM, ringing is happening, no loud music, no loud fire alarms, nothing.

So perhaps the food you ate could be the reason. We don’t typically think about the link between hearing and food, but there’s a bit of research and evidence to suggest that certain foods can make tinnitus worse. The trick for you is knowing what those foods are, so you can avoid them.

Which Foods Make Tinnitus Worse?

So let’s get right to it. You don’t want to experience a food triggered tinnitus episode so it’s important to identify what foods can trigger it. Some foods to stay away from may include:

Alcoholic Drinks

Alcohol and tobacco should be high on the list of items to stay away from. You will absolutely want to avoid smoking and drinking so that you can reduce your risk of a tinnitus episode even though tobacco isn’t really a food.

Your general health can be significantly impacted by tobacco and alcohol particularly your blood pressure. The more you indulge, the more likely a tinnitus flare up will be.

Sodium

One of the top predictors of tinnitus flare-ups is your blood pressure. Your tinnitus worsens when your blood pressure rises. That’s why sodium should absolutely be on your list of food substances to stay away from. You’ll want to significantly decrease your sodium consumption whether you use salt on everything or you just love eating french fries.

There are some foods that you don’t typically consider high in sodium such as ice cream. But to prevent any sudden tinnitus episodes you will want to keep your eye on sodium content.

Fast Food

It shouldn’t be surprising that you should avoid fast food if you are avoiding sodium. Most fast-food places (even the ones that claim they are a healthier alternative) serve food that is packed with salt and fat. And, once again, that’s going to have a big impact on your blood pressure and, hence, your tinnitus. Fast food outlets also normally serve astonishingly big beverages, and those beverages are very high in sugar. Which brings us to the next food you should avoid.

Sweets And Sugars

Candy is something that we all enjoy. Well, most of us love candy. There is a very small portion of the populace that would actually prefer vegetables. No judgment from us.

Regrettably, the glucose balance in your body can be greatly disrupted by sugar. And a tiny disturbance of your glucose balance can cause you to have a hard time trying to sleep. In the quiet of the night, as you lie there awake, it becomes much easier to begin to hear that ringing.

Caffeine

There is an obvious reason why we saved this one for last. Giving this one up is a tough pill to swallow. But your sleep cycle can be significantly impacted if you drink any kind of caffeine later in the day. And your tinnitus is more likely to flare up if you don’t get quality sleep.

So it’s not really the caffeine per se that’s the issue, it’s the lack of sleep. Switch over to a beverage that doesn’t have caffeine at night and save your caffeine for the morning.

Learn What Works Best For You

This list is certainly not exhaustive. You’ll want to consult your hearing expert about any dietary modifications you might need to make. And it’s worth keeping in mind that everybody will be impacted differently by dietary modifications, so in order to keep track of what is working and what isn’t, it might be a smart idea to keep a food journal.

Moving ahead you will have an easier time making practical decisions if you understand how particular foods affect you. When you begin tracking how your ears respond to different foods, the reason for your tinnitus could become less incomprehensible.

If you have that last cup of coffee, at least you know what you’re dealing with.

One Fact Concerning Your Hearing You Shouldn’t Ignore

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Multiple studies have confirmed that hearing loss can have an influence on your brain. (Some of our previous blogs clearly demonstrate that.) Hearing Aids, luckily, have been proven to be capable of helping you regain some of that cognitive capacity.

This is not saying that hearing aids are in some way going to make you smarter. But there’s some compelling research that suggests cognitive ability can be improved by wearing hearing aids lowering your risk for anxiety, depression, and dementia.

Your Brain is Responsible For a Significant Portion of Your Hearing

It’s essential to recognize how significant a part your brain plays in hearing if you are going to comprehend the connection between your ears and cognition. That’s where the vibrations of the world are converted into the sounds of your environment. So as your hearing wanes, the parts of your brain that decipher those sounds suddenly have much less to do.

When combined with other factors (like social isolation), the changes in your brain (and hearing) can result in the onset of specific mental health problems. Depression, dementia, and anxiety are a lot more obvious in individuals who have untreated hearing loss.

When you wear hearing aids, you’re essentially “treating” your hearing loss. That means:

Staying Attentive

Hearing aids enhance your brain and your social life and can prevent dementia, depression, and anxiety.

Inevitably, when you’re wearing a hearing aid, you’re more likely to steer clear of a fall in the first place. A hearing aid keeps you more alert, more mindful, and more tuned in, elevating cognitive abilities and physical health at the same time.

Stop Neglecting Your Hearing Aid

None of this has even yet addressed the basic hearing benefits of hearing aids. So when you take into consideration that amplified hearing, factor in the mental health benefits and physical well-being, it seems like wearing these devices should be a simple decision (Pretty obvious).

The problem is that many people don’t know they have hearing loss. When your hearing fades away slowly, you might have a hard time recognizing it. That’s the reason why getting a routine hearing assessment is necessary. A wide variety of other health concerns can be exacerbated by hearing loss.

Hearing aids will lessen the likelihood of physical injury while helping to delay dementia and depression. That’s a stunning combination of benefits that hearing aids offer, and they also help your hearing.

Your Brain Can be Affected by Little Changes in Hearing

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 19:00:00 GMT

When you’re born with hearing loss, your brain develops a little bit differently than it normally might. Shocked? That’s because we often have false ideas about brain development. You may think that only damage or trauma can change your brain. But the truth is that brains are somewhat more…dynamic.

Your Brain is Affected by Hearing

You’ve most likely heard of the notion that, as one sense diminishes, the other four senses will grow more powerful in order to compensate. The well-known example is always vision: as you begin to lose your vision, your hearing and smell and taste will become ultra powerful as a counterbalance.

There may be some truth to this but it hasn’t been verified scientifically. Because loss of hearing, for example, can and does change the sensory architecture of your brain. It’s open to question how much this is the case in adults, but we do know it’s true with children.

The physical structure of children’s brains, who have hearing loss, has been demonstrated by CT scans to change, changing the hearing centers of the brain to visual centers.

The newest studies have gone on to discover that even moderate loss of hearing can have an influence on the brain’s architecture.

How Hearing Loss Changes The Brain

A certain amount of brainpower is dedicated to each sense when they are all functioning. The interpretation of touch, or taste, or vision and so on, all make use of a specific amount of brain power. When your young, your brain is very pliable and that’s when these pathways are being developed and this architecture is being set up.

Conventional literature had already verified that in children with total or near-total loss of hearing, the brain altered its overall architecture. The space that would usually be dedicated to hearing is instead reconfigured to boost visual perception. Whichever senses deliver the most information is where the brain applies most of its resources.

Modifications With Minor to Medium Loss of Hearing

Children who suffer from mild to medium loss of hearing, surprisingly, have also been observed to show these same rearrangements.

These brain alterations won’t produce superpowers or substantial behavioral changes, to be clear. Instead, they simply appear to help people adjust to hearing loss.

A Relationship That Has Been Strong For a Long Time

The evidence that hearing loss can alter the brains of children certainly has implications beyond childhood. The vast majority of people living with hearing loss are adults, and the hearing loss itself is usually a direct result of long-term noise or age-related damage. Are their brains also being changed by hearing loss?

Some evidence suggests that noise damage can actually trigger inflammation in certain areas of the brain. Other evidence has connected neglected hearing loss with higher risks for dementia, depression, and anxiety. So while it’s not certain whether the other senses are modified by hearing loss we do know it modifies the brain.

Individuals from around the country have anecdotally backed this up.

The Affect of Hearing Loss on Your Overall Health

It’s more than superficial information that loss of hearing can have such a major impact on the brain. It reminds us all of the relevant and inherent relationships between your brain and your senses.

There can be obvious and significant mental health problems when hearing loss develops. Being informed of those effects can help you prepare for them. And being prepared will help you take steps to protect your quality of life.

Many factors will determine how much your loss of hearing will physically change your brain (including your age, older brains commonly firm up that structure and new neural pathways are tougher to establish as a result). But there’s no doubt that neglected hearing loss will have an effect on your brain, regardless of how mild it is, and no matter how old you are.

Try This if Your Hearing Aids Are Starting to Sound Weak

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Your hearing aids don’t sound the way they should even though you just changed the batteries. Everything seems dull, distant, and just a little off. It seems like some of the sound isn’t there. When you try to diagnose the problem with a simple Google search, the most plausible solution seems to be a low battery. And that’s aggravating because you’re really diligent about setting your hearing aid on the charging platform before you go to bed each night.

Nevertheless, here you are, fighting to hear your group of friends carry on a conversation around you. This is precisely the situation you bought hearing aids to prevent. You may want to check one more possibility before you become too aggravated about your hearing aids: earwax.

You’re Hearing Aids Reside in Your Ears

Your ears are the place where your hearing aids reside under normal circumstances. Your ear canal is at least contacted even by an over the ear model. Other versions are designed to be placed in the ear canal for ideal efficiency. No matter where your hearing aid is situated, it will encounter an ever-present neighbor: earwax.

Earwax Guards

Now, earwax does some great things for the health of your ears (numerous studies have shown that earwax actually has anti-fungal and antibacterial attributes that can help prevent various infections). So earwax can actually be a positive thing.

But earwax and hearing aids don’t always work together quite as well–the normal functionality of your hearing aid can be hampered by earwax, particularly the moisture. The good news is, that earwax is predictable and manufacturers are well mindful of it.

So modern hearing aids have safeguards, called wax guards, created to prevent earwax from interfering with the general function of your device. And the “weak” sound might be brought about by these wax guards.

Wax Guard Etiquette

There is a little piece of technology in your hearing aid known as a wax guard. Wax can’t go through but sound can. So that your hearing aid can continue to work properly, a wax guard is crucial. But there are some situations where the wax guard itself might cause some troubles:

Be sure you follow the included instruction for best results with your wax guard.

After I Switch Out my Earwax Guard

You should notice much better sound quality once you change your wax guard. You’ll be able to hear (and follow) conversations again. And that can be a real relief if you’ve been discouraged with your (fully charged) hearing aid.

There’s definitely a learning curve in regards to maintaining any specialized device such as hearing aids. So just keep in mind: It’s most likely time to change your wax guard if the sound quality of your hearing aid is poor even when the battery is fully charged.

How Frequently Should You Have Your Hearing Checked?

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 19:00:00 GMT

According to one recent survey, nearly 30% of people have gone more than ten years without getting a hearing test. One of those people is Sofia. She goes to her annual doctor’s appointments, she visits a dentist every six months, and she has an oil change in her car every 3000 miles. But she has no idea the last time she had a hearing exam or went through any type of accurate hearing assessment.

Hearing evaluations are beneficial for a wide range of reasons, the most notable of which is that it’s normally hard for you to discover the first signs of hearing loss without one. Knowing how frequently she should get a hearing examination will help Sofia keep her ears (and hearing) as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

How Many Times Per Year Should my Hearing Get Tested?

We might be alarmed if Sophia hadn’t had a hearing examination in a decade. Or maybe it doesn’t phase us. Depending on Sophia’s age, reactions may vary. That’s because hearing professionals have different recommendations based on age.

If you would like to have hearing examinations or tests more frequently, there’s obviously no harm in that, at least when it comes to your hearing. Since the last time you had a hearing assessment, you might have new damage you should recognize, so regular hearing exams may be practical.

Signs You Should Get Your Hearing Checked

Of course, your annual (or semi-annual) hearing exam isn’t the only good time to schedule an appointment with a hearing professional. As an example, if you recognize symptoms of hearing loss. And in those cases, it’s typically a good idea to promptly get in touch with a hearing professional and schedule a hearing test.

Some of the signs that might prompt you to get a hearing test could include:

A strong indicator that right now is the best time to get a hearing test is when the warning signs begin to add up. The sooner you get your hearing checked, the sooner you’ll know what’s going on with your ears.

Hearing Exams, What Are The Benefits?

There are plenty of excuses why Sofia might be late in getting her hearing test. Perhaps she hasn’t thought about it. Possibly she’s just avoiding dealing with it. But there are tangible benefits to getting your hearing tested per recommendations.

Even when your hearing is totally healthy, a hearing exam can help create a baseline reading, which makes variances in the future easier to detect. If you detect your loss of hearing before it becomes noticeable, you can safeguard it better.

The reason for regular hearing testing is that someone like Sofia will be able to identify problems before her hearing is impaired permanently. Early diagnosis by a hearing exam can help your hearing stay healthy for a long time. Thinking about the effects of hearing loss on your total health, that’s essential.

Tinnitus Has Been Connected to Cannabinoids

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Public opinion about cannabinoids and marijuana have changed remarkably in the past several decades. THC, cannabinoids, and even marijuana are legal for medical usage in the majority of states. Not as many states have legalized pot for recreational purposes, but even that would have been impossible even just a decade ago.

A group of compounds derived from the cannabis plant (the marijuana plant, essentially) are referred to as cannabinoids. Despite their recent legalization in some states, we’re still discovering new things about cannabinoids. We usually consider these particular compounds as possessing universal healing properties, but current research suggests there might also be negative impact including a strong link between cannabinoid usage and the occurrence of tinnitus symptoms.

There Are Many Kinds of Cannabinoids

There are lots of forms of cannabinoids that can be used now. It isn’t just weed (or ganja, or pot…..ok, there are a lot of nicknames for marijuana so let’s move ahead). Pills, oils, mists and other forms of cannabinoids are currently available.

Every state has different regulations regarding what forms of cannabinoids you can buy, and under federal law, many forms are still illegal if the amount of THC is over 0.3%. That’s why many people tend to be very cautious about cannabinoids.

The problem is that we don’t yet grasp much concerning some of the lasting side effects or complications of cannabinoid use. Some new research into how cannabinoids influence your hearing is a good example.

Cannabinoids And Your Hearing, Some New Studies

A large number of ailments and medical conditions are believed to be helped by cannabinoids, whatever you want to call it. Based on evidence that is anecdotally available, conditions like vertigo, nausea, seizures, and countless more seem to be helped by cannabinoids. So researchers decided to find out if cannabinoids could help with tinnitus, too.

Turns out, cannabinoids could actually cause tinnitus. Ringing in the ears was reported by over 29% of participants after using cannabinoids. And that’s in individuals who had never had tinnitus before. What’s more, marijuana users were 20-times more likely to report having tinnitus symptoms after 24 hours.

And for those who already suffered from tinnitus, marijuana use caused it to get worse. So, it seems fairly certain that tinnitus and cannabinoids aren’t really compatible.

How Cannabinoids worsen tinnitus

There are a couple of tangible ways in which cannabinoids can cause your tinnitus to get worse. To start with, the incidents of tinnitus symptoms can become more frequent, you may experience the ringing or buzzing in your ears more frequently. Cannabinoids can also make those tinnitus episodes more overwhelming. More intense ringing that can be harder to dismiss can be the result.

The research also seems to reveal that cannabinoids are capable of causing the development of initial tinnitus symptoms. Or, stated another way: if you didn’t have tinnitus before, you may develop tinnitus after using cannabinoids.

Uncertain Causes of Tinnitus

Just because this connection has been discovered doesn’t necessarily mean the root causes are very well grasped. It’s apparent that cannabinoids can have an effect on the middle ear and symptoms of tinnitus. But it’s much less clear what’s causing this impact.

But we recognize that marijuana use, unlike other mood altering substances such as alcohol, can cause tinnitus.

Of course, we will continue to do the research. People will be enabled to make a smart choice concerning which of the many forms of cannabinoid to go with as we gain better insight into their connection to tinnitus.

Beware The Miracle Cure

There has undeniably been no shortage of marketing hype concerning cannabinoids lately. In part, that’s due to changing mindsets surrounding cannabinoids themselves (and, it could also reveal that people are attempting to move away from opioid use). But this new research clearly shows that cannabinoids can and do produce some negative consequence, particularly if you’re worried about your hearing.

You’ll never be able to steer clear of all of the cannabinoid fanatics and evangelists in the world, the marketing of cannabinoids has been very assertive.

But tinnitus and cannabinoids are clearly linked based on this research. So no matter how many adds you see for CBD oils, if you’re concerned about tinnitus, you should most likely avoid them. The link between cannabinoids and tinnitus symptoms has been pretty securely established by the research, so it’s worth being careful.

Musicians Don’t Have to Accept Loss of Hearing

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 19:00:00 GMT

If you’re a professional musician, your hearing is your livelihood. So safeguarding their ears should be a high priority for every musician. But in general, that’s not the case. Most musicians just accept hearing loss. The existing mindset appears to be: “it’s just part of the job”.

That mindset, however, is starting to be challenged by certain new legal rulings and concerted public safety efforts. It shouldn’t ever be regarded as just “part of the job” to cause loss of hearing. When there are proven methods to safeguard the hearing, that’s especially true.

When You Are in a Loud Environment, Protect Your Ears

Obviously, musicians are not the only people who are subjected to a noisy workplace environment. Nor are they the only class of workers who have formulated a fatalistic perspective to the injury as a consequence of loud noise. But basic levels of hearing protection have been more rapidly embraced by other occupations such as construction and manufacturing.

There are probably a number of reasons for this:

This “part of the job” mindset impacts more than just the musicians, regrettably. Others who work in the music industry, from crew members to bartenders, are implicitly supposed to subscribe to what is fundamentally a very harmful mindset.

Norms Are Changing

Fortunately, that’s changing for two big reasons. The first is a milestone case against the Royal Opera House in London. A viola player, during a performance, was subjected to 130dB of sound when she was seated right in front of the brass section. That’s roughly equivalent to a full-sized jet engine !

Hearing protection should always be available when someone is going to be subjected to that much noise. But the viola player suffered with long periods of tinnitus and general hearing loss because she wasn’t given hearing protection.

When the courts found The Royal Opera House at fault and handed down a ruling for the viola player, they sent a signal that the music industry would no longer be exempt from workplace hearing protection regulations, and that the industry should not think of itself as a special case and instead commit to appropriate hearing protection for all employees and contractors concerned.

Hearing Loss Doesn’t Need to be Inevitable For Musicians

The number of individuals in the music industry who suffer from tinnitus is staggeringly high . And that’s why there’s a campaign to raise awareness worldwide.

Everyone from wedding DJs to classical music performers to rock stars and their roadies are in danger of experiencing “ acoustic shock ,” a response to very loud noises which includes the onset of hearing loss, tinnitus, and hyperacusis. There is an escalating chance of having irreparable damage the more acoustic shock a person withstands.

You can be protected without decreasing musical abilities by using earplugs that are specially created for musicians or other modern hearing protection devices. Your hearing will be protected without reducing sound quality.

Changing The Music Attitude

You can get the ideal hearing protection right now. At this stage, safeguarding the hearing of musicians is more about changing the mindset within the music and entertainment community. That’s a huge task, but it’s one that’s currently displaying some results. (the judgment against the Royal Opera House has certainly provided some urgency for the industry to get in line).

In the industry, tinnitus is especially common. But this doesn’t have to be the way it is. Hearing loss should never be “part of the job,” no matter what job you happen to have.

Do you play music professionally? Contact us to find out how to safeguard your hearing without hurting your performance.

This Health Mistake is Made by 77% of People With Hearing Loss

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Loss of hearing – it’s normally considered a given as we age. Hearing loss is experienced by lots of older Americans and so is tinnitus or a ringing in the ears. But for such an accepted problem lots of people still deny they suffer from hearing loss.

A new study from Canada reveals that loss of hearing is experienced by more than 50 percent of Canadians, but no issues were reported at all by more than 77% percent of those. In the United States, more than 48 million people have some type of hearing loss, but many do not attempt to deal with it. Whether this denial is deliberate or not is debatable, but in either case, hearing loss is disregarded by a considerable number of people – which, down the road, could cause considerable problems.

Why do Some People Not Know They Suffer From Hearing Loss?

It’s a challenging question. Loss of hearing is a gradual process, and trouble understanding people and hearing things go unnoticed. A lot of times they blame everyone else around them – they think everyone is mumbling, the TV volume is too low, or background noise is too high. There are, unfortunately, quite a few things that hearing loss can be blamed on, and getting a hearing test or getting checked out, normally, is not a person’s first instinct.

On the other hand, there might be some people who know they’re suffering from hearing loss but won’t accept it. Another study conducted in the United States shows that lots of seniors who suffer from hearing issues flat out deny it. They mask their issue however they can, either they recognize a stigma surrounding hearing loss or because they don’t like to admit to having a problem.

The problem with both of these situations is that by rejecting or not noticing you have a hearing problem you could actually be negatively impacting your general health.

Neglected Hearing Loss Can Have a Catastrophic Impact

Hearing loss does not just affect your ears – heart disease and high blood pressure have also been linked to hearing loss as well as anxiety, depression, and mental decline.

Research has demonstrated that individuals who have addressed their hearing loss with cognitive therapy, diet changes and hearing aids have better overall health and longer life expectancy.

It’s crucial to recognize the indications of hearing loss – continual ringing or humming in the ears, difficulty carrying on conversations, needing to crank up the volume of your TV or radio.

What Can be Done to Address Hearing Loss?

You can control your hearing loss using a number of treatment options. Hearing aids are the most common form of treatment, and hearing aid tech has grown leaps and bounds over the last few years so it’s unlikely you’ll have the same problems your grandparents or parents did. Modern hearing aids have Bluetooth functionality so they can connect wirelessly to your smartphone or TV and they have the ability to filter out wind and background noise.

A changing your diet could impact the health of your hearing if you have anemia. Since anemia iron deficiency has been demonstrated to cause loss of hearing, people who have tinnitus can be helped by consuming foods that are rich in iron.

Getting your hearing examined routinely, however, is the most significant thing you can do.

Are you concerned you could have hearing issues? Visit us and get screened .

Hearing Loss Can be Triggered by This Disease

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 19:00:00 GMT

How frequently do you think about your nervous system? For the majority of people, the answer would probably be not that frequently. Generally, you wouldn’t have to worry about how your neurons are sending messages to the nerves of your body. But when those nerves begin to misfire – that is when something fails – you tend to pay a lot more attention to your nervous system.

One particular disease called Charot-Marie-Tooth Disease which generally affects the extremities can also have a pretty wide-scale affect on the entire nervous system. And there’s some evidence to suggest that CMT can also lead to high-frequency loss of hearing.

What Is Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease?

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a set of inherited disorders. The protective sheathing surrounding the nerves malfunction due to a genetic condition.

As a result, the impulses sent from your brain to those nerves (and from those nerves back to your brain) don’t work all that well. Functionally, this can cause both a loss in motor function and a loss of sensation.

CMT can be present in numerous varieties and a mixture of genetic factors normally lead to its expressions. For many people with CMT, symptoms begin in the feet and go up into their arms. And, high-frequency hearing loss, strangely, has a high rate of occurrence in those who have CMT.

The Cochlear Nerve: A Connection Between CMT and Hearing Loss

The link between CMT and hearing loss has always been colloquially established (that is, everyone knows someone who has a story about it – at least within the CMT culture). And it seemed to confuse people who had CMT – the ear didn’t seem all that related to the loss of sensation in the legs, for example.

The connection was firmly established by a scientific study just recently when a group of scientists evaluated 79 people with CMT at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

The results were quite conclusive. Almost everyone who has CMT passed their low and moderate frequency hearing assessments with flying colors. But high-frequency sounds (in the moderate region in particular) were easily heard by all of the individuals. high-frequency hearing loss, according to this research, is likely to be linked to CMT.

What is The Cause of Hearing Loss And How Can it be Treated?

At first, it may be perplexing to try to figure out the link between high-frequency hearing loss and CMT. Like all other parts of your body rely on properly functioning nerves. Your ears are the same.

What many researchers hypothesize occurs is that the cochlear nerve is affected by the CMT – interfering with your ear’s ability to translate and transmit sounds in a high-frequency range. Certain sounds, including some voices, will be difficult to hear. Notably, understand voices in crowded or noisy rooms can be a real obstacle.

This type of hearing loss is normally treated with hearing aids. CMT has no renowned cure. Modern hearing aids can isolate the exact frequencies to amplify which can give considerable assistance in battling high-frequency hearing loss. The majority of modern hearing aids can also do well in loud settings.

Multiple Causes of Hearing Loss

Further than the unconfirmed theory, it’s still uncertain what the relationship between CMT and high-frequency hearing loss. But hearing aid technology provides an obvious solution to the symptoms of that loss of hearing. So making an appointment to get a fitting for hearing aids will be a smart decision for people who suffer from CMT.

Hearing loss symptoms can occur for a number of reasons. Commonly, it’s a matter of loud sound causing damage to the ears. In other cases, loss of hearing could be the result of an obstruction. It also looks like CMT is another possible cause.

Nowadays People With Hearing Loss Don’t Feel as Stigmatized

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 19:00:00 GMT

John’s having a hard time at work because he doesn’t always make out conversations. He’s in denial and keeps telling himself that everyone is mumbling. What’s more, he feels he’s too young to need hearing aids, so he hasn’t gone in for a hearing exam and has been steering clear of a hearing test. Unfortunately, he’s been doing significant damage to his ears by pumping up the volume on his earbuds. Sadly, his reluctance to admitting he has loss of hearing has prevented him from seeking out effective solutions.

But what John doesn’t realize is that his views are antiquated. Hearing loss doesn’t have the stigma that it used to. Specifically, with the younger generation, it’s far less pronounced, even though you might still encounter it to some degree in some circles. (Isn’t that ironic?)

How Can Hearing Loss Stigma be Harmful?

The social and cultural associations with hearing loss can be, to put it simply, false and not beneficial. Loss of vigor and aging are sometimes associated with hearing loss. People are often concerned that they will lose social status if others know they suffer from hearing loss. They feel they might appear old and come off as less “cool”.

This problem could be thought of as irrelevant and not connected to reality. But there are a few very real implications for individuals who are attempting to cope with the stigma around hearing loss. Some examples include:

There are many more examples but the point is well made.

Fortunately, changes are happening, and It seems as if the stigma of hearing loss is really disappearing.

Why is Hearing Loss Stigma Declining?

This decline in hearing loss stigma is taking place for a variety of reasons. Population demographics are changing as is our perception of technology.

Hearing Loss is More Common in Youth

Maybe the biggest reason that hearing loss stigma is vanishing is that hearing loss itself is starting to be a lot more common, particularly with younger people (and we’re talking mostly about young adults not children).

Most statistical research put the number of individuals with hearing loss in the U.S. around 34 million, which translates into 1 in 10 people . There are too many factors that cause this for us to entering into here (noise from multiple sources seems to be the primary factor), but the point is that hearing loss is more prevalent now than it ever was in the past.

As loss of hearing becomes more common, it becomes easier to break down the stigmas and misinformation surrounding hearing problems.

We’re More Confident With Technology

Perhaps you were concerned that your first set of hearing aids would make you look old so you resisted using them. But nowadays, technology is so pervasive that hearing aids virtually entirely blend in. No one really even is aware of them. Under most circumstances, newer hearing aids are small and subtle.

But hearing aids also commonly go undetected because today, everyone has some technology in their ears . Everyone is used to dealing with technology so no one is concerned if you’re wearing a helpful piece of it in your ear.

An Overdue Shift in Thinking

Naturally, those two reasons are not the only causes for the retreat of hearing loss stigma. Much more is commonly comprehended about loss of hearing and there are even famous people that have told the public about their own hearing loss conditions.

The more we observe hearing loss in the world, the less stigma there will be. Now, of course, we want to stop hearing loss in every way that we can. The ideal would be to reverse the trends in youth hearing loss while fighting against hearing loss stigma.

But at least as the stigma goes away, more people will feel secure making an appointment with their professionals and undergoing routine exams. This will keep people hearing better and improve overall hearing health.

Tips to Adapting to New Hearing Aids

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 19:00:00 GMT

People normally don’t like change. Taking this into account, there can be a double edged sword regarding hearing aids: your life will experience an enormous change but they also will allow exciting new possibilities. If your someone who appreciates a very fixed routine, the change can be hard. There are very specific hurdles with new hearing aids. But knowing how to adapt to these devices can help ensure your new hearing aids will be a change you will enjoy.

Tips to Help You Adapt More Quickly to Your Hearing Aids

Whether it’s your first set of hearing aids (congrats!) or an improvement to a more powerful set, any new hearing aid will represent a significant enhancement in how you hear. That could be quite a challenge depending on your circumstances. But your transition might be a bit smoother if you follow these tips.

Begin Using Your Hearing Aids in Smaller Doses

As a basic rule, the more you wear your hearing aids, the healthier your ears will be . But it can be a little uncomfortable when you’re getting used to them if you wear them for 18 hours a day. You might try to build up your endurance by beginning with 8 hours and increasing from there.

Listen to Conversations For Practice

When you first begin wearing your hearing aids, your brain will likely need some time to get used to the idea that it’s able to hear sounds again. You may have a difficult time making out speech clearly or following conversations during this adjustment period. But practicing using listening or reading exercises (such as reading along to an audiobook) can help the language-hearing-and-interpreting portion of your brain reassert itself.

Spend The Time to Get a Hearing Aid Fitting

Even before you get your final hearing aid, one of the first things you will have to do – is go through a fitting process. Maximizing comfort, taking account of the shape of your ear canal, and adjusting for your personal hearing loss are all things that a fitting helps with. You may need to have several adjustments. It’s imperative to be serious about these fittings – and to consult us for follow-up appointments. When your hearing aids fit properly, your hearing aids will sit more comfortably and sound more natural. Adjustments to different environments can also be made by us.

Troubleshoot

Sometimes when you first buy your hearing aid something is not working properly and it becomes difficult to adapt to it. Possibly you hear too much feedback (which can be painful). It can also be infuriating when the hearing aid keeps cutting out. It can be hard to adapt to hearing aids because of these types of problems, so it’s best to find solutions as early as you can. Try these tips:

The Benefits of Adjusting to Your New Hearing Aids

It may take a bit of time to adjust to your new hearing aids just as it would with new glasses. We hope, with the help of these recommendations, that adjustment period will go a bit more smoothly (and quickly). But if you stick with it – if you put yourself into a routine with your hearing aids and really invest in adapting to them – you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how it all becomes easy. And once that occurs, you’ll be capable of devoting your attention to the things you’re actually listening to: like the day-to-day discussion you’ve been missing out on or your favorite tunes. In the end, all these adjustments will be well worth it. And change is good.

Sometimes Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Isn’t Noticed, But Why?

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Everything you thought you knew about sensorineural hearing loss might be incorrect. Alright, perhaps not everything is false . But there is at least one thing that needs to be cleared up. Ordinarily, we think that sensorineural hearing loss comes on gradually while conductive hearing loss occurs quickly. It so happens that’s not necessarily true – and that sudden onset of sensorineural hearing loss may often be misdiagnosed.

Is Sensorineural Hearing Loss Usually Slow Moving?

When we talk about sensorineural hearing loss or conductive hearing loss, you could feel a little confused – and we don’t hold it against you (the terms can be quite disorientating). So, here’s a basic breakdown of what we’re talking about:

It’s common for sensorineural hearing loss to happen slowly over time while conductive hearing loss takes place somewhat suddenly. But occasionally it works out differently. Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (or SSNHL) is somewhat uncommon, but it does happen. And SSNHL can be particularly damaging when it isn’t treated correctly because everyone thinks it’s a strange case of conductive hearing loss.

Why is SSNHL Misdiagnosed?

To understand why SSNHL is misdiagnosed somewhat frequently, it might be helpful to have a look at a hypothetical interaction. Let’s imagine that Steven, a busy project manager in his early forties, woke up one morning and couldn’t hear anything out of his right ear. The traffic outside seemed a little quieter. As did his crying kitten and chattering grade-schoolers. So, Steven prudently scheduled an appointment to see someone. Of course, Steven was in a hurry. He had to get caught up on some work after recovering from a cold. Perhaps he wasn’t sure to mention that recent condition during his appointment. And maybe he even inadvertently omitted some other important information (he was, after all, already thinking about getting back to work). And so Steven was prescribed some antibiotics and was told to come back if the symptoms persisted by the time the pills had run their course. Sudden onset of sensorineural hearing loss is fairly rare (something like 6 in 5000 according to the National Institutes of Health ). So, Steven would normally be fine. But if Steven was really suffering from SSNHL, a misdiagnosis can have significant consequences.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss: The Critical First 72 Hours

There are a wide array of events or ailments which could cause SSNHL. Some of those causes might include:

This list could go on and on. Your hearing expert will have a much better understanding of what issues you should be watching for. But many of these underlying problems can be managed and that’s the main point. There’s a chance that you can lessen your lasting hearing damage if you treat these underlying causes before the stereocilia or nerves get permanently damaged.

The Hum Test

If you’re having a bout of sudden hearing loss, like Steven, you can perform a quick test to get a rough understanding of where the problem is coming from. And it’s fairly easy: just start humming. Choose your favorite tune and hum a few measures. What do you hear? If your loss of hearing is conductive, your humming should sound the same in both of ears. (The majority of what you’re hearing when you hum, after all, is coming from inside your own head.) If your humming is louder in one ear than the other, the loss of hearing might be sensorineural (and it’s worth pointing this out to your hearing professional). It’s possible that there could be misdiagnosis between conductive and sensorineural hearing loss. That can have some consequences for your general hearing health, so it’s always a smart idea to point out the possibility with your hearing professional when you go in for an exam.

Here Are a Few Things to Think About When You Decide to Purchase Hearing Aids

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 19:00:00 GMT

The numbers don’t lie: you will probably require hearing aids someday. A quarter of all people from 60 to 75, according to an NIDCD report, have hearing loss and for individuals over 75 this number increases to 50%. But how can you be certain which hearing aid is correct for you when you recognize it’s your best opportunity to combat hearing loss? Hearing aids at one time had problems like vulnerability to water damage and excessive background noise but modern day hearing aids have solved these types of issues. But to ensure that your choice of hearing aid is correct for you, there are still things you need to think about.

Pay Attention to Directionality

Directionality is one essential feature you should look for, which has the capability of keeping background noise down while focusing on noise you want to hear like conversations. One, if not both, of two types of directionality systems are working inside most hearing aids, they either focus on sound directly in front of you, or they focus on sound produced by different speakers and sometimes do both.

Can You Use it With Your Phone?

As a nation, we’re addicted to our phones. You probably have some kind of cell phone, either a smartphone or an older style cell phone. And on the unlikely event that you don’t have any kind of cell phone, you probably still have a land-line. So, how well hearing aid works with your phone is an essential concern when you’re shopping for hearing aids. How does it sound? Are you capable of discerning voices precisely? Does it feel easy to wear? Is it Bluetooth Ready? These are all the things you should consider when looking at new hearing aids.

Are You Inclined to Wear it?

In the last few years, as noted above, the technology of hearing aids has vastly improved. One of those advances has been the size and shape of hearing aids, which have moved towards the smaller and more comfortable direction. Nevertheless, there are always going to be some trade-offs. It is dependant on what your specific needs are. A smaller hearing aid isn’t as obvious and may fit better but a larger one could be more powerful. The little ones won’t have the features of the larger models and they may get clogged with earwax but they do fit inside your ears nearly imperceptibility. On the other hand, better directionality functions and more sophisticated sound amplification options come with a behind the ear hearing aid though it’s a little bit larger.

Exposure to Particular Background Noises

Wind interference has been an extreme difficulty for hearing aid users ever since they were invented. It would have driven anyone nuts to go outside on a breezy day and hear nothing but the wind. If you’re an outdoors kind of person or you live in a windy place, you’ll need to get a hearing aid that suppresses wind noise so you can carry on conversations at a normal volume and steer clear of the headaches that are linked to hearing aid wind noises. Looking for more information about how to pick the right hearing aid? Get in touch with us.

It’s Not Necessarily Good For You Just Because it’s Labeled “Organic”

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Sometimes it can be easy to identify risks to your hearing: a loud jet engine next to your ears or the screeching machinery on the floor of a factory. easy to persuade people to use ear protection when they know they will be around loud sounds. But what if there was an organic compound that was just as harmful for your hearing as excessive noise? Simply because something is organic doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you. How can something that’s organic be just as bad for your ears as loud noise?

You Probably Won’t Want to Eat This Organic Substance

To clarify, these organic compounds are not something you can pick up in the produce department of your supermarket and you wouldn’t want to. According to recent (and some not-so-recent) research published by European scholars, there’s a strong possibility that a collection of chemicals known as organic solvents can injure your hearing even if exposure is brief and minimal. It’s significant to note that, in this case, organic does not make reference to the kind of label you see on fruit in the supermarket. The truth is, marketers utilize the positive connections we have with the word “organic” to get us to buy products with the implication that it’s good for you (or at least not bad for you). The term organic, when related to food means that the growers didn’t employ particular chemicals. The word organic, when associated with solvents, is a term used in chemistry. Within the discipline of chemistry, the word organic makes reference to any compounds and chemicals that contain bonds between carbon atoms. Carbon atoms can create all kinds of distinctive molecules and, therefore, a large number of different convenient chemicals. But sometimes they can also be harmful. Each year, millions of workers are exposed to the risks of hearing loss by handling organic solvents.

Organic Solvents, Where do You Find Them?

Organic solvents are found in some of the following products:

You get the idea. So, the question quickly becomes, will your hearing be damaged by cleaning or painting?

Risks Related to Organic Solvents

The more you’re exposed to these substances, based on recent research, the higher the corresponding dangers. This means that you’ll probably be fine while you clean your bathroom. It’s the industrial laborers who are continuously exposed to organic solvents that are at the highest risk. Ototoxicity (toxicity to the auditory system), has been demonstrated to be linked to subjection to organic substances. Lab tests that used animals, in addition to surveys of people, have both shown this to be true. Hearing loss in the mid frequency range can be affected when the tiny hair cells in the ear are injured by solvents. Regretfully, the ototoxicity of these solvents isn’t well known by company owners. These hazards are even less recognized by workers. So those employees don’t have consistent protocols to safeguard them. One thing that could really help, for instance, would be standardized hearing screening for all workers who deal with organic compounds on a regular basis. These hearing examinations would detect the very earliest indications of hearing loss, and workers could respond appropriately.

You Have to Work

Most suggestions for protecting your ears from these particular organic compounds include regulating your exposure as well as regular hearing tests. But first, you need to be aware of the dangers before you can follow that advice. When the hazards are in plain sight, it’s not that hard. No one doubts that loud noises can injure your hearing and so precautions to safeguard your ears from day-to-day sounds of the factory floor seems obvious and logical. But it isn’t so easy to convince employers to take safety measures when there is an invisible hazard. The good news is, ongoing research is helping both employees and employers take a safer path. Some of the best advice would be to use a mask and work in a well ventilated spot. Having your ears examined by a hearing expert is also a practical idea.

Taking This Medication? Be Warned – it Might Lead To Hearing Loss

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Medications that damage your hearing are surprisingly common. From tinnitus medications that stop your ears from ringing to drugs that may lead to loss of hearing, find out which of them has an effect on your ears.

Medicines Can Impact Your Ears

Prescription drugs are an almost $500 billion industry and the United States makes up almost half of that consumption. Are you getting over the counter medications? Or maybe your doctor has prescribed you with some kind of medication. All medications carry risk, and while side effects and risks might be listed in the paperwork, no one ever thinks they’ll be impacted. That’s why emphasizing that some medications might increase your chance of having loss of hearing is so crucial. But on the plus side, some medicines, like tinnitus treatments, can in fact, help your hearing. But how can you know which medications are ok and which are the medications will be detrimental? And what to do if a doctor prescribes medications that lead to hearing loss? Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly on medications.

1. Your Ears Can be Hurt by Over-The-Counter Pain Relievers

The fact that such an everyday thing could cause hearing loss. How often hearing loss occurred in people who were using many different pain relievers was analyzed by researchers. This link is backed by several studies of both men and women. A collaborative study among Harvard, Brigham Young and Women’s Hospital found something surprising. Ongoing, regular use of over-the-counter painkillers damages hearing. 2 or more times a week is described as regular use. People who suffer from chronic pain often take these types of medicines at least this frequently. Using too much aspirin at once can cause temporary hearing loss , which may become permanent over time. Naproxen, ibuprofen and acetaminophen are the biggest offenders. But you might be surprised to find the one with the strongest link. The culprit was acetaminophen. For men under 50 hearing loss danger nearly doubled if they were treating chronic pain with this medication. Just for the record, prescription painkillers are just as bad. Hearing loss may be caused by the following:

It’s unclear exactly what triggers this loss of hearing. These drugs might lessen blood flow to your sensitive inner ear, which after a while would kill nerves that detect sound. That’s why loss of hearing may be the result of sustained use of these drugs.

2. Some Antibiotics Are Ototoxic

If your not allergic, most antibiotics should be reasonably safe if taken as directed. But the type of antibiotic known as Aminoglycoside might increase hearing loss. Human studies haven’t yet come up with reliable data because they are in the early phases. But there absolutely seem to be certain people who have developed loss of hearing after taking these medications. It’s persuasive enough to recognize the results of the animal testing. There could be something to be concerned about according to the medical community. Every time mice are fed these antibiotics, they ultimately lose their hearing. The following ailments are generally treated with Aminoglycoside antibiotics:

Compared with the majority of antibiotics, they’re more often taken over an extended time period to address chronic infections. Pneumonia and children’s ear infection were, until very recently, frequently treated by Neomycin. Side effect concerns in the past decade have led doctors to prescribe different options. More research is necessary to determine why some antibiotics could contribute to hearing loss. It seems that permanent damage might be caused when these medications create swelling of the inner ear.

3. How Quinine Affects Your Hearing

If you’ve ever had a gin and tonic, then you’ve had quinine. Quinine is used to treat malaria and has also been employed to help people who suffer from restless leg syndrome while also being the principal ingredient in tonic that gives the drink its bitter flavor. While research that investigates the correlation between quinine use and hearing loss aren’t that widespread. Reversible hearing loss has been observed in certain malaria patients.

4. Your Hearing May be Harmed by Chemo Medication

You understand there will be side effects when you go through chemo. Doctors are loading the body with toxins in an effort to eliminate cancer cells. These toxins can’t often tell the difference between normal cells and cancer. Some of the medications that are under scrutiny at are:

Unfortunately, chemo-induced loss of hearing is a necessary trade off when dealing with cancer. While you’re dealing with chemo, a hearing care professional may be able to help you keep track of your hearing. Or you may want to inform us what your individual scenario is and find out if there are any recommendations we can make.

5. Hearing Loss And Loop Diuretics

You could be using diuretics to help control the balance of fluids in your body. But the body can ultimately be dehydrated by taking it too far in one direction when attempting to manage the issue with medication. This can cause salt vs water ratios to get too high in the body, causing swelling. This can cause hearing loss, which is generally temporary. But hearing loss may become permanent if you let this imbalance continue. Taking loop diuretics at the same time as ototoxic drugs (the drugs listed in this article) could make the lasting damage much worse. Lasix is the most commonly known loop diuretic, so if you’ve been prescribed this drug, you should check with your doctor regarding any side effects that might occur in combination with other medications you’re taking.

If You Are Taking Drugs That Cause Hearing Loss What Can You do?

You should talk to your doctor before you discontinue taking any medications they have prescribed. Before you talk to your doctor, you should take inventory of your medicine cabinet. You can ask your doctor if there is an alternative to any medications that cause hearing loss. You can also make lifestyle changes to lessen your need for medications. In some cases, slight changes to your diet and exercise program can give you a healthier life. These changes could also be able to reduce pain and water retention while strengthening your immune system. You should make an appointment to get your hearing checked as soon as possible specifically if you are taking any ototoxic medication. It can be difficult to notice loss of hearing at first because it advances quite slowly. But make no mistake: it can impact your happiness and health in ways you might not realize, and you will have more possibilities for treatment if you catch it early.

Why Wearing Your Hearing Aids Matters

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 19:00:00 GMT

So you don’t use your hearing aids very often? Most of the time you keep them in the drawer unless you’re, for instance, going to the theater or to a party. Do you actually need to use them more often than that?

The concern is that when you don’t use your hearing aids regularly, you’re creating some troubling shortcomings for yourself over time. Your hearing could get drastically worse. Social isolation and cognitive decline could be the result. Your general health may be jeopardized. This content will help you comprehend why you should be using your hearing aids.

Why Aren’t Your Hearing Aids in Your Ears?

If your hearing aids are stored in a nightstand drawer somewhere, you probably have a reason. Sure, maybe you haven’t really been forthcoming about what those reasons are. Maybe, when your family questions you, you even say something generic and evasive, like, “I just don’t like them”.

Stilted dialogue to the side, we know that’s not the full story, right? Normally, there’s an exact reason why you’re not using your hearing aids. And there’s also a very exact solution to your problem.

Some of the most typical grievances include the examples below;

“My Hearing Aids Aren’t Very Comfortable”

Discomfort is one of the most commonly cited grounds for people not wearing their hearing aids. Often, the hearing aid won’t stop falling out of your ear. Or maybe tenderness and pain are happening in just the wrong spot with your over-the-ear model.

It’s not supposed to be uncomfortable to wear hearing aids, so something is certainly not right if they’re creating any sort of discomfort. And soreness, frustration, and pain are not things you would desire from any piece of technology.

Possible solution: If your hearing aids are not comfortable, a follow-up fitting session is something you should think about. A few little tweaks could be all your hearing aid requires. The shape and size of your ear can even be the foundation of an entire customization of some models. You will be capable of leaving your hearing aid in longer if it fits well and is comfortable.

I’m Experiencing Poor Quality Sound From my Hearing Aids

It’s possible you don’t wear your hearing aids regularly because you find the sound to be tinny or fuzzy. If that’s the circumstance, it’s not surprising that you’ve opted to store your hearing aids in your nightstand drawer and save them for “special occasions”.”

This tinny or fuzzy sound can happen because hearing aids are performing complex auditory functions all the time, filtering out some sounds while trying to amplify others. So the sound quality might seem hard to rely on if your settings aren’t correctly adjusted.

Solution: This challenge has two potential solution: calibration and upkeep. Your hearing aids might be broken in some way or another and need to be
repaired. But your hearing specialist can do a basic calibration which is all that your hearing aids may need.

When I Use My Hearing Aid, Voices Are Muffled

You want to hear voices with clarity. That’s the entire reason why you purchased hearing aids in the first place! You needed to be sure you didn’t miss out on any relevant conversations. So if all the voices you hear are hard to understand and are muffled it could be a bit aggravating.

Because your ears and brain aren’t communicating very well anymore, this issue normally occurs when you first get your hearing aids.

The Remedy: Practice. Your brain will have to become accustomed to hearing language again, so anything you can do to get some repetition will help. Try reading along to an audiobook or reading along with the closed captioning while you watch tv. Another way to get some beneficial practice is by simply having conversations with people you come in contact with.

Finding Answers

The point is that no matter what your reason for not wearing your hearing aids might, there is an answer somewhere. And you have to wear your hearing aid routinely in order to safeguard your cognitive health and the well being of your hearing.

So if you’re not using your hearing aids? Determine the issue and come up with a solution, so you can get active in your life again. If you think your hearing aids need adjustment, consult your hearing care expert right away.

I Hear Noises in my Ears But I Don’t Know What They Are

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Do you ever hear noises that appear to come from nowhere, like buzzing, thumping, or crackling? Perhaps, if you have hearing aids, they need to be fitted or require adjustment. But it could also be possible that, if you don’t wear hearing aids, the sounds could be coming from your ears. But don’t stress. Even though we mostly think of our ears in terms of what we see on the outside, there’s much more than meets the eye. Different noises you might be hearing inside of your ears can mean different things. Here are several of the most common. You should talk with a hearing specialist if any of these are impeding your quality of life or are irritating and persistent, although most are short-term and harmless.

Popping or Crackling

You might hear a popping or crackling when the pressure in your ear changes, maybe from an altitude change or from swimming underwater or even from a yawn. These sounds are caused by a small part of your ear called the eustachian tube. When the mucus-lined passageway opens to allow air and fluid to pass, these crackling sounds are produced. Occasionally this automatic process is disturbed by inflammation brought about by an ear infection or a cold or allergies that gum up the ears. In serious cases, where decongestant sprays or antibiotics don’t help, a blockage might call for surgical treatment. You probably should see a specialist if you feel pressure or lasting pain.

Ringing or Buzzing is it Tinnitus?

Once again, if you have hearing aids, you may hear these kinds of sounds if they aren’t fitting properly in your ears, the volume is too high, or your batteries are running low. If you aren’t using hearing aids, earwax might be the issue. It makes sense that excessive wax could make it hard to hear, and cause itchiness or possibly infections, but how could it make a sound ? The ringing or buzzing is produced when the wax is pressing against the eardrum and inhibiting its movement. Thankfully, it’s easily solved: You can get the extra wax professionally removed. (This is not a DIY activity!) Intense, persistent buzzing or ringing is known as tinnitus. Even buzzing from excessive earwax counts as a form of tinnitus. Tinnitus is a symptom of some sort of health problem and isn’t itself a disease or disorder. Besides the buildup of wax, tinnitus can also be related to depression and anxiety. Tinnitus can be alleviated by treating the underlying health issue; talk to a hearing specialist to learn more.

Rumbling

This one’s significantly less prevalent, and if you can hear it, you’re the one causing the noises to occur! Have you ever noticed how occasionally, if you have a really big yawn, you hear a low rumble? There are tiny muscles in the ear that contract to help minimize the internal volume of some natural actions such as your own voice or chewing or yawning, It’s the contraction of these muscles in response to these natural noises that we hear as rumbling. We’re not suggesting you chew too loudly, it’s just that those noises are so near to your ears that without these muscles, the noise level would be damaging. (But talking and chewing as well as yawning are not something we can stop doing, it’s lucky we have these little muscles.) It’s very unusual, but some people can control one of these muscles, they’re called tensor tympani, and they’re able to create that rumble at will.

Pulsing or Thumping

If you occasionally feel like you’re hearing your heartbeat inside your ears, you’re most likely right. Some of the body’s largest veins run very close to your ears, and if you have an elevated heart rate, whether from that big job interview or a hard workout, your ears will pick up the sound of your pulse. This is known as pulsatile tinnitus, and unlike other kinds of tinnitus, it’s one that not only you hear, if you go to a hearing professional, they will be able to hear it as well. While it’s totally normal to experience pulsatile tinnitus when your heart’s racing, if it’s something you’re dealing with on a daily basis, it’s a wise step to see your physician. Like other forms of tinnitus, pulsatile tinnitus is a symptom rather than a disease; there are likely health problems if it persists. Because your heart rate should come back to normal and you should stop hearing it after your workout when your heart rate returns to normal.

The Most Unrecognized Merits of Hearing Aids

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 19:00:00 GMT

What’s the point of using hearing aids? Because you want to enhance your ability to hear, right? Naturally, that will be the majority of people’s reply. Improving your hearing is what a hearing aid is made to do.

But that’s not the real motivation for wearing them. We wear them so we won’t become estranged from the people around us…so we can not only hear conversations, but be a part of them. Hearing aids allow us to be certain we don’t miss out on the key lines of our favorite show, the punchline of a joke, or our favorite music.

Put another way, there are a variety of benefits, under-appreciated benefits, that that you will get if you wear hearing aids. And those less well known boons could be the distinction between wearing your hearing aids every day or keeping them hidden away in a drawer somewhere. So we can be certain that these benefits deserve to be featured.

Clearer Sound

So it’s not simply that your hearing aid makes things louder. Sounds are made clearer also. The reason for this is that hearing loss doesn’t occur evenly in both ears: you may well lose specific frequencies in one ear before you lose those same frequencies in the other. So a hearing aid will make the sounds all around you crisper and easier to understand.

Also, modern hearing aids have all sorts of settings that can be altered (or that can adjust themselves) depending on the room you’re in, the ambient volume of that room, etc. Hearing aids don’t only make things louder, they give attention to maximizing the right sounds so that you can hear more clearly as a whole.

Social Life That is More Alive And Enriching

The considerable benefit is that if you can hear the sounds near you more intelligibly, you will feel more comfortable participating in social situations. Just contemplate this, you’re not as likely to jump in with a witty joke at a crowded restaurant if you can’t hear what anyone is saying. But you will know just the right moment to spring your funny retort when your hearing is clear and crisp and so are the voices around you.

Social situation become exhausting when you don’t have to keep asking people to repeat themselves and voices are crisper and clearer; Instead, enjoying social interaction is something you can do again.

Being Able to Concentrate Better

When you’re struggling to hear, a big portion of your brain is committed to one task: decoding the chaos. Your entire concentration is diminished when that amount of mental effort is going towards interpreting distorted and partial audio. So if your hearing aids are performing appropriately, you can find yourself paying attention with far greater ease, whether you’re doing your taxes, reading the news, or watching TV.

You’re Safer

Studies have shown that people with neglected hearing loss have a higher risk of falling down. Hearing aids help safeguard you against falling in two ways. Preventing falls in the first place is the primary one. It’s easier to take steps without stumbling on something when you have better concentration (and therefore be less mentally fatigued.) Second is when an individual has a fall, the automated technology in the hearing aid activates. This technology can simply be configured to contact friends, family, or emergency services in the event of a fall.

Enhanced Cognition

It’s not only your focus that gets better when you use your hearing aids. Your mental health improves, too. When you have a tough time hearing and start to isolate yourself, a complex process of brain degeneration starts to happen. A hearing aid will help protect various mental cognitive processes, meaning your mental health, your mood, your self-esteem may all profit from using your hearing aids.

Why Wait to Get The Benefits?

Taking the slow approach has no real advantage if you’ve already detected a decline in hearing. Both immediate and also long lasting benefits are provided by hearing aids. So get in touch with our hearing care specialists and get a hearing test today.

Your Hearing Can Definitely be Injured by Summer Activities, Here’s How to Protect Them

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 14:53:00 GMT

We’ve been looking forward to summer activities all year: going to the beach, relaxing by the pool, and damaged hearing? That’s right, summer has many hidden hazards to your hearing, either from loud noises or the external situations you could find yourself in. Any sounds over 80 decibels could injure your ears, while swimming in pools or other bodies of water can bring about enduring loss of hearing. To keep your hearing safeguarded this summer, you need to be mindful of your surroundings and take preventative measures. Here are six of the summer’s hidden hearing hazards.

At Concerts, Use Ear Protection

Whether you’re at an indoor arena or an outdoor concert venue you still need to wear ear protection during concerts. Concerts can reach over 90 decibels, even at outdoor concerts, which is inside of the danger zone of hearing loss. So whether you’re attending an outside or inside shows, it’s a practical plan to wear earplugs. Earplugs dampen the sound while still letting you hear and enjoy the music. If you’re going to a performance with young kids, consider buying them a heavy duty pair of earmuffs because children have more sensitive hearing than adults.

It’s Not Just Loud at Fireworks

Honestly, there are a lot of reasons to avoid fireworks in the summer. This is not about the professional 4th of July fireworks show, we mean the backyard fireworks that cause hundreds of injuries during the summer season. Backyard fireworks achieve volume levels of nearly 155 which can hurt your ears as well as causing hand injuries, blindness and backyard fires. This 4th of July, leave the fireworks to the pros and enjoy the display from a protected and sound distance.

Hearing Loss Can be Brought About by Lawnmowers

If you’re serious about your lawn, it’s likely that you’re out there each week on your mower, trimming your bushes and using your edger. But that muffled sensation in your ears is an indication that your hearing has taken damage. That’s because the lawn tools, which are constantly loud, have a slow and steady impact on your hearing. If you’ve ever seen lawn care pro’s, you most likely have noticed them using ear protection, you should take a cue from them and wear earplugs or earmuffs next time you work on your lawn to ensure your ears doesn’t get injured.

Here’s How to Protect Your Ears When You go Swimming

Huge numbers of people suffer from swimmer’s ear every summer, which happens when bacteria-loaded water becomes trapped inside your ear canal. The bacteria will then infect the ear, producing swelling and painful earaches. It’s not exclusively lakes and rivers that hold these bacteria, they can also be found in pools and hot tubs if they aren’t cleaned and treated thoroughly. No irreversible damage should occur if you have your hearing checked out by a hearing specialist. To protect against swimmer’s ear, however, you will want to wear specialized swimming earplugs in the pool and get your pool water tested to make sure the chemical balance is safe.

Boats and Other Water Sports

If you love the water, the summer season is beach and boating time for you. But, boat and jet ski engines are often noisy, we’re talking more than 100 decibels. Lasting hearing impairment can be the result after around 15 minutes of exposure to that much noise. In this case also, using a pair of disposable foam earplugs is a smart idea.

Car Races Can Harm Your Hearing

It doesn’t make a difference what type of auto racing you enjoy, midget, Formula 1, drag racing, motorcycle Formula 1. If you attend a lot of auto-races this year, they all present a risk. It’s calculated that volume levels can go over 120 decibels at many races, which is absolutely in the danger zone for hearing damage. Earplugs are your best friends at these races, whereas your kids should definitely wear the earmuffs we mentioned earlier. Because you may not get to enjoy the sounds of any races in the future if you don’t.

Can Loss of Hearing Trigger Other Medical Issues?

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Aging is one of the most typical indicators of hearing loss and let’s be truthful, try as we might, we can’t stop aging. But did you know that hearing loss has also been connected to health issues that can be treated, and in many cases, avoidable? Here’s a look at various examples that may surprise you.

1: Diabetes

A widely-cited 2008 study that examined over 5,000 American adults found that individuals who were diagnosed with diabetes were two times as likely to suffer from mild or more hearing loss when low or mid frequency sounds were applied to test them. Impairment was also more likely with high-frequency sounds, but not as extreme. It was also revealed by investigators that individuals who struggled with high blood sugar levels but not so high as to be diagnosed with diabetes, put simply, pre-diabetic, were 30 % more likely than those who had healthy blood sugar levels, to have hearing loss. A more recent 2013 meta-study (yup, a study of studies) found that there was a persistent association between loss of hearing and diabetes, even while when all other variables are taken into account.

So it’s well determined that diabetes is connected to an increased danger of hearing loss. But why would diabetes put you at increased chance of suffering from hearing loss? The reason isn’t really well understood. Diabetes is related to a broad range of health issues , and in particular, can trigger physical damage to the eyes, kidneys, and extremities. One hypothesis is that the disease could impact the ears in a similar manner, blood vessels in the ears being damaged. But it may also be associated with general health management. A 2015 study that investigated U.S. military veterans highlighted the link between hearing loss and diabetes, but in particular, it found that people with uncontrolled diabetes, in other words, people suffered worse if they had uncontrolled and untreated diabetes. If you are concerned that you might be pre-diabetic or are suffering from undiagnosed diabetes, it’s necessary to talk to a doctor and get your blood sugar evaluated. It’s a smart idea to have your hearing checked if you’re having difficulty hearing also.

2: Falling

You could have a bad fall. It’s not really a health problem, because it isn’t vertigo but it can trigger numerous other complications. And while you might not realize that your hearing would affect your likelihood of tripping or slipping, research from 2012 found a considerable connection between hearing loss and fall risk. While studying over 2,000 adults between the ages of 40 to 69, scientists found that for every 10 dB rise in loss of hearing (for reference, normal breathing is about 10 dB ), the risk of falling increased 1.4X . This relationship held up even for people with mild loss of hearing: Those with 25 dB hearing loss had 3 times the likelihood than those who had normal hearing to have had a fall within the past year.

Why would you fall just because you are having difficulty hearing? There are numerous reasons why hearing issues can lead to a fall aside from the role your ears play in balance. Though the reason for the subject’s falls wasn’t looked at in this study,, it was speculated by the authors that having difficulty hearing what’s around you (and missing a car honking or other significant sounds) might be one problem. But it could also go the other way if difficulty hearing means you’re paying more attention to sounds than to your surroundings, it could be easy to trip and fall. What’s promising here is that dealing with loss of hearing could potentially reduce your risk of suffering a fall.

3: High Blood Pressure

Multiple studies (such as this one from 2018 ) have revealed that hearing loss is associated with high blood pressure and some (including this 2013 study) have established that high blood pressure could actually accelerate age-related hearing loss. Even after controlling for variables including noise exposure or if you smoke, the connection has been pretty consistently discovered. Gender is the only variable that appears to make a difference: If you’re a man, the connection between hearing loss and high blood pressure is even stronger.

Your ears aren’t part of your circulatory system, but they’re darn close to it: along with the countless tiny blood vessels inside your ear, two of the body’s main arteries run right by it. This is one explanation why people who have high blood pressure often experience tinnitus, the pulsing they’re hearing is actually their own blood pumping. (That’s why this kind of tinnitus is called pulsatile tinnitus ; it’s your own pulse your hearing.) But high blood pressure could also possibly be the cause of physical injury to your ears which is the leading theory behind why it would accelerate loss of hearing. If your heart is pumping harder, there’s more force behind each beat. The smaller blood vessels in your ears might possibly be injured by this. lifestyle changes and medical intervention, high blood pressure can be managed. But if you think you’re experiencing hearing loss even if you think you’re not old enough for the age-related stuff, it’s a good decision to schedule an appointment with a hearing expert.

4: Dementia

Danger of dementia could be higher with loss of hearing. A 2013 study from Johns Hopkins University that was documented after nearly 2,000 people in their 70’s during the period of six years found that the risk of mental impairment increased by 24% with only minor loss of hearing (about 25 dB, or slightly louder than a whisper ). 2011 research by the same research group which tracked people over more than a decade found that when the subject’s hearing got worse, the more probably it was that they would get dementia. (They also uncovered a similar link to Alzheimer’s Disease, though a less statistically significant one.) Based on these findings, moderate loss of hearing puts you at three times the danger of someone who doesn’t have hearing loss; severe hearing loss raises the risk by 4 times.

It’s frightening information, but it’s important to note that while the link between loss of hearing and cognitive decline has been well recognized, experts have been less successful at figuring out why the two are so strongly connected. A common theory is that having difficulty hearing can cause people to avoid social interactions , and that social isolation and lack of mental stimulation can be incapacitating. Another theory is that hearing loss short circuits your brain . Essentially, because your brain is putting so much energy into comprehending the sounds around you, you might not have much juice left for recalling things such as where you put your keys. Preserving social ties and keeping the brain active and challenged could help here, but so can dealing with hearing loss . Social scenarios become much more confusing when you are contending to hear what people are saying. So if you are coping with loss of hearing, you need to put a plan of action in place including getting a hearing test.

Have Hearing Aids? Why You Need Frequent Cleans & Checks

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 19:00:00 GMT

You still consult with the eye doctor every year if you have glasses, right? Because your eyes change as time passes. As a matter of fact, no part of your body is static, not your eyes and not, the reality is, your ears aren’t either. That’s the reason why, just like you do with your eyes, it’s important to keep having your ears tested even after you buy a pair of hearing aids.

Unfortunately, many people miss those regular checkups . It’s easy to forget to go in to see your hearing care professional because you’ve been too busy enjoying life. Or it’s possible that your job has been stressful lately. Or it’s possible you’ve simply been so happy with your hearing aids that you haven’t had a reason to go back in. That seems like it should be a good thing, right?

Over time, for people suffering from hearing impairment, it is even more relevant to have even one follow-up consultation. However, lots of people neglect ongoing treatment. According to one survey, only 33% of seniors with hearing aids also used regular hearing services.

After You Have Hearing Aids, Why Would You Need to Get Normal Examinations?

Your hearing is dynamic. It changes over time. It’s important to adjust the hearing aids to resolve those changes. Concerns can be discovered early and your hearing aids can be tweaked accordingly.

And this is not even the only reason why it could be a smart idea to maintain regular consultations with a hearing specialist once you get your hearing aids. Here are a few reasons why you should show up for your hearing exams:

In addition to keeping up with changes in your hearing, it’s important to occasionally get a professional cleaning. We can clean all the small components and keep your hearing in top notch conditions and make sure it’s working at it’s best performance.

The Risk of Not Following up With Regular Check-Ups

The greatest problem, here, is that sooner or later, the hearing aids will quit functioning the way they’re designed to, so you’ll get frustrated with them and stop wearing them altogether. Hearing aids make your all-around health better and also, of course, makes your hearing stronger. You may not recognize it right away, but your hearing could deteriorate quicker if you discontinue wearing your hearing aids. Increased risk of hearing accidents, as well as mental decline, have been connected to hearing loss.

If you want your hearing aids to continue working at the most effective level, frequent exams are going to be your best bet in terms of achieving that. Yearly hearing assessments or screenings can help you make sure your hearing aids are performing as they should and that your hearing remains safeguarded. So call now for an appointment.

Enjoy Music? Safeguard Your Ears With These Suggestions

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Noise-related loss of hearing doesn’t just affect people who work in loud surroundings, like construction workers or heavy metal roadies. It doesn’t even have to be work-related, leisure-related noise exposure can be dangerous, also. What type of exposure are we dealing with? Music, gaming, streaming video or anything else that you would listen to through earbuds or headphones.

You may not think your smartphone or tablet can go that loud. The ordinary pain threshold for human hearing is around 150 db which is well within the range of these devices. This is the volume at which noise begins to literally cause pain in your ears. So what can you do to safeguard against this type of noise-related hearing loss?

The volume level here is important. Listen with the volume at or below 60% for no more than 60 minutes at a stretch (how long you listen for also makes a difference), this is known as the 60/60 rule.

Your Hearing Aids Can be Set up For Listening to Music

If you have hearing aids, you’re more than likely streaming your mobile device right to your hearing aids, so make sure the volume is not too loud or that you’re not trying to drown out other noises with your music. Additionally, ask us about how to best listen to music. If you’re a musician or someone who loves music you might have noticed that most hearing aids are created to sharpen the clarity of voices…not necessarily music. While enjoying music, we can most likely make various adjustments to help improve the sound quality and decrease the feedback.

What Are The Right Headphones For You?

If you don’t own hearing aids, there are lots of choices for purchasing headphones. It might be a matter of personal choice, but there are some things you will want to consider there as well.

Headphones That go Over The Ears

While the foam-covered earpieces that was included with your old Walkman are mostly no longer used, over-the-ear headphones have had a resurgence. Often unexpectedly costly, they feature a large variety of color options and celebrity endorsements, and of course, superior sound quality. And unlike those little foam pads, these cover the whole ear, stopping outside sounds.

Main-stream wisdom is that these are safer than in-ear headphones because the source of the sound is further from your eardrum . But because the speakers are larger they are usually capable of much higher volume. Also, noise-canceling will probably help you ignore the crying baby on your flight, but in other circumstances, it can block sounds you need to hear (such as a honking car). But on the positive side, you won’t need to compete with outside noise so you can listen to your music at lower levels.

Earbuds

The normal earbuds that come with devices like iPhones are much maligned for their poor sound quality, although lots of people still use them because hey, they came with the phone. Moreover, with newer models that don’t have a headphone jack, sticking with Apple’s earbuds can just be easier.

Earbuds also don’t block out noise so the downside is, you have a tendency to turn up the sound level. Again, though it’s often said that earbuds are problematic because you put them into your ear so their speakers are very close to your eardrum, actually volume is the biggest problem.

Earbuds That Block Outside Sound

More comfortable than regular earbuds, models that have a round rubber tip are the choice of many people because they help obstruct outside sound. The rubber molds to the shape of your ear, producing a seal that blocks other sounds from entering. Not to sound like a broken record, but these have the same drawbacks as the other two (volume is the main problem), as well as carrying the same caution as over-the-ear headphones (they can block out warning sounds). Needless to say, these won’t work for you if you wear hearing aids.

Several pairs may need to be evaluated before you find headphones that are correct for you. Depending on what you’re most often using them for talking on the phone, say, versus listening to music, you’ll have unique acoustic requirements. The essential thing is to find headphones that make it comfortable for you to listen at a safe volume.

How to Make Sure Your Hearing is Safeguarded

How can you be sure it’s safe? There’s an app for that…If you have a smartphone, you can download the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s free Sound Level Meter app. You can get different apps, but research has discovered that the accuracy of these other apps is hit-and-miss (also, for unknown reasons, Android-based apps have been shown less precise). That motivated NIOSH to create their own app . The app lets you measure outside sounds, but sounds coming from your device’s speakers can also be measured, this means, the true volume of what’s going to your ears. You have to do a little work, but putting in place these types of protective measures can help protect your hearing.

It’s Possible to Delay Dementia Using Hearing Aids

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Taking care of your hearing loss can be helpful for your brain. At least, that’s according to a new study by a team of researchers from the University of Manchester. Over the period of around 20 years (1996 to 2014), nearly 2000 men and women were examined by these scientists. The unexpected results? Dementia can be delayed by as much as 75% by treating hearing loss.

That’s a substantial number.

But still, it’s not all that surprising. The importance of the finding, of course, is still useful, that kind of statistical correlation between hearing loss treatment and the struggle against dementia is noteworthy and eye-popping. But the insight we already have aligns well with these findings: treating your loss of hearing is vital to slowing cognitive decline as you age.

What Does This Research on Dementia Mean For me?

You can’t always rely on the information presented in scientific research because it can in many cases be contradictory. The reasons for that are long, diverse, and not really that pertinent to our topic here. The main point here is: this new study is yet another piece of evidence that implies untreated hearing loss can lead to or exacerbate mental decline including dementia .

So for you personally, what does this mean? In certain ways, it’s fairly basic: if you’ve been noticing any probable signs of hearing loss, come see us in the near future. And you need to begin using that hearing aid as directed if you discover you require one.

When You Use Them Regularly, Hearing Aids Can Help Forestall Dementia

Regrettably, not everyone falls directly into the habit of using a prescribed pair of hearing aids. The often cited reasons why include:

Clearly using your hearing aids is important to your health and future mental abilities. We can help if you’re trying to cope with any of the above. Working with your hearing expert to make sure your hearing aids are working for you is just part of the process and it requires time and patience.

It’s more significant than ever to treat your hearing loss particularly in the light of the new evidence. Hearing aids are protecting your hearing health and your mental health so it’s essential to take that treatment seriously.

Hearing Aids And Dementia, What’s The Link?

So why are these two conditions dementia and loss of hearing even linked to begin with? Social solitude is the leading theory but scientists are not 100% certain. Many people, when faced with hearing loss, become less socially involved. Another theory has to do with sensory stimulation. Over time, if a person loses sensory stimulation, like hearing loss, the brain receives less activity which then causes cognitive decline.

Your hearing aid allows you to hear better. And that can help keep your brain active, offering a more effective natural safeguard against dementia and cognitive decline. That’s why a link between the two should not be unexpected and why hearing loss treatments can slow dementia by up to 75%.

Being Overweight Can Impact Your Hearing

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 19:00:00 GMT

It’s well known, that over longer periods of time, eating way too much will be harmful to your health. There are a number of health conditions that are connected to obesity. Heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, and you can put hearing on the list, as well. It’s estimated that around 48 million people in the U . S ., approximately 20% of the nation’s population, deal with hearing loss, and in adults it’s virtually twice that number, 93 million, are obese. Throughout the country, these surprising statistics point to a serious health concern.

How Is Being Overweight Related to Loss of Hearing?

Various studies have revealed that hearing loss and being overweight have a relationship. Specifically what that connection is, is still being researched, it’s thought that loss of hearing and obesity have a relationship because of its effect on our circulatory system. Furthermore, hearing loss is connected to diabetes and high blood pressure which are recognized to be connected to being overweight.

Sound in the ear is detected by tiny hairs inside the inner ear. These little hairs, called stereocilia, require a steady blood flow and oxygen to function correctly. Obesity confines the blood flow in the body since, so that it can keep the blood flowing inside the body, the heart must do additional work, which means that there is not enough blood flow available to your ear. This can permanently injure the ears. Heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes impact the inner ear in a similar manner, because all of these diseases adversely effects your blood flow.

Keeping your weight in check is particularly relevant as you age since age-related hearing loss is also related to a high fat mass index. In the past, your body’s metabolism worked faster and more efficiently, which is the reason why you should attempt to form healthy habits when you’re younger and stick with those habits as you age.

Your ears and your general health are benefited by a healthy diet.

Obesity Related Hearing Loss Treatment Options

If your loss of hearing is brought about by obesity, you may never be able to get it back, still, in order to find out how significant your loss of hearing is, it’s necessary to have your ears examined. If the injury is irreversible, you might require a hearing aid or other device to start hearing properly again.

If the damage is only minor, you may want to consult your doctor before your health becomes worse, about developing an exercise and diet plan to minimize the effect your weight has on your well being. Your doctor should recommend a cardio intensive exercise program that will get your blood pumping and enhance your general health. There will be, more than likely, other improvements in your life as well, such as mental health, since regular exercise will lessen depression according to many studies.

How Can You Stop Obesity-Related Hearing Loss?

In order to stop obesity-related loss of hearing consistent exercise and a nutritious diet are extremely important. Keeping your body healthy will also assist in keeping your ears in superior condition. A good place to start is to consult with a nutritionist who can assist you to develop a program that’s customized for you and is focused on assisting you to reach your goals. The task of the nutritionist is to make sure you’re eating the best mixture of nutrients in nutritious foods, foods that are high in iron, for example, since, you guessed it, a lack of iron in your diet can lead to tinnitus and cause hearing loss.

Find out more regarding hearing loss and how you can hear better with the correct treatment method.

Depression is Decreased With Hearing Aids

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 19:00:00 GMT

Did you know that age-related hearing loss impacts roughly one in three U.S. adults between 65 and 74 (and around half of those are over 75)? But in spite of its prevalence, only around 30% of older Americans who suffer from hearing loss have ever had hearing aids (and that figure goes down to 16% for those under 69!). Depending on whose data you look at, there are at least 20 million Americans who suffer from neglected loss of hearing; though some reports put this closer to 30 million .

As people get older, they overlook getting treatment for loss of hearing for a number of reasons. (One study found that just 28% of people even had their hearing tested, though they reported suffering from loss of hearing, and the majority didn’t seek out additional treatment. For some folks, it’s like grey hair or wrinkles, just part of getting older. Hearing loss has long been easy to diagnose, but thanks to the substantial developments that have been accomplished in the technology of hearing aids , it’s also a very manageable condition. Notably, more than just your hearing can be improved by treating loss of hearing, according to a growing body of data.

A recent study from a research group working from Columbia University, links loss of hearing and depression adding to the body of knowledge.
They give each subject an audiometric hearing test and also assess them for signs of depression. After a number of factors are taken into account, the analysts found that the odds of showing clinically substantial signs of depression increased by approximately 45% for every 20-decibel increase in loss of hearing. And to be clear, 20 dB is very little noise. It’s about as loud as rustling leaves and is quieter than a whisper.

It’s surprising that such a little difference in hearing creates such a significant boost in the odds of being affected by depression, but the basic link isn’t a shocker. This new study adds to the considerable established literature linking loss of hearing and depression, like this multi-year analysis from 2000 which found that loss of hearing got worse in relation to a worsening of mental health, or this paper from 2014 that revealed that both individuals who self-reported difficulty hearing and who were found to have loss of hearing based on hearing tests had a considerably higher risk of depression.

The good news is: it isn’t a chemical or biological connection that researchers think exists between hearing loss and depression, it’s social. Normal interactions and social situations are generally avoided due to anxiety over difficulty hearing. Social isolation can be the result, which further feeds into feelings of depression and anxiety. It’s a horrible cycle, but it’s also one that’s easily disrupted.

A wide variety of studies have found that dealing with loss of hearing, typically using hearing aids, can assist to alleviate symptoms of depression. 2014 research investigated data from over 1,000 people in their 70s revealing that individuals who used hearing aids were significantly less more likely to experience symptoms of depression, but because the authors didn’t examine the data over a period of time, they could not pinpoint a cause and effect connection.

Nonetheless, the concept that managing loss of hearing with hearing aids can help the symptoms of depression is backed up by other research that analyzed participants before and after using hearing aids. Even though only a small cross section of people was looked at in this 2011 study, 34 individuals total, the researchers discovered that after only three months with hearing aids, all of them showed significant progress in both depressive symptoms and cognitive functioning. The same outcome was found from even further out by another small scale study from 2012, with every single person six months out from beginning to wear hearing aids, were still experiencing less depression. And in a study from 1992 that looked at a larger cluster of U.S. military veterans suffering from loss of hearing found that a full 12 months after starting to wear hearing aids, the vets were still suffering from fewer symptoms of depression.

Loss of hearing is hard, but you don’t have to experience it by yourself. Get in touch with us for a hearing exam today.

Hearing loss linked to dementia, cognitive decline in elderly

Mon, 06 May 2019 12:31:00 GMT

A new study at Johns Hopkins has found a troubling link between hearing loss and dementia, as well as accelerated cognitive decline in older adults.

The Hearing Rehabilitation Center (in Steger and Kankakee) has found that by comparing individuals who have normal hearing, people with hearing loss had a 24 percent increased risk for incident cognitive impairment, and a 30 to 40 percent accelerated rate of cognitive decline. Older adults with hearing loss are more likely to develop problems thinking and remembering than those whose hearing is normal. Put another way, it would take only 7.7 years for people with hearing loss to lose five points on the Modified Mental State Exam, compared with 10.9 years for those with normal hearing.

In the Archives of Neurology, research found that rates of cognitive decline were linearly associated with the severity of an individual’s degree of hearing loss and risk for dementia. People with mild hearing loss had a two- fold greater rate of dementia; moderate hearing loss had a three-fold increased rate, and severe hearing loss brought with it a five-fold elevation in dementia risk. Dr. Frank Lin of Johns Hopkins said, “The greater your amount of hearing loss, the faster your rate of cognitive decline.”

Methodology

“People think that hearing loss in older adults is an inconsequential part of getting older,” said Dr. Lin. But hearing loss has very real consequences and could lead to cognitive decline. Identifying factors that are associated with dementia are important, especially those that are modifiable. Although associating the rate of cognitive decline and hearing aid use is difficult, Dr. Lin is convinced that addressing hearing loss could have an impact greater than just improving quality of life.

Hearing loss affects over 30 million Americans age 50 and up, but only 15 percent of those sufferers use hearing aids. Millions of hearing-impaired older adults are more likely to suffer early memory and thinking problems than adults without hearing loss. About 7 million people in the United States have some form of dementia, and numbers are expected to double every 20 years.

Dr. Lin’s Health ABC study in JAMA Internal Medicine, supported by the National Institute of Health, followed nearly 2,000 adults ages 70-79 in an 11 year prospective fashion. All participants had normal brain function when the study began. They were given two brain tests at the start, focusing on word memorization, following commands, answering questions about year, date, and time, and the amount of time it took to match numbers to symbols. Cognitive tests and hearing tests were repeated three more times to gauge decline.

Decline was statistically significant in the hearing impaired, compared with people with normal hearing, Lin said.Those who suffered hearing loss took 7.7 years to show mental decline, versus 10.9 years for those with healthy hearing.

Dr. ArtWingfield, of Brandeis University, also showed that mild to moderate hearing loss can undermine the cognitive resources of “otherwise healthy young adults” as well as older ones.

Results

Dr. Lin indicates that the link between hearing and cognitive skills “is a call for alertness to a public health issue that has received less attention than it should.”

There may also be a significant association between the use of hearing aids and a lower risk for incident cognitive impairment. Dr. Lin believes hearing technology allows older adults to communicate more effectively and this “is a bit of a game changer in terms of how well they engage in their life.”

Hearing loss leads to communication difficulties that result in social isolation (one of the risk factors for dementia,) which is a possible explanation for the cognitive decline. Another explanation is underlying brain damage that leads to both hearing and cognitive decline and dementia.

Hearing loss is “complex” and the use of hearing aids, functionally and preventively, in a comprehensive

audiological counseling and rehabilitation program is vital. Depriving sensory input to the brain deprives it of auditory information, which may similarly be reflected in long-term changes in brain function.

Hearing loss has an important role to play in how people fare as they grow older.

For more information call The Hearing Rehabilitation Center, with offices in Steger and Kankakee, at 815-214-9981.

Diabetes & Other Health Conditions That Can Cause Hearing Loss

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 18:43:00 GMT

Studies show that people with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer from hearing loss, according to the American Diabetes Association. That might surprise those of you who automatically associate hearing loss with aging or noise trauma. In 2010, 1.9 million people were diagnosed with diabetes and close to 500,000 of them were under the age of 44. Evidence shows that 250,000 of those younger people with the disease likely suffer from some form on hearing loss.

The point is that diabetes is just one in many diseases that can cost a person their hearing. Aging is a significant factor both in illness and hearing loss but what is the connection between these disorders and ear health? Consider some diseases that can lead to hearing loss.

Diabetes

It is unclear why people with diabetes have a higher incidence of hearing loss or even if diabetes is related to hearing loss, but the clinical evidence does point in that direction. People with prediabetes, a condition that indicates they may develop type 2 diabetes, tend to lose their hearing 30 percent faster than those with normal blood sugar levels.

While researchers don’t have a definitive answer as to why this happens, there are some theories. It is possible that high glucose levels might cause damage to the blood vessels that feed the inner ear. Diabetes is known to affect circulation, so that is a reasonable assumption.

Meningitis

Hearing loss is a symptom of this infectious disease. Meningitis by definition is inflammation of the membranes that cover the spinal cord and brain, usually due to infection. Studies show that 30 percent of people who develop this condition will also lose their hearing, either in part or in full. This infection is the second most common cause of hearing loss among American young people.

Meningitis has the potential to damage the delicate nerves that allow the inner ear to send signals to the brain. Without these signals, the brain has no way of interpreting sound.

Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease is an umbrella term that covers conditions that affect the heart or blood vessels. Some common diseases in this category include:

Typically, cardiovascular diseases tend to be linked to age-related hearing loss. The inner ear is susceptible to damage. When there is a change in blood flow, it may not get the oxygen and nutrients it needs to thrive, and damage to the inner ear then leads to hearing loss.

Chronic Kidney Disease

A 2012 study published in The Laryngoscope found that people with this condition also had an increased risk of hearing loss. A seperate study found that chance to be as high as 43 percent . It is possible that this connection is a coincidence, though. Kidney disease and other conditions associated with high blood pressure or diabetes have many of the same risk factors.

Another theory is that the toxins that build up in the blood as a result of the kidney failure might be to blame. These toxins could damage the nerves in the inner ear, closing the connection it has with the brain.

Dementia

The connection between hearing loss and dementia is a two-way street. There is the indication that cognitive impairment increases a person’s risk of developing conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia occurs due to brain atrophy and shrinkage. Difficulty hearing can accelerate that process.

The flip side of the coin is true, as well. A person who develops dementia even though there is normal hearing will show a decline in their hearing as damage to the brain increases.

Mumps

Mumps is a viral infection that can cause children to lose their hearing early in life. The reduction in hearing might be only on one side or it might affect both ears. The reason this happens is the virus damages the cochlea in the inner ear. It’s the part of the ear that sends messages to the brain. The good news is mumps is pretty rare these days due to vaccinations. Not everyone who has the mumps will experience hearing loss.

Chronic Ear Infections

For most people, the occasional ear infection is not much of a risk as treatment clears it up. For some, though, infection after infection takes a toll on the tiny pieces that are necessary for hearing such as the eardrum or the small bones in the middle ear. This form of hearing loss is called conductive, and it means that sound cannot reach the inner ear with enough force, so no messages are sent to the brain. Infections can also lead to a sensorineural hearing loss, which means nerve damage.

Prevention is the key to avoiding many of the diseases that can cost you your hearing. A healthy diet, plenty of exercise and regular sleep habits will go a long way to protecting your ear health throughout your life.

Beware: The Common Cold Can Damage Your Hearing

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 18:39:00 GMT

The American Lung Association reports that the average adult gets up to four colds a year . While colds are usually minor viral infections, that’s a lot. Whether the virus attacks the sinuses, throat or respiratory system, it can lead to ear congestion, and ultimately, an ear infection.

Although many people consider colds harmless, there are some symptoms you should never ignore. Researchers have finally confirmed the suspected link between ear infections and the common cold. This is a significant finding, because ear infections are a major contributing factor in the disturbing rise in antibiotic resistance .

Symptoms You Should Never Ignore

Because your sinuses and ears are connected, it’s not uncommon to feel congested in your ears when you’re experiencing a cold. Typically this feeling comes and goes, especially if you’re taking a decongestant and your head is draining fluids. But congestion can develop into an ear infection in just a few hours. This is why you should always seek professional assistance if you experience any pain or unusual discharge in your ear.

Pain is a sign that your cold is moving in the wrong direction and can be an indication of inflammation or infection. If caught early, you can get a prescription for antibiotics and prevent permanent damage. If it’s ignored, it can lead to scarring on the the eardrum and possibly damage to the cilia from inflammation.

How serious is this? A cold will usually only cause temporary issues with your hearing. Damage to your eardrum or cilia, however, can lead to permanent hearing loss…which can lead to other health issues.

Hearing Loss Can Harm Your Overall Health

Hearing loss has been linked to other health issues, from loss of cognitive ability to depression to an increase in accidents. Researchers have recently shown a link between hearing loss and increased healthcare costs. In fact, in just 10 years, untreated hearing loss can raise your healthcare costs by 46% .

Hearing loss can also increase your likelihood of requiring hospitalization by 50% ….and also increase the likelihood of being readmitted

Even minor damage can add up–Johns Hopkins found that just having mild hearing loss can double your chances of getting dementia . Consider the fact that every time you have an ear infection it can cause scarring that leads to significant hearing loss over time.

Suffering from Pain for Days?

Have you already ignored ear pain for days? It’s a common mistake, but seek treatment right away. There’s a reason most health insurance companies consider ear pain or signs of an ear infection an emergency. It’s important to get your ear evaluated if you had any pain over the course of your cold or are still having trouble hearing after your cold has cleared. A professional evaluation can determine whether:

A professional evaluation can also make sure there are no obstructions in the ear that might cause discomfort or temporary hearing loss.

Ear pain or prolonged hearing loss are sure signs that you need to see a professional. Schedule an appointment today.

Why Is the Ringing in My Ears Worse Today?

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 18:39:00 GMT

You have good days, and you have bad days, that’s par for the course for those with tinnitus but why? Tinnitus is the medical name for ringing in the ears, a condition more than 45 million Americans experience, according to the American Tinnitus Association , and 90 percent of them also have some degree of hearing loss.

None of that explains why the ringing is intrusive some days and almost non-existent on others. It is not entirely clear why this happens, but some common triggers might explain it.

What Is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus describes a condition where the patient hears phantom noises such as:

You hear it, the guy sitting next to you doesn’t, which is part of what makes tinnitus so disturbing. The noise can vary in pitch and volume, too. One day it might be a roar and the next day be gone completely.

There are two kinds of tinnitus:

What Causes Tinnitus?

Changes in a person’s hearing are the most common cause. These changes might be due to:

There are other possible causes, as well, such as:

For a small percentage of people, there is no apparent reason for them to have tinnitus.

If your tinnitus is new, see your doctor and find out what is going on with your ears. The problem might be something treatable or even a symptom of a life-threatening condition like high blood pressure or heart disease. It might also be a side effect of a new medication.

Why Does the Ringing Get Worse on Some Days?

It’s a bit of a medical mystery as to why some days are worse than other for those with tinnitus. The reason might be different for each person, too. There are common triggers that might explain it, though.

Loud Events

Loud events like concerts, club music, and fireworks are enough to aggravate your tinnitus. The best option is to wear hearing protection if you expect a lot of noise. They make earplugs, for example, that will allow you to enjoy music at a concert but reduce the effect it has on your ears.

You can also stay away from the source of the sound. For example, don’t stand next to the speakers at a concert or up front at a fireworks display. Combined with hearing protection, this could reduce the effect.

Loud Noises at Home

Stuff around the house can be just an aggravating as a loud concert. For instance, mowing the lawn is enough to trigger tinnitus. Consider other things you do at home that might be the problem:

If there are things you can’t or don’t want to avoid like woodworking, wear hearing protection.

Workplace Noise

Loud noises on the job have the same effect as a concert or the lawnmower. It’s especially important to wear hearing protection if you work in construction or are around machines. Talk to your employer about your ear health; they might provide the hearing protection you need. Spend your off time letting your ears rest, too.

Changes in Air Pressure

Most people have experienced ear popping when they fly. The shift in pressure combined with the noise from the plane engines can lead to an increase in tinnitus. If you are traveling, take some gum with you to help equalize the air pressure and consider hearing protection.

You can experience changes in pressure without leaving your home, as well. If you have sinus problems, for example, consider taking medication to help relieve them.

Medication

Speaking of medication, that might also be the problem. Certain drugs are ototoxic, meaning they affect the ears. Some common medications on the list include:

Talk to your doctor if you experience a worsening of tinnitus after you start taking a new prescription. Switching to something else might be possible.

Tinnitus is an annoyance for some people, but for others, it can be disabling. The first step is to find out why you have it and then look at ways to control it from day to day.

6 Tricks to Make Hearing Aid Batteries Last

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 18:58:00 GMT

The key to making hearing aids cost effective lies in just one component–the batteries. The cost of replacing them adds up quickly and that makes it one of the biggest financial considerations when buying hearing aids.

Usually the batteries die at the worst time which is even more distressing. This is a big problem even for rechargeable brands.

There are things you can do to extend the life of the batteries in hearing aids, so you don’t have to stop and replace them several times every week. Make the batteries last just a little bit longer by thinking about these 6 simple ideas.

1. Be a Smart Hearing Aid Consumer

When you first start to shop for your hearing aids is when it all starts. Quality of brand and hearing aid features are just a couple of the factors which dictate battery life. Not all batteries are created equally, either. Some cheaper hearing products have low quality components that work with cheaper cell batteries. Make sure you talk this over this with your hearing care specialist because you will be changing out the batteries a lot.

Make some comparisons as you shop and, also, consider what features are crucial for you. Wireless versions have batteries that die twice as fast as models with wires. And the larger hearing aids have longer lasting batteries. The smaller devices require new batteries every couple of days, but larger units can go for around two weeks on one set of cells. Understand how all of the features of a hearing aid impact the power consumption and then select the ones you need.

2. The Hearing Aids Need to be Stored Properly

To avoid drainage of power you will normally have to open the battery door at night. Also, you will want to:

A dry, cool place is where you should store the batteries. Batteries are adversely impacted by heat and moisture. The most important thing is to keep them away from heat sources like light bulbs. Room temperature is okay.

Also, a dehumidifier is a smart consideration. Both the batteries and the hearing aid itself are protected in this way. Moisture in the air is brutal on their delicate components.

3. Take Precautions When Changing the Batteries

Be certain your hands are dry and clean. Moisture, grease, and dirt all affect battery life. Don’t forget to keep the plastic tab in place until you are ready to use the new batteries, too. In order to power on, current hearing aid batteries mix zinc with air. But you want to be ready before that happens.

After you pull the tab, but before you use them, it’s smart to allow to them sit out for 5 minutes. The battery could be prolonged by days if you do this.

4. Play Around With Different Batteries and Battery Sources

Quality batteries will last longer than cheap ones, obviously. Don’t just think of the brand, though, but what types of hearing aid batteries you’re using and also where you purchase them. If you buy in bulk, you can get good batteries for less at some big box stores.

If you buy them online, especially from auction sites such as eBay, be careful. Batteries have sell-by and expiration dates. After they expire, they shouldn’t be used.

Ask your hearing specialist for advice on where to find batteries at affordable prices.

5. Be Ready For The Inevitable

The batteries are going to quit eventually. If you don’t want to find yourself in a difficult situation, it’s helpful to get an idea when this will happen. Make a schedule of when you change the batteries and when they fizzle. You’ll get an idea of when you need to change them over time.

In order to help you figure out what features have the biggest affect on the battery and which brand batteries are best for your device, keep a diary.

6. What Are the Alternatives to Batteries

Some current day hearing aids are rechargeable and that is one of the best features. You could pay a little more for those units, but it will be worth it if you can save money on batteries. Rechargeable batteries are likely the best choice if you need a lot of features like Bluetooth or wireless.

Hearing aids are a significant investment but so are the batteries that you need to make them work. A small amount of due diligence goes a long way to lengthening the life of those batteries and saving you cash. Contact a hearing aid retailer for some information on what option is best for you.

Untreated Hearing Loss Raises Healthcare Expenses More Than 40%

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 15:11:00 GMT

For years, experts have been considering the effect hearing loss has on a person’s health. Finding out what untreated hearing loss can do to your healthcare spending is the aim of a new study. As the expense of healthcare keeps rising, the medical profession and consumers are searching for ways to lower these expenses. A study put out on November 8, 2018, says a solution as simple as taking care of your hearing loss can make a significant difference.

How Hearing Loss Affects Health

There are hidden risks with untreated hearing loss, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine . Researchers spent 12 years following adults with anywhere from minor to severe hearing loss and found it had a significant effect on brain health. For example:

The study shows that the brain atrophies at a faster rate when a person has hearing loss. The brain has to work harder to do things such as maintaining balance, and that puts stress on it that can lead to injury.

Poor hearing has an impact on quality of life, too. A person who doesn’t hear very well is more likely to feel anxiety and stress. Depression is also more common. Higher medical costs are the result of all of these issues.

The Newest Study

The newest study published November in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that it becomes a budget breaker if you decide not to address your loss of hearing. The University of California San Fransisco, Johns Hopkins with AARP, and Optum Labs also led this study.

77,000 to 150,000 patients with untreated hearing loss were analyzed. Individuals with normal hearing created 26 percent less health care expenses compared to people who were recently diagnosed with hearing loss.

That amount continues to increase over time. After ten years, healthcare expenses go up by 46 percent. When you break those numbers down, they add up to an average of $22,434 per person.

The study lists factors associated with the increase like:

A connection between untreated hearing loss and a higher rate of mortality is suggested by a second study done by the Bloomberg School. Some other findings from this study are:

Those numbers match with the study by Johns Hopkins.

Hearing Loss is on the Rise

According to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders :

For those aged 64 to 74 the number goes up to 25 percent and for someone over 74 it goes up to 50 percent. In the future, those numbers are predicted to rise. By the year 2060, as many as 38 million people in this country may have hearing loss.

The research doesn’t mention how using hearing aids can change these figures, though. What is recognized is that some health problems linked to hearing loss can be decreased by wearing hearing aids. To discover whether using hearing aids lessens the cost of healthcare, additional research is needed. There are more benefits to wearing them than not, undoubtedly. To find out if hearing aids would benefit you, make an appointment with a hearing care professional right away.

Why Does The Ringing in my Ears Come And go?

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 15:24:00 GMT

You have good days, and you have bad days, that’s normal for people who have tinnitus but why? More than 45 million Americans suffer from ringing in their ears from a condition called tinnitus, according to the American Tinnitus Association , and that’s accompanied by hearing loss by around 90 percent of them.

But what is hard to understand is why it’s nearly non-existent on some days and on others the ringing is so invasive. It is not entirely clear why this happens, but some common triggers may explain it.

What Is Tinnitus?

The following phantom noises are heard by people who suffer from tinnitus:

You hear it, the person sitting next to you can’t, which is one thing that makes tinnitus so disturbing. The noise can vary in pitch and volume, too. One day it may be a roar and the next day be gone completely.

What is The Cause of Tinnitus?

Alterations in a person’s hearing are the most prevalent cause. These changes might be due to:

A few other potential causes include:

Sometimes there is no apparent explanation for tinnitus.

If your tinnitus has just started, consult your doctor to find out what is going on with your ears. The problem could be a symptom of a life threatening condition like heart disease or it could be something treatable. It could also be a side effect of a new medication.

For some reason the ringing gets worse on some days.

The explanation for why tinnitus is more severe on some days is somewhat of a medical mystery. And there may be more than one reason depending on the person. However, there might be some common triggers.

Loud Events

Loud events such as concerts, club music, and fireworks are enough to irritate your tinnitus. If you expect to be exposed to loud noise, your best choice is to wear ear protection. They make earplugs, for example, that will allow you to enjoy music at a concert but reduce the impact it has on your hearing.

You can also stay away from the source of the sound. For instance, don’t stand right beside the speakers when attending a concert or up front at a fireworks show. Combined with hearing protection, this could reduce the effect.

Loud Noises at Home

Things around the house can be equally as harmful as a loud concert. For example, mowing the lawn is enough to induce tinnitus. Consider other things you do at home that may be a problem:

If there are things you can’t or aren’t willing to avoid like woodworking, wear hearing protection.

Workplace Noise

Loud noises at work have the same effect as a concert or the lawnmower. If you work near machinery or in construction it’s particularly crucial to use ear protection. Your employer will most likely provide hearing protection if you inform them of your worries. Let your ears rest during your off time.

Changes in Air Pressure

Many people have experienced ear popping when they fly. An increase in tinnitus can happen because of the noise of the plane engine and the shift in pressure. If you are traveling, take some gum with you to help neutralize the air pressure and consider ear protection.

Changes in air pressure occur everywhere not only on a plane. Taking the correct medication to relieve sinus pressure is also helpful.

Medication

Speaking of medication, that might also be the problem. Some drugs impact the ears and are known as ototoxic. Some prevalent drugs on the list include:

Consult your doctor if you experience an intensifying of tinnitus after you begin taking a new medication. It might be possible to change to something else.

Tinnitus is an irritation for some people, but for others, it can be disabling. The first step is to figure out what’s causing it and then look at ways to keep it under control from day to day.