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One of the greatest advances in helping individuals with hearing loss is hearing dogs. While dogs for guiding people who are blind have been around for many years, it is only in the last decade that hearing dogs have emerged as a means to help individuals get through their daily life. As a result, many Labradors and Retrievers have been trained with the sole purpose of helping people who having hearing loss. We will take a look at the ways that they can help their partners as well as the training methods that produce these animals.

Pet Requirements

Of course, when it comes to training these hearing dogs there are some rules and regulations that you must follow. First, you must be at least 18 years old and have the ability to show that you have a home that is capable of sustaining a dog. Then you must also furnish a friend or another person who can help you with all of the in-home training that must occur before you get the dog. Once you file the application you must attend canine training and then annual training if you are successful in obtaining one of these dogs.

Training

The training program that is required by the dogs is done in an intense period of four or six months depending on the dog’s temperament. They can be trained to help in all aspects of someone’s life by being trained to identify and respond to many sounds. These usually include a door knock, smoke alarms, and microwaves going off. After being placed for a time, these pets can pick up additional sounds that are specific to one’s daily life.

How They Help Individuals

After the dog has been placed with their hearing partner, they still need to have some personalized care training to make sure they both are a good fit for one another. With the initial training complete, there are many services that the dogs can help individuals with, allowing them to have greater independence in their lives. They can communicate situations that occur inside the house as well as on the street.One of the best examples of this happening is when you are walking you hearing dog and they hear an alarm from an ambulance. While they are not trained to identify this sound, the change in their body language will clue you into the fact that something has changed. This happens quite often when a hearing dog is placed with an individual: they change their behavior to modify it for your life, and you will begin to see the small changes in temperament that let you know that there is an occurrence.

One of the facets of health that people often forget is that hearing is tied to the overall function of the body. As such, there have been many studies that have sought to link the certain body conditions with the ability to hear. One of the results found that there are certain unhealthy habits in which people participate that can cause long term harm to your hearing abilities. We will take a look at this specific habits and the damage that they can do to your health.

Smoking Cigarettes

One of the greatest unhealthy habits that harm people’s hearing is smoking. Aside from causing cancer as well as heart disease, smoking has a potent, negative effect on your hearing health. The chemicals that are released into the bloodstream can cause the dulling of receptors that are responsible for hearing low pitch sounds. This damage is acute and is only reversible in some cases.

Sedentary Lifestyle

Another one of the unhealthy habits that can harm you hearing is living a sedentary lifestyle. This is defined as eating food that has bad nutritional value and getting no meaningful exercise. This puts a person at a much higher risk for diabetes and heart disease, both of which can cause circulation problems. With poor circulation, the brain and ears can be deprived of oxygen and nutrients that are needed to maintain proper hearing.

Listening To Music On MP3

Everyone likes to use an MP3 player to get them through a boring walk or an exercise program. However, there are certain risks that are posed by using one of these devices. Primarily, the headphones that are coupled with these music players channel sound directly into the inner ear, where loud noises can cause damage. This often leads to chronic hearing problems and symptoms such as tinnitus.

Hearing Many Loud Noises

One of the other unhealthy habits that can lead to hearing loss is by exposing yourself to too many loud noises. This will happen throughout your everyday life, whether it is hearing a car start up or engines starting over and over. Over time, these noises can cause damage to the inner ear and affect your hearing in chronic, acute, but typically non-severe ways.

Failing To Visit Your Doctor

The most important thing that an adult can do is to make time to see their doctor for regular checkups. They will be able to track any changes in your hearing over time and then give you options for treatment if anything changes. You will also be able to get advice from them concerning ways to keep your body healthy as well.

Acute external otitis is an infection of the outer ear canal – the portion outside your eardrum. More people recognize it by its common name – swimmer’s ear. It was named “swimmer’s ear” because it’s often a result of water staying in the outer ear following swimming, which provides a moist environment that promotes microbial growth. But water is not the only culprit. Acute external otitis can also be attributable to harming the delicate skin lining the ear canal by placing fingertips, cotton swabs or other objects in the ear. Thankfully swimmer’s ear is easily cured. If left untreated, swimmer’s ear can cause severe complications so it is essential to recognize the symptoms of the infection.When the ear’s innate protection mechanisms are overwhelmed, the result can be swimmer’s ear. Moisture in the ears, sensitivity reactions, and scrapes to the lining of the ear canal can all promote the growth of bacteria, and cause infection. Activities that raise your likelihood of developing swimmer’s ear include swimming (especially in untreated water such as that found in lakes), aggressive cleaning of the ear canal with cotton swabs, use of in-ear devices such as “ear buds” or hearing aids, and allergies.Mild symptoms of swimmer’s ear include itching inside the ear, minor discomfort or pain made worse by tugging on the ear, redness, and a colorless fluid draining from the ear. In more moderate cases, these problems may progress to more severe itching, pain, and discharge of pus. Extreme cases of swimmer’s ear are accompanied by symptoms such as fever, severe pain which may radiate into other parts of the head, neck and face, swelling redness of the outer ear or lymph nodes, and possibly blockage of the ear canal. If left untreated, complications from swimmer’s ear can be quite serious. Complications may include temporary hearing loss, long-term ear infections, deep tissue infections which may spread to other parts of the body, and cartilage or bone loss. Therefore, if you have experienced any of these signs or symptoms, even if minor, see your health care provider.During your appointment, the doctor will look for signs of swimmer’s ear with an otoscope, which allows them to look deep into your ear canal. Doctors will also make sure that your eardrum has not been damaged or ruptured. Doctors usually treat swimmer’s ear first by cleaning the ears thoroughly, and then by prescribing eardrops to remove the infection. If the infection has become extensive or serious, the physician may also prescribe antibiotics taken orally.To protect yourself from swimmer’s ear, dry your ears completely after swimming or showering, avoid swimming in untreated water resources, and don’t insert foreign objects into your ears to clean them.

Among the sometimes bothersome things about being a hearing care specialistis that a lot of the conditions we deal with which have caused our patients to lose their hearing can’t be reversed. For example, one of the most common causes of hearing loss is damage to the very small, sensitive hair cells that line the inner ear and vibrate in response to sound. What we think of as hearing are the translations of these vibrations into electrical impulses which are sent to and interpreted in the brain.These hair cell structures have to be very small and sensitive to do their jobs correctly. It is precisely because they are very small and sensitive that they are also easily damaged. The hair cells of the inner ear can become damaged as a result of exposure to loud sounds (causing noise-induced hearing loss, or NIHL), by certain medications, by infections, and by aging. In humans, once these hair cells have become damaged or destroyed, they can’t be regenerated or “fixed.” As a result, hearing professionals and audiologists have to treat hearing loss technologically, using hearing aids or cochlear implants.Things would be a lot less complicated if we humans were more like fish and chickens. That may seem like an odd statement, but it’s true, because – unlike humans – some fish and birds can regenerate the hair cells in their inner ears, and thus regain their hearing once it has become lost. For reasons that are not fully understood, zebra fish and chickens(to name just two such species) have the ability to spontaneously replicate and replace damaged hair cells, and thus attain full functional recovery from hearing loss.Bearing in mind that this research is preliminary and has as yet produced no proven benefits for humans, some hope for the treatment of hearing loss comes from research called the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP). The non-profit organization, Hearing Health Foundation, is currently conducting research at laboratories in the United States and Canada What the HRP scientists are attempting to do is isolate the compounds that allow this replication and regeneration in animals, with the ultimate goal of discovering some way of stimulating similar regeneration of hair cells in humans.Because there are so many distinct compounds mixed up in regeneration process – some that assist in replication, some that impede it – the scientists’ work is slow and challenging. But their hope is that if they can isolate the compounds that enable this regeneration process to happen in avian and fish cochlea, they can find a way to stimulate it to happen in human cochlea. The scientists in the various HRP laboratories are following different approaches to the problem, some pursuing gene therapies, others working on the use of stem cells, yet all share the same goal.Our entire team extends to them our best wishes and hopes for their success, because absolutely nothing would thrill us more than being able to completely heal our clients’ hearing loss.

Making purchases on the internet is not only an easy way to buy things, but it the convenience of it is unmatched. Whether you are looking to acquire toys, phones, or even furniture, you can find almost anything you are looking for online. The biggest drawback to this is that people abuse the convenience of online shopping by purchasing remedies and medicines without any information about how they work or what they do. This convenience has led to an increasing number of consumers purchasing hearing aids online, most of which are low quality knock offs. Here we will discuss many reasons why you need to consult a professional for your hearing aid needs.

Your Doctor Can Save You Money

When you purchase a hearing aid online, you remove the most important part of finding a solution for your hearing issues, which is the diagnosis. You can experience hearing problems from a wide variety of issues including curable events such as an infection or ear wax buildup. By purchasing a hearing aid online you could potentially put out a ton of money for a product you may not need in the first place. Visiting your doctor for a hearing exam can prevent this from happening.

Quality Matters

When it comes to quality, purchasing a hearing aid online is not a good idea since you do not know exactly what you will be receiving. Hearing aids are a sensitive technology that requires proper adjustments. When you purchase one online, you run the risk of receiving a low quality hearing aid, or a simple sound amplifying device that will do very little to help you with the underlying hearing problem.

Hearing Aids Should Fit Comfortably

It is important that a hearing aid is comfortable and form fitting. A doctor will match you with a custom fit hearing aid solution that will ensure that it first comfortably and is sized properly. Most online sites sell hearing aid products that are supposed to fit everyone and can be painful to wear.

Specialty Hearing Needs Are Not Found Online

A doctor will run a battery of tests to determine what your exact hearing needs are. These tests will show if you have a specific deficiency or weakness in your hearing, as well as determine if you have a problem with certain frequencies. This gives you the advantage of having a professional to customize and adjust your hearing aid to compensate for your hearing loss. When you purchase one on the internet, you give up the option of having a custom hearing aid made for your specific needs, and are without the option to have your hearing aid adjusted if necessary. This means you will be given a product that makes things seem a little better, but does nothing to help your underlying hearing problems.

“Should I replace or repair an older hearing aid?” is among the more common questions we are asked. The truthful answer needs to be, “It depends.” Choosing between replace or repair does not have a one perfect answer. It really depends upon the situation and the tastes of the individual asking the question.The first thing to take into account is that all hearing aids – irrespective of how high-end they were or how well they were made – will occasionally begin to perform less well, or fail. They operate, after all, in an atmosphere (your ear canals) that is inhospitable to them because it contains moisture and ear wax. Ear wax is natural and essential because it safeguards the delicate lining of the outer ear, but it can be hard on hearing aids; water that is left in the ears after showering or swimming can be even tougher on them. Additionally, there is always the possibility of breakage from an accident or dropping the hearing aids, and the internal tubing and other components inevitably break down over time, so after a few years you can expect your aids needing repair or replacement.Likely the major factor you should think about when making the “repair or replace” decision is how you feel about your current hearing aids – do you like them, and the sound quality they deliver? If you like them and are accustomed to the sound that they generate or really like how they fit, repair may be the better option for you.Cost is obviously another major consideration. While new hearing aids may cost thousands of dollars, repairing your existing hearing aids may be possible for a few hundred. Balancing this, however, many people have insurance that will fully or partly cover the cost of new hearing aids, but that won’t pay for repairing them.If you choose to pursue a repair, the next normal question is “Should I return them to where I purchased them?”While online advertisers will try to position your hometown hearing professional as just a middle-man, that’s not accurate. There are several benefits of staying nearby. Your local audiologist will be able to establish if repairs are genuinely necessary, may be able to make minor repairs on their own, or have relationships with local tradesmen that work on your brand of hearing aid so you will reduce the length of time you are without it.For hearing aids which do need lab or manufacturer repairs, the clinic will coordinate all the paperwork for you. Don’t assume the price will be higher for these value-added services, because hearing professionals work with repair labs in larger volumes.More options are open to those who decide to replace their existing hearing aids. You’ll want to be open to new styles and technology understanding that anything different takes getting accustomed to. Newer hearing aids are more compact and provide superior programability to obtain the sound quality you prefer. So the decision whether to “replace or repair” is still yours, but hopefully this advice will assist you.

Summer is one of the most beloved times of year. In no other season is there such a desire to be outside in the warm summer air with your family and friends. With so many nice sports and attractions to go through during the season, it is hard to imagine that these common summer sounds can cause hearing loss. Here we will take a look at the most dangerous noises that occur during summer and how you can save your hearing from them.

Fireworks

One of the best ways to celebrate the summer months is by kicking back and enjoying the sites of some fireworks. While these are usually reserved for town celebrations or for holidays, they are always a welcome sight. However, each explosion can produce an ear-ripping 150 decibels of sound. The average human beings pain threshold is around 85 decibels, which is also the point where damage begins occurring.

Machine Noises

Another one of the most common summer sounds that can cause hearing loss comes from machines being used to manicure lawns. From a lawn mower roaring in the morning, to weed whackers and edgers being used by landscapers, each machine can produce a mind numbing amount of noise. Hearing damage from this source is not acute in most cases, rather, it is a culmination of long term exposure.

Sports Events

Perhaps the best part about summer is taking in a good sporting event and relaxing with the family. While a soccer match is not going to harm your hearing, a motorsport can produce decibel levels that are high enough to cause discomfort and damage. Long term exposure to the roar of an engine can cause permanent hearing impairment, though it will not usually present symptoms for years.

Musical Concerts

Going to an all-day musical festival is one of the defining experiences of many youths. The ear thumping bass of a speaker that is made to reach the back of an arena will not do your hearing any favors, though. In fact, it can lead to acute and long term hearing loss as well as temporary deafness depending on how long you are exposed to the loud noises.

Saving Your Hearing

One of the best ways that you can go about protecting your level of hearing is through wearing earplugs. These plugs provide a physical barrier between the sound and your eardrums, preventing the high levels of decibels from harming your ears.

The other simple way to prevent hearing loss from common summer sounds is to expose yourself to fewer activities which can harm your hearing. For example, do not stay for an entire sporting event, and get seats far away from a fireworks display.

If you suffer from some form of hearing loss, do you ever find that listening to people talk is work, and that you need to try really hard to understand what people say? You are not alone. The sensation that listening and understanding is tiring work is common among individuals with hearing impairment – even those that use hearing aids.Regrettably, the repercussions of this sensation may not be restricted to loss of hearing function; it may also be connected to loss of cognitive abilities. In recent studies, researchers have found that hearing loss substantially increases your chances of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s.One of these research studies, from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, followed 639 individuals between the ages of 36 and 90, for a total of 16 years. At the end of the research, scientists found that 58 people (9 percent) had been diagnosed as suffering from dementia, and that 37 of them (5.8%) had developed Alzheimer’s disease. The level of hearing loss was positively correlated with the probability of developing either disorder. For every ten decibel further hearing loss, the risk of developing dementia went up by 20%.A separate research study of 1,984 people, also 16 years in duration, showed comparable results linking dementia and hearing loss. In this second study, investigators also found decline of cognitive capabilities among the hearing-impaired over the course of the study. The hearing-impaired participants developed reduced thinking capacity and memory loss 40 percent faster than individuals with normal hearing. An even more startling conclusion in each of the two studies was that the connection between hearing loss and dementia held true even if the individuals used hearing aids.The link between hearing loss and loss of cognitive functions is an open area of research, but scientists have offered a few hypotheses to explain the results observed to date. Scientists have coined the term cognitive overload in association with one particular hypothesis. Some believe that if you are hearing impaired, your brain tires itself out so much just trying to hear that it has a diminished capacity to understand what is being said. Maintaining a two-way conversation requires understanding. A lack of understanding causes interactions to break down and may result in social isolation. A second theory is that neither hearing loss nor dementia is the cause of the other, but that both are caused by an unknown mechanism that could be environmental, vascular or genetic.Although these study results are a little depressing, there is hope to be found in them. If you use hearing aids, visit your audiologist on a regular basis to keep them fitted, adjusted, and programmed correctly, so that you’re not straining to hear. If you don’t have to work as hard to hear, you have greater cognitive power to comprehend what is being said, and remember it. Also, if the 2 symptoms are connected, early detection of hearing impairment might at some point lead to interventions that could avoid dementia.

What do Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, and Ludwig van Beethoven have in common, besides all being musicians? As a result of years of performing, they all have permanent hearing loss. When musicians come to me for treatment, I feel obliged to inform them of a lamentable fact of life – playing music may damage their hearing. Exposure to loud music causes noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), which can produce a temporary ringing in the ears (tinnitus); if you continue to expose yourself to the loud music, the condition can become permanent.Not just big-name stadium rock stars are susceptible, all musicians are at risk. Players of all genres from classical, to club and small venues, even while rehearsing at home a musician can cross the threshold to overexposure resulting in NIHL. You can experience hearing loss when exposed for a prolonged period of time to any sound over 85 decibels (dB). An electric guitar played onstage generates 120dB, but a violin can produce 103dB, and thus cause almost as much hearing loss. In fact, audiologists researching hearing loss in musicians have found that overexposure to sound while rehearsing adds up to more hours than they spend on stage performing.Musicians can take steps to protect their hearing despite this unavoidable exposure to sound that exceeds acceptable levels, even in seemingly quiet rehearsal settings. When investing in high-quality ear protection beyond what can be had from drug-store Styrofoam ear plugs, performers can trust their hearing is protected. Such earplugs were invented over 20 years ago by a company called Etymotic Research, and their design is still used by most of the manufacturers of specialized earplugs for musicians. These musicians earphones are better for your purposes because they allow you to hear the full frequency range of both music and speech, but at lower volumes that don’t damage hearing.You can find universal-fit musicians earplugs in most stores that sell musical instruments, starting at about $15 a pair. For musicians that want to protect their hearing and hear the full range of their music, I recommend custom-molded earplugs with Etymotic filters. The custom molded ear plugs will be more comfortable, will block more undesirable sounds while allowing you to hear the full range of music, and will be easier to maintain. When it comes to protecting your hearing from permanent damage it is well worth the added expense so you can enjoy performing your music for years to come.

Our patients often ask us why they seem to have significantly greater difficulty hearing in busy rooms than in other conditions. When they are talking to people one-on-one, or in small groups of people there is no problem, and they seem to hear just fine. Not so in crowded situations. Whether in large public space outdoors such as a football game or indoors at a party, they report being unable to distinguish the speakers’ voice over the background noise. This is true even when the speaker is close by and addressing them directly. People who complain of this also often mention having trouble hearing the consonants “H,” “F,” and “S,” no longer being able to distinguish one from the other.If this situation sounds familiar to you, it may be an indication that you have suffered some degree of high-frequency hearing loss. Human speech, especially the consonants “S,” “H,” and “F,” fall into the range of sounds between 3000 and 8000 Hertz, which scientists define as “high-frequency.” In crowds, there is a mix of frequencies, ranging from the low frequencies of background music or people walking or dancing to the higher frequencies of human speech. Individuals with high-frequency hearing loss will report that the low-frequency sounds are much louder to them. To them it is as if the ‘background noise’ has been amplified relative to the human speech they are trying to focus on.At least 18 percent of the population suffers from some form of high-frequency hearing loss. One of the possible causes for this condition is aging, but high-frequency hearing loss has in recent years been increasing in teenagers and younger adults as well, possibly as a result of being exposed to overly loud music, and suffering noise-induced hearing loss. High-frequency hearing loss can also be the result of diabetes, a side affect of certain prescription drugs or genetic factors.The important thing to remember is that if you have suffered some degree of high-frequency hearing loss, it can be effectively treated. We can prescribe hearing aids that have been adjusted to reduce the volume of low-frequency sounds and boost the volume of the higher frequencies, so that you can hear better in crowds.The first step is to visit one of our specialists, and make sure that the problem is caused by a loss of hearing. Our audiologist can perform a variety of tests to identify the underlying cause of the problem and recommend the best treatment options for your specific situation.

Hearing aids and cellular phones haven’t always gotten along as well as they do now. The sophisticated electronics in both products often caused static, lost words or squealing interference noises. Fortunately, advances in technology and new government regulations have made the issue “Will this phone work together with my hearing aid?” simpler to answer. The regulations mandated new labeling requirements and ratings that help you to find a cell phone that works well with your hearing aid.The first thing you need to understand is that hearing aids operate in two different modes – microphone or “M” mode, and telecoil or “T” mode. In M mode, your hearing aid uses its built-in microphone to pick up audible sounds from the environment and amplify them so that you can hear them. In T mode, the hearing aid uses telecoil technology instead. The hearing aid is able to pick up the electromagnetic signals from inside the phone directly. The T mode is important when shopping for a phone, because at least 60% of hearing aids sold in the U.S. have one.The two modes – M and T – are each rated on a scale of 1 to 4 where 1 is the lowest sensitivity and 4 is the highest. To be sold in the United States as hearing aid compatible (HAC), a mobile phone or cordless handset must have a rating of at least M3 or T3.Hearing aids and cochlear implants have a similar M and T rating system to certify how sensitive they are in each mode, and how resistant they are to radio frequency interference. When shopping for a phone, to determine its compatibility with your hearing aid, simply add its M and T ratings together with those of the phone to create a combined rating. A combined rating of 6 or more is considered excellent, a hearing aid/phone combination that would provide highly usable, interference-free performance. A sum of 5 is considered normal and should work fine for typical cell phone users. If the combined rating is 4, this is thought of as acceptable but not very usable if you make a lot of extended phone calls.If you are shopping for a mobile phone online, you can usually use this combined rating to determine how compatible the phone you are interested in buying will be with your hearing aid. In the end, nothing beats a real world test so you may want to wear your hearing aid to the mobile phone shop and test out a few different phone in real conditions.

The selection and purchase of a first hearing aid can be an overwhelming task for just about anyone. Consumer Reports published a comparative report on hearing aids after followtaling over a dozen people for six months while purchasing their first hearing aids. Their report was dismaying: two-thirds of the aids purchased ended up being misfitted, or amplified the sounds either too much or too little. Customers wound up paying widely-varying prices for the same units, and did not always receive the kind of information they were looking for from the vendors.To spare you this experience, in this article we’ll try to provide a few tips to help you when shopping for your first hearing aid.  Here are our suggestions:

1. Consult a professional hearing specialist – You can do this either by calling us for an appointment, or by consulting another certified hearing specialist in your area; either way we suggest you read the BHI guidelines before your first appointment. Those guidelines will help you to know what to expect, and what types of questions to ask.
2. Decide which type of aid is best for you -This is decided while working with the specialists, who will use tests they conduct during Step 1 to determine your type and severity of hearing loss. Settling on the perfect hearing aid for you will take into account the type of hearing loss you are experiencing as well as your budget.
4. Do your research – After determining the type of hearing aid you need, use the Internet to look up information about different models. Your research should focus on any reports of problems or repairs, consumer reviews on comfort and reliability, as well as price comparisons.
6. Locate a reputable vendor – The vendor may be the specialist you saw in Step 1, or can be someone recommended by them. Your hearing aid vendor should be trained and equipped to make molds of your ears to fit your hearing aid properly. While it is possible to buy hearing aids on the Internet, this is not recommended because most models have to be custom-fitted.
8. Make sure the aids fit and work properly – Your first fitting should include tests by your vendor to ensure comfortable fit and good function of your new hearing aid. Most reputable vendors will do this, and provide a “satisfaction guaranteed” warranty, complete with free followup fittings or adjustments, if necessary.

We wish you good luck with selecting your first hearing aid, and want you to know that we are here to provide help if you need it.

Hearing loss may appear in many forms, and may appear suddenly, as the result of injuries or trauma, or over time, as the result of aging. The hearing loss itself may be transient or permanent, and can vary from mild (having difficulty understanding casual conversation) to severe (complete deafness). On top of that, a person can experience a loss of hearing in either a single ear or both ears.Probably the most commonly noted symptom of hearing loss is gradually becoming unable to hear and understand conversations correctly. You might perceive other people’s voices as if they were speaking too softly or are too far away to be heard properly, or their voices may appear to be muffled and indistinct. Alternatively, you might be able to hear people talking but discover that you are having difficulty distinguishing individual words; this could become more pronounced when multiple people are speaking simultaneously, or when you are in busy rooms.Other indications that you may have suffered some hearing loss include having to turn up the volume on your TV or radio much higher than you did in the past, being unable to distinguish certain high-pitched sounds (such as ‘s’ or ‘th’) from one another, and having more difficulty hearing women’s voices than men’s voices. If you have pain, tenderness, or itching in your ears, have periods of vertigo or dizziness, or hear a persistent buzzing or ringing sound, these symptoms can also be indications of hearing loss.Because it may arise gradually, many people with hearing impairment don’t realize it. This can occasionally lead to habits or behaviors designed to hide their hearing loss from other people. Examples of these types of signs include asking people to repeat themselves frequently, avoiding dialogues and social situations, pretending to have heard stuff that you really didn’t, and feelings of isolation or depression.If you have experienced any of these signs or symptoms, schedule an appointment with one of our specialists. We can help by administering tests to see if you do have hearing loss, and if you have, we can help figure out what to do about it.

One topic that is rarely discussed when it comes to hearing loss is how to keep people who have it safe inside their homes. Picture this situation: you’re at home and a fire begins, and like most people today you have smoke detectors installed to warn you so that you and your family can evacuate before the fire becomes serious. But this time imagine further, and contemplate what would happen if your smoke alarm goes off at night after you’ve gone to sleep, removing your hearing aid first as you usually do.Virtually all smoke alarms (or similar carbon monoxide detectors), including nearly all devices accredited and mandated by city and state governments, emit a loud warning sound between the frequencies of 3,000 to 4,000 Hertz. And while the majority of people can hear these sounds easily, these frequencies are among those most affected by age-related hearing loss and other forms of auditory problems. So even if you were awake, if you are among the more than eleven million people in America with hearing loss, there is a possibility that you would not hear the alarm.Luckily, there are home safety products which are specifically created for the requirements of the hearing impaired. For those with slight to moderate hearing loss, there are smoke detectors that emit a 520 Hz square-wave warning tone that they can generally hear. For people who are completely deaf, or who cannot hear whatsoever when they remove their hearing aids or turn off their cochlear implants (CIs) at night when they go to bed, there are alert systems that blend extremely loud alarms, flashing lights, and vibrators that shake your mattress to warn you. For comprehensive home safety, many of these newer devices have been designed to be easily integrated into more extensive home protection systems to warn you in case of intruders, or if emergency services are pounding on your doors.Many who have hearing aids or who have cochlear implants have chosen to boost the efficiency of these devices by setting up induction loops in their homes. An induction loop is simply a lengthy strand of wire that encircles your living room, bedroom, or children’s rooms, which activates the telecoils embedded in your devices to raise the volume of sounds, and therefore may help you not to miss any important or emergency signals.And of course there is the lowly telephone, which many of us tend to ignore until we need one, but which can become crucial in any sort of emergency. Most present day telephones now can be found in models that are hearing aid and CI-compatible, which allow their use during emergencies. Other models incorporate speakerphone systems with very high volumes that can be easily used by the hearing impaired, and more importantly, can be voice-activated. So if you fell and hurt yourself away from the phone, you could still voice-dial for assistance. There are additional accessories for mobile phones, such as vibrating wristbands that can inform you of an incoming phone call even if you are asleep.Other safety tips are less technical and more practical, like always keeping the telephone numbers of fire departments, ambulance companies, doctors, and emergency services handy. We are as concerned about your basic safety as we are about your hearing, so if we can be of service with any further tips or suggestions, feel free to give us a call.