Archive for August, 2009

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Hearing aids in soccer

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

I am playing a soccer tournament this weekend and I realized, I have yet to see someone playing soccer while wearing a hearing aid. Certainly it is not the perfect demographic to spot a hearing aid user but I have seen thousands of players and still none.

This speaks to the continued challenge of combining hearing aids and sports. It remains a difficult proposition but something should be done about it.

My gut is that people who need to use hearing aids are simply going without in sports and this is not good. Hearing is crucial to success in sports and in turn they are left at a disadvantage.

I look to Siemens or Phonak or another large brand to address this issue and create a sports friendly hearing aid soon!

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Hearing aids and winter

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

As the seasons change, new questions and challenges arise regarding hearing aid usage. The summer is coming to an end and the cold weather is on its way. What are some of the major concerns that cold weather may bring.

One question is, what is the best way to deal with hats a BTE hearing aids. The clear challenge is that tight fitting hats cause feedback with the hearing aids yet people (mostly children) need to keep their heads warm. Doing a bit of research, I have found that some people choose to employ very loose hats while others simply turn off the aids until they are in warmer conditions. Newsboy hats has been another suggestion. These are warm hats that don’t cover the ears.

The other clear challenge with winter and hearing aids is that the aids, like all machines don’t love the cold. What suggestions do our readers have for dealing protecting hearing aids in the winter cold?

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Self fix hearing aids

Monday, August 24th, 2009

One of the primary challenges with hearing aids is that they are delicate and expensive. This combination leads to people often asking - can I self fix my hearing aid. Or, is there a hearing aid that can self fix itself.

At this point, there is no great answer to these questions. Although it is expensive and can be frustrating, we recommend going to a professional to fix your hearing aid. There are no hearing aids that can fix themselves at this point.

We are certainly pushing and hoping that the hearing aid industry will continue to work on durability of hearing aids so they will require less fixing. At the same time, we are pushing for companies to find ways to improve the battery life of the hearing aids. For now, there is no perfect answer to any of these issues. We hope there will be better answers in the next 10 years.

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Hearing aids in Seattle

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

The Virginia Mason hospital is a leading source for hearing aid information in Seattle. They have a very successful program that they call ‘listen for life’.

Participants in this program at the Virginia Mason are given a complete hearing aid evaluation with a doctor.

Virginia Mason prefers to work with Oticon, Phonak and Widex hearing aids but you can use others if you prefer.

In an effort to insure patient happiness, a fitting follow up exam is always scheduled. This is important and shows good care by Virginia Mason because a hearing aid can certainly feel ok day one after a fitting but how it feels a month later is a whole different story. It is very good that they schedule a follow up meeting for a month after the initial hearing aid fitting.

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Fix My Hearing Aid

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Fix my hearing aid is a very common search performed on google and Bing. There is no doubt that hearing aids break often and the idea of having to buy a new hearing aid is too daunting to consider.

So what is the best way to fix a hearing aid? Are there loocal dealers that should be explored? Should you bring it to the place you purchased it? Is there insurance for hearing aids? So many questions, who has the answers?

The most common needed fix for hearing aids is that the speaker has grown weak from build up of wax and junk. This can be helped with a cleaning but more often than not it is something that makes a hearing aid finish

But remember, no matter how bad of shape the hearing aid is in, 95% of the time it can be fixed. Don’t give in too soon and just buy a new one. This is too expensive to do every two years!

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Hearing Aids for Dogs

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

To this point, hearing aids for dogs and other animals do exist but they remain limited to sound amplifiers. At this point, if an animals hearing is 100% lost, there is no hearing aid that can help.

In researching hearing aids for dogs, the trend seems to be that smaller dogs tolerate having the pieces in their ears better than larger dogs.

Something important to keep in mind is that most animals seem to show very little problems with becoming deaf and are able to rely on their other senses to help them out. Humans, it appears, seem much more reliant on our hearing than animals and in turn we need hearing aids more.

There is research being done into developing Cochlear implants and other hearing aids that would restore hearing for animals. I, however, question if these are actually needed!

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Hearing Aid conferences

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

I am writing this from a conference in San Jose. It go me thinking about hearing aid conferences. I did a bit of research and it appears that New York has one of the biggest.

The New York State Speech language conference is one of the biggest. There are wonderful learning opportunities with speakers and a number of hands on training events as well.

If anyone has attended some great hearing aid related conferences please send them my way and I will add them to the blog!

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Guide to hearing aid fitting

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

There have been many advancements in the world of hearing aid fitting including target formulas and real-ear measurements. These and a number of others, coupled with great advances in hearing aid technologies should certainly have greatly advanced the fitting of hearing aids. This is not necessarily the case.

If sales of hearing aids are any indication, things are actually getting worse with fittings. Sales are down. This may have a great deal to do with the economy as well but it does not speak highly for our world of hearing aids.

The process of fitting a hearing aid has become rushed and we are all simply depending on the latest technology to do the work for us. This does not work. Technology plays a role but the audiologist must take time to listen and understand the specific needs of every patient. At the same time the patients need to be very open and help tell the fitter exactly what they are looking for.

Hearing aid fitting is difficult but for it to get better, we must all do our parts: the fitter, the patient and the technology!

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Athletes with hearing aids

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

There is long and strong tradition of athletes with hearing loss and their story should be told. However, to date the tradition has not included hearing aids.

In 2004, there were four athletes in the Olympic games in events such as the breast stroke, wrestling and diving. It is very encouraging to hear of athletes with hearing loss participating in high level sports. It does not, however, speak to a success for hearing aids.

Athletes have trouble using hearing aids. The hearing aids are often damaged by perspiration or the contact that often comes with sport. Despite efforts to seal the hearing aid from damage, an achilles heal is the battery. The battery can not be sealed and in turn is a weak spot.

But even tougher than battling perspiration is simply keeping them in. While headbands have been tried most athletes simply go through their event without their hearing aid.

To date, there is not a fantastic solution for hearing aids to be used in sports. In no way does this mean that people with hearing loss can not excel in sports, they simply have trouble using their hearing aids of choice. This is not unlike glasses but we don’t have the equivalent of contact lenses - YET!

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Unitron Web site and hearing aids

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

It has been a while since we have done a deep dive of the top hearing aids websites. It is crucial to stay checked in with the major brands to see what they are doing next for the development of hearing aid technology.

In this blog entry I want to take a look at the Unitron hearing aid website and some of the recent content that has been added.

It is important to stress when visiting the Unitron site what a global site they are. It is amazing the number of countries that they provide content for.
The newest offering from Unitron is the Passport Premium Hearing instrument. SmartFocus is the name of the technology featured in the Passport heairng instrument and Unitron promises that it has the technology to deliver high quality hearing in every situation. It also has a learning ability in that it remembers the individuals certain settings in various conditions and is able to return to those settings when the conditions demand it. This model of Unitron hearing aids comes in the wireless Moxi, the Slim tube and the shift. The SHIFT from Unitron being the tiny 10A CRT BTE.

Unitron is not resting on its past achievements. They are a global company that continues to push hearing aid technology further and further ahead. We at Hearing Aids 1000 salute them!

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