I am writing this from an airport on my way to lovely Oakland. As I came through security it made me wonder about hearing aids and security. Do you know if we are forced to remove hearing aids when going through security lines. My gut says that we probably do.
I can understand the need to check all electronic devices in the name of security but hearing aids are medical devices and very small and should be open to a pass.
Please let me know if you have any info on the FAA rules around hearing aids.
Hearing aids in airports
June 29th, 2010mid life hearing loss
June 25th, 2010As I creep into my 40’s I am beginning to wonder what part of hearing loss is cause by damage and what is simply deterioration. Does that make sense? I guess another way to ask it would be, if someone protected their ears completely for their entire life, would they still need a hearing aid around age 80? Does hearing loss simply set in regardless or can well-protected ears operate perfectly forever. Does anyone know the answer to this?
On some level it is hypothetical and not perfectly helpful but I think it is interesting and may help us desire to protect our ears if we knew the answer. I suspect that most people are simply predestined to need to wear a hearing aid no matter how cautious they are. If this is the case, the next question is when does the hearing loss kick in? Is it in mid life around the 40s and 50s? Or do we see a more steep drop occur later in life.
Hearing is so crucial to our relationships with the world and our family that the more we know about it the better we can live and protect it. If anyone has any insight on when hearing loss tends to set in if outside factors were somehow eliminated, it would be wonderful to know the answer!
happy fathers day hearing aid wearers
June 20th, 2010Happy fathers day to all of you wearing hearing aids!
Recycle Hearing aids
June 13th, 2010Thank goodness that the world is on a path to be more green and concerned about the environment. One can imagine how many massive desktop computers that have simply been tossed into a dump and are sitting there taking up space. Well, now people are finding ways to recycle computers and (relevant for us) how to recycle hearing aids. IT appears that the process for recycling hearing aids at this point is less about returning the parts to their original stage and more about finding needing people to use the soon to be discarded aids.
Lions Club international is the leader in finding users for hearing aids that people want to recycle. This is great work they are doing and you can find out more about how to get your pieces to needy people by visiting their website at www.lionsclub.org.
In another turn that is encouraging, hearing aid manufacturers are aiding in the recycling and they are not limiting it to their own brand. Starkey hearing aids is a pioneer in this. They welcome products of all makes and they help to place them with people who need them.
It is encouraging to write that there and many very easy ways to recycle your hearing aids. Please participate!
Cochlear implants and babies
June 1st, 2010Yahoo ran a wonderful story on their home page today about a baby who was fitted for Cochlear implants and was just able to hear his mother’s voice for the first time. This is exactly the type of story that makes me happy to be involved in the world of hearing aids. I admit that prior to starting this blog I had very little idea about the world of hearing aids and the miracles and also challenges that they face.
After years of writing this blog and for this website, I sometimes find it easier to get mired in the negative aspects of hearing aids such as their high cost and the Unites States basic decision to make getting insurance for them next to impossible.
So I want to thank Yahoo for writing the great article about the young baby boy who heard his mother’s voice for the first time because of his cochlear implants. The smile on the face of the boy and on the mother said more than a thousand words. The high tech hearing aid was truly a miracle for this family and will serve them well for years.
Good work world of hearing aids!
Jobs in hearing aids
May 27th, 2010We often get people writing to us about ways to find jobs in the hearing aid industry. I thought it may be a good use of time to talk about the job opportunities in the hearing aid space. There are a number of opportunities which range from selling hearing aids to actually training to be an audiologist.
I am less familiar with the path that one needs to take to become an audiologist than I am with entering into the world of sales. I have sold products my entire life (mostly advertising) and I am certain that selling hearing aids is very similar.
To become a successful hearing aid sales person you must know your product inside and out. I recommend reading and studying all the materials you can about the major hearing aid brands. A great resource for this will be the websites of the brands. Websites provide detailed information not only about their products but also about the history of their companies. These details are not only good for selling hearing aids but also to get any type of job in the industry.
Hearing aids are a massive market and this comes along with enormous job opportunities. Start reading all you can about hearing aids as a first step to a career in the field.
Oregon Hearing aids
May 23rd, 2010I am taking a quick trip to Portland tomorrow so it made me wonder about the state of hearing aids in Portland. Are any of our readers from the Portland or Oregon area? Any insight into ways that your state works with HOH people and hearing aids would be exciting to hear.
The Willoughby hearing center is the first ranking to appear in google when searching for Portland hearing aid. While this does not confirm much about their quality it certainly hints that they are active within the Internet and their community and are probably a good resource to start with when researching hearing aids in the Portland area.
The Oregon Hearing aid society is most likely the premier resource for information. This is a resource for hearing aid professionals within Oregon. They are very professional and can certainly be of aid to anyone in the Portland, Oregon region seeking hearing aid help!
Pennsylvania protects hearing aid owners
May 16th, 2010I just found an article about Pennsylvania suing hearing aid dealers who were refusing to accept returns of defective or poor fitting hearing aids. Great work Pennsylvania! This story is a few years old but I wanted to report on it. This is exactly the type of state protection that hearing aid users need. I have a feeling that other states watched this legislation and reacted in the same way. One good deed generating another.
Apparently the hearing aid dealers in Pennsylvania were not accepting returns of hearing aids that did not fit or were broken. The suit called for payments of over $125,000. In more good news, the dealers who were violating the laws were not able to operate in the state until the fees were paid.
Congrats to the state of Pennsylvania for sticking up for hearing aid owners. We salute you!
Hearing aids for babies
May 8th, 2010I recently brought home a little baby boy from the hospital. How wonderful. I will tell you though, they gave him very extensive hearing tests on the first day of his life. These tests required placement of monitoring devices on his head and then they determined if his left and right ear were working properly. Did it make me nervous to watch the progress bar of his ears that the nurse told me had to get to 100%? Yes!
As the test was proceeding I wondered what would it mean if he didn’t get 100%? Hearing aids for babies? Do they exist? Do they make sense at all?
As the test progressed I wished that the nurse was explaining some of these things but I suppose they don’t want to over burden you with info until the outcome is determined. “All fine” she told me. Hmmm, ok, that is good news but what if it wasn’t as it is for thousands of babies. Can they wear hearing aids? What do we do for babies that are HOH?
A look at hearing aid technology
May 1st, 2010A quick look this morning at two very important hearing aid technologies that have been developed over the last decade. The two crucial hearing aid technologies I want to look at are Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) and Digital Speech Enhancement (DSE).
Digital noise reduction could be argued as the most important advancement in hearing aid technology. Essentially DNR is designed to reduce gain. In less technical terms, DNR is designed to reduce unwanted noise and allow voices to stand out. It has not always been viewed as completely successful but it is a crucial piece of the technology of hearing aids.
Digital Speech Enhancement is designed to enhance the volume of speech. The technology is able to recognize speech apart from other noises and increase it.
Working in tandem, DNR and DSE have dramatically increased the quality of hearing aids.