Hello Everyone,
April went by very quickly for us. We've been very busy helping people hear
better. The new products that address high frequency hearing loss are proving
to be very effective. Jim is having a lot of fun trying these products out
on people and seeing their reactions to hearing better! It's been very
rewarding.
Unitron should be making their new products available sometime in June.
We are looking forward to seeing what their technology will do. Will tell
you more about them soon!
Phonak's new Savia digital hearing instrument is able to adapt automatically
to four hearing environments and has automatic directional capabilities as
well. We currently have a patient with severe hearing loss who is enjoying
this particular system very much.
Siemens new Acuris digital system, including the open-air Acuris Life, is
proving to be very successful for those who experience a plugged up feeling
with custom hearing aids. The Acuris e2e wireless system allows a pair of
hearing instruments to work as a team. When you change the program in one
hearing aid, it automatically makes the same change in the other. This feature
really provides ease of transition when you move from one environment into
another.
May is National Hearing Month. We like to emphasis the importance of hearing
in our lives and how to preserve and get the most out of our hearing all
twelve months of the year, but May is the month that we set aside for special
notice. Hearing is a precious gift.
As most of you know, when someone has a hearing loss in both ears, we recommend
wearing two hearing aids. Occasionally, someone will ask to purchase only
one; sometimes a person has only one aidable ear. However, it is important
to understand why two are better than one. We have brochures that provide
information regarding this issue, but I would like to address this here in
this month's Newsletter. The following information is taken from The Consumer's
Guide to Hearing Aids. p. 17.
First, when two hearing aids are worn, less power is needed. This means
that you can set your hearing aids at lower volume settings, which is better
for your ears. Loud sounds are not as uncomfortable and listening becomes
less stressful. Clarity is better, too.
Second, you get better depth of sound with stereo than with mono. I think
we all enjoy listening to steroephonic sounds more than just flat, mono sounds.
Not only is it more enjoyable to hear in stereo, but it is more natural,
and understanding is better.
Third, having two hearing aids gives you the ability to determine the direction
from which the sounds are coming.
Fourth, hearing from both ears saves you from embarrassing situations. It
is difficult to hear a person on an unaided side. Having both ears aided
prevents this situation from happening.
Fifth, your brain needs information from both ears because both halves of
the brain work in harmony. When your vision is impaired in both eyes, you
need two corrective lenses. The brain converts the information it receives
from both your eyes into one image. The same thing happens with your ears.
As explained in a former Newsletter, you hear with your brain. It's the
brain that interprets the sounds that are carried from the ears, up the brain
stem via complicated pathways. The brain receives different signals from
each ear, and processes these into the rich sounds we hear. Some of these
signals cross over and stimulate the opposite side of the brain, while others
stimulate the same side. This is called "auditory intelligence". If both
sides of the brain are not sharing information, then auditory intelligence
is reduced.
Sixth, to hear better in noise, both ears need to hear. When you hear with
one ear, voices all
blend together, making it difficult to distinguish individual voices. This
bears out in a restaurant situation. Even with two ears, voice discrimination
can be difficult in a noisy environment, but with one ear, it is impossible.
Seventh, quality of sound is better with two hearing aids, and this makes
for better quality of life. Those who have worn both monaural and binaural
hearing instruments have reported the vast improvement in sound quality when
wearing two hearing aids.
And, I would also like to add that when one ear is doing almost all the work,
this provides limited information to the brain. The brain becomes accustomed
to processing this limited information. If it is not possible to provide
amplification for both ears and a choice must be made regarding which ear
to aid, certain factors should be considered. If one ear is noticeably better
than the other, meaning the brain has been getting the most information from
that ear, and word discrimination is better in that "good" ear, then it is
best to provide amplification to the better ear, rather than to the worse
ear. This may sound backwards, but there is a good reason for this prescription.
If a person were to purchase a hearing aid for the "bad" ear, then new information
would suddenly be getting to the brain, and if word discrimination is poor
in this ear, it would not necessarily be accurate information. The better
ear that the brain had been depending upon for information would no longer
be better, amplification-wise---and confusion may very well result. It is
simply best to provide amplification to the better ear,
enabling it to provide better, consistent information to the brain. In so
doing, the brain does not have to "rewire" itself to depend upon the "bad"
ear. Again, this is only if it is not possible to provide amplification
to both ears, and one must choose which ear to aid.
Reminder----If you last had your hearing aids cleaned in January---yep---it's
time to get them cleaned this month. Did I say "January"??!! Boy, is this
year going by fast!
Do you have a question or comment? Please email me at beth@advancedhearingplus.com
.
Website address: www.advancedhearingplus.com
How to contact us:
You can always call us at 746-7671 or toll-free at 1-800-230-1953. Our
hours are from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. Before or after hours,
you are welcome to call and leave a message on our machine.
Feel free to email us with any questions or concerns. Jim’s email:
james@advancedhearingplus.com . Beth’s email: beth@advancedhearingplus.com
