In the US, roughly 37.5 million adults have some degree of hearing loss. Yet according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), only 20 percent of those who could benefit from hearing aids actually use them. That suggests that millions of Americans who could enhance their life with better hearing decide not to do so.
Here’s something most people are surprised to discover: in the majority of cases of hearing loss, people can hear many sounds without any problem, and have a hard time only with particular sounds. In particular, if you have difficulty only with high-pitched sounds, you may suffer from the most common form of hearing loss, referred
It’s commonly said that we don’t completely appreciate the things we have until they’re gone, and this appears to be specifically true of our ability to hear. Hearing loss is not only tough to detect; it’s also tough to appreciate just how much hearing enhances our lives. As one of our major senses, along with
It remains a puzzle as to why wearing a pair of glasses—which treat vision impairment—is perceived as an indication of intelligence, while wearing hearing aids—which treat hearing impairment—has been perceived as an indication of old age. Perhaps it’s about time the stigma of hearing loss is corrected, and we redefine what it means for our
When should I upgrade my hearing aids? This is a regular question we hear from our patients, and the answer demands some thought. Although hearing aids traditionally have a life-span of 3-7 years, there are a few instances in which you may want to upgrade sooner. Here are 4 reasons you may want to consider
By Joho345 (Own work) [CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons Picture being able to fine-tune the volume, treble, and bass on your hearing aids as discretely and effortlessly as checking the time on your wrist. Or picture fine-tuning your hearing aids for any hearing environment without ever having to touch your hearing aids. Sound too
We all put things off, routinely talking ourselves out of strenuous or unpleasant tasks in favor of something more pleasing or fun. Distractions abound as we tell ourselves that we will eventually get around to whatever we’re presently working to avoid. Sometimes, procrastination is fairly harmless. We might hope to clean out the basement, for
Modern day hearing aids have come a long way; present models are remarkably effective and come with remarkable digital capabilities, like wireless connectivity, that profoundly enhance a person’s ability to hear along with their overall quality of life. But there is still room for improvement. Particularly, in some instances hearing aids have some difficulty with
It has long been acknowledged that there are powerful connections among sound, music, emotion, and memory, and that our personal experiences and tendencies determine the type and intensity of emotional response we have to different sounds. For example, research has revealed these prevalent associations between certain sounds and emotions: The sound of a thunderstorm evokes
The ironic part of hearing loss is that we don’t have a tendency to begin appreciating our favorite sounds until after we’ve lost the capability to clearly hear them. We don’t pause to give thought to, for instance, how much we appreciate a good conversation with a friend until we have to recurrently ask them
The hearing healthcare industry has two barriers that prevent people from achieving better hearing: The inability to recognize hearing loss in the first place (owing to its slow onset), and The temptation to find a quick, easy, and inexpensive remedy. Unfortunately, numerous people who have overcome the first barrier have been lured into the supposedly
Blausen.com staff. “Blausen gallery 2014”. That there is a right way to clean your ears implies that there is a wrong way, and in fact, there is a very wrong way. The wrong way is prevalent, and it breaks the first rule of cleaning your ears: don’t insert foreign objects into your ear canal. That