Patients sometimes ask me about Eargo mail order hearing aids. As with anything, there are pros and cons. I couldn’t put it any better or more thoroughly than an audiologist from Arizona, “Doctor Cliff”. Check out this video summary. I tell my patients to go ahead and try it. Just keep your receipt and know that, just like with real hearing aids, the law requires that you be given a 45 day trial period.
“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
Robert McCloskey
Think about how a physical therapist treats someone with a knee injury. They might use a knee brace, but they always give the patient a series of exercises, and the exercises change slowly as their patient gets stronger. Treating a hearing loss is similar because a hearing aid is just an aid. It’s not enough. Sometimes it isn’t even appropriate.
Aural rehabilitation is something audiologists do to help hearing impaired people overcome a hearing handicap. Audiologists do a little bit of it whenever they test hearing or balance. It’s also part of helping someone get used to a hearing aid. It includes diagnosis, counseling related to hearing loss, education on assistive technology, learning communication strategies, giving information on community and non-profit resources, speech perception training, and instruction for family members. The communication strategies can include things like sign language and lip-reading.
Aural rehab is relevant for the 14% of adults who have a hearing loss, but it’s also relevant for an even larger group, family and friends of people with hearing loss. I am currently developing a series of 6 aural rehabilitation classes. It may be offered at SBCC Adult Education, at a retirement community, at the Hearing Loss Association of America meetings, or at a public library. We’ll see. I’ll announce it when the dates are set. Call or shoot me an email if you’re interested.
audiologyhome@protonmail.com
805-881-2620
I made a presentation the the Hearing Loss Association of Santa Barbara. They’d asked me to talk about the latest technology. Here’s a summary.
Helpful New Technology:
1) Help in noise:
– Faster sound processing
– Wireless connection between hearing aid via 2.4 gHz, near field magnetic induction
2) Bluetooth:
– To find lost hearing aids
– To remotely control hearing aids
– To hear cell phone calls, TV, or a remote microphone through hearing aids without a lot of extra devices.
– Stream tinnitus masking apps from your phone or tablet
3) Rechargeable batteries
Important Old Technology:
1) Telecoil for use in looped theaters like the Granada, Lobero, and Arlington
2) Directional microphones for help in noise
Fancy New Stuff That Doesn’t Improve Hearing:
1) Hearing aids that can be adjusted remotely
2) Hearing aids that translate languages
3) Hearing aids that monitor exercise like a FitBit
4) Hearing aids that start the coffee or tell you when you get an email
“Everybody’s uptight and they’re always building these walls around themselves. All you can do is try and break down the walls and show that there’s nothing there but people. It’s just like looking in the mirror.”
– John Lennon –
I encourage everyone to learn a language, because there is no better way to understand people than to learn their language. As it turns out, Gallaudet University offers free online ASL classes.
It is good for hearing people to understand that for people who grew up deaf, deafness is not a disability.
It also helps to learn about the history of deaf education. This documentary follows a family and their experience, generation to generation. (After you start the video, you can turn on the closed captions by clicking on the symbol at the bottom of the screen.)
A patient of mine wrote this on his FB page:
“Today I was at Ace Hardware, looking for a specific item, while humming along with “Sounds of Silence”. I gave up looking, and found a clerk.
Me: Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find…
Clerk: I can’t hear a word you’re saying.
Me: I’m looking for…
Clerk: It’s the music. I can’t hear you. There is music coming out of you someplace.
Me: What??? Isn’t that the store’s music?
I reached in my back pocket, and Pandora was on my phone, playing that Simon & Garfunkel tune. The clerk looked at me, shook his head, and walked away while I was trying to silence the Sounds of Silence. He failed to see the irony. They didn’t have what I was looking for, either.”
“Calling noise a nuisance is like calling smog an inconvenience. Noise must be considered a hazard to the health of people everywhere.”
– William H. Stewart, former U.S. Surgeon General
Noise isn’t just annoying. It isn’t just bad for your ears. It’s bad for your health. Noise causes higher blood pressure and cortisol levels, which leads to heart disease. Students learn less and workers make more mistakes when exposed to too much noise in the environment. Research continues on the effects of noise on the immune system and birth defects.
The New York Times published an article on noise in NYC establishments. “The New York Times measured noise levels at 37 restaurants, bars, stores and gyms across the city and found levels that experts said bordered on dangerous at one-third of them.” Some restaurants were simply unaware of the danger and pledged to look into it. Restaurants like to play loud music because it makes people eat faster and leave sooner, so significant change is unlikely. (If you’re looking for a quiet(er) place to eat in Santa Barbara, check out my patient-recommended restaurant list.)
As I was investigating this, I actually found an organization called Quiet Communities, whose mission is to make communities quieter. I love that.
Acousticon Hearing Aid invented by Miller Reese Hutchison
Oticon began with a Danish man named Hans Demant in 1903, who wanted to help his hearing impaired wife. The popular Queen Alexandra of Great Britain had worn the first portable hearing aid at her coronation the year before and Hans traveled to England to buy one for his wife. Motivated to help others with hearing loss, he began importing them to Denmark. Eventually Oticon began manufacturing their own hearing aids in 1940.
Every hearing aid manufacturer seems to focus its engineers on a particular task. Most recently, Oticon spent its energies developing a faster processor. The theory is that it can handle noise better, especially when dealing with multiple talkers. While it’s not the hearing aid for everyone, I have been impressed with the results in the patients I have chosen it for. For all you engineers and, what my dad calls “tinkerers”, here is an explanation of what they did.