East End Hearing Blog

Hearing loss has many forms – it might occur gradually (for example, as the result of aging) or all of a sudden (as the result of an injury or trauma). The hearing loss itself can be short-term or permanent, and may vary from mild (having trouble understanding conversations) to severe (total deafness). Moreover, a person can experience a loss of hearing in either one ear or both ears.

You will find a number of signs and symptoms linked to hearing loss, one of the more common of which is a growing difficulty hearing or understanding conversations. People’s voices may seem to be at too low a volume (as if the speakers were far away), or sound muffled . Alternatively, you might be able to hear people talking but notice that you’re having difficulty differentiating individual words; this could become more evident when multiple people are speaking, or when you are in busy rooms.

Other usual symptoms of hearing loss include increasing the volume on your TV or radio, having more difficulty hearing women’s voices than men’s, and being unable to differentiate sounds such as ‘s’ and ‘th’ from one another. If you feel pain, tenderness, or itching in your ears, have periods of dizziness or vertigo, or hear a constant buzzing or ringing sound, these symptoms can also be indications of hearing loss.

Because it can occur gradually, many people with hearing impairment are not aware of it. Or they might notice it but display “denial behaviors” to try to disguise or conceal their hearing loss from other people. Examples of these types of signs include having to ask people to repeat themselves frequently, avoiding conversations and social situations, acting as if you’ve heard stuff that you really didn’t, and emotions of isolation or depression.

If you have experienced any of these signs or symptoms, schedule an appointment with one of our specialists. We can help by starting with a hearing test to see if you do have hearing loss, and if you have, we can help determine what to do about it.

One subject which is rarely mentioned when it comes to hearing loss is how to keep people who have it safe inside their own homes. For instance, imagine that a fire breaks out in your house; if you’re like most of us you have smoke alarms to sound an alert so that you and your family can evacuate the premises before the fire becomes widespread, and thus deadly. But now suppose that the fire begins at night, when you are asleep, and you have taken off your hearing aid.

The smoke detectors standard in almost all houses and those required by city or state governments emit a loud warning sound at a frequency between 3,000 and 4,000 Hertz. Although the majority of people can hear these tones easily, these frequencies are among those most affected by age-related hearing loss and other forms of auditory problems. So even if you were awake, if you are one of the more than eleven million Americans with hearing loss, there is a chance that you wouldn’t hear the alarm.

Fortunately, there are home safety products that are specifically created for the requirements of the hearing impaired. For instance, there are smoke detectors that emit a low-frequency (520 Hertz) square wave tone that a majority of hearing-impaired individuals can hear. In case you are completely deaf without your hearing aid or when you turn off your cochlear implants (CIs), you’ll find alarm systems which use a combination of flashing lights, very loud alarms, and vibrating units that shake your bed to wake you up in an emergency. Several of these systems are intended to be incorporated into more complete home security systems to warn you of intruders or people thumping furiously on your doors in the case of an emergency.

Many who have hearing aids or who wear cochlear implants have elected to improve the performance of these devices by installing induction loops in their homes. An induction loop is merely a lengthy strand of wire that encircles your family room, bedroom, or children’s rooms, which activates the telecoils inside your devices to raise the volume of sounds, and thus may help you not to miss any important or emergency signals.

Not to mention the lowly telephone, which all of us tend to ignore until we need one, but which can become critical in any sort of emergency situation. Most modern phones now are available in models that are hearing aid and CI-compatible, which enable their easy use during either normal or extraordinary conditions. Other phone models integrate speakerphone systems with high volumes that can be easily used by the hearing impaired, and more importantly, can be voice-activated. These phones would allow you to voice-dial for assistance in an emergency situation. There are additional accessories for cellphones, such as vibrating wristbands that will alert you to an incoming phone call even if you are sleeping.

Other safety suggestions are less technological and more practical, like always having the telephone numbers of fire departments, ambulance companies, health care providers, and emergency services handy. We are as concerned about your safety as we are about your hearing, so if we can be of service with any further ideas or recommendations, feel free to call us.

Close to 6 million U.S. teenagers have some form of hearing loss, which signifies an increase of about a third over the past twenty years. While experts claim that this hearing loss is in part caused by regular exposure to high volumes of music from portable players and phones, participation in marching band is yet another contributing cause. As nearly every city high school and college has a marching band, band membership is a quite common activity among teens.

Harmful sound levels for teenagers.Volume, or noise level, is measured in decibels (dB). Adults and children can suffer hearing loss from exposure to noises in excess of 85 dB. Marching band includes a variety of instruments, some of which easily cross over that threshold during rehearsals and performances. An experiment at Duke University showed that a drumline rehearsal exposed students to decibel levels of 99 over a 30-minute period. However, playing those instruments indoors for rehearsals can be even more harmful to teens’ hearing. Unfortunately, many youths don’t reduce the volume of their instruments when playing inside.

Prevention and protection strategies. An effective solution for reducing sound levels is the use of musicians earplugs. These professional earplugs are designed to fit perfectly in the teen’s ears. However, parents often find them to be expensive. Another effective strategy for protecting young people’s hearing is to reduce the length of time they are exposed to potentially harmful sound levels by breaking up the rehearsals into shorter sessions. Increased awareness among teens and band leaders of the importance of reducing instrument sound levels when playing indoors is also key. To best protect the hearing of marching band members, a joint effort between students, band leaders, and parents is recommended.

People depend on their hearing in numerous situations, making it challenging to carry out some basic tasks if your hearing is damaged. Driving a car is one area that can cause problems for many people affected by impaired hearing. Luckily, just because you have problems with hearing does not mean that safe driving is out of the question. Keep these safe driving tips in mind the next time you get behind the wheel.

Keep your car in good shape: Abnormal noises are a typical warning sign that something is not quite right with your vehicle. If you aren‚’t able to hear when something is wrong with your engine you run the risk of driving an unsafe vehicle. Keep regular maintenance appointments with your garage or dealership to make sure your car stays in optimum condition.

Only drive when you feel comfortable: If your hearing loss makes you feel uneasy while driving it‚’s best to avoid it. There are many alternatives to owning an automobile, including public transportation. Driving while stressed or uncomfortable may make you more likely to make dangerous errors, so don‚’t get behind the wheel unless you are feeling safe and confident.

Reduce distractions: Your vision is very important when driving a car with hearing loss. Distractions that take your eyes off the road, such as food or electronic devices, can avert your eyes and put you and your passengers in danger. You‚’ll also find that it becomes more difficult to hear important traffic cues if you have the radio on while driving. Get rid of any influences that get between you and the road to make sure you aren‚’t missing crucial information.

Drive with your hearing aid in mind: If you use a hearing aid make sure that you don‚’t drive without it. Be mindful of how your car‚’s atmosphere can influence your hearing aid’s functionality. Don‚’t be afraid to switch on the AC rather than driving with the windows open. Your hearing aid can become less effective if it is buffeted by a draft from an open window, impairing your hearing and putting you at risk.

Hearing loss doesn‚’t have to keep you from driving if your doctor approves. Stay safe out there!

Missing appendages, post-traumatic stress, and brain trauma: These are what many people think of when they think about post-combat injuries. Hearing loss, though, may not often come to mind. Check out these 5 surprising facts about hearing loss among veterans to learn more.

1. Hearing loss is the most prevalent injury among post-combat veterans. – Hearing loss beats out PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) as the number one service-connected disability. IEDs (improvised explosive devices) can cause hearing damage just as much as commonplace military noise can. The deafening sounds of tank, plane, and ship engines contributes to temporary to permanent hearing loss and tinnitus, as do explosive devices and other loud weapons. Veterans of the post-9/11 conflicts are the most affected population in terms of hearing loss. In fact, 414,000 post 9/11 soldiers have come home with some form of tinnitus or hearing loss.

• More veterans have hearing loss than non-veterans. – Veterans are 30 percent more likely than nonveterans to suffer hearing loss of the severe kind. Worse yet, those who served after 9/11 were found to be four times more likely to be afflicted with some sort of hearing impairment than nonveterans.

• Hearing loss may be more prevalent now than it was for soldiers in the past. – Since IEDs (improvised explosive devices) have become more commonplace and weapons become bigger and louder, more soldiers are losing their hearing. Field generators and powerful “bunker buster” bombs are extremely loud and dangerous to the ears. Even helicopters can cause loss of hearing.

• Unfortunately, many of the soldiers who come home with loss of hearing do not seek help. – Most soldiers with hearing damage or tinnitus avoid seeking out help for their injury upon returning home, according to experts. They often let it go for long periods of time. Incredibly, the average time between someone noticing hearing damage and getting help for it is 7 years.

• Neuroscience innovations may be a way to alleviate severe tinnitus. – Tinnitus cannot be cured completely at this time. However, it’s severity may be linked to maladies caused by serotonin loss, such as depression, sleeplessness, and anxiety. Some veterans with tinnitus have found that anti-depressants combined with other tinnitus therapies eased their chronic condition significantly.