QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What will happen during your visit to Better Hearing Center?

• We will listen. We need to know your thoughts and feelings about your hearing, how it affects your life, and your expectations about possible solutions.

• Using the latest technology, we’ll perform a thorough examination of your ears for any physical condition that might be cause for further medical evaluation. You will be able to “see” inside your ear canal using our video-otoscope.

• We will perform a variety of hearing tests, using tones and words, to help us quantify your hearing.

• After a detailed explanation of the examination and test results, we will recommend the most appropriate course of action and rehabilitation process.

Can My Type of Hearing Loss Be Helped?

In virtually all cases, nerve deafness can be helped through amplification. Other types of impairment may be medically treatable.

Any treatment starts with a screening of your hearing by a doctor or hearing professional. Once you know the nature and extent of the hearing loss, you’ll be able to make your own decisions about treatment.

Under any circumstance, regular examinations and hearing tests will provide a certain answer. Some people discover their problem is just too much earwax!

Can Hearing Aids Restore My Hearing To Normal?

Just as their name suggests, these devices can only aid your hearing, what ever its condition. They can't restore hearing nor retard the progression of nerve deafness.

There are two things to know right from the start. One, hearing instruments don’t sound the same as having your old hearing. And two, adjusting to wearing them takes time. Just like getting comfortable with a pair of bifocals, you may experience some frustration at first, but it will pass in time.

Because learning to hear again is an ongoing process, you may need to have your hearing instruments fine-tuned for best results.

Can the New Digital Hearing Aids Automatically Eliminate Unwanted Background Noise?

No instruments, no matter how sophisticated, can do what only the human brain does: selectively cancel out noise that you perceive as undesirable.

Better understanding with amplification in noisy environments will vary due to the type and degree of hearing loss, accuracy of the instrument fitting, and most importantly, your ability and patience as you relearn to hear with amplified sound.

My Hearing Aids Seem Too Expensive. Will Bargain Hearing Aids Work Just as Well?

Better hearing through technology is within the reach of most people. The real issue is quality of life, and what it’s worth to you. While good hearing instruments are seen as expensive, putting a price on a better life experience is hard to do. You have to weigh the benefits and make your own decision. However you choose to look at it, treating hearing loss and enjoying the benefits is still relatively inexpensive compared to treating most health problems.

Mail-order hearing aids, or those purchased online lack one critical ingredient: The expertise and care of a licensed hearing professional. You're not likely to trust other aspects of your health care to a mail-order solution, so why do it with something as essential as your hearing?

Am I Too Old to Benefit From Hearing Aids?

Chances are, no matter what your age, you rely on your hearing to maintain connection with the world, and communicate with those close to you.

Hearing loss can interfere with the quality of your life, restricting your ability to interact with others, causing misunderstandings and fatigue, heightening stress and filtering out the myriad of sound experiences that give pleasure and meaning to life. And not incidentally, hearing loss can be a safety issue. What happens when you don’t hear the smoke detector?

How would it make others feel if you're not willing to try improving this vital activity?

Isn't Wearing a Hearing Aid a Sign of Old Age?

Things are changing. Just as hearing loss is itself no longer the province of the elderly (there are more hearing-impaired people in the 45-64 year-old age category than there are in the over-65 age group), neither is wearing a hearing instrument. Many of the baby boomers now experiencing hearing loss will undoubtedly invest in better hearing sooner than later.

And, as a culture, we’re increasingly showing our preference for treatment over doing nothing — witness the popularity of such investments in life as laser eye surgery and hormone replacement therapy, to name a few. Indeed, doing nothing to help yourself may be seen as a more obvious sign of old age than the problem itself.

If I Had a Hearing Problem, Wouldn't I Know About It?

The truth is, hearing loss happens gradually and the signs are subtle at first. Our own built-in defenses and ability to adapt make it difficult to self-diagnose.

Hearing loss often develops unnoticeably over several years. Most people compensate for the very gradual changes by asking others to repeat, turn the TV up louder, possibly even reading lips. Allowed to continue, these habits mistakenly make you believe there is no problem, or that it has gone away.

A simple Q & A hearing test can help you gain insight, while professional screening can provide a more definitive answer.

Does a Hearing Loss Just Mean That Sounds Need to Be Louder?

In most cases, you can hear people talking, but have difficulty understanding what they're saying. Perhaps you can understand just fine in quiet environments, but have trouble in noisy surroundings or in groups.

Hearing isn’t only about loudness or decibel level. Typically, hearing loss has more to do with the frequency of the sound—that is, its pitch—than its loudness. When hearing loss occurs, it’s harder to hear higher pitches—especially when there is background noise to complicate the picture, such as conversation in a noisy restaurant.

That’s why amplifying incoming sounds alone isn’t as effective in treating hearing loss as amplifying selectively. Making all sounds louder just makes understanding harder. Hearing aids are designed to amplify the specific frequencies you need for better understanding.

HELPFUL LINKS

 Academy of Dispensing Audiologists www.audiologist.org

Alexander Graham Bell www.agbell.org

American Academy of Audiologists www.audiology.org

American Speech-Language-Hearing www.asha.org

Association

American Tinnitus Association www.ata.org

Audiology Online www.audiologyonline.com

Healthy Hearing www.healthyhearing.com

National Association of the Deaf www.nad.org

Self Help for the Hard of Hearing www.shhh.org

Starkey www.starkey.com