Better Hearing Blog

Judging by how much young people rely on their smart phones, tablets, and other electronic devices to stay connected, they may envy the Bluetooth capabilities of their parents’ and grandparents’ hearing instruments. Bluetooth is a wireless communication platform that allows for the transfer of data between two or more electronic devices. It can be accessed by Bluetooth-enabled hearing instruments through a compatible assistive listening device (ALD), known as a “streamer,” or a smart phone. The audio signal can usually be set to stream to one or both hearing instruments and can be amplified and shaped to match the hearing aid’s personalized settings. In the case of a music player, the hearing instruments effectively become a set of wireless ear buds.

If you currently own hearing aids, chances are good that your hearing aids are already Bluetooth compatible. For more information, please call BETTER HEARING CENTER. We are the only hearing center that has served the Concord, New Hampshire, area for more than 55 years. Don’t put off the enjoyment of the sounds in your life any longer. New Hampshire’s premier hearing care provider.

P.S. Apple’s patented Bluetooth connectivity with hearing instruments enables certain hearing aids to communicate directly with the iOS platform that runs iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices.

Osteoporosis, a bone-thinning disease that is associated with declining bone density and fractures, has recently been linked with “sudden onset hearing loss.” This type of hearing loss, which usually occurs in one ear, either all at once or over a period of a few days, is usually “idiopathic” (meaning the cause is never known). However, this new finding that those with osteoporosis are 76 percent more likely to develop sudden onset hearing loss may help explain the cause of some cases. While the study does not prove a definite cause-and-effect relationship between osteoporosis and sudden onset hearing loss, it is thought that inflammation and/or mineral loss in the three tiny bones of the middle ear may play a role. Osteoporosis, a bone-thinning disease that is associated with declining bone density and fractures, has recently been linked with “sudden onset hearing loss.” This type of hearing loss, which usually occurs in one ear, either all at once or over a period of a few days, is usually “idiopathic” (meaning the cause is never known). However, this new finding that those with osteoporosis are 76 percent more likely to develop sudden onset hearing loss may help explain the cause of some cases. While the study does not prove a definite cause-and-effect relationship between osteoporosis and sudden onset hearing loss, it is thought that inflammation and/or mineral loss in the three tiny bones of the middle ear may play a role.

It is important that people who have osteoporosis stay vigilant in caring for their hearing. If you’d like to learn more, see your hearing health provider. To schedule a hearing assessment, please call BETTER HEARING CENTER. We perform hearing tests, fit patients for hearing aids, and provide one-on-one consultations, among our other services. New Hampshire’s premier hearing care provider.

P.S. The three tiny bones (“ossicles”) of the inner ear, the “malleus,” “incus,” and “stapes,” transmit sounds to the inner ear.

In order for babies to have positive speech, language, and listening outcomes, infants must undergo hearing-loss screening. For those who don’t pass initial screenings, the most critical diagnostic test is the Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test. An accurate and reliable predictor of hearing loss in infants, this simple, non-invasive procedure measures electrical impulses as a means of providing important information on a child’s auditory system. Simply put, ABR measures how sound travels through specific anatomical sites that act as “relay stations” along the auditory pathway, from the outer ear to the brainstem. The ABR measurement provides information on the degree, type, and configuration of a hearing loss, thereby allowing the infant to be fitted with a hearing instrument when needed.

The most important time for a child to learn language is in the first three years of life, when the brain is developing and maturing. Research suggests that children with hearing loss who get help early develop better language skills than those who don’t. To schedule an appointment, please call BETTER HEARING CENTER today. As the only hearing center that has served the Concord, New Hampshire, area for more than 55 years, we are New Hampshire’s premier hearing care provider.

P.S. Infants under the age of 6 months generally do not need sedation to undergo Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) testing.

It is estimated that 86 million Americans (more than one out of three) has “pre-diabetes,” which develops before type-2 diabetes. Moreover, 90 percent of these individuals are unaware that they are pre-diabetic. Pre-diabetes is characterized by blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Fortunately, research shows that if people take action to manage their blood glucose when they have pre-diabetes, they can delay or prevent type-2 diabetes. Why is this important? Among other things, the National Institutes for Health (NIH) reports that hearing loss is about twice as common among diabetics as those who do not suffer from the disease. Treating pre-diabetes, therefore, may spare a pre-diabetic’s hearing.

Keep in mind that because noise is generally a factor for hearing loss, it’s possible that people with diabetes are particularly susceptible to the negative effects of sustained loud noise. To schedule an appointment, please call BETTER HEARING CENTER. Your choice of hearing care professionals is a critical, long-lasting decision. Future consultations and hearing aid maintenance will ensure that your hearing care experience continues to satisfy you. New Hampshire’s premier hearing care provider.

P.S. One in three diabetics will have trouble with their hearing because of complications from their elevated blood glucose.

One of the primary complaints of older hearing instruments revolved around the problem of “acoustic feedback,” which occurs when some of the amplified sound leaks from the ear canal back into the microphone and becomes re-amplified. This cycle of leakage and re-amplification (known as the “feedback cycle”) results in a loud squealing sound that wearers find disconcerting, to say the least. While this problem used to be addressed by increasing the acoustic seal of earmolds, the fix often proved uncomfortable. The good news is that today’s hearing instruments have “adaptive feedback cancellation” systems, which constantly monitor the part of the signal played back by the receiver that returns to the microphones and remove it before it is re-amplified.

We offer an array of affordable hearing aid options to meet every budget, cosmetic and hearing loss need. We use a personalized approach in recommending hearing aid options to best meet every patient’s preferences. For more information, please call BETTER HEARING CENTER. We are the only hearing center that has served the Concord, New Hampshire, area for more than 55 years. New Hampshire’s premier hearing care provider.

P.S. Adaptive feedback cancellation can also play a role in “echo cancellation,” which removes the echo from vocal sounds, thereby improving the voice quality of telephone communications.

The term “cocktail party effect” refers to the human ability to focus on a single speaker while tuning out noisy background noise. Research indicates that the left side of our brains picks out the desired sounds from the background noise. This makes sense when you take into account that speech signals are processed in the left brain. When researchers monitored the brain’s response to different sound combinations, it was observed that the left hemisphere displayed the most neural activity associated with processing sounds in a noisy setting. While no one is suggesting that today’s highly sophisticated hearing instruments are on a par with the brain when it comes to picking out desired sounds in noisy environments, they do remarkably well.

Hearing loss is a common health concern for many people, and it can result from a number of different causes. The good news is that some types of hearing loss are preventable. With just a few small changes in habit and increased awareness, the effort to preserve your hearing can have a big payoff in the future. To schedule a hearing assessment, please call BETTER HEARING CENTER. We’re excited to assist you in making decisions about your hearing health at New Hampshire’s premier hearing care provider.

P.S. The more formal term for the ability to focus on a specific source amidst the din of a crowded room is “selective hearing.”