The first class is conductive hearing loss, which is due to an obstruction which hinders sounds from being transmitted through the outer or middle ear. Hearing aids can manage conductive hearing loss if medication or surgery cannot address it.

Sensorineural hearing loss generally refers to damage to the hair cells of the inner ear, to the cochlea, or sometimes to the acoustic nerves. This damage can in most cases not be effectively remedied by medication or surgery, but can be minimized through the use of hearing aids.

Suffering from both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss is called mixed hearing loss and is generally treated with a combination of medication, surgery, and hearing aids.

Damage to the inner ear or auditory nerves preventing a message from being understood by our brain that entered the ear normally, is called central hearing loss.

Each of these four main classifications contain several sub-categories, such as the degree of hearing loss, which can be mid-level, moderate, severe, or profound. Hearing loss is typically classified with additional sub-categories including whether the hearing loss occurs in one or both ears (unilateral vs. bilateral), whether the degree of hearing loss is the same in both ears (symmetrical vs. asymmetrical), or whether the hearing loss occurred before or after learning to speak (pre-lingual or post-lingual). Additional sub-categories of hearing loss includes whether it is progressive vs. sudden, whether the hearing loss is fluctuating vs. stable, and whether the hearing loss was present at birth (congenital) or developed later in life (acquired). If you suffer from any of these forms of hearing loss, our specialists can help to diagnose it and then to treat it most effectively.

In addition, there are differences in battery life between battery manufacturers, and the exact same manufacturer may offer different lines of batteries, some that are supposed to last for a longer period of time than others. Battery life also depends on battery type; for example some varieties are only discharging power when they are in a hearing aid that is switched on, and other types (such as, zinc-air batteries) start burning stored energy as soon as you remove the adhesive strip on the bottom of the battery and they are exposed to oxygen, regardless of whether the hearing aid is turned on or not.

If considering new hearing aids, it’s a good idea to do some research on the different models and the types of batteries they use to help you determine the best choice for your lifestyle. Similarly, a bit of time invested in research may help you locate longer-lasting batteries for your existing hearing aids. Thankfully, when shopping for hearing aid batteries, their manufacturers have made things a little easier for you by standardizing their sizes and color-coding each size; the exact same color codes are used by all hearing aid battery manufacturers. Take a look at the approximated battery life below to get a basic idea of how long hearing aid batteries of each size can be expected to last:

• #10 – Yellow – 80 hours
• #13 – Orange – 240 hours
• #312 – Brown – 175 hours
• #675 – Blue – 300 hours

To ensure the longest life for your batteries when they are in the hearing aid, turn the hearing aid off when you’re not wearing it. To ensure the longest shelf life for hearing aid batteries you’ve purchased but haven’t used yet, store them indoors, at room temperature, and in their original, unopened packaging.

If it turns out to be high-frequency hearing loss, you’re not alone; this is the most common form of hearing loss. There are many possible causes; among the possibilities are aging, exposure to loud noises, certain diseases and certain drugs. The good news is that high-frequency hearing loss can generally be counteracted with technology.

One effective option involves the fitting of digital hearing aids, whose sophisticated electronics can be programmed to respond differently to sounds at different frequencies. For people with high-frequency hearing loss, the digital hearing aid raises the volume of high-frequency (high-pitched) sounds more than it raises the volume of the lower-frequency (low-pitched) sounds. Another treatment option is the use of open-fit hearing aids, which leave your ear canal open or partially open, so that low-frequency and mid-frequency sounds enter the ear normally, and only the high-frequency sounds are amplified. Cochlear implants provide a third option for treating high-frequency hearing loss. This is a more expensive solution because the implantation procedure requires minor surgery, but it can be effective in the treatment of conditions such as nerve deafness and industrial deafness.

But the first step to finding a solution to your hearing problem is to have an examination, and allow our specialists to determine what the nature of it actually is. Your hearing exam could reveal that your high-frequency hearing loss is caused by a treatable blockage such as a build up of ear wax and can be easily corrected.If you are currently having trouble hearing women’s and children’s voices, stop worrying about what might be causing it and make an appointment to get the true answer.

To start with, if you have hearing loss in one ear but your hearing in the other is normal, you obviously do not need a second hearing aid. Similarly, if you are completely and irrecoverably deaf in one ear, wearing a hearing aid in that ear is not going to help. Some people experience chronic and recurring ear infections, which can in many cases be aggravated by hearing aids, so in this case wearing a single aid may be an advantage. Or, if you have a specific form of hearing loss where the speech is heard garbled, a hearing aid in that ear may make your comprehension worse by amplifying the garbled speech. Outside of these four situations, the arguments for using two hearing aids are fairly strong and backed up by numerous consumer satisfaction surveys among hearing aid users. You will hear a more realistic sound panorama while wearing two hearing aids, and you will also be more able to pinpoint the location of the sounds that you hear. Studies have shown that most people are able to hear and understand speech better when wearing two aids, because the perceived volume of sound is higher with two hearing aids, which is even more true in a noisy environment.

One factor that is very important is that if you have hearing loss in both ears, wearing only one hearing aid can deprive the other ear of stimulation, causing it to further deteriorate and risking the possibility of total hearing loss in that ear. Two hearing aids are almost always better for people who have tinnitus, because hearing aids mask the ringing or buzzing sound, and wearing only one aid will allow it to continue in the other ear. Finally, many studies have shown that wearing two hearing aids is less tiring than wearing only one.

So the arguments for wearing two hearing aids seem to outweigh those for wearing only one. But if you still have your doubts, test it for yourself by making an appointment to see us. You will be able to hear the difference for yourself between one hearing aid and two. Experience tell us that you’ll probably agree that two are better than one.

Central Auditory Processing Disorder affects as many as 2% to 5% of school-age children, and as many as half of the children are diagnosed as having a learning disability. One of the characteristics of Central Auditory Processing Disorder is that children who have it have difficulties recognizing subtle differences between the sounds of similar words, even though they have no problem hearing the words. This inability to understand words often becomes worse in noisy environments, but is not as present in quiet environments.

This can make Central Auditory Processing Disorder hard to detect. A child that can hear and intrepret speech well in a quiet environment will generally have no problems passing a hearing test administered in a quiet environment. As a result, their audiogram results may appear normal, but they may nevertheless have difficulties distinguishing similar words, locating where sounds are coming from, recognizing repetitive patterns in high and low sounds, or hearing more than one person's voice at a time.

The symptoms of Central Auditory Processing Disorder also tend to appear in other areas of life, as the child struggles to deal with not being able to understand people speaking to them or around them. The disorder may manifest itself in a difficulty following instructions, being easily distracted by loud noises, appearing forgetful or disorganized, or slow to develop reading, spelling and language skills. Since standard hearing test for these children often yield normal results, these indicators are often mistaken for other disorders such as ADHD or depression. In reality, CAPD can be present alone or combined with these other disorders, presenting a difficult diagnostic challenge.

It is important for these children's development that problems with CAPD be identified early so that treatment and correction of the difficulties can begin as soon as possible. A standard hearing test doesn't rule out CAPD. If you detect any of these signs in your children, schedule a professional hearing test that can replicate the conditions where the child struggles.

The smoke alarms standard in most houses and those required by city and local governments produce a very loud warning sound at a frequency between 3,000 and 4,000 Hz. This approach is acceptable for most people, but the fact is that these frequencies are among those most vulnerable to age-related hearing loss, so older adults or people who have sustained other types of hearing loss can't hear them. So even if you had been awake, if you are among the more than 11 million people in America with hearing loss, there is a chance that you wouldn't hear the alarm.

Luckily, there are home safety products that are expressly created for the requirements of the hearing impaired. For those with mild to moderate hearing loss, there are smoke detectors that emit a 520 Hz square-wave warning sound that they can generally hear. For people who are completely deaf, or who cannot hear whatsoever when they take out their hearing aids or turn off their cochlear implants (CIs) at night when they go to bed, there are alarm systems that combine extremely loud noises, blinking lights, and vibrators that shake your mattress. For complete home safety, many of these newer devices have been developed to be incorporated into more extensive home protection systems to warn you in case of burglars, or if emergency services are hammering on your doors.

To hear other sounds which might indicate danger, many hearing-impaired people have installed induction loops in their houses for boosting the performance of their hearing aids or CIs. These systems are in essence long strands of wire placed in a loop around your living room, kitchen, or bedrooms. These serve to activate the telecoils embedded in your hearing aid or cochlear implant that raise the volume of sound; this can be very helpful in emergency situations.

We should not forget the basic telephone, which is indispensable during an emergency of any sort. Thankfully, many contemporary mobile and residential telephones are now telecoil-compatible, to permit their use by individuals wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants. Other models integrate speakerphone systems with very high volumes that can be easily used by the hearing impaired, and more importantly, can be voice-activated. These phones allow you to voice-dial for help in an emergency situation, or if you needed assistance of any kind. Other manufacturers make vibrating wristbands that communicate with your mobile phone to wake you up or advise you if you get a phone call.

Naturally, some home safety tips for the hearing impaired are the exact same as for people who can hear well, such as keeping lists of your health care providers, emergency service providers, and hospitals close by. We are as serious about your basic safety as we are about your hearing, so if we can be of assistance with any further tips or suggestions, feel free to give us a call.

There are also many symptoms linked to hearing loss, one of the most common of which is a growing difficulty hearing or understanding conversations. People's speaking voices might seem to be at low volume or sound muffled . Alternatively, you might be able to hear people talking but notice that you are having difficulty distinguishing individual words; this may become more noticeable when multiple people are speaking simultaneously, or when you are in noisy rooms.

Other signs that you may have sustained some hearing loss include turning up the volume on your radio or television much higher than in the past, not being able to distinguish certain high-pitched sounds (such as 's' or 'th') from one another, and having greater difficulty hearing men's voices than women's voices. Other types of hearing loss may be indicated if you notice a persistent ringing or humming in the ears, if you feel pain, irritation or itching in the ears, and if you have episodes of dizziness or vertigo.

One of the challenges with hearing loss is that it can occur so gradually that people are themselves not aware of it. Or they may notice it but exhibit "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 often, avoiding conversations and social situations, acting as if you've heard stuff that you really didn't, and emotions of depression or isolation.

If these symptoms sound familiar to you, it is time to schedule an appointment with one of our hearing specialists. They can give you a hearing test to figure out if you have experienced hearing loss, and if so, can help you to do something about it.

Analog hearing aids handle inbound sounds by taking the electrical sound waves as they leave a microphone and amplifying them "as is" before sending them to the speakers in your ears. Digital hearing aids take the sound waves from the microphone and convert them to digital binary code, the "bits and bytes" and "zeros and ones" that all digital devices understand. This digital information can then be manipulated in many complex ways by the micro-chip within the hearing aid, prior to being converted back into ordinary analog signals and sent to the speakers.

Analog and digital hearing aids carry out the same work – they take sounds and boost them to allow you to hear better. Both analog and digital hearing aids can be programmable, meaning that they contain microchips which can be modified to adjust sound quality to suit the individual user, and to create various settings for different listening environments. The programmable hearing aids can, for instance, have one particular setting for use in quiet rooms, another for listening in noisy restaurants, and still another setting for listening in large stadiums.

Digital hearing aids, due to their capacity to manipulate the sounds in digital form, generally offer more features and flexibility, and are commonly user-configurable. For example, digital hearing aids may offer numerous channels and memories, permitting them to store more location-specific profiles. They can also employ advanced rules to identify and reduce background noise, to remove feedback and whistling, or to selectively prefer the sound of human voices and "follow" them using directional microphones.

Cost-wise, most analog hearing aids are still less expensive than digital hearing aids, but some reduced-feature digital hearing aids are now in a similar general price range. There is commonly a perceivable difference in sound quality, but the question of whether analog or digital is "better" is entirely up to the individual, and the ways that they are used .