In 1927, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) designated May as Better Hearing and Speech Month. Encouraging people to think about their own hearing and get their hearing checked is the first step towards addressing the issue of hearing loss.
Noise is now acknowledged as an important public health issue and is actually a top environmental risk faced by the world today, according to the World Health Organization’s first World Report on Hearing.
The average person is born with about 16,000 hair cells within the inner ear, which allow your brain to detect sounds. You can lose 30-50% of those cells before changes in your hearing can be measured by a hearing test. Noise can also damage the auditory nerve that carries information about sounds to your brain. Although there is no treatment to restore normal hearing once it has been damaged, there are steps you can take to help prevent hearing loss.
- Turn the volume down on your TV or music.
- If you can, avoid loud or noisy activities or places; if you can’t avoid them, try to limit your exposure time and take breaks from the noise.
- If you’re around loud sounds, use hearing protection (such as foam earplugs) and move away from the largest sound source (i.e. speakers, fireworks, etc).
Early identification and intervention for hearing loss is important. Unidentified hearing loss causes many people to fail to realize they are missing certain words and sounds. Our highly-trained Doctors of Audiology have completed several years of specialized education in order to appropriately treat patients for a variety of auditory conditions, including hearing loss.
With advances in cutting-edge technology, hearing aid manufacturers like Starkey, Phonak, and Resound all offer high-quality products to improve your hearing. Our Doctors of Audiology can help discover the best option for you based on your personal needs and lifestyle.
- Starkey’s Edge AI hearing aids are the smallest wireless custom hearing aids available. Each device is expertly tailored to your unique hearing needs for optimal clarity. With cutting-edge technology that mimics the brain’s auditory cortex, it classifies complex soundscapes, enhances speech, and reduces noise in real-time. Built to handle everyday challenges, these hearing aids are waterproof and sweatproof, and some models even offer a battery life up to 51 hours on a single charge.
- Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio hearing aids provide crystal-clear sound quality and feature an AI chip for advanced sound processing and personalized hearing experiences. Available in a wide range of colors to match your personal style, these are designed for all-day comfort and confidence.
- Resound’s Intelligence Augmented technology, a human approach to AI, you can embrace the vividness of life from all the sounds around you while hearing through the noise as nature intended. Vivia is the smallest RIC style hearing aid with dual chip, triple processors to contrast unwanted noise from speech, and has the world’s first Auracast Assistant for hearing aids.
Our audiologists will perform your evaluation and help determine if hearing aids are the correct remedy for your issue(s) and which device will meet your personal needs. They will help program your hearing aids and provide support for any questions you may have.