HEARING TIPS
Discover the Speech Banana – Just What Is It?
The term "speech banana" brings a lot of funny images to mind, for instance a banana-shaped listening device, but that would be incorrect.The "speech banana" is a specific design depicted on an audiogram. Audiograms are graphs of sound frequency (on the x axis) and...
Which Type of Ear and Hearing Protection Should Shooters Wear
America's fascination with guns is almost unique across the globe; we grew up with television programs and movies about cowboys and police and heroic characters who were all totin' guns and firing them regularly. Constant encounters with these images is one of many...
Hearing Aids and Personal Sound Amplifiers (PSAs) Are Definitely Not the Same
There's a lot of confusion with regards to the difference between these two categories of devices, and that confusion is multiplied by how many ads floating around for low-cost personal sound amplifiers (PSAs), compared with how relatively few you see for hearing...
Swimmer’s Ear Prevention and Treatment
Acute external otitis is an infection of the outer ear canal - the part outside your eardrum. Virtually all people know it by its common name - swimmer's ear. This type of infection was named "swimmer's ear" because it's very often brought on by water remaining in the...
A Primer on Sound Therapy for Hearing Loss and Tinnitus
Sound is a vital part of our world, but like most things, its influence on us depends upon both the quality of the sounds we hear, and the quantity of them. Most of us, for example, take pleasure in listening to music. However, if we are at a concert or are listening...
A Look at the Relationships Between Hearing Loss and Dementia
For those of you who've suffered some form of hearing impairment, do you ever find yourself having to work very hard to understand what is being said to you or around you? This is a sensation that happens even to those wearing hearing aids, because in order for them...
Choosing Between Hearing Aid Replacement or Repair
"Should I repair or replace a damaged hearing aid?" is among the more frequent questions we are asked. Given only that much information, we have to answer truthfully, "It depends." This is an individual choice, and the "correct answer" is as individual as the...
An Overview of the Terms Used in Hearing Loss Classifications
Hearing loss may take a variety of forms and arise as the result of many different causes, and to fully understand them you need to understand the way we hear. Sound enters through the outer ear, which is the portion of the ear on the outside of the head, but also...
An Introduction to Hearing Aid Battery Life
Although it may seem to be a straightforward question to ask how long hearing aid batteries should be expected to last, it's actually not. How long hearing aid batteries last depends upon many factors. Just how long a battery lasts depends on which company...
What Chickens and Fish are Teaching Us about Hearing LossInner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration
Among the sometimes bothersome things about being a hearing specialist is that many of the circumstances we encounter that have caused our patients to lose their hearing can't be reversed. Damage to the tiny, sensitive hair cells of the inner ear is one of the more...