Do I Need Hearing Aids?
Do you need Hearing Aids?
I hope this short article will help you decide or at least convince you to have your hearing checked. A common type of hearing loss is one in which you have normal or nearly normal hearing in the low- and mid-pitched sounds, but have hearing loss in the high-pitched sounds. Some examples of low-pitched sounds in speech are vowel sounds like "o, ooh, ah, a, e," etc.
What Are Some Of The Signs You Might Need Hearing Aids?
If you frequently complain that people are whispering or mumbling or if you’re always asking people to repeat what they have said. Do you have increased difficulty understanding others with background noise such as noisy rooms, social occasions, or family gatherings? Do you prefer the television or radio louder than everyone else. If you have difficulty understanding people when you cannot see their faces. Do you have trouble hearing at the movies or theater, church or public gatherings? Maybe you are Becoming more impatient, irritable, frustrated, or withdrawn.
Some examples of high-pitched sounds in speech are "f, s, th, etc. These high-pitched consonant sounds carry the meaning of words so they help us understand speech, but tend to be very soft in volume. The low-pitched vowel sounds carry the volume of speech, but do not have much meaning. Therefore, vowel sounds help us hear speech, but do not help us understand what is said. In normal conversation, speech might sound loud enough but not quite clear enough if a hearing loss is present. This problem is worsened in background noise, since background noise will interfere with and cover up the speech you are trying to listen to. This problem is often associated with sensorineural hearing loss, which results from damage in the inner ear and/or in the auditory nerve endings.
How Hearing Aids Can Help You:
- Digital Hearing Aids especially can improve your ability to understand speech (such as conversations) by amplifying the sounds (such as high-pitched consonants) not audible to the individual. The extent a hearing aid can improve speech understanding will depend on the degree of the person's hearing loss and how much noise is present in the listening situations.
- Hearing aids make sounds louder (amplify sounds) so that you can hear them. The goal is to make soft sounds audible, the sound of normal conversation comfortable, and loud sounds loud, but not too loud.
- Some hearing aids can amplify high-pitched consonant sounds more than low-pitched vowel sounds to help you hear better in noisy situations. There are no hearing aids, however, that can completely eliminate troublesome background noise.
Hearing Facts:
- A large number of surveys shows that the use of hearing aids causes significant improvement in the quality of life of hearing impaired people.
- Did you know that About 3-4 in every 1,000 newborns have significant hearing loss. It can be inherited or caused by illness or injury.
- Hearing aids improve life for hearing impaired elderly as well as for the relatives with whom they interact.
I have completed a lot of research while studying my own hearing aid dilemma. Before I could make a decision I needed to know a lot more about hearing aids which are the best and cheapest for my money and particular hearing problem. Would cheap hearing aids work for me or would I need to spend thoousand of dollars, One audiologist thought that the Seimens Artis would be good. But for me they were a little pricey although I found several good deal on them. In the end I chose digital mail order bte hearing aids from eBay.
Have Your Hearing Checked Today To See If Hearing Aids Can Help You
A hearing test usually comprises a number of different examinations, e.g. pure tone test, middle ear test. When taken together, they can determine whether or not a person is suffering from hearing loss, and to what extent. nidcd
Hearing Aids Information:
Ear and Hearing - Current Table Of Contents
Ear and Hearing - August 2008, Volume 29, Issue 4
The Performance/Intensity Function: An Underused Resource.
The PI function shows the cumulative distribution of speech information across amplitude, as speech rises from inaudibility to full audibility. It can be modeled by a cubed exponential function with three parameters representing threshold, slope, and maximum performance. Phoneme scoring of responses to consonantvowel- consonant words makes it possible to obtain complete PI functions in a reasonably short time with acceptable test-retest reliability. In clinical applications, the function provides valuable information over and above that which would be obtained from measurement of SRT and PBMax alone. It is an easily available, but largely neglected resource for hearing research and clinical audiology.Page: 479DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0b013e318174f067Authors: Boothroyd, ArthurAn Exploratory Look at Pediatric Cochlear Implantation: Is Earliest Always Best?
This study examined the effect of age at implantation on speech perception and language development in deaf children who received cochlear implants in the first four years of life, including a small group implanted in the first year. Potential pitfalls of very early implantation, such as anesthetic risk and mistaken diagnosis of profound deafness, are discussed. In general, outcomes were better for earlier implanted children but the additional benefits of implantation in the first year of life rather than later were modest. Finally, the results support the existence of a sensitive period for the development of spoken language during the first four years of life.Page: 492DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0b013e31816c409fAuthors: Holt, Rachael Frush 1; Svirsky, Mario A. 2Changes in the DP-Gram During the Preterm and Early Postnatal Period.
This study described changes in the DP-gram during an age continuum spanning the preterm period and first six months of postnatal life. DP-grams were recorded from 290 premature and term born infants and 48 adults using typical clinical parameters. Infant DPOAE levels were 4-12 dB higher than adult responses. Levels increased throughout the preterm period and generally decreased as f2 frequency increased. A shallow trough configuration was often evident. In contrast, during postnatal life, DPOAE level changed little as a function of age and was relatively flat across frequency. Clinical implications and possible sources of the age effects are discussed.Page: 512DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0b013e31816c40bbAuthors: Abdala, Carolina 1; Oba, Sandra I. 1; Ramanathan, Rangasamy 2Distribution of Hearing Loss Characteristics in a Clinical Population.
This report describes distributions of hearing loss configuration, severity, and site of lesion, obtained from a large clinical database of audiograms analyzed by AMCLASS™, a validated method for classifying audiograms. The most prevalent types were sloping configuration, mild and moderate severities, and sensorineural site of lesion. One third of all ears had normal hearing and 25% of patients had normal hearing in both ears. The results may be useful for comparing clinical groups and for counseling patients regarding the relationship of their hearing loss to that of a large population.Page: 524DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0b013e3181731e2eAuthors: Margolis, Robert H. 1,2; Saly, George L. 2,3Thank you for visiting the Hearing Aid Factsheet!
