Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Some brands of hearing aid batteries come in standard or high power versions. If your hearing aid is a power aid, then you may need the high power versions. However, if not, then buying high power batteries will not give you extra performance or longer battery life. In fact, they may give you shorter battery life. Here’s why.

According to Elliott Alexander of the Micropower Battery Company , high power batteries are designed to meet the higher current demands of power hearing aids. To design a high power battery, the manufacturer must sacrifice milli-amp hour capacity, so the high power battery will have less capacity than a standard battery.

Thus, if standard batteries meet the current requirements of your hearing aids, then they should last longer than similar high power batteries. This is not to say that high power batteries won’t work in any aid. They will. They just may not last as long and may cost more.

Here’s how you can tell if a battery is a high power battery or not. The letters following the battery size are an indication. For example, number 13 batteries are standard power, while number 13HP (Toshiba), 13EH (Rayovac) and 13P (PowerOne) are all high power batteries. The same letter combinations also hold true for number 675 batteries.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Traditionally, hearing aid users, which includes me, have been less than satisfied with their hearing aids. In fact, between 1989 and 2000, only 54% to 60% of hearing aid users were happy with their hearing aids.

However, in the past year or so, things have changed for the better. Those who have purchased hearing aids in the past year or so are much more satisfied than previously was the case. In fact, the rate of satisfaction jumped up to 77.5% in 2004 according to the latest MarkeTrak survey!

Also, the number of hearing aids that are tossed in the dresser drawer to languish there has decreased from 17.9% in 1994 to only 3.8% in 2004 for those who had purchased new hearing aids in the past year.

This is good news for hard of hearing people. Obviously the design and features in the latest hearing aids are meeting the needs of more and more hard of hearing people, accounting for this sudden change in user satisfaction.

Thus, if you are not satisfied with your current hearing aids, and they are several years old now, you may be pleasantly surprised at how much better you like the latest hearing aids. At the very least, maybe you should check out some of the latest models and see how well they work for you.

As for me, I’m keeping my eye on the new Adaptive Dynamic Range Optimization (ADRO) technology that is beginning to be used in hearing aids. Maybe this will finally make me a satisfied hearing aid user.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

I received an interesting email which read, in part, “My sister’s hearing has increased so much that she wears ear plugs during the day, especially when her children start crying or screaming. Every little sound bothers her ears. She also has some balance problems. If there is inner ear damage, wouldn’t her hearing be reduced, not increase?”

Excellent question. You would think inner ear damage would result in hearing loss and not increased hearing, wouldn’t you? Let me explain.

Your sister does not really have increased hearing. It just seems that way. What has happened is that her perception of sound has changed so that she now perceives normal, everyday sounds as being far too loud.

She has is a condition called hyperacusis. Hyperacusis can be brought on by various things. For example, exposing your ears to loud noise–such as a sudden explosion, or from taking certain ear-damaging drugs. It can also be result from head trauma or even surgery, and possibly by a virus attacking your inner ears.

A somewhat similar condition, called recruitment, only affects hard of hearing people. Recruitment is caused by the reduced dynamic range you get when you lose some of your hearing. However, the results are basically the same–you can’t stand certain normal, everyday sounds any more. They now sound so loud that they hurt.

People who do not have either recruitment (which I have) or hyperacusis don’t have a clue just how loud and painful these everyday sounds appear to be.

To learn more about hyperacusis, what causes it, and more importantly what you can do to help relieve it, point your browser to http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/products/books.htm#hyperacusis.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Someone asked me, “When setting up a loop for a small area, does it make a difference if I use a double-wire loop or a single-wire loop when using the Univox 2A system?” Good question.

According to the manufacturer, a double-wire loop is only a bit more powerful than a single-wire loop. So feel free to use either a double-wire loop or single-wire loop, whatever your preference. (The single-wire loop is a bit easier and faster to set up.)

Personally, I like to use the double-wire loop since I use lamp cord for the loop and it already has two parallel wires in it. (It doesn’t do my Scottish heart any good to “waste” the extra wire.)

Tip: When using a loop, it’s always better to have a stronger loop signal rather than a weaker loop signal. That way you can keep the volume on your hearing aid (t-coil) down. With the hearing aid volume down, your t-coils don’t pick up as much interference from things such as nearby wiring in the walls and electrical appliances.

Having a weaker loop signal and turning up your hearing aid volume (in t-coil mode) can give you just as loud a signal as the above method–but you may hear a lot of annoying buzzing at the same time.

If you want an interference-free system (or as close to interference-free as possible), have a “loud” loop while keeping the volume down on your hearing aids. This is particularly important if you already have interference in the room where you have installed your loop.

For more information on these wonderful loop systems, and how and why you would want to use them, point your browser to http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/articles/loopsystems.htm.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A good number of hard of hearing people hear phantom music. I get emails like this one all the time.

“My husband hears phantom music and was embarressed to tell me. He is quite normal. Is a ear, nose and throat doctor the first doctor to visit. He talked to his regular doctor who said he didn’t know much about it and said he would get back to him but has not.”

Unfortunately few doctors, whether ear specialists or not, know much, if anything, about the phantom music many hard of hearing people hear, thus they are not much help in providing a solution.

However, there are solutions. You can read a very helpful article on this subject called Musical Ear Syndrome (MES) at http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/articles/mes.htm.

For more in-depth information on Musical Ear Syndrome I suggest you read my new informative book, Phantom Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky Sounds. It not only shows numerous causes of MES, but also explains 8 ways to control or eliminate it. Just point your browser to http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/products/phantomvoicesbook.htm.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

The Center for Hearing Loss Help has just released a free, new visor card designed specifically to meet the needs of hard of hearing people.

Used correctly, visor cards can effectively help bridge the communications gap whenever a hard of hearing person is stopped by the police, especially at night.

To learn all about how and why to use visor cards, and to obtain your free hard of hearing visor card, point your browser to http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/articles/visorcards.htm.