Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

You’ve all heard of sound bytes (short pithy chunks of speech), but this interesting hearing aid literally puts the bite on sound. That’s why they named it the SoundBite.

According to their web site, “Sonitus Medical^TM is pioneering the development of the world’s first non-surgical, removable hearing and communication solution that is designed to imperceptibly transmit sound via the teeth.”

Well, I’ve got news for their “hype writers”. Far from being the first, they are actually a “Johnny come lately”—489 years late to be exact. You see, hearing through your teeth is nothing new. Some of the earliest “hearing aids” were held in the teeth and thus transmitted sounds to the inner ear via bone conduction. There are published reports of such devices as early as A.D. 1521, although “dental hearing aids” did not become popular until Richard Rhodes of Chicago, IL patented and began selling his Audiphone in 1879. (That’s still 131 years ago!) Surprisingly, this Audiphone produced up to 35 dB of amplification.

Actually, using the teeth to transmit sound vibrations to the cochlea is not as strange as it might seem at first glance. The late Dr. Berger explained, “It may surprise some to learn that sound conducted through the teeth is a more efficient bone conduction route than that through the skull, particularly for low-frequency sounds.” So maybe the SoundBite’s time has come.

With the advent of the SoundBite, we have yet another acronym to add to the already prolific “alphabet soup” of hearing aids. Thus, in addition to BTE, ITE, ITC, and CIC hearing aids, we now have to add—ITM (in-the-mouth) hearing aids.

The Sonitus SoundBite is currently in clinical trials in the USA. It is being touted as a solution for people with single-sided deafness, and for those with conductive hearing losses. As such it would be another alternative to Cochlear’s Bone- Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) and Ear Technology’s TransEar bone conduction hearing aid.

The SoundBite consists of two parts. First, there is what looks like a traditional BTE hearing aid. The BTE portion contains the microphone and a tiny transmitter that wirelessly transmits the sounds it receives to what looks like an overgrown dental retainer that fits beside the upper molars. The in-the-mouth piece is custom fitted from tooth impressions made by your dentist (much as ear molds are custom made by your audiologist to fit your ears).

One side of the ITM piece houses the amplifier and tooth conduction vibrator while the other side contains the rechargeable battery. The SoundBite is custom fitted for either the left and right side of your mouth, depending whether your left or right ear has the hearing loss.

I don’t know whether I’d want to wear an in-the-mouth hearing aid, but you will shortly have that option.

Learn more about the SoundBite hearing aid here, and see a good set of pictures of this new hearing aid here.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Until the mid 1990s, Acetaminophen (known as Paracetamol in Europe) was not thought to be ototoxic at all. Thus in the second edition of my book, “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed” I do not even mention Acetaminophen.

All that has changed. New research has revealed that rather than not being ototoxic at all, Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is actually quite ototoxic.

Thus people who take high doses of Vicodin (a combination of Acetaminophen and Hydrocodone) for a number of months can develop almost total hearing loss.

Since Acetaminophen was “not ototoxic”, I assumed that it was the Hydrocodone that caused the massive hearing losses being reported. Not so according to research conducted at the House Ear Institute. They found, to their surprise, that it was the Acetaminophen that was ototoxic and not the Hydrocodone.

You see, in high doses, Acetaminophen kills the liver, thus you die before massive hearing loss has a chance to develop. However, the researchers found that when taking Hydrocodone with Acetaminophen, somehow the Hydrocodone protected the liver. Thus you lived to tell the tale, but massive hearing loss could be a result.

Now, another study, reported in the American Journal of Medicine (Vol. 123, Issue 3, March, 2010), reveals that even just taking low doses of Acetaminophen over several years results in increased risk of hearing loss.

For example, in a study of 26,917 men between the ages of 40 and 75 at the beginning of the study, men that used Acetaminophen at least twice a week had a 22% increased risk of hearing loss. However, when only men under the age of 50 were considered, the increased risk factor skyrocketed to 99%.

This reveals that Acetaminophen, when taken regularly over as few as 1 to 4 years can slowly and insidiously destroy your hearing without your even being aware of it. You have been warned.

To learn which drugs are (or can be) ototoxic, see “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed“. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 763 drugs, 30 herbs and 148 chemicals.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Ear Technology Inc. has done it again! “Done what?” you ask. They’ve come up with another cool product. You probably first knew them for their Cadillac of hearing aid drying and disinfecting systems—the Dry & Store. Then about 3 or 4 years ago they designed their unique TransEar BTE bone conduction hearing aid for people with single-sided deafness. The TransEar uses a special ear mold as the bone conductor.

Now they’ve come up with a new concept in hearing aid programming and design—what they call the Clik system—where all the programming is done with the click of a button on the hearing aid itself. There is no need for computers, programming interface boxes, etc.

What this means is that instead of programming this hearing aid in the sterile, quiet environment of your audiologist’s office, you can both step out into the street and program it right there for those exact noisy listening conditions.

What’s even cooler, is that if you are a savvy hearing aid wearer, you can program this hearing aid yourself. (Your audiologist will have to show you the programming “trick” first.) This means you can program/tweak the Clik hearing aid in your home, or office, or wherever you typically spend your time in order to get optimal hearing with it under real-life conditions.

The Clik hearing aid is specifically designed for the millions of people who have the typical mild to moderate ski-slope (high-frequency) hearing loss. It comes with 5 algorithms pre-programmed for quiet environments, and another 5 algorithms for noisy situations.

In addition, the Clik hearing aid comes with not one, but two t-coils—something I’ve been wanting for years. One t-coil is vertically polarized for use with telephones and neckloops, and the other t-coil is horizontally polarized for use with room loops. That way you almost always get optimal coupling with any magnetic induction device. Furthermore, the hearing aid automatically uses the t-coil with the louder signal—you don’t have to fool around switching between them.

The Clik hearing aid is simple to use. One button controls the volume. The second button controls its three memories—one for quiet, one for noise, and the third for t-coil use.

I love their sense of humor. Instead of one beep for memory one, two beeps for memory two etc., they give you the typical sounds for which these various memories are used. Thus for the noise setting you hear a short burst of (white) noise. When switching into the t-coil mode, you momentarily hear a dial tone. Cool, huh? (For the quiet setting, since you can’t hear “quiet”, it has to beep to let you know you are in that memory.)

You have full control over the volume—you set it to what is comfortable for you. Its 8 channel wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) keeps loud sounds from becoming too loud while at the same time amplifying softer sounds so you can hear them.

Like most new hearing aids, it has adaptive feedback cancellation so it won’t “squeal” in your ear. It also uses directional microphones and incorporates noise reduction technology to reduce the background sounds that make it so hard to understand speech in noise.

Another cool feature is that it functions as either an open fit aid for those with mild to moderate losses, or as a regular aid with an ear mold for those with more severe hearing losses.

Oh, yes, before I forget, the Clik hearing aid doesn’t cost an arm and a leg—an arm maybe, but definitely not the leg!

For more information on this neat new hearing aid, talk to your audiologist, or check out the Clik web site.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man explained:

My hearing is not what it used to be. I don’t use hearing aids or anything else now. I have an Ameriphone XL-40 amplified desk phone. I’m looking for a way to make it hands free [headset with microphone] at a reasonable price. Any ideas?

I was once in your position. I had looked high and low for a hands-free binaural amplified headset that I could use with a landline (amplified) phone. The problem was, even the best headsets made by well-known companies had far less amplification than I needed. Connecting them to an amplified phone didn’t help as the headset amplifier limited the maximum volume to some (to me) low level (presumably to protect peoples ears, but that made them totally useless to people with severe hearing losses).

Therefore, I was delighted when I discovered an amplified headset that didn’t limit the maximum volume. This unit contains a binaural headset so both ears can hear, (This gives you much better comprehension at a lower volume, which helps save your hearing.), a boom microphone and a 45 dB gain in-line amplifier.

The in-line amplifier connects between the phone base and handset/headset. I LOVE mine. I use it in conjunction with my Clarity XL-50 amplified phone (the big brother of your amplified phone). I now have enough volume to “blow my brains out” if I operated them at full volume! Mind you, I have a pretty severe hearing loss so I need lots of amplification.

This in-line amplifier/headset combination is not exactly cheap, but it works wonderfully well for me so it is definitely worth the price. It will work with almost any landline phone (except those with the buttons in the handset) whether amplified or not. If you don’t need high power like I do, you may find it works well for you with just a regular desk phone.

You can see this wonderful binaural amplified headset here and the amplified phone I use it.

See what you think. This sounds like the kind of thing you were looking for.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Here’s a shocking statistic—75% of 18 to 30 year-olds who go to nightclubs and concerts may experience tinnitus, according to an article published in a recent edition of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

That’s a lot of people flirting with disaster to their ears. You see, in such situations tinnitus is your ears’ warning that you are damaging your ears by exposing them to sounds that are much too loud. When this happens, pay attention. Protect your ears, or get out of the noisy environment if you value your ears.

Fortunately, for most people this resulting tinnitus is temporary and disappears in hours or a few days. However, be warned, typically the more you listen to loud sounds, the louder your tinnitus becomes, and the longer it lasts, until finally it never goes away. You don’t want that to happen to you!

In addition to being a real “pain” in and of itself, tinnitus is also often a warning of impending or actual hearing loss. Studies reveal that 85% of people with hearing loss also have tinnitus.

Incidentally, some people are more susceptible to tinnitus than others. For example, some studies show that depression and bothersome tinnitus go hand in hand. If fact, 62% of tinnitus sufferers have a “lifetime prevalence of major depression” according to the above article. In addition, tinnitus causes things such as tension, frustration, anger, loss of concentration and sleep disturbance.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and the things you can do to help bring it under control, see the book, “When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How“.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man asked:

Could you tell me if my sleeping pills, Amitriptyline, are ototoxic? I’ve become very concerned because my hearing loss was caused by prescription medicines after treatment for prostate cancer. The otolaryngologist kept on insisting it was coincidence, but then I did find out that the medicines, in fact, can cause hearing loss, although not for everybody. The effect was very gradual and not very noticeable until it was too late.

Yes, Amitriptyline can be quite ototoxic to some people. Most complaints I receive concern loud tinnitus from taking Amitriptyline, although some people have also reported problems with distorted hearing and hyperacusis. If you notice any of these kinds of problems, it is quite possible that Amitriptyline is the culprit.

Many doctors try to shift the blame for ear problems away from the drugs they prescribe. If a given drug gave every last person a hearing loss, then the doctors would have to admit that drug was the culprit, but when a drug only causes hearing loss in 10% or 1% or 0.1% of the people they see, they ignore it and say it must have been a coincidence. However, you now know that tinnitus (and other ear problems) do happen to numbers of people who take Amitriptyline.

To learn which drugs are (or can be) ototoxic, see “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed“. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 763 drugs, 30 herbs and 148 chemicals.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man asked:

When an audiologist says you have a ‘mixed’ hearing loss, what exactly does he mean?

Hearing loss basically comes in 4 “flavors”.

First, there are conductive losses. Conductive losses comprise about 10% of all hearing losses. They are typically mechanical hearing losses in the outer and middle ear and often involve the lack of free movement of the 3 tiny bones in the middle ear—the hammer (malleus), anvil (incus) and stirrup (stapes).

Second, there are sensorineural hearing losses. Sensorineural (pronounced SENS-sore-ree-NOO-rawl) hearing losses are the most common kind of hearing losses, comprising about 90% of all hearing losses. These hearing losses have to do with the auditory sensing nerves in the inner ear and auditory nerves (hence the name sensori—sensing, and neural—nerves). In the past this was referred to as “nerve deafness”. However, this is really a misnomer as the hearing loss almost always occurs because of the death of the hair cells that connect to the very tips of the auditory nerves, not to the nerves themselves.

Third, is the rare central hearing loss. Central hearing losses occur when something is wrong in the auditory processing parts of the brain. Your ears can be working properly but you still can’t hear well because your brain can’t process these sound signals correctly.

Finally, and also rare, is a functional hearing loss. Functional hearing losses are psychological hearing losses that can occur after severe trauma, for example. Such people have been so traumatized that they block out all sounds so don’t hear them, although the entire auditory system is working properly.

Now that you know the kinds of hearing losses, it is easy to answer your question. A mixed loss is where you have 2 or more of these hearing losses occurring at the same time.

Typically, when audiologists refer to a mixed hearing loss, they are talking about your having both a sensorineural hearing loss and a conductive hearing loss at the same time.

They can tell this because there is an “air-bone gap” on your audiogram. Unlike its name suggests, there is no physical gap between two bones in your head letting air in. Rather, this is your audiologist’s shorthand way of saying that the results of your air conduction test (what you hear through your ear canals when wearing earphones) and your bone conduction test (what you hear through your skull when wearing a bone vibrator behind your ear) are not the same—the two lines do not overlay each other as would happen if you only had a sensorineural hearing loss. Instead, there is an gap or space between the “air” and “bone” conduction lines when plotted on your audiogram.