Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

For the last number of years, we have been bombarded with hype from the hearing aid manufacturers extolling the virtues of digital hearing aids and how much better they are than analog hearing aids. Thus, I was surprised to see some very interesting information showing that analog technology is actually superior to digital technology under certain conditions.

Let me quote the pertinent part of this article. “Data…have shown that an analog single-microphone single-channel hearing aid can outperform today’s most expensive fully digital hearing aids with a myriad of noise reduction features, provided the analog hearing aids are set to real-ear verified NAL-R [National Acoustic Laboratories—Revised—a linear analog hearing aid fitting protocol] and the digital hearing aids are set according to the manufacturers ‘best fit’ algorithm.

This finding suggests that real-ear programming and aided speech audibility are more important than today’s state-of-the-art hearing aid noise-reduction features when those hearing aids are set using only the manufacturers best-fit algorithms.” (1)

What this really means is that digital hearing aids set according to the manufacturer’s suggested fitting for your hearing loss are not superior to the older linear analog hearing aids that have been set using real-ear measurements and then tweaked by a skilled audiologist that knows how to adjust them for your particular hearing loss.

Note: The NAL-R fitting is aimed at maximizing speech intelligibility, rather than restoring loudness at each frequency to normal. The former is what we desperately want—to understand more of speech, not just hear more sound.

Here’s another interesting piece of information from the same article regarding the differences between a manufacturer’s top line of hearing aids vs. their entry level (read cheap) line of hearing aids. Knowing this can save you a bunch of bucks.

“Further, it has not been demonstrated in double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled studies that today’s most expensive contemporary digital hearing aids provide better speech recognition in noise than each company’s least expensive hearing aid models. Until these studies are forthcoming, we cannot assume significantly better hearing aid performance will be obtained with today’s most expensive hearing aids.” (1)

Again, what they are saying here is that you can save yourself a bundle of money by buying the cheapest hearing aid in a given manufacturer’s line rather than buying their most expensive hearing aid in that line line because there is no proven difference in how well you will hear in noise.

The bottom line is that you need the services of a skilled audiologist or hearing aid dispenser rather than expensive hearing aids in order to get the most benefit from your hearing aids. All things being equal, a cheaper hearing aid in the hands of a skilled dispenser will easily outperform expensive hearing aids that were just set to the manufacturer’s “best fit” algorithm.

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(1) Leavitt, Ron. Cost-effective Pricing for Hearing Aids and Related Audiological Services. The Hearing Review. Vol. 18, No. 12. November, 2011. p. 32.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

As changes in technology surge forward at a frenetic pace, you are bombarded with the hype that newer is better. But is this really so?

Here are some myths and their corresponding facts concerning hearing aids.

Myth No. 1: The latest hearing aids let you hear well under all listening conditions.

Brad Ingrao, Au.D., one of my favorite audiologists, wrote, “In 20 years of practicing audiology, I have almost never encountered a person whose hearing aids were unable to help them hear well, in a small, quiet room with carpet, drapes or no air-conditioning.” (1)

Notice the conditions: it is quiet, there is little reverberation and the speaker is close to the listener. Under those conditions, yes, hearing aids typically work wonderfully well.

Brad continues, “On the other hand, almost all of my hearing aid patients complain that no matter how much they spent on their hearing aids, they still struggle in noisy and reverberant rooms.” (1)

The myth breaks down here. You see, noise and distance are the two main enemies of hearing aids. As soon as you add distance and noise and all the reverberation and distortions of sounds that come with increasing noise and distance, hearing aids quickly cease to help you like they did before. This is when you need to use assistive devices. That is the reality. As Brad says, “the ideal solution in noise is a remote microphone connected to the hearing aid” via an assistive listening device.

Myth No. 2: Automatic hearing aids let you hear well because the hearing aid automatically changes the settings as the sound environment changes.

Brad explains, “Some people can do very well with a fully automatic hearing aid, assuming they spend most of their time listening to one or two kinds of sound in the same setting”. (1)

Some people do very well under these conditions. However, there is another side of the coin. Brad continues, “The more common reality is that people with hearing loss are out and about listening and living in many complex environments. They need to be able to tell their hearing aids how to behave, rather than the other way around.” (1)

To which I add, “Amen, brother.” You see, if you are like most hard of hearing people, you are better off getting hearing aids that are not fully automatic. Yes, you can have some automatic features as long as you can manually override them whenever you want. For example, I love my automatic volume controls, but I have manual volume control wheels as well and I can (and do) override my hearing aids whenever I want to. You want to be able to switch to different settings when the sound environment changes significantly.

Myth No. 3: The manufacturer’s fitting algorithm, together with the audiologists input, will give you a good fit the first time around.

You would like to think that an experienced Doctor of Audiology would be able to do this, wouldn’t you. But as Thomas Powers, Ph.D., vice-president of audiology at Siemens Hearing Instruments explains, “In general it is unreasonable to expect that even the most carefully designed prescriptive fitting method would be appropriate within plus or minus 3 dB for more than two-thirds of all patients.” (2)

In other words, you need to go back to your audiologist or hearing aid dispenser a few times to have your hearing aids tweaked until they get it right. A good fitting probably won’t happen the first time around. This is because “the prescribed gain and output is only appropriate for the average patient, and it too needs to be individualized.” (2) You are you—not Mr. Average—so you need your hearing aids specifically tweaked to fit your unique hearing needs.

Myth No. 4: The fitting that sounds the best lets you hear the best.

This sounds logical, but it is often not true. You see, what sounds the best is what sounds comfortable to you—but you may not hear (understand) the best at that setting.

Dr. Powers again explains, “In many cases better hearing audibility compromises sound comfort and vice versa. In some cases the prescribed high-frequency gain may improve speech intelligibility [so you understand more of what you hear], but the patients perceive the sound quality as too shrill and unacceptable [and if you have recruitment, certain louder sounds may even hurt]. As a result, they will turn down overall gain, resulting in reduced overall audibility.

The fitting challenge therefore is to find the right balance among desired loudness, good audibility, and sound comfort for every patient.” (2) This can be a definite challenge, especially if you have recruitment issues, or have a more unusual hearing loss (e.g. cookie-bite loss, reverse cookie-bite loss, reverse-slope loss). Thus, you may end up with less than optimal hearing (understanding) in order that what you do hear is not too uncomfortable. That is the reality of wearing hearing aids. You need to make trade-offs to best fit your lifestyle to your hearing aids.

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(1) Brad Ingrao, Au.D., Decibels and Dollars. Hearing Loss Magazine. September/October 2011. p. 32.

(2) Powers, Thomas, Ph.D., Finding Optimum Gain, Compression, and Frequency Shape in Different Listening Situations. Hearing Review Products. Fall 2011. p. 14.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady declared,

I have the new waterproof cochlear implant, but I am certainly never going to wear it in the pool when I am taking aquasize or swimming. I do not trust the manufacturer’s claims. This cochlear implant is too expensive to take the risk of damaging it from water.

The real question is, “Can you trust the manufacturer’s claims or is it all just advertising hype?” There has been so much hype in advertising that people do well to be wary of the fantastic claims many ads proclaim.

Therefore, in order to know whether it is truth or just hype, and thus whether you can/should trust the manufacturer’s claims that your hearing aid or cochlear implant is waterproof or not, you need to check the basis of their claims. Fortunately, there is an easy way to tell.

All you need to do is check out the ISO (International Standards Organization) rating regarding “waterproofness” of your hearing aids or cochlear implants. If the manufacturer rates your hearing aid or cochlear implant as meeting the ISO IPX7 or IPX8 standard, then yes, you can trust the manufacturers claim that it is waterproof and that you can go swimming with it on knowing that the water will not damage your hearing aid or cochlear implant.

I wrote a bit about this in my May 31, 2011 article: Waterproof Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants—Here They Come.”  Here is an extract of the above article:

If you are interested in exactly what these standards mean, IP stands for “Ingress Protection”. Ingress Protection is how well your hearing aid (or any other device) keeps foreign “stuff” out. The first number relates to solid particles (e.g. dust). A level 5—like the Aquarius hearing aid and Nucleus 5 cochlear implant—are “protected against dust, limited ingress (no harmful deposit)”, while the highest level for solid particles—6—like the Neptune cochlear implant, is “totally protected against dust”.The second number is the level of protection against water (liquids). Level 7 (Aquarius & Nucleus 5) means “protected against the effect of immersion between 15 cm [6"] and 1 m [3']“, while the highest level—8—(the Neptune) is “protected against long periods of immersion under pressure”.

Note: if the rating only relates to liquid protection then an “X” is substituted for the “dust” rating so you know you are talking about the second number (liquid) and not the first number (dust).

Thus, if you see a device rated as IP6 you know it is a dust rating only. If it is rated as IPX6, you know it is a liquid rating only. If the device is rated for both dust and liquid, it would have numbers in both positions, e.g. IP56 or IP68, etc.

Below I have listed the various ISO IPX (liquid) ratings the manufacturers use, and exactly what these ratings mean.

IPX1 No protection from water.

IPX1 Protected against condensation or dripping water falling vertically.

IPX2 Protected against spraying water when tilted up to 15° vertically.

IPX3 Protected against spraying water when tilted up to 60° vertically.

IPX4 Protected against splashing water from any angle.

IPX5 Protected against low-pressure water stream from any angle.

IPX6 Protected against high-pressure water stream from any angle.

IPX7 Protected against water immersion. Immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of up to 1 meter.

IPX8 Protected against continual water submersion in underwater conditions.

Based on the above, if your hearing aids or cochlear implants have an IPX rating of 6 or less, you do not want to go swimming with them on, but if they have a IPX rating of at least 4, splashing water won’t hurt them. If your hearing aids or cochlear implants have an IPX7 rating, you can freely swim and dive underwater up to 3 feet down and do that for to 30 minutes at a time.

However, if you have truly water proof hearing aids or cochlear implants (IPX8), feel free to go swimming and diving with them on. You can be in the water and swim underwater as long as you want, and there is no restriction on how deep you can dive. Thus you can enjoy a good time in the water and can swim underwater to your heart’s content—and never have to worry about water damaging your expensive hearing aids or cochlear implants.

In case you are interested, here are the IP ratings for solid object (dust) resistance.

IP0 No protection against ingress of objects.

IP1 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 50 mm. (approximately 2 inches).

IP2 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 12.5 mm. (Approximately half an inch).

IP3 protection against ingress of objects greater than 2.5 mm. (Approximately 1/10th of an inch).

IP4 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 1 mm. (Approximately 1/25th of an inch).

IP5 Dust protected. Ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the satisfactory operation of the equipment.

IP6 Dust tight. No ingress of dust.

How good are these standards? When Siemens tested their Aquarius hearing aid under rigorous field conditions in extreme conditions of humidity over several months, there were no failures. In fact, their field tests in Queensland, Australia from December 2010 to February 2011, in the heat of the summer included some of the strongest floods and cyclones in Australia’s history. Field study participants also continued to wear the Aquarius during showering and swimming with no failures reported. (1)

Therefore, if your hearing aid or cochlear implant is rated with an IPX8 rating for water resistance and an IP6 rating for dust resistance (in other words, it is rated as IP68), feel free to wear it any time under any conditions. You do not have to worry about dust, water or moisture causing your hearing aid or cochlear implant to fail. That is how good those ratings are.

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(1) Chalupper, Josef. 2011. Beneath the Surface: Understanding the Terms “Water Resistant” and “Waterproof”. The Hearing Review. Vol 18. No 11. October 2011. p. 60.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked,

Do you know anything about the new “Esteem” device? The ad says it is an implantable device that needs nothing outside the skull. As far as I can tell (without understanding what the ads are saying) it might be a replacement for a CI. What can you tell me about it?

What you have seen advertised is the new Envoy “Esteem”. Basically, the Envoy “Esteem” is a hearing aid that is fully implanted in your head. It uses some great technology in some areas and not so great technology in other areas—but it is just a hearing aid. It is not anything like a cochlear implant (CI).

One of the good things about this technology is that it uses your outer ear and ear canal to collect and filter/amplify sounds naturally rather that using an artificial means such as a microphone. That’s good.

Another good thing is that since it is all in your head, it is totally waterproof. You can swim with it and never worry about water leaking into it and shorting it out.

On the other side of the coin, there are some things I don’t like about it. First, they “break” the ossicular chain. In other words they pull the 3 bones apart so the hammer’s vibration no longer is directly coupled to the stirrup via the anvil. Basically, they cut the anvil out of the chain. What this means is that you lose your residual hearing (apart from bone conduction). Thus, if your battery dies, you essentially go deaf. You can’t just use your residual hearing until you get the battery replaced.

There have been other designs in the past that used what I consider a better design—which was NOT breaking the ossicular chain so your residual hearing remained intact—and then the hearing aid amplified the sounds you needed. I wish the Envoy “Esteem” had used a similar approach.

Here’s how the “Esteem” works. What they do is fit a sensitive transducer to the hammer (the first of the three bones in your middle ear). When the eardrum vibrates, it vibrates the hammer and the transducer attached to the hammer converts this vibration into electrical energy—just like a microphone does. The sound signal is processed just like it is in a regular hearing aid and then the output is sent to another transducer that is attached to the stirrup (the third of the three bones in your middle ear). This transducer works exactly the same, but in reverse, to the one on the hammer. It takes the electrical signal and converts it back into vibrations that causes the oval window to vibrate in the normal manner—albeit at a “louder” volume so you can hear better.

You accomplish exactly the same thing with a regular hearing aid—injecting an amplified signal into the ear canal thus making the eardrum vibrate more vigorously, which in turn makes the three bones vibrate more vigorously and thus down to the oval window. The only basic difference is that in the Esteem this is all done
internally, not externally. The Esteem amplifier and battery are surgically implanted in a hollowed out portion of the mastoid bone behind your ear.

Note that that Esteem is just a different kind of hearing aid, and as such has the same limitations of other hearing aids. For example, it cannot give you back discrimination if you have low discrimination (word recognition) scores.

Furthermore, it cannot use techniques such as directional microphones and noise-canceling microphones.

The Esteem has a remote control so you can adjust the volume and turn the aid off if you want to.

Apart from the battery dying and leaving you deaf, there are a couple of other downsides to this device. One is you need an operation every few years to replace the battery.

Two is that as technology improves, you are stuck with old technology in your head—much like people with CIs are. Sure the software can be upgraded, but not the device itself without an operation to replace the implanted parts, with its inherent risks.

In addition, you can’t directly couple this hearing aid to any assistive devices—there is no t-coil (or even provision to have one)—so you will not be able to use room loops, neckloops, etc. unless you get a separate loop receiver and use earbuds to get the sounds into your ear canals. (But since you can do that, and there are loop receivers readily available, this isn’t really a problem—you just need to wear an external loop receiver.)

Theoretically you should be able to use bluetooth devices “normally”—you’d wear a bluetooth receiver hung on your ear like everyone else does and the sound will be captured by the Esteem and amplified just like any other sounds entering your ear canal.

Learn more about the Envoy “Esteem” here.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A recent study (1) has given more insight into why people with hearing loss don’t bother to get and wear hearing aids. A number of people were given an initial hearing screening. Those that failed the screening, but did not follow up with a full hearing assessment (and go on to get hearing aids) were questioned why they didn’t follow up. Below are their responses. (Note: respondents could give multiple responses, thus the percentages add up to more than 100%.)

• 49% of respondents felt their hearing was still “good enough” and thus they could get by with the hearing they had.
• 28% of respondents felt that other health or family issues had a higher priority.
• 18% of respondents weren’t convinced that a hearing aid would help them.
• 15% of respondents felt that hearing aids were too expensive for them to afford.
• However, a whopping 54% of respondents basically procrastinated and did nothing (undecided, intend to, too busy). Obviously to them hearing better is not a priority in their lives.

Since hearing loss often slowly sneaks up on a person, many people with hearing loss aren’t even aware that they are not hearing as well as they used to. Thus, without a comparison of what normal hearing is really like, they feel that there is nothing wrong with their hearing, or that any hearing loss they might have is so little that it doesn’t significantly affect their lives.

Another interesting thing that came out of this study was that the results of a hearing handicap questionnaire was a better predictor of those who would purchase hearing aids than a pure tone audiogram that showed their actual degree of hearing loss.

For example, people that believed their hearing loss was negatively affecting their lives were more likely to get hearing aids than those that didn’t believe their hearing loss was affecting their lives, irrespective of the actual degree of hearing loss as show by the audiogram.

Thus, if a person with a relatively mild loss believed his hearing loss was negatively affecting his life, he would be more likely to purchase hearing aids than another person with a greater degree of hearing loss who did not believe that hearing loss was affecting his life.

This means that in order to convince a person they need to get their hearing loss attended to, you need to show him how his lack of hearing is negatively affecting his life. In fact, 50% of the people that got hearing aids did so because their hearing loss was causing a lot of stress with family members and friends,
while 35% reported they got hearing aids in order to satisfy their families(1).

Thus ultimately, it boils down to your lifestyle. If you want to be around and interact with people, you are much more amenable to getting hearing aids than if you have a more solitary lifestyle and thus don’t perceive you are missing much.

(1) Medwetsky & Scherer. 2011. “Factors Influencing Individuals’ Decisions to Access Hearing Care Services“. The Hearing Review. Vol 18, No. 5, May 2011. pp. 24-32.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Did you ever wish you could wear your hearing aids or cochlear implants so you could hear while swimming or splashing around in the water? How about when you were out boating, or while you were in the shower, or caught out jogging when a sudden deluge soaks you to the skin, or when working outside in the heat with the sweat pouring off you?

In the past, activities such as these often caused problems with hearing aids and cochlear implants that necessitated expensive repairs.

The good news is that this is slowly changing. Today, the trend is to make some hearing aids and cochlear implants waterproof so they can be used under all kinds of conditions without causing any damage to them.

Waterproof hearing aids are not exactly new. Few people know this, but Rion of Japan put out the first waterproof analog hearing aid—called the Dolphin—back around 1996. I wrote about the waterproof Dolphin hearing aid in August, 2008.

Now Siemens is getting into the act with their new Aquarius behind-the-ear hearing aid—the first “waterproof” digital hearing aid. It is rated as IP57— basically waterproof to 3 feet for 30 minutes. You can learn more about the new Aquarius hearing aid, just announced on April 5, 2011, here.

For cochlear implant users, Cochlear Corp. was the first CI manufacturer off the block with their Nucleus 5, a “waterproof” BTE speech processor, released back in September, 2009. It meets the same IP57 ratings for dust and water intrusion as the Aquarius.

Coming in the fall of 2011, assuming all goes well, is Advanced Bionics’ new waterproof speech processor named the “Neptune“, according to their May 24, 2011 presentation.

The Neptune will be a body-worn processor, certified to IP68 standards, in other words, totally waterproof.

If you are interested in exactly what these standards mean, IP stands for “Ingress Protection”. Ingress Protection is how well the hearing aid (or any other device) keeps foreign “stuff” out. The first number relates to solid particles (dust). A level 5—like the Aquarius and Nucleus 5—are “protected against dust, limited ingress (no harmful deposit).” while the highest level for solid particles—6—like the Neptune, is “totally protected against dust”.

The second number is the level of protection against water (liquids). Level 7 (Aquarius & Nucleus 5) means “protected against the effect of immersion between 15 cm [6"] and 1 m [3']“, while the highest level—8—(the Neptune) is “protected against long periods of immersion under pressure”.

Note that Advanced Bionics has specifically tested the Neptune in both salt water and fresh water pools at depths of 3 meters (~10 feet) for 45 minutes. Since people do not typically swim underwater deeper than 10 feet  or so and certainly can’t hold their breaths for 45 minutes, for all practical purposes (unless you are SCUBA diving) you should be able to wear it as long as you want while diving and swimming under water, taking a shower, or any other activity that involves water.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked,

What is your opinion on the NeutronicEar? It costs $500 and is advertised as ‘reading glasses for your ears’ in a magazine.

The NeutronicEar is just another name for the Crystal Ear hearing device that has been around for few years now. The two devices look identical. In fact, two of the pictures they use on the NeutronicEar website are identical to the pictures used on the Crystal Ear website. (Compare 2 of the pictures on the Crystal Ear website to a picture on the NeutronicEar home page and  their “Reasons” webpage).

The NeutronicEar website is definitely short on contact information—no name, no address, no contact person—so they’re hiding all that information—and people with nothing to hide put that information on their websites. That is a red flag right there.

This is really a hearing aid that is not being marketed as a hearing aid, but as an assistive listening device (ALD) so they can circumvent the need for FDA approval. Notice that the NeutronicEar home page keeps repeating the mantra that this is “not a hearing aid”. Normally you tell your prospective customers what your product is and its benefits, not what your product is not. Another red flag.

It is a one size fits all device—another red flag. Everyone’s hearing is different so obviously we need different settings to best help our hearing. The NeutronicEar is likely set for the “average” or “typical” high-frequency hearing loss. If that is exactly where your hearing is at, this device may work reasonably well in certain situations.

There are no adjustments on the NeutronicEar apart from a volume control. Their website doesn’t say whether it has any compression built in so it amplifies softer sounds while at the same time limiting louder sounds. Thus, we can assume it doesn’t have any (or they would have been sure to mention that feature). Nor is there any mention of a t-coil to pick up signals from other devices. Furthermore, there is no tone control which even cheap ALDs typically have.

All in all, this is a high-priced assistive device (if you give them the benefit of the doubt and consider it “not a hearing aid”. It’s main feature is that it is nearly invisible. In my opinion, it’s main feature should be that it helps people hear better!

As I see it, this is just a smaller version of well-respected assistive devices such as the PockeTalker, but without the functionality of a PockeTalker, and at a 350% inflated price.

If you want a low-cost hearing aid, you can go to Lloyd’s Hearing Aids and purchase a real behind-the-ear hearing aid for less than that too. (Lloyds is a very ethical outfit—I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about them in all the years they have been in business!)

So just from what the NeutronicEar website says and doesn’t say, I urge caution. Very likely you will get much better use of your money by purchasing real hearing aids or assistive listening devices from reputable dealers that are not afraid to let you know exactly who you are dealing with and who accurately advertize their products without trying to circumvent FDA regulations.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man explained:

I always wondered what the ‘immediate after-whoosh’ was while wearing my hearing aids, and was enlightened to find out that it was something called ‘entrainment’, which only those who wear hearing aids hear. Are there any techniques or tips for listening through, or coping with, entrainment, or is it something I’ll just have to get used to whenever I wear my hearing aids?

Probably “entrainment” is a new word to most readers. It’s certainly not a word that is bandied about in casual speech!

Entrainment is a relatively recent phenomenon as it applies to hearing aids since it only occurs in hearing aids that have anti-feedback circuitry in them. Most hearing aids manufactured in the past 10 years or so have anti-feedback circuits. As a result, entrainment may actually be quite common now. I know it happens with my hearing aids under certain conditions.

What happens is that when a sound (tone) is held for more than a fraction of a second, the anti-feedback circuit in your hearing aids thinks that the hearing aid is beginning to feedback (whistle) and so it attempts to squelch that sound. This often happens when you are listening to music for example. As I understand it, the anti-feedback circuitry and the hearing aid’s amplifier both try to synchronize the tone with each other, thus causing the sound to be prolonged (which greatly distorts the original sound).

I hear that with my hearing aids if I listen to music with my speech program. When listening to music, I need to switch to my music program where the anti-feedback circuitry is turned off. This immediately eliminates any entrainment.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Back in February 6, 2010 I wrote an article “Sources of Financial Assistance for Purchasing Hearing Aids“. Unfortunately, this information only pertains to people living in the USA.

The good news is that there is also some government help available to hard of hearing people living in Canada. The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA) has compiled a 13-page  pdf document of sources of government subsidies for people in Canada called, “Canadian Hearing Aid Subsidies” that you can download for yourself.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Sometimes your hearing aids quit at the most inconvenient times. Often the problem is minor and is easily rectified—if you know what to do.

Figuring out what to do can be frustrating. Here is one man’s story to remind you that humidity is an enemy of your hearing aids.

He explained:

I was in Alaska this summer helping my buddy work on his cabin—working hard in the Alaska heat! The day before I left Prince of Wales Island, my BTE hearing aid went out! Just bang, quit! I changed the battery, but it still wouldn’t work. I tried another battery. No change.

Then, thinking my batteries were bad, I went to my backup hearing aid. I took the ear mold and tubing off and put it on the backup. It worked for a few minutes and then it too quit! I changed the battery for it, since I knew it was a little old. It worked for a little while, and then quit—again.

I was in Craig, Alaska at the time, so I bought more batteries. They’d work for a little while, and then my hearing aid would quit again. (This is all so funny. You would think after wearing hearing aid for 30 years, I would be better at diagnosis!) Anyway, I muddled around with it again, then finally I figured out what the problem was.

Moisture had condensed in the middle of the ear mold and tube, and was blocking sounds from reaching my ear. I pulled the tube off my hearing aid, and blew on it a couple of times to blow the moisture out. My hearing aid began working properly—finally.

I just wasted at least $15 dollars in batteries, but am up and hearing again! You can’t do anything but laugh! I’ve had this problem before, but totally forgot to check it this time! Boy, do I feel silly!

You are far from alone. Lot’s of us can relate to this scenario. We’ve been there—done that.

If your hearing aids are prone to moisture build-up, you would do well to put them in a drier each night to get rid of any accumulated moisture. That way you will have more reliable operation.

The best drier out there, in my opinion, is the Global Dry and Store. Not only does it dry your aids while you sleep, it also disinfects them at the same time. This cuts down on itchy ears as well.

Click here to learn more about this great little Global Dry and Store drier, or order one for yourself here.