Clear Tones Hearing

Communicating with Loved Ones

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:00:00 EST

Communication is a 2-part process. One person speaks while the other person listens. People with hearing loss are often tagged with the hearing problem, but often the problem is enlarged when the other person puts up listening barriers.

A listening barrier would be defined as creating difficulties that the hearing impaired person has to conquer in order to correctly understand what was spoken to that person.

For instance, for the sake of illustration, Joe and Mary are having a conversation about what to have for dinner. Joe has a pretty significant hearing loss. Mary has lived with this situation for many years, yet she continues to try to talk to him when he is sitting in the living room in his easy chair, and she is in the kitchen. Frustration builds as she feels that she has to "yell" in order for him to hear her, and then he has the tendency to ask her to repeat what she said!!

How can this situation change for the better? If Mary could learn and practice the following techniques, her relationship with Joe would be much more harmonious.

First, Mary needs to realize that when she speaks to Joe, he needs to see her face. The barrier of walls is incredibly strong for people with hearing loss. Sound has to bounce off walls before it arrives to the ear of the recipient, and by then, it loses much energy. Secondly, Mary needs to speak slowly and clearly. The younger generation is pretty good at talking very fast. But even Mary needs to be aware of the speed in which she is speaking.

Hearing loss does not mean that the person with it is any less intelligent than anyone else. But hearing loss does prevent that pereson from hearing in normal environments. When distance of speech and talking fast are methods of delivery, it is almost impossible for that person to understand what was being said.

When Mary hears Joe talking to her, the sound of his voice comes in clear. The sound goes from her ears, through the middle and inner ear, and then nerve impulses send the signal to the brain. The brain interprets the sound into meaningful information, and Mary understands everything Joe says instantly.

Joe, on the other hand, does not have this benefit. The sound of Mary's voice goes in to his ear, but somewhere between the point of entry and the inner ear, the strength of the sound signal is greatly diminished. The sound is then transmitted to the brain, and the brain has the responsibility of identifying the sound, even though the signal is weak.

This process often results in misunderstanding the words that were actually spoken. There are things Mary can do to help this process. Body language and facial gestures are great aids in understanding speech. The brain puts all the pieces together, and the more pieces or clues, the better.

Mary can also increase the flow of understanding by speaking in phrases instead of speaking a long sentence continuously. This helps the brain to better process the information.

It takes two people with positive attitudes and a plan to take down the communication barriers, BUT...It can be done!

Hearing instruments are powerful solutions to hearing loss-but they do not "magically" bring 100% speech understanding.

This about this-Joe and Mary get frustrated with the whole communication breakdown. Joe gets tired of asking Mary to repeat herself. Mary decides to stop "yelling" because it takes too much effort. Instead of giving up on communication and giving up on each other, they decide to change the way they talk to each other.

Now they are not fighting, they are not angry, and they actually are amazed to be "friends" again. The whole essence of their relationship has changed, and life is good again.

This might seem like an extreme situation, but it is not too far from the trugh for many people with hearing loss. And even if a hearing loss situation is not at this level, it will get to this level if not addressed early on.

Prevention is the best medicine. So please remember to look at the person with hearing loss when speaking to them if at all possible, don't try to talk to them from another room, and try to speak a little slower than normal to assist them in understanding what you said.

Thinking of the Consequences of Loud Noise

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:00:06 EST

Because I am on a worship team at church as well as a hearing aid dealer, I really think about the consequences of being near loud noises. I think about my husband as well because he stands next to the drummer. And because I work with so many people with hearing loss.

I am very aware of loud noises that might damage my hearing. As you probably know, hearing loss can simply come from getting older, but we often see noise-induced hearing loss. As I was reading about hearing loss to musicians, I learned some interesting information.

In reality, more damage can be done by continuous exposure to sound that does not seem too loud due to the inability of the listening components to rest than quick loud sounds. That being said, any time a person can get a break from loud noise, the better it is because of the rest needed to recuperate.

In music, though, it can be dangerous to have feedback squeals from sound checks as well as percussion blasts. An interesting note is that two blocks of wood hit together in a Christmas Carol is very damaging due to the pressure of the wave created that is sent to the ear.

One thing that people can do to help abstain from hearing loss is to hum when in loud sounds. This action can make the ear a worse conductor of sound, thus protecting it somewhat from the loud sound. I thought this information was valuable and maybe you could pass it on to loved ones lo help protect them from hearing loss.

What does Oxotoxic Mean?

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:00:06 EST

Ototoxic means that a medicine can be harmful to your hearing. Here is a list of antibiotics with good evidence for ototoxicity:

Erythromycin
Gentamicin
Streptomycin
Dihydrostreptomycin
Tobramycin
Netilmicin
Amikacin
Neomycin
Kanamycin
Etiomycin
Vancomycin
Metronidizole
Capreomycin

As you can see, many of these names end in "mycin". These antibiotics are considered to be safe for hearing:

Aztreonam,
Penecillins
Cephalosporins
Macrolides (e.g. Arithromycin and Erythromycin), except in very high doses.

Gentamacin is presently the biggest problem antibiotic regarding hearing health as most other ototoxic medications have been replaced-but it is always a good idea to find out if a medication you are taking has ototoxic side effects.

Samantha talks about Listening & Communication

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:22:00 EST

It has been a great opportunity to learn about the auditory training available today. In our business it is our goal to make sure our customers get the best technology and service that we can offer to make it possible to hear the sounds that are no longer audible due to hearing loss. Yet, we still know that it is difficult to truly discriminate sounds for many, especially in the presence of background noise.

Our goal is to make sure that our customers hear better, but we have decided that we want to offer more concerning real life communication.

LACE is an auditory training program that can be done in the comfort of your own home or in our office to enhance the ability to listen, and not just hear.

Hearing is a function of the ear, but listening and understanding in order to communicate is done in the brain. The purpose of LACE is to teach the brain how to discriminate sounds when people speak fast, when there is more than one person speaking, and when there is background noise.

We recognize that buying hearing aids is a significant investment, but that investment can be greatly enchanced with some additional training. In fact, listening can be improved up to 40%! This can be the difference between understanding a conversation and simple acting like you understood.

As to the cost of this product, it costs $149.00 to purchase from the Internet, but we will be offering it for $75.00. You need access to a computer that has speakers and internet connection, or you can come into our office and use the LACE Center.

Also, a DVD will be available for television use in the middle of June if tht is more convenient. We have heard only positive results from people who have gone through this training.� The training consists of 20 days at 30 minutes per training.� In a month of time you could really improve your ability to understand and communicate with others, which is exactly the goal of our business. We believe the combination of the program with hearing aids could truly make a world of difference for you, so please consider making this investment for the sake of yourself and your loved ones.

Breaking News

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:51:00 EST

Samantha and I just went to a training class in Minneapolis at Starkey on the latest, newest hearing instrument technology out there. It is called the Zon.

The Zon is so impressive that the manufacturer has given a "LIFETIME WARRANTY" on the hearing instrument CIRCUIT. The Zon�is also waterproof, so exercising or being exposed to any water will not damage the hearing instrument.

The Zon has BluWave Signal Processing technology. This is basically a higher level operating system which enhances the way all of the features of the hearing instrument work together, especially in the challenging listening environments.

This hearing instrument out-performs ALL others in its class, provides great clarity, greater directionality, and better speech audibility in a variety of environments.

Call Clear Tones Hearing�for a free demonstration of the New ZON!