Some people start to lose their hearing through medical conditions, perforated ear drums, hereditary factors and the like, commonly people can have reduced hearing due to exposure to excessive noise (more common than you might think and from an earlier point in life often), but the most common type of hearing loss I come across in my professional capacity is age related (or presbyacusis).

It doesn’t affect everyone in the same way and to the same degree, genetic pre-disposition means you are more, or less disposed to having hearing loss due to the ageing factor. It really is luck of the draw. I often hear clients tell me that they had ‘perfect’ hearing as a younger person.

The main bulk of my clients tend to start wearing hearing aids from around mid fifties, clients younger than this tend to need assistance with hearing aids because of exposure to excessive noise, hereditary factors, disease, infections, trauma and medical conditions, but this section of my clients is much smaller than the over fifties.

Unfortunately there isn’t too much you can do to avoid the onset of age related hearing loss. When it starts to develop and also the severity of the hearing loss is pretty much pre-determined, but obviously protecting yourself from excessive noise is one of the major ways to avoid damaging your hearing. The effects of exposing your ears to excessive noise might not be apparent until many years after the damage has been done.

The Widex Super is designed to be weather proof, runs on a 675 battery for long life without making the hearing aid unnecessarily bulky. It’s loaded with the class leading wireless capabilities but also has a trusty telecoil facility to make use of as well where appropriate, with a specially designed volume control and program button.

The Widex Super is compatible with the full range of DEX wireless accessories and makes use of IE (Inter Ear) technology where your hearing aids talk to each other 21 times a second.

The Widex Super is available with a custom hard tip, custom soft mould, double domes and tulip domes and is available in two technology levels, the Widex Super440 is at premium level and the Widex Super220 is a mid range product.

Hearing aid prices for the Super440 are equivalent to the Clear440 and the Super220 is priced equivalent to the Clear220.

On first inspection the Widex Super looks like a really interesting product and demand is expected to be brisk.

Unfortunately Widex struggled to get the wireless side of the ITE and CIC side of the portfolio to a position where they were happy to release and almost a year after the expected release date Widex are finally confident the they can supply ITE and CIC versions of the Clear.

As frustrating as it has been for all concerned Widex should be commended for not bringing a product to market when not entirely happy, we’re not sure some other manufacturers would have held off like this against harsh criticism before being entirely happy that the product was ready.

We think the wait will have been worth it, the Widex Clear wireless technology particularly when used in conjunction with its excellent accessories is in our opinion groundbreaking.

The effects of tinnitus and stress are something that we at Digital Hearing Care anecdotally have been aware of from comments our clients have told us over the years, the more stressed they feel the more prevalent the tinnitus that is already there seems to increase in intensity.

In the study, the test subjects were exposed to stressful situations, for example answering questions while at the same time being interrupted. After the test, blood tests were taken as were new hearing tests. The blood tests tested for levels of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone which is activated in stressful situations and animal tests have shown that cortisol affects hearing.

“We found that tinnitus is 2.5 times more prevalent in people who are under long-term stress,” says Professor Barbera Canlon, who was one of the people leading the research.

Another interesting point of note was that hearing speech in noise was worse with the group that was exposed to stress. You could draw the conclusion that stress can lead to tinnitus and tinnitus can lead to stress, a bit of a vicious circle.

At Digital Hearing Care we have found that wearing hearing aids can lessen the prominence of tinnitus while you are wearing them, although not everybody gets a reduction in the perception of tinnitus it is quite common. For some the beneficial effects of wearing hearing aids to reduce tinnitus are very marked.

Most people that suffer from tinnitus also have some degree of hearing loss, although not exclusively so.

This article is based on information provided by hear-it.org a web site that has been established to increase public awareness of hearing impairment.

Today over 50 celebrity ambassadors around the world support the mission of Hear the World; these include Sting, Take That, Bobby McFerrin, Lenny Kravitz, Annie Lennox, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.

The Hear the World Foundation was also launched in 2006 to provide support for children with hearing loss, to enable them to develop at an appropriate rate for their age. Thus, the Foundation is currently supporting projects in twelve countries worldwide.

The support provided since 2006, which now totals more than a million Swiss francs, comes in the form of financial aid or in the implementation of teams working locally.
Over the past five years, Hear the World has successfully raised awareness in the media and among the general public. This is a success story that has won over 20 prestigious awards for communication and marketing, including the Sabre Awards, PR Week Awards, the Econ Award, the Comprix and the Marketing Trophy.

Like the Siemens iMini 701, the new 301 performance level is individually crafted by hand from the finest materials and fits beautifully and comfortably in the ear canal with no external components. Perfect for hesitant first-time users and experienced users alike. The Siemens iMini is;

- An incredibly small instrument manufactured and handcrafted by highly skilled technicians.
- Elegant, exclusive shell and instrument design with nano-coating.
-and has BestSound Technology built in.

The main differentiator between the two models is the iMini 701 has 10 channels as opposed to the 301 having 8, and the 701 has the benefit of SoundBrilliance while the 301 does not.

What this will provide in a custom shell;

Complete wireless media streaming and programming

The benefits of Binaural Spatial Mapping

Synchronized user controls

Optional volume control, program switch, and automatic telephone response

and Starkey’s industry-leading features.

For a full UK hearing aid prices list of the full Starkey hearing aids range, and also that of all the other manufacturers we stock please click the Hearing Aid Prices link as above.

The foundation is building a care network for children with hearing loss. The project aims to provide diagnostics and hearing aid fittings right through to speech therapy and a self help group for adults.

In the UK we take the benefits we have regarding hearing healthcare for granted, a basic range of hearing aids is provided on loan free of charge via the NHS system, and for those that want or need more than that there is the private supply chain through companies like ours. It goes without saying this is not the case throughout the world and the aim of the project and the foundation is to help people with hearing loss where it is particularly needed. We applaud this.

If you would like to make your own contribution to this cause please contact us directly and we will supply you with details on how YOU can make a difference.