It’s that time of year again, the months roll by in a blur and before we know where we are Christmas is upon us.

Times of greater activity and noisier situations like Christmas can really make an already noticeable hearing loss even more noticeable and situations more challenging than ever if your hearing isn’t what it once was.

At a time when we get together with our families more often and generally in larger gatherings than we might be otherwise be, that hearing loss you’ve been thinking of addressing but putting off for such a long time all of a sudden can be more of a problem than ever.

Why not get the ball rolling and arrange a hearing assessment today.

Find out how we can help make Christmas the pleasant experience it used to be and should be with better hearing?

The cut off date to be fitted with hearing aids before Christmas is fast approaching, what have you got to lose by contacting us for information?

We offer great value for money, as independent hearing aid audiologists we can offer all products available, and we really care about getting you hearing as well as we can with a great aftercare service.

Don’t delay, contact us today and let us help your Christmas be merry!

In our previous article about hearing speech and television viewing we covered why as a hard of hearing person you might have some difficulties.

This article covers a number of interesting facts about TV and hearing;

• On TV male voices are usually louder than female voices. Testosterone makes a mans vocal cords longer giving a deeper tone, and better at voice projection because of the extra muscle power.
• Up to 20% of what we hear is confirmed by watching peoples lips.
• Female voices have more power in the higher frequencies. Aquired hearing loss commonly means not hearing these frequencies making female voices harder to hear than male.
• Dramatic speech has a greater dynamic sound range than normal voices
• Contemporary music sounds louder than classical music on TV because it is compressed.
• Background music with lyrics needs to be at a lower volume than without lyrics because it adds to the viewers distraction.
• Music affects the emotions. Fast music engenders urgency and slow music does the reverse.

One of the most common things we hear as hearing care professionals is how difficult it is for our clients to hear some programmes on the television.  Our clients usually comment they can hear the newscasters easily but dramas, and American dramas in particular, can be difficult to understand.

Other areas of difficulty include where background music is present with programmes like ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ and ‘The Weakest Link’ seeming to feature high on the list.

A joint survey for Voice of the Listener and Viewer, funded by Widex looked into the problem. This found that background noise and music was indeed part of the problem, along with poor recording and sub standard artist dialogue levels.

The survey concluded that at the root of the problem was a combination of untrained staff in charge of sound recording and increased use of freelance sound technicians not empowered to halt recording when dialogue input was too low.

Hopefully the results of this survey will be heeded and broadcasters will improve the quality of recordings to a level where speech intelligibility will be improved for the hard of hearing.

Another area where our clients can improve the quality of speech on television is through the method of direct audio input. Most of the current crop of hearing aids being launched now have the facility for wireless straming of audio direct into their hearing aids which gives the client a real improvement in intelligibility of speech. Ask for details!

Scientists at the University of Utah are experimenting with stimulating inner ear cells with infrared laser light. Using low powered optical signals researchers triggered the inner ear hair cells of an oyster toadfish to send signals to its brain. It’s believed the cells released neurotransmitters because the moitochondria they contain are sensitive to infrared wavelengths.

Current hearing implants rely on electrodes that use electrical stimulation that delivers a limited range of frequencies (generally eight), but the human ear is actualy capable of hearing over 3,000 frequencies.

The head researcher, Richard Rabbitt, believes that by using optical stimulation the full range of hearing could be restored.

This research is a long way from implementation (at least 5 to 10 years for a viable implant) but the early findings are encouraging.

What can we say about Oticon Speech Guard? – Available in the Oticon Agil Pro its function is to preserve speech and spatial clues which helps the hearing aid wearer hear speech clearly.

Speech Guard is designed to dramatically improve the hearing aid wearer’s ability to follow speech, even in complex listening environments. The more the amplified signal resembles the original speech signal, the better the hearing aid wearer’s speech perception will be.

Speech is dynamic and loudness levels change over time. Loudness changes represent an important natural cue that enables us to distinguish one person speaking from another. Generally, loudness changes occur within a predictable range and in a predictable pattern.

It’s actually quite easy even for fairly simple hearing aid technology to cope quite well in quiet listening environments, however, in complex listening environments other sounds start to interfere. These sounds affect the behaviour of the signal, generating unpredictable patterns of amplification.

To protect the hearing aid wearer from dramatic changes in amplification, traditional hearing aid technology was designed to increase loudness of soft sounds and reduce loudness of loud sounds – often at the expense of sound quality. Unfortunately in this process a lot of the subtle details of the original speech signal are lost.

Speech Guard overcomes these issues to enhance the ability to hear speech effortlessly in complex noisy environments.

FlexControl is a bit of a twist on the old volume controls we used to see a lot when hearing aid technology was far more rudimentary than nowadays.

In the old days of analogue and the early days of digital hearing aid technology it was fairly common to see hearing aids with a manual volume control for the wearer to make fine tuning adjustments to the overall level of amplification as needed.

As technology has advanced, certainly at Digital Hearing Care we gradually phased out supplying hearing aids with a manual volume adjustment, relying on the automatic features of the better technology to enable good hearing for our clients, in fact it is a number of years since we last supplied hearing aids with a volume control.

Enter Phonak FlexControl, better thought of as a clarity enhancer rather than a simple volume control. The automatic features of the Soundflow program are more than capable in most environments but FlexControl, if activated as a feature, increases and decreases many different parameters within the technology available, think of it as ‘sound cleaning’ features.

FlexControl will intelligently adjust all these features in different ways in different environments. An example would be that increasing FlexControl in a music environment would alter different parameters in different ways compared to the same action in a speech in noise type of environment.

FlexControl selectively alters frequency dependent gain, compression, directionality, noise reduction, and a number of other features, all in different ways and to different degrees in different situations. All seamlessly under the hood.

FlexControl can be activated either by a control on the hearing aids themselves or wirelessly via the Phonak PilotOne remote control. FlexControl is available in the Phonak Ambra and the Phonak Audeo S Smart IX.

Tinnitus isnt a new subject when it comes to writing an article about hearing. A simple web search on the word Tinnitus will bring up lots of articles on the subject. This article will cover the basics of what Tinnitus is and then we hope to provide you with some facts and figures around this extremely common disorder that you may not already be aware of.

So what is Tinnitus?

The official wording goes something like this “Tinnitus is the name given to the condition of noises ‘in the ears’ and/or ‘in the head’ with no external source. Tinnitus noises are described variously as ringing, whistling, buzzing and humming.

The noises may be heard in one ear, both ears or in the middle of the head or it may be difficult to pinpoint its exact location. The noise may be low, medium or high-pitched. There may be a single noise or two or more components. The noise may be continuous or it may come and go.

In laymans terms Tinnitus is buzzing in the ear.

Who gets Tinnitus?

It is a common misconception that Tinnitus is restricted to the elderly as is pretty much all hearing and deafness related conditions. This isnt actually the case and anybody even young children can suffer with the condition and have done at some point in their lives. Tinnitus most commonly associated and usually occurs after a person has been exposed to a loud noise. This form of Tinnitus is rarely a big problem as it soon goes and in most cases doesnt leave behind any long term damage.

It isnt fully understood as of yet exactly what the causes are of Tinnitus but it certainly isnt a disease or illness that can be caught from somebody else. It is merely a problem that is created from within a persons very own auditory pathways

Just how common is Tinnitus?

• Two hundred and thirty thousand people in the UK suffer from the condition at a level which has a major effect on their ability to lead a normal everyday life.
• Four hundred and seventy thousand people in the UK have it severe enough that it impacts on their quality of life.
• Two million three hundred thousand adults cant sleep because of the ringing or buzzing they experience through Tinnitus
• Two million three hundred thousand sufferers not surprisingly find this condition moderately to severely annoying
• Four million seven hundred thousand people within the UK have experienced a degree of Tinnitus outside being exposed to a loud noise at some point in their life.
• Three million three hundred thousand adults within the UK have paid a visit to their local GP about a form of Tinnitus.

As you can see from these shocking statistics. Tinnitus is an extremely common condition within the UK. If we were to spread these figures across the world they would become un believable.

(please feel free to use the graphic above on your website. All we ask in return is that you link back to www.digitalhearingcare.org.uk as the source)

The real takeaway from our article is that if you are experiencing any degree of a Tinnitus join the other 3.3 million people in the UK and go and see a doctor or a local audiologist for some advice.

For more in depth advice on Tinnitus please visit the British Tinnitus website

For anyone working in a noisy environment over the last 30 years or so, you’ll have noticed big changes in Health and Safety rules to protect your hearing. The rules are quite stringent now and as a general rule companies are keen to keep within the rules. But what about the noise produced while listening to music?

There have been lots of articles in the press  about the potential damage to hearing from MP3 players, also the sound levels at some rock concerts are at increasingly damaging levels. We are seeing more people at a younger age for noise induced hearing loss than ever before. The alarming thing is that, because the damage sometimes takes years to manifest itself, irreparable damage can occur before you know it has happened.

Here’s a list of typical decibel levels;

30 = Whispered Conversation
60-70 = Normal Conversation Levels
94 = MP3 Player on Medium Setting
100 = Motorcycle
120 = Formula One Racing Car
125 = Pneumatic Drill
130 = Passenger Jet Taking Off
170 = Shotgun Going Off Beside Your Ears
194 = Theoretically the Loudest Sound Possible

If you are exposed to excessive noise, a good indication damage is occuring is if you then suffer from a temporary slight deafness and / or a ringing in the ears it will probably be doing your hearing no good at all. Some people seem pre-disposed to their hearing being easily damaged by noise, whilst in others their hearing seems more hardy. However, hearing loss can have a very serious impact on your lifestyle and communications with friends and family, it’s not worth taking a chance  with your hearing. The best advice is always, if in doubt, remove yourself from noisy environments where you can, or wear adequate ear protection where you can’t.

We can, of course, assess your hearing levels if you are worried they may be reduced due to exposure to excessive noise or any other factors.