The first use of a hearing aid can be somewhat shocking for many people.

Most hearing-impaired people wait far too long before getting hearing aids and they have often forgotten what it is like to have normal hearing.

This is why voices and traffic noises may seem very loud when using a hearing aid for the first time.

Generally, the sounds are quite different when compared to normal hearing.

Below is some good advice for first-time users of hearing aids

• You cannot compare hearing aids with spectacles. When you use glasses for the first time, you see the difference right away, but with hearing aids you have to get used to hearing differently.
• It is a good idea to practise being a good hearing aid user. This means that you must keep wearing your hearing aid - do not put it away if it irritates you. You need to have a good and ongoing dialogue with your audiologist and supplier. The more you tell them about your experience using hearing aids, the better they can be fitted.
• Fitting is an ongoing process. When you become more familiar with your hearing aid, you can tell your audiologist that a certain sound seems as if it is too close to you. He/She may then focus the hearing aids more accurately, making them work better.
• Wearing hearing aids for the first time is also a psychological process. It is a good idea to talk to the staff at the hearing clinic about your expectations and your experience.
• Set a personal objective and a plan of action: What you have to be aware of and the different expectations in certain periods, etc. This will be of great help to you while you get used to your hearing aids - both physically and mentally.
• Talk to other people who suffer from hearing problems and who use hearing aids. They will most likely have a lot of experience for you to draw on.

(source: hear-it.org)

There are times when you purposely plug your ears -- think fingers or earplugs -- and then there are, well, other times when your ears feel clogged for no good reason. Why is sound muffled when there doesn’t appear to be anything inside your ear canal? Here are four of the most common reasons why your ears might feel clogged.


Impacted earwax 

Normally, earwax is the body’s way of protecting the ear. Its sticky consistency traps dirt and other pollutants, act as a lubricant, and because it naturally falls out of the ear canal on its own, serves as a natural self-cleaning agent. On occasion, however, it can become impacted and affect your ability to hear.
According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the following symptoms indicate earwax is causing a problem:

• A feeling that the ear is clogged
• An earache
• Partial hearing loss
• Tinnitus, or ringing in the ear
• Itching, odor or discharge
• Coughing
  

The only way to know for sure -- and to remove the earwax safely from the affected ear -- is to see a physician or your hearing healthcare professional. Please note that it is never appropriate to try and remove the earwax yourself using a cotton swab, baby oil, or hydrogen peroxide. Not only could you accidentally puncture your eardrum or push the earwax deeper into the canal and cause impaction, removing this natural protective lubricant can lead to the development of dry, itchy ears. It’s best to let a professional determine whether or not your ears need a more thorough cleaning beyond what you can safely do with a warm, soapy washcloth.


Fluid in the ear

Avid swimmers are likely too familiar with this painful condition; however, even non-swimmers can suffer from fluid in the ear, too. Fluid can develop in the ear for a couple of different reasons:
Ear infection -- children and adults who develop middle ear infections may experience a plugged ear sensation due to fluid build-up behind the eardrum. Although this condition usually clears on its own, it can be painful. It’s time to call a doctor if the pain is severe, you notice a fluid discharge or symptoms persist for more than a day. Children younger than six months should be seen immediately.
Swimming or bathing -- here’s another reason to appreciate earwax. It acts as a deterrent for water to enter the ear when you swim or bathe. Even so, there are times water can become trapped inside the Eustachian tubes from swimming, bathing or moist environments. If it does, try these simple techniques to encourage it to drain.

• Tilt your head sideways and pull the earlobe gently.  
• Use a warm compress. This helps open up the Eustachian tubes so water can drain naturally.
• Yawn, chew, take a deep breath or use the valsalva maneuver by holding your nose and blowing gently.

Sinus pressure

You may be familiar with stuffed nasal passages and facial tenderness brought about by sinus pressure, but did you know it can also cause temporary hearing loss? The sinus cavities, hollow spaces located in your bones near the nose and between the eyes, are also located beside the ear canal. When you experience an inflammation in your sinus cavities, it can cause your Eustachian tubes to swell. When that happens, the connection between the middle ear and throat is closed which puts pressure on the eardrum causing that clogged ear feeling -- or worse -- pain and hearing loss.
Fortunately, most hearing loss caused by sinus infection, pressure or sinusitis is temporary and hearing returns to normal once the sinus congestion clears. Even so, if you experience pain or sudden hearing loss due to sinus congestion, see your family doctor. They can determine the cause of your discomfort and prescribe medication to alleviate the pain and swelling.

Noise damage

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is one of the most common types of sensorineural hearing loss. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), as many as 40 million Americans have hearing loss in one or both ears which may have been caused by exposure to excessive noise over a long period of time or a one time exposure to an extremely loud noise, such as an explosion or blast.
If your ears feel clogged or you hear ringing in your ears (tinnitus) after an evening with friends at the club or an afternoon in a rowdy sports stadium, it’s likely due to excessive noise exposure. Although these symptoms typically clear within 48 hours, you can prevent permanent hearing loss by taking precautions the next time you know you’ll be in a noisy environment:

• Wear earplugs or other hearing protective devices when you’re involved in an activity where sound measures more than 85 decibels (dB).
• Turn down the volume on the television, car radio or any personal electronic device with which you use ear buds.
• If you can’t protect your hearing from the noise or reduce the volume, move as far away from it as possible.

Before trouble starts...

Although we’ve covered four of the most common reasons you ears may feel clogged, it’s always wise to seek the advice of a hearing healthcare professional whenever you are having trouble hearing. Unclogging your ears at home using home remedies or a cotton swab is never a good idea!

The Jervis Bay Hearing Centre can help you!  Call 4441 8886

(Source: healthyhearing.com)
Author: Debbie Clason

Outstanding new evidence from two independent studies shows how today's hearing aid technology empowers people to actively participate in the same noisy environments as people with normal hearing*, such as restaurants and similar environments that were previously too demanding.

This is thanks to the OpenSound Navigator technology, which helps people with hearing loss to interact with multiple speakers, while significantly reducing their listening effort.** 

Click HERE to read the Whitepaper

* Juul Jensen 2018, Oticon Whitepaper
** Le Goff and Beck 2017, Oticon Whitepaper

Osher Günsberg, host of The Bachelor Australia franchise has been fitted with the latest upgraded miniRITE hearing aid technology by Danielle Tres, Head of Audiology, Oticon Australia.

"Osher has a mild to severe neurosensory hearing loss, likely aggravated by all his years of noise exposure. He had previously been fitted with miniRITE style hearing aids, therefore I decided to fit him with the latest miniRITE instruments using the latest technology platform developed in Denmark. Osher spends a lot of time on TV sets, at large events or with his family, he is always surrounded by a lot of people and this new technology definitely suits his lifestyle." – Danielle Tres.

Google is making life a bit easier for people who suffer from hearing loss.
On Thursday, the company announced that it's working with GN Hearing to bring hearing aid streaming support to future versions of Android. This means people will be able to connect, pair, and monitor their hearing aids from their Android device.

This follows Apple's Made for iPhone hearing aid program, which allows people to connect and control their hearing aids from iOS devices. You can read more in CNET's feature on the Apple program here.
Although Apple was first, Google's move has potentially bigger impact since 85 percent of the world's smartphones run Android (compared to 14.7 percent for iOS).
A World Health Organization statistic from March says that around 466 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss, meaning a lot of people could potentially benefit from Android's support.

Apple and Android aren't alone in bringing cutting-edge tech to hearing aids. Manufacturers like Bose, Oticon and Harman are also working to make hearing aids smarter with app support, built-in sensors and communication between connected smart devices.
Android's hearing aid support is designed to have a low impact on battery life while keeping audio quality high. The nitty-gritty details about the hearing aid support can be read on Android's spec page here.

(Source: cnet.com)
(Author: Gordon Gottsegen)

The artist and grandmother who lives in Cheeditha — an indigenous community just outside of Roebourne in the Western Australian Pilbara region — had chronic ear infections that were left largely untreated over decades.
"I've been going to the clinic for a long time but they just said there's lots of holes [in the eardrum] and all of that," she said.
Ms Warrie attended remote health clinics over the years without any improvement and thought she would be stuck with her poor hearing.
That was until a mobile ear health clinic, inside a minibus, rolled into town.

Hearing difficulties are one of the biggest health problems in the Pilbara.

Aboriginal children have the highest rates of otitis media — middle ear infection — in the world, according to the World Health Organisation.Since the Chevron Ear Health program started in 2011, hundreds of children have been tested — and treated.

Telecom Speech and Hearing's Pilbara ear health coordinator, Amelia Scheel, said hearing problems at a young age could have adverse effects on a child's speech and language development and their overall learning in the classroom.

"Our attendance rates at clinics have been great — a great increase from when we first commenced with the program to now," Ms Scheel said.

"It's steady at probably about an 85 per cent attendance to clinics.

"And almost 100 per cent for our ENT (ear nose and throat specialist clinics), which is absolutely amazing."
Roebourne school principal, David Paine, said the program had a positive impact on school attendance, behaviour and learning.

"A lot of the issues in learning, a lot of the issues with behaviour is just down to they can't hear the instruction properly," he said.

"So if we can alleviate that concern, we can alleviate and address other concerns too.

"We have a lot of students who do not get those regular checks and they have a lot of middle-ear issues, that if not picked up at the early stages easily become into a permanent damage that impacts their entire life.
He said the hearing improvements had changed lives.He highlighted one student who was tested and fitted with a hearing device, inserted into a baseball cap.

"When she first came back in, just seeing her smile, it was really probably her first time when she could really focus in on someone who was speaking and actually hear them," he said.

"Not just what they're saying but their tone, their expression, the difference between one person speaking and another, and seeing that light all across their face was truly special and truly amazing."

Mr Paine was so impressed with the changes in his student's hearing, it prompted him to face up to the reality of his own hearing issues.

The mobile ear health clinic has started taking adult clients for the first time.

"I didn't think I had a hearing issue, it was more when I would go to parties or go to clubs I could never hear any conversations, it was just something always that played at the back of my mind," he said.

"And because every term I was seeing the ear bus staff, I thought maybe I should ask them.

"And this year I built up my courage and said 'look I'm a bit worried about my ears could you please check my hearing'."

After discovering he did have a hearing problem, Mr Paine is now on the path to receiving treatment.

(Source: abc.net.au/news)
(Author: Karen Michelmore)

Zoe Williams is an Audiologist from Ballarat who works for Australian Hearing in Geelong. Growing up with a hearing loss herself, Zoe takes great pride in helping other people manage their own hearing loss. Zoe works with both children and adults, and in this short documentary we get an insight into how an Audiologist tests for hearing.

(Source: open.abc.net.au)
Author: Marc Eiden
Producer / Camera / Editor: Marc Eiden (Open Producer, ABC Open Ballarat VIC)

Do my ears get bigger as I age?
By Mitchell Hecht, The Inquirer

It's not your imagination. Ears do get bigger with age. Not only does the cartilage in the ear continue to grow lengthwise (but not with increasing width) throughout our lifetime, but the earlobe elongates and sags due to years of gravity.
A British report in 1995 in the British Medical Journal found that their ears elongated by 0.22 millimeter per year.
Another study determined that the average ear length is 2.04 inches at birth, and 3.07 inches in length in men at age 70 and 2.83 inches in length in women at age 70. In fact, detailed statistics on ear sizes have been used by forensic researchers to determine an unknown person's approximate age.
 
Brains pick out sounds from background noise

Our ears can effortlessly pick out the sounds we need to hear from a noisy environment - hearing our mobile phone ringtone in the middle of the Notting Hill Carnival, for example - but how our brains process this information (the so-called 'cocktail party problem') has been a longstanding research question in hearing science.

In a study in the United Kingdom, groups of volunteers were asked to identify target sounds from within this noisy background in a series of experiments. Professor Tim Griffiths, Professor of Cognitive Neurology at Newcastle University and lead researcher on the study, said: "Many hearing disorders are characterised by the loss of ability to detect speech in noisy environments. Disorders like this that are caused by problems with how the brain interprets sound information, rather than physical damage to the ear and hearing machinery, remain poorly understood.

"These findings inform us about a fundamental brain mechanism for detecting sound patterns and identifies a process that can go wrong in hearing disorders. We now have an opportunity to create better tests for these types of hearing problems."

Out on my ear

Play it by ear To decide how to deal with a situation as it develops rather than by having a plan to follow. ‘I'm not sure how many people are expected. We'll just have to play it by ear.’
Lend me your ear To ask someone politely to listen carefully. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony begins his eulogy in honour of the assassinated consul: ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.’
Ears are flapping A person is listening in to somebody else's conversation
Sent away with a flea in their ear To angrily tell someone to go away. ‘He asked for money but I sent him away with a flea in his ear.’
Bend an ear To listen attentively.
Pig's ear I question the integrity of your statement.

Hands up if you know anyone who has hearing aids sitting in their drawer instead of in their ears?
 
Do you ever wonder why that is?
 
Have you ever tried to find out why people with hearing aids don’t wear them?
 
There can be lots of reasons why people don’t feel comfortable wearing their hearing aids or why they think that their hearing aids don’t work.  The most common problem is that some people are not fit well in the first place and they don’t think that things will get any better.
 
When I say not fit well, I mean that the device they received needs adjustment so that the sounds are softer or louder or clearer.  They might have an ear mould that is irritating in their ear or they might not know how to operate the buttons on the device. All these reasons are enough to make someone abandon their hearings aids and think that they are better off without them.
 
The truth of course is that they aren’t better off – they’re still suffering!
 
With a great hearing wellness provider that they can trust – all of those problems can be solved.  Getting a hearing solution that is just right for you can take some time to perfect and it’s important to both persist with wearing your hearing aids and to go back to your provider until you’re 100% satisfied. 
 
“Hearing aid technology and styles has advanced hugely in recent times and with so much more choice around today it’s guaranteed that we can find a solution that will bring you great hearing”, comments Michael Brown-Sarre Audiometrist with the Jervis Bay Hearing Centre.
 
“It’s so important not to give up – let us help you to keep those hearing aids out of the drawer and enjoy great hearing again!”

Have you ever muttered these words? 

Or is someone near you suffering from a hearing loss and considers they're too young to wear a hearing device?  Do you think wearing a hearing device indicates that you're advanced in years?

The irony is that living with an untreated hearing loss is much more of a ‘social concern’ and will impact more on your life, than treating the hearing loss with either communications training or wearing a hearing instrument.

Typically people with an untreated hearing loss often don’t even know much it impacts on those around them.  They may not be aware that people close to them often have to repeat themselves or repair conversations that breakdown when communication isn't heard accurately.  Often when a person has an untreated hearing loss, they can hear many things but not everything and a lot of valuable information is lost in 'translation'.

In this present day and age, hearing loss is very common in people much younger than in other generations and so much so, that it's recommended that people over 50yrs of age should have their hearing checked every two years.  If you haven't had your hearing checked, then the time to start monitoring your hearing wellness is now.

Advanced technology allows for hearing instruments to be so discreet and adaptive to your environment that there's no need to be concerned about the visual impacts of wearing a hearing device.

Alternatively, the Jervis Bay Hearing Centre offers a hearing wellness communications training program that is designed to help people who don't hear well and don't consider a hearing device to be the right solution at this point in time.  The communications training program is extremely effective for helping people to stay connected and avoid becoming misunderstood.

The key to a happy and active life is to stay connected.  Easy and effortless communication is essential to your full participation in life.  Don't let your hearing hold you back!

Call the Jervis Bay Hearing Centre today for a FREE hearing check on 4441 8886