Daily Care of Your Hearing Aids is Very Important

Summer is here! Maintaining your hearing aids by daily care is important, especially in the summer months.  Warm weather brings increased heat and humidity. It’s not surprising that moisture can create problems for hearing aids.  With some extra TLC you can keep your hearing aids working well throughout the summer.

Here are a few tips to keep your hearing aids working well:

• Exposure to water, humidity and perspiration can harm your hearing aids.  Remember to take them out for the shower, pool or beach.

• At night open the battery compartment. This will increase the battery life and also allow the hearing aids to dry if they have picked up some moisture during the day.

• Store the batteries in a cool dry place. Batteries are affected by temperature extremes, so avoid the glove compartment in hot weather.

• Consider using a Dri-Aid kit or electric hearing aid drying box. 

• When applying sunscreen avoid clogging the openings on the hearing aids.

• If your hearing aids have “filters” change them on a regular basis.

• Be diligent about routine maintenance. When you remove the hearing aids at night, wipe them with a dry soft cloth.  

A little extra mindful care will assure you enjoy your hearing aids and the wonderful sounds of summer all season long.

Hearing aids require special care so that they function properly. Your audiologist can show you how to care for and check them regularly.

For Children with Hearing Loss, Listening can be Exhausting!

Listening takes lots of energy. Children with hearing loss may be extra tired at the end of a busy school day. Why is that? The job of understanding and processing the speech of parents, teachers and friends that’s been “filtered” through a hearing loss, especially in a noisy environments, requires a lot of work all through the day.

Hearing loss happens in the ears, but the real action is in the brain. The brain makes sense of the words picked up by the ears.

• Children are learning 24/7. Children with hearing loss should be fit as early as possible so they have access to all those sounds around them.

• A clear sound signal helps children learn.

• Having a hearing loss can be taxing – it takes hard work to listen.  The brain needs the best, clearest signal to understand what is being said.

• Hearing aids must be worn all the while the child is awake – at school and at home.  Having a clean comfortable signal provides relief – the child can relax and not work so hard to listen.

Remember, when a child has a hearing loss only part of the speech accurately reach the brain.  Noise is even more disruptive for children who have a hearing loss.  It takes extra work to follow speech when the brain has to guess and fill in the blanks. But new hearing aid technology, properly fit and used on a full-time basis, brings in a clean full speech signal for easier hearing and relaxed learning.

Click Here to learn more about pediatric hearing services.

Unsafe Use of Personal Audio Devices a Risk to Your Hearing

by Judy Rasin Au.D.

Judy Rasin Au.D.

When I was a child, I rode my bike without a helmet, and as a mom, I drove my toddlers without car seats.  Years ago I didn’t even use a seat belt!  I am not a risk-taker, but over the years we have learned how to be safer.  Things we didn’t even think about at the time seem like no-brainers to us now.

Many children and teens listen to music at sound levels high enough to damage their hearing.  Changing the listening habits of young people is urgent according to the World Health Organization. In fact, the WHO says that one billion people ages 12-35 are risking their ears with unsafe use of personal audio devices and exposure at concerts and bars.

Earbuds and headphones used at full volume (about 100 decibels) can damage hearing permanently.  Listening to levels below 85 dB is safe, even for long periods of time.  So to be safe, be sure to set the volume no more than 60% of the maximum.

Music at clubs and concert arenas can be unsafe.  Avoid being to near the speakers.  If you or your teens are going to be someplace where the music is likely to be loud, plan to protect your ears with appropriate noise protectors.  It’s important to be sure these are correctly inserted so they are effective.

At the Hearing Center we offer a range of custom ear protectors to ensure you hear safely and comfortably. These come in fun colors or clear, tailored to your needs, and individually fabricated just for you.


Judy Rasin is a licensed New York State Audiologist and hearing aid dispenser at The Hearing Center at Pelham. You can contact Judy at (718) 822-4100 or visit their website. 

Inner Ear Disorder Can Easily Be Treated

BPPV can easily be treated.

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is the most common type of dizziness, and happily, the most easily treated. In many patients, it can be cured with a simple series of movements.

BPPV occurs when tiny crystals called otoconia become loosened from their normal location in the inner ear.   They are then free to flow in the semicircular canals, the part of the inner ear that senses movement of the head.

Patients with BPPV may experience dizziness or spinning when they turn over in bed, get in or out of bed, look up to a high shelf or put their head back in the shower. They may become unsteady when they arise. They may even experience nausea and other motion sickness like symptoms.

The onset of BPPV may be abrupt and scary. The usual course of the illness is a gradual improvement over weeks to months.  However, if properly diagnosed and treated, we often facilitate your recovery.

If you are having dizziness when you change position, ask your physician if a VNG is an appropriate part of your assessment.

If the VNG test indicates you have BPPV, an audiologist will guide you through a simple series of movements to return the loose crystals where they belong. The patient follows directions on simple movements, seated, and lying down, and then in a seated position once again. The activity is quick, painless and easy.

Not all patients with dizziness have BPPV. If you are having problems with dizziness, vertigo or balance, ask your physician if a VNG (videonystagmography) may be part of your dizziness workup. VNG is considered the "gold standard" test of inner ear balance function, and if you have BPPV, there's a good chance that a licensed audiologist can help you.

Hearing Aids VS. PSAPs - Do You Know the Difference?

Pardon the pun, but by now many of us have heard about PSAPs, or personal sound amplification products. These devices, which are being touted as the second coming in hearing aid advancement, are becoming evermore popular with their lower prices and ease of purchase over conventional hearing aids.

This popularity is understandable since they appear to offer some of the same advanced technology used in expensive hearing aids…and promise to give you super hearing for pennies on the dollar.

In truth, there is technology in them that enables these PSAPs to amplify sound, which, under certain conditions can be very effective. However, amplify is the key word here. That’s where the differences between PSAPs and actual hearing aids begin to show themselves.

While not being totally disingenuous, companies selling these PSAPs are not completely forthcoming either. What they don’t tell you is that, these are not hearing aids. These are instruments designed for people with no hearing issues. That’s right. If you have low to moderate hearing loss or above, these OTCs (over the counter) products do nothing to address those issues in any clinical manner.

In fact, many fall quite short when it comes to performing even as advertised. Moreover, these are one-size fits all sound amplifiers with volume control and in some instances, noise filters.

What’s Wrong With That as Long as it Makes it Louder?

Nothing, if all you need is more volume. However, many people with a hearing impairment need more than just an instrument that cranks up the volume. One example, depending on your degree of hearing loss, is being unable to discern words, which is a common source of frustration. If words sound foggy or like a wall of sound, turning up the volume is only going to get you a louder wall.

It is Best to Consult a Professional

A professional Audiologist is familiar with all types and degrees of hearing loss. They are trained to know what to look for, to recognize the degree of hearing loss you may suffer (if any) and how best to address any issues moving forward.

Today’s hearing aids are technologically advanced and can be fine-tuned to maximize your ability to hear with the proper volume and clarity, while targeting your specific areas of need. You just can’t get that from an amplifier.

When it comes to your hearing, don’t take chances with a device you can pick up off a convenient store counter. Seek out a professional for proper evaluation and treatment. 

Surprising News about the Link Between Dementia and Hearing Loss

Has hearing loss slowly crept up on you? Many people think of aging-related hearing loss as a minor annoyance, not a serious health issue. But there is evidence that hearing loss could be directly related to the onset of dementia, according to a joint study in 2011 by Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Aging. 

Researchers aren’t sure why there’s a connection between hearing loss and dementia. One theory is that the social isolation experienced by people with hearing loss makes them more vulnerable to cognitive problems like dementia. Another possibility is that the onset of dementia is related to the cumulative stress of trying to make sense of garbled sounds. Scientists say that when you’re extremely focused on translating random sounds into an understandable sentence, there’s no brain power left for other functions. The technical term for this struggle is “cognitive load.” 

Meanwhile, it’s clear that proactively guarding your hearing health provides multiple benefits. Good hearing health – and cognitive health —starts with a simple hearing check. If you’ve noticed any difference in your hearing, or if others have pointed out that you may have a hearing problem, experts say that you should make an appointment with an audiologist to assess the situation. And if you already use hearing aids but feel that you may be missing some parts of conversations, it’s a good idea to have your hearing aids reprogrammed or replaced by a specialist.

Did you know that these problems can be caused by hearing loss?

• Isolation and loneliness
• Relationship difficulties
• Fatigue
• Memory and attention lapses
• Depression and anxiety

If your quality of life has diminished because of hearing loss, consider contacting a hearing professional. Your personal hearing solution may be simpler than you think.

Hearing Loss Linked To Falling

Hearing loss has been linked to a wide range of health problems, in addition to social challenges.

Now a new study finds that subjects who have a hearing loss are three times more likely to fall than their peers who reported no hearing loss.

Study investigator Frank Lin, an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the university's Bloomberg School of Public Health, and his colleague Luigi Ferrucci, of the National Institute on Aging, noted a correlation between subjects who reported at least a "mild hearing loss" of up to 25 decibels, and the frequency of falls.

Lin and Ferrucci found that people with a mild hearing loss were nearly three times more likely to have a history of falling. Every additional 10 decibels of hearing loss increased the chances of falling by 1.4-fold. The study's finding still held true even when investigators accounted for factors linked with falling, including age, sex, race, cardiovascular disease and vestibular function. Even excluding participants with moderate to severe hearing loss from the analysis didn't change the results.

The study utilized data from the 2001 to 2004 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This research program has periodically gathered health data from thousands of Americans since its inception in 1971.

The researchers' findings are published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Lin suggests that the reason for the strong correlation may be the fact that individuals with hearing loss could have a compromised sense of awareness in their overall environment, making tripping and falling more likely. Another reason hearing loss might increase the risk of falls, Lin says, is cognitive load, in which the brain is overwhelmed with demands on its limited resources.

"Gait and balance are things most people take for granted, but they are actually very cognitively demanding," Lin said. "If hearing loss imposes a cognitive load, there may be fewer cognitive resources to help with maintaining balance and gait."

Dr. Mary Bohr, Director of Audiology at McGuire's Hearing Aids and Audiological Services, agreed with Dr. Lin's assessment. "We recognize the importance of taking a thorough history for each patient we see and of updating that history at least once a year. Information regarding falls and unsteadiness is very important to us. Statistically, at least 50% of visits to the primary care specialist by people over 65 are due to complaints of unsteadiness," she observed.

"This very important research by Dr. Lin reiterates the need to examine the whole person, not just the complaint. We hope that physicians will address the observations Dr. Lin made and treat hearing loss as a significant factor in patient well-being both physically and psychologically," Dr. Bohr concluded.