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February 28, 2006
New technology in restoring failing hearing
Hearing loss is the number three-health problem among Americans over the age of 50. Linda Doherty slowly developed hearing loss. She says she didn't even realize it until she noticed herself constantly asking people to repeat themselves.
Her loss was so significant it required hearing aids.
Today’s devices are tiny, digital, and sometimes even hard to tell you're wearing them.
They are even programmable for a multitude of different auditory needs.
Dr. Dennis Hampton, audiologist stated, "So, if we knew about that person's hearing, the more we know about the person's hearing, we can put that into the hearing aid and program that hearing aid to adjust to the sound to match that person's hearing."
The key to programming the aids is to know whether the person spends a lot of time in noisy environments, or quiet ones.
That information comes from a patient's recollection and that's not always accurate.
That’s where another new device comes in, the sound activity monitor, or "Sam" for short.
A patient wears it for a few days while it records all the sounds around the patient.
Doctors then upload the information into a computer, generating a picture of the patient's sound world.
"Sam" allowed doctors to precisely tailor Linda’s hearing aids, not just to her particular hearing loss, but also to her sound environment.
Now, as good as hearing aids have become.
They can't help at all if you don't get them.
That means admitting you might have a problem, getting tested, and then being fit for an aid.
Source: http://www.wndu.com/news/mommo/022006/mommo_48273.php
Posted by 4HL on February 28, 2006 11:16 PM
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