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February 8, 2007
Hearing aids get fashionable
Gone are the days of big and clunky hearing aids. Now, they're fashionable and almost invisible
The colorful triangular hearing aid is designed for people in their 40's and 50's who want to be hip and hear. Architect Greg Henricks wears black aids. Ryan Rossler, a certified hypnotherapist, has a silver aid. Audiologist Dr. Ronna Fisher wears two aids. One is red and the other one is beige.
Oticon's Delta hearing aids comes in 17 different colors.
"Do you know what's amazing is that people who say, 'Oh my gosh, I don't want anyone to know.' (But) once they get these, they show everyone. They think it's so cool," said Dr. Fisher.
Dr. Fisher, founder of the Hearing Health Center says hearing devices are not only fashionable, but technology has also changed.
"It has enabled us to really fine tune and precisely fit the amplification to a particular hearing loss without amplifying all of the background sounds," said Dr. Fisher.
"The digital technology is like hearing there's a processor inside the hearing instrument. It has a brain and it can change with your environment so that I can give you the exact amount of hearing that you need at each pitch," said Dr. Fisher.
75 percent of everything we hear is in the high pitches.
"That gives speech it's clarity is in the high pitches so if somebody says show and your at a party and there is background noise you'll get oh you won't know if they said show, flow throw cause all those sounds are where the hearing loss is," said Dr. Fisher.
Greg Henricks started losing his hearing 10 years ago. He has a moderate loss in the high frequency range.
"Without hearing aids, conversation and being in places like restaurants are a problem where I can't hear," said Henricks.
But that is not an issue any more.
"You know not that I care that people notice, but it's pretty cool," said Henricks.
Ryan always had a hearing loss but just started wearing a hearing aid.
"I can hear people. I don't have to ask them what they're saying all the time, I don't have to always lean over to my wife and ask people what they're saying" 44.25.45.
Delta hearing devices cost between $2,000 and $3,000.
http://abclocal.go.com:80/wls/story?section=community&id=5005077
Posted by 4HL on February 8, 2007 8:15 AM
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