Audio Help Hearing Centers

Preventing Hearing Loss in Musicians and Performers

Whether you are the lead guitarist in a heavy metal band or are an aspiring singer, you know how special and important your creativity and talents are. But you also need to be aware of how vital your hearing is to make your dreams come true. Without your ability to hear, a career—or even a hobby—in music is nearly impossible. In order to continue indulging in your passion, consider the following steps you can take to prevent hearing loss and preserve your current hearing sensitivity:

Meet with an audiologist –

• One of the best ways to assess how your hearing is affected by your daily environment is to see an audiologist. By performing several comprehensive hearing evaluations, your audiologist can determine whether or not you would benefit from in-ear technology that can help protect your hearing.

Protect your hearing –

• When people are young, they often don’t think about how their daily activities will affect their hearing health long-term. By taking a proactive approach to protecting your hearing, you can help ensure that it stays intact for many years to come. Ask your audiologist about technology that can help preserve your hearing, such as customized hearing protection that is specifically designed for musicians.  

Take breaks from loud sounds –

• While there are devices that can help you protect your hearing, it is impeccable to try to take good care of your hearing on a daily basis. As a musician, you are constantly subjected to loud sounds and music, which causes can destroy your hair cells. By taking breaks from loud sounds, you will be able to reduce this hair cell loss and prolong good hearing.

If you are interested in consulting with a New York audiologist, contact Audio Help Hearing Centers. For more information about our hearing loss prevention programs, call us at (866) 530-7500 or visit us online.

How Does a Hearing Aid Work?

For millions of people, hearing aids make the difference between a life of isolation and a life of socialization and communication. These important devices have four parts that all work together to allow someone with hearing difficulties to communicate and enjoy the world around them as before. Take a look at how these four components form one amazing device.

Microphone:

• This is the first technology required in the process of improving hearing. The microphone picks up sound from the environment and translates it into digital code, preparing this information to move on to the amplifier.

Amplifier:

• The amplifier increases the volume of the signal it receives from the microphone. New digital technology also allows the amplifier to make more sophisticated adjustments to the sound, such as filtering out background noise. While old-fashioned analog hearing aids simply made everything louder, modern devices can manipulate digital code to create a more natural auditory quality.

Speaker:

• In the speaker of a hearing aid, the digital code is converted back to sound waves and sent into the ear, where the waves are received by hair cells that send information to the brain. The brain decodes this into sound, which humans understand as speech, music, or other types of noise. Because hearing aids rely on these tiny hair cells within the inner ear to transmit sound, people with damaged hair cells may encounter more challenges when using hearing aids.

Power Supply:

• The hearing aid’s battery powers the process of amplifying and adjusting sound. These small batteries usually last anywhere between three to 10 days, depending on use and severity of the hearing loss.

If you’ve noticed a decrease in your hearing quality, it may be time to consider hearing devices. These tiny devices give you the boost you need to regain most of your hearing which allows you to live your life with little inconvenience. Contact the New York audiologists at Audio Help Hearing Centers at (866) 530-7500 to schedule an appointment with our trained staff to evaluate your hearing.

How Modern Advancements in Technology Make Choosing a Hearing Aid Easy

20 or 30 years ago, hearing aid users had to rely on bulky analog devices that gave them limited ability to adjust volume. Thanks to digital technology, all of this has changed.

As digital technology has gotten smaller and smaller, so have hearing aids. Though today’s devices still have the same four components as their predecessors—microphone, amplifier, speaker, and power supply—they now convert sound into digital code, which makes it easier to adjust volume and allows for other capabilities like filtering out background sounds. To find out more about today’s hearing aids, watch this helpful video.

If you’re experiencing hearing loss, you have many hearing aid options. Instead of large, obtrusive, and imprecise devices, today’s hearing aids are customizable and cosmetically appealing. To talk to an audiologist about your options, call Audio Help Hearing Centers at (866) 530-7500 today.

Essential Hearing Aid Maintenance Tips

Your hearing aid is your connection to the world around you; without it, communicating can be almost impossible. As such, it’s incredibly important to take care of this delicate instrument. If you follow these simple maintenance tips, your hearing aid will continue to serve you well for years to come.

Stay away from water.

• Before swimming, showering, or applying hair spray, remove your hearing aid. Exposure to moisture can damage the internal components and cause them to malfunction. If you tend to perspire a lot, you may want to consider removing the device while you exercise as well.

Keep it clean.

• Do not let earwax build up on your hearing aid. Wipe the device with a facial tissue or soft cloth to clear away wax everyday. If the wax is especially stubborn, you can use a soft toothbrush for removing the wax as instructed by your audiologist. Never insert pins or toothpicks into any openings in the hearing aid, as this can damage it. If these strategies still don’t get your hearing aid clean, visit your audiologist for a professional cleaning.

Let it dry.

• When you’re not wearing your hearing aid, keep it in a dry and safe place. By opening the battery door it will allow air to circulate through and dry out the inside of the device. Never put your hearing aid in an oven or microwave to dry it out. Do not leave it in direct sunlight, and do not use a hair dryer; direct heat can cause severe damage.

Do not use cleaners.

• Don’t use solvents or detergents of any kind on your hearing aid. Not only are they unnecessary, but you also run the risk of irreparably damaging the device. Simply wipe it clean with a dry soft cloth such as a Kleenex.

At Audio Help Hearing Centers in New York, we know that your hearing is important. With these simple tips, your hearing aid will continue to work at its best performance. For professional cleanings or any hearing aid adjustments, schedule an appointment with our office by calling (866) 530-7500.

Product Spotlight: Starkey Hearing Aids

With age, many people are affected by wrinkles, slower metabolism, poor eyesight, and hearing loss. Luckily, current technology and medical advances have improved quality of life for older adults in a variety of areas. Here is just a brief look at the advanced technology that makes the Starkey S Series hearing aids so phenomenal: 

• PureWave Feedback Eliminator – If you have struggled in the past with the obnoxious buzzing and whistling caused by your hearing aid, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief: With Starkey’s PureWave Feedback Eliminator, feedback is virtually nonexistent.

• Acoustic Scene Analyzer – This environmental adaptation system adjusts to the noise level and acoustics of your environment, which leads to maximum comfort and outstanding hearing clarity.

• T2 Technology – With this breakthrough technology, you can adjust the modes or volume on your hearing aid from the convenience of your cell phone, increasing the efficiency and accessibility of your Starkey hearing aid.

• Audioscape- A Starkey S Series hearing aid can adapt seamlessly to different audio environments, such as wind, music, machine noise, and even speech in a noisy environment.

• Automatic Telephone Response – As soon as you place your phone to your ear, the technology in your hearing aid automatically adjusts the settings of the device to ensure optimal telephone listening, so you can have a conversation without any hassle.

If you are looking for a solution for your hearing loss, come to Audio Help Hearing Centers and speak with a New York audiologist. We can help you explore possible treatments and hearing devices, including the S Series Starkey hearing aid. Call us at (866) 530-7500 or visit our website to learn more about how you can regain your ability to hear.