I’ve tried Lyric, the invisible hearing aid, in the past but it didn’t fit in my ear, is there anything new?

Lyric is an extended wear hearing aid.  What this means is that it can stay in your ear canal for months at a time.  The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has approved the Lyric device to remain in the ear canal for up to 4 months at a time.  The longevity of the device in your ear canal all depends on your personal body chemistry, meaning wax build up and how much your ear canals sweat.  The average lifespan of Lyric is about 2 months.  At the end of the two months, we remove the old devices and replace them with new devices.  The Lyric device doesn’t not fit everyone.  The only way to know if it is the right device for you is to try it.  Your audiologist first needs to measure the length and width of your ear canal.  To answer your question, yes there is something new with Lyric.  There are two new sizes.  There used to be only 5 sizes and now there are 7 sizes.  Lyric added an XXS and XXL.  If you are still interested in Lyric but were contraindicated in the past based on sizing, make an appointment to try Lyric again.  Allow your audiologist to resize your ear and allow you to trial it again for 30 days risk free.  

Life sounds great!  Enjoy every moment!

Jane Kukula, AuD & Ashley Spisak, AuD

8897 Mentor Ave

Mentor, Ohio 44060

440-205-8848

Fax: 440-205-9818

http://aacHEAR.org

If I wear hearing aids, will they make my hearing worse in the long run?

This is an excellent question.  We actually hear with our brains, not with our ears.  Our ears are just the pathway to the brain.  Stimulating the brain is important.  Keeping the nerves to the brain and the brain stimulated appropriately is actually the best way to make sure that your brain can continue to accurately interpret the signal provided.  When the brain is under stimulated, research actually shows that word recognition skills can decrease more rapidly.  Word recognition is your ability to decipher what word is being said over another word without visual cues.  For example, being able to interpret the difference between use or youth, fat or sat, meat or neat.  Therefore whenever your audiologist diagnoses hearing loss through an audiologic assessment, they will most likely recommend the use of hearing instruments. Our goal is to help keep our patients youthful and active.  If you feel like you are having people repeat more often than you did before or you feel like people mumble more or talk more softly, it may be time for an audiologic evaluation.  

Life sounds great!  Enjoy every moment!

Jane Kukula, AuD & Ashley Spisak, AuD

8897 Mentor Ave

Mentor, Ohio 44060

440-205-8848

Fax: 440-205-9818

http://aacHEAR.org

Can you get a service dog to help with hearing loss?

As you may already know, dogs have been used for years for a variety of reasons as service animals.  Dogs can be used to help warn their partners of on-coming seizures, used as seeing-eye dogs, companion dogs for those who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or a variety of other concerns and including those with profound hearing loss.  Yes, there is such a thing as a hearing service dog.  Hearing service dogs can be trained to respond to American Sign Language (ASL) in the case of those with significant hearing loss that are non-verbal.  Hearing dogs are trained to alert their partners to common sounds such as doorbells, fire alarms, morning alarms, cooking timers, a telephone ringing, a baby’s cry etc.  The service dog is trained to nudge their partner, get their attention and take them to the location of the sound source.  As you can imagine, for people who have significant hearing loss that cannot hear these common sounds, their companion dog can help them live independently.  The service dog could also protect them and save their lives when thinking of something as serious as fire alarms or alerting them to someone trying to break into their homes.  So yes, hearing loss is no different, there are service dogs available that can be trained to support those who need it.  

Life sounds great!  Enjoy every moment!

Jane Kukula, AuD & Ashley Spisak, AuD

8897 Mentor Ave

Mentor, Ohio 44060

440-205-8848

Fax: 440-205-9818