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

My iPhone has a hearing aid setting. Can I use that with my hearing aids?

Whether or not you can pair your hearing aids to your iPhone depends on what model hearing instruments you wear.  There are several hearing aids that have direct connectivity to the iPhone 6 or 7 models.  If you have one of those you can adjust your aids from your cell phone with manufacturer’s app.

The great thing about direct connectivity is your hearing instruments become hands free devices that send phone calls directly to both ears.  Direct connectivity also makes your cell phone a remote control for your hearing instruments.  You can adjust volume, change programs, and even adjust base and treble right from your cell phone.   Other uses include steaming music and video sound tracks directly to the aids.  While this may seem like a lot to take in, we do the programming and pairing, making it easy for you to operate.

The newest hearing instrument with direct connectivity is made by Widex.  This new device has great sound quality and signal processing in noise.  

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

I am interested in that Lyric device but fly planes, can I still do that with the Lyric?

This is an excellent question.  Many people become 
concerned regarding the Lyric device and flying because of its close placement to the eardrum.  Lyric recommends flying in planes with a pressurized cabin.  Most all commercial planes have pressurized cabins.  If you do fly in planes that do not have pressurized cabins, the concern is then a rapid change in pressure.  This is the same concern as scuba diving and sky diving.  You can still wear Lyric if you choose to do these things, the Lyrics simply need to be removed before these events and replaced after the events have occurred.  Lyric may be contraindicated if you did these sort of events on a regular basis, meaning daily, weekly or monthly.  So getting back to the initial question, can you fly with Lyric?  The short answer is yes.  You will experience the same flying symptoms you always experience, no better, no worse.  If you are interested in knowing more about the Lyric device, make an appointment today.  

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

What does “looped” mean?

This is a great question.  Some public establishments such as theaters, movie theaters, concert halls, museums etc. will advertise a looped system as an assistive listening technology to their patrons.  This is often particularly helpful to those patrons that wear hearing instruments.  The goal of a looped system is to bring the sound source directly to your ears either via headphone or directly to your hearing device/hearing instruments.  This helps facilitate the listening experience so that patrons can focus on the actual event/performance rather than trying to understand and listen.  How does a loop system work?  The name itself has meaning, a looped system is just that, it means that there is an induction cable that surrounds the area of interest, room, building, hall, etc.  This induction loop generates a magnetic field that can be picked up a hearing instrument with a telecoil or a special handheld loop receiver within that looped area.  The patron, simply switches their hearing instrument into the telecoil program and the induction loop and magnetic field connects and transmits directly to the hearing instrument.  In order to utilize a looped system with your hearing instrument it must have a telecoil or T-coil.  If you are interested in utilizing a public looped system, contact your audiologist, so that they can walk you through the steps using your hearing instruments and program your hearing instruments accordingly. To make an appointment, contact us at 440-205-8848. 

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