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

Can hearing aids affect relationships?

This is a great question! How can hearing instruments affect your relationships? Typically people will experience a positive change in their relationships once they begin to wear hearing aids.  When a hearing loss goes for years without any intervention or without addressing the issue, it can take its toll on a relationship.  Loved ones can often become frustrated with untreated hearing loss because they have to repeat themselves numerous time, and even then their communication partner still didn’t understand.  Hearing aids can help you maintain your speech understanding capabilities and they can help you communicate with your partner more effectively.  The person trying to hear is less tired from all the effort put towards understanding, less frustrated being they don’t have to ask people to repeat as often and less apt to avoid social situations out of fear of not understanding.  The person communicating with the person with hearing loss is less frustrated and less resentful of their partners because they have taken a positive step toward trying to help themselves hear better.  If you are considering hearing instruments and would like to make an appointment, call 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

The ringing in my ear stopped when the doctor removed earwax from my ear. What can I do to clean my ears?

The ear secretes oils from two different glands which mix together to produce earwax (or cerumen).  It is healthy and normal to have some earwax.  It cleans and protects your ears by collecting dirt, dust and other matter in the ear canal and moving them out of the ear.   Jaw movement whether from chewing or talking, helps to push earwax to the ear opening where it can be washed off with the wipe of a cloth. This is a normal process, but sometimes this self-cleaning process fails resulting in a buildup of earwax. When cerumen builds up it can block the ear canal and can cause a temporary decrease in hearing and when on the eardrum it can cause ringing in the ear.

Often, when someone attempts to “clean” the ear canals, earwax is pushed on the eardrum or deep into the ear canal. We DO NOT recommend using cotton swabs, paper clips, keys, ear candles, or other items which can push the wax deeper in the canal or harm the ear canal.  The American Academy of Otolaryngology recently published guidelines for cleaning your ear canals. Following these guidelines can help protect your ears:

·         Don't overdo it when cleaning your ears. Over cleaning can irritate the ear canal and possibly cause an infection.

·         Don't stick things in your ear. Cotton swabs, hair pins, toothpicks or other such objects can cause a cut in the ear canal, a hole in the eardrum, and/or dislocation of the hearing bones, causing problems including bleeding, hearing loss, dizziness and ringing.

·         Never use "ear candles." The guidelines say there is no evidence that this alternative medicine practice can remove impacted earwax. And so-called candling might cause serious damage to the ear canal and eardrum.

First and foremost, check with your audiologist or physician on whether or not you should clean your ears. Also, seek medical attention if you have ear drainage, bleeding or pain. Call 440-205-8848 to schedule an ear inspection and cerumen removal.  

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

You mentioned using Sound Therapy as a means of tinnitus management. What is Sound Therapy?

Tinnitus is the presence of sound in the ears or head.  Commonly, people report ringing, humming, buzzing even clicking sounds and at times, there may be multiple sounds.  Tinnitus can present in various degrees and can be constant or intermittent.  When severe, it can cause stress, anxiety and sleep deprivation.  Often there is no cure for it.  Sound Therapy is a means for you to change your perception of it and decrease its interference with your life.

Many times people are able to just ignore tinnitus.  While others’ can’t seem to take their focus off it.  We know that those who shift their attention to other things are much less bothered by it.  Progressive Tinnitus management including Sound Therapy, is a method for triaging, assessing and managing tinnitus on an individual basis.  It provides you with tools to aid you in changing your perceptions of your tinnitus and shift your attention away from your tinnitus.

Sound Therapy is a corner stone of tinnitus management.  It uses three types of sound, interesting sounds, soothing sound and background sound.  Soothing sound can reduce anxiety and stress.  Background sound reduces the contrast of tinnitus to the room noises, reducing perceived intensity of the tinnitus. Interesting sound shifts attention from the tinnitus to other sounds.

If your tinnitus interferes with your life, causing anxiety, stress and or sleep deprivation, call for an appointment.  It will start with an evaluation of your hearing and tinnitus.  From there we will assess your candidacy for sound therapy and work with you to design and implement a personal management plan including Sound Therapy.  

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 have a ringing sound in my ears, does this mean I have hearing loss?

There are several signs that indicate you may be experiencing decreased hearing ability including ringing in the ears.  While many things can cause ringing in the ears, hearing loss is one of the most common causes.

It is rare that someone goes from normal hearing all the way to no hearing.  For most people hearing decreases gradually over time.  In the beginning, the signs are subtle and often go unnoticed.  It’s not until the decrease impacts hearing conversations and/or interferes with hearing child’s voices that people become aware of the difficulty.

Some of the first noticeable signs are people sound like they mumble or that voices are muffled.  You may hear someone say it’s not me, it’s the way people talk today.  When left undiagnosed and untreated, people start to withdraw from social situations, and can become angry or frustrated.  These are indications that it’s time for an Audiologic assessment. 

Treating hearing loss has many benefits.  Those who use hearing instruments are more active socially and physically.  They have more rewarding relationships and are happier.  It’s easy to get started, schedule an appointment for the evaluation. Most insurance programs have a benefit for the assessment and some even help with the cost of hearing instruments.  

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