We receive a call every now and then from partners who can’t bear the volume the TV is at any longer or from sons and daughters who are finding it increasingly difficult to be understood by parents on phone calls.
If you suspect a loved one has hearing loss, it’s not always as easy as booking them an appointment and bringing them in. Before encouraging someone with hearing loss to get the help they need, you must first get them to acknowledge they have a hearing issue.
Here are some tips to be a great advocate to a loved one with a hearing loss with a little help from our friends over at Starkey.
We receive a call every now and then from partners who can’t bear the volume the TV is at any longer or from sons and daughters who are finding it increasingly difficult to be understood by parents on phone calls.
If you suspect a loved one has hearing loss, it’s not always as easy as booking them an appointment and bringing them in. Before encouraging someone with hearing loss to get the help they need, you must first get them to acknowledge they have a hearing issue.
Here are some tips to be a great advocate to a loved one with a hearing loss with a little help from our friends over at Starkey.
You can read Starkey’s article here and maybe suggest their online hearing test as a starting point https://www.starkey.com/hearing-loss/help-a-loved-one/how-can-i-convince-a-loved-one-to-get-their-hearing-tested
They say the first year of business is the hardest. What about the first year of business during a global pandemic? We opened the clinic on the 2nd September 2020 and are soon to celebrate our first birthday. We’ve made it through our first year and here’s a little on how we’ve managed and what’s to come.
Having recently moved to the area we saw that Livingston would be the perfect place to open a new independent hearing clinic and when we found the unit in Barden House, Murieston. We knew it was a perfect fit for our modern audiology business.
We are passionate about Almond Hearing becoming the trusted hear care provider in our local community and making a small contribution to improve the lives of our clients and feel we’ve gone some way to achieving this over our first 12 months
We’ve had an interesting and exciting first year, especially with the storm of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here at the clinic, we are seen as an essential service so were able to remain open throughout the crisis, although footfall at some points was low. We adhered to industry wide guideline and erred on the side of caution. We always want our clients to know that their health and wellbeing comes first with both Coronavirus procedures and with their ear health and hearing.
This year we have had many highs; we know how important hearing is and we are pleased that so many that come to us decide after our audiologist’s advice to go ahead with us as their hear care provider. We like to think this has a lot to do with our transparency and honesty. Client feedback makes us happy and means a lot to us. Recommendations are wonderful and we couldn’t be more grateful to the clients who are happy with our service and send custom our way.
The most important part of Almond hearing is our team. We all really do care, and this is reflected in the services and procedures we offer. Whether it’s a balance assessment with Peter, ear wax removal with Ruth, a hearing assessment with Frazer or a smile and a warm welcome from Bailey or Susie on reception. Some faces may go this year and some new ones may arrive, but all will have the same ethos at heart, and all will always be part of the Almond Hearing family.
We’ve been delighted to have articles in local and national papers and to be supporting local sports teams and charities. You can expect to see Almond Hearing up in lights at this year’s Westrigg Electrical Halloween light show to support a very worthwhile cause.
We are excited to see what the next 12 months holds for Almond Hearing.
Thank you to all our amazing clients for their support during our first year.
If you’re dealing with excess ear wax or suspect you have a blockage, you need to know about the different types of ear wax removal. In a previous post, we covered what ear wax is and how to know if you need to have it removed, so we won’t rehash that here. Check out What Is Ear Wax? And How Much Is Too Much? if need be.
If you believe you need excess earwax removed, here’s what to do (and what NOT to do).
First off, natural is best. And in this case, by “natural” we do not mean products that are marketed that way; we mean your ear’s natural self-cleaning process.
Your ears are nearly always perfectly capable of cleaning themselves. This is why earwax comes out of your ears in the first place. When you find bits of wax in the outer opening of your ear, that’s your ears cleaning themselves and dispensing with the excess ear wax. Simply wipe away this excess with a cloth or rinse it away in the shower.
That being said, it is possible for wax overrun your ear’s natural cleaning process. If earwax builds up too much, it can lead to a partial or full blockage.
Before we get any further, please note this important warning: Do NOT use a cotton bud or other pointy object to reach into your ear canal and remove wax. You may succeed in removing a small amount of wax (which you see on the cotton bud when you remove it). But you will also likely shove more wax deeper into your ear canal, leading to eventual blockage.
You also run the risk of pushing the cotton bud too far in and damaging your eardrum.
Since cotton buds push wax deeper in and can even damage your ear canal or ear drum, you should never stick one (or anything else) into your ear canal.
If you’re dealing with uncomfortable earwax build-up, there are some home remedies you can try before you head to a hearing clinic or your GP. NHS recommends starting with medical-grade olive or almond oil, which you drip into your ear a few times a day for around a week. These oils can be effective in softening the earwax, but they can also cause the wax to expand and therefore we would recommend using oil a few times in a short period prior to an appointment.
A better home remedy is using sodium bicarbonate drops in the same manner. These drops tend to dissolve the wax gradually, letting it run out of the ear. Softening large chunks is a start but dissolving them entirely is even more effective.
You can find sodium bicarbonate drops for this purpose at most any pharmacy.
If you’ve been using drops for a week and aren’t seeing results, it’s time to consult a hearing clinic.
At Almond Hearing we use three methods for ear wax removal, depending on the patient and the nature of the blockage. We start with a video otoscopy to survey the blockage and determine a treatment type. We then proceed to one of the following.
Micro suction uses a tiny medical-grade suction device to gently pull stubborn wax from the ear canal. We use this tool in combination with a 20x microscope so we can be sure we’re seeing every last detail.
A time-tested method, irrigation uses water to remove earwax using a specialized irrigation machine with variable pressure control. This method is safe even for deeply impacted wax, but it is not safe to use if you have a perforated ear drum.
Last, we may use instrumentation to delicately reach into the outer portion of the ear canal and tease out any remaining portions of wax. Instrumentation is often required when removing foreign objects from the ear and may be used as a complement to another method.
If you’re concerned about a potential blockage due to ear wax build-up, Almond Hearing is ready to help with professional ear wax removal services. Call today to schedule a consult.
Did you know that you can suddenly lose your hearing, without any warning? On 29th August 2016, this is what happened to me, and this is how my hearing loss story began.
How I lost my hearing
I was 34 at the time and working as an Early Years teacher in Madrid, Spain. It was a teacher-training day, and I was sitting in a school auditorium, listening to a speaker giving a presentation.
As I lifted my head from my notetaking, suddenly, I was overcome by a loud screeching sound that filled my head with pressure. The sound grew quieter into a dull ringing, but the pressure continued, and I was soon feeling lightheaded and disoriented.
I turned to talk to my colleague who was sitting to the left of me. I could see she was talking; her mouth was moving, and she was looking at me and was gesturing. But I couldn’t understand anything she was saying.
This is how I lost the hearing in my left ear. I wasn’t unwell, and I didn’t have a known virus. The world to the left of me just fell suddenly into silence.
At the time, I didn’t see the emergency in the situation. I thought I would feel better in the morning after a good night’s sleep, putting the spinning, ringing in my ears, and difficulty hearing, down to stress and tiredness.
The next few days, the spinning continued, and I was struggling to hear children in my classroom. Everyday noises sounded harsh and painful, and my ear was ringing continuously.
It was over a week later when I finally went to see my doctor. She looked in my ears and said that everything looked normal, but maybe there was some inflammation. She wrote me a prescription for some Ibuprofen and some nasal spray and told me to come back in a week if my hearing didn’t improve.
My symptoms continued, and a week later I returned to my doctor’s consultation room. From a physical examination of my ear, she couldn’t identify a problem, so she referred me to an Ears, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist.
19 days after the day in the auditorium, I consulted with an ENT specialist. They asked me a few questions, and I carried out my first hearing test. The test results showed what I suspected—I couldn’t hear anything out of my left ear.
The specialist had a serious look on her face. She told me to take the test results and go immediately to the A&E department of the local hospital.
At the hospital, the ENT specialist listened to my story, looked inside my ears, and studied my hearing test results. She gave me my diagnosis—Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSNHL). I also had accompanying tinnitus and vertigo.
I spent a week in the hospital and received treatments of antibiotics, antiviral medication, and corticosteroids—both intravenous and injected directly into the ear. Blood tests were taken, and later an MRI ruled out a serious underlying cause of my hearing loss.
At the end of the week, I left the hospital with a tapering dose of steroids to continue treatment at home.
After finishing the treatment and having no recovery of hearing, the doctors told me there wasn’t anything else they could do and that it was unlikely I would regain any hearing. I was also left with ever-present tinnitus and balance issue.
I was struggling to deal with the emotional impact of losing my hearing so suddenly. I wasn’t prepared for this. I didn’t have a practical understanding of how to live with single-sided deafness, and I was experiencing feelings of isolation.
I started writing a personal blog, My Hearing Loss Story, to share my experience of living with hearing loss and to work through my emotions. Through my blog’s contact page, I started to receive emails from others going through similar experiences. People wanted to talk and share their stories. I realised my story wasn’t unique.
I began to realise how much value there was in communicating with others living similar experiences—through sharing our stories we were learning from each other and no longer alone in the experience
In November 2019, I created the My Hearing Loss Story Facebook support group. This is a group where people can share their hearing loss stories, ask questions, and offer each other support.
I now know that a sudden loss of hearing is a medical emergency. It is important to seek medical attention as soon as possible. Treatment within 24-48 hours of onset is thought to be most effective and acting quickly is crucial.
I didn’t know this at the time. I didn’t know there was such a thing as SSNHL until it happened to me. I had put my work before my health and received treatment too late to have a good chance of regaining any hearing.
Unfortunately, many people who contacted me through my blog had also been misdiagnosed or were simply not given the opportunity to see a specialist as soon as possible.
In connecting with others and listening to so many similar stories of SSNHL, I started to realise that there was still relatively little known about it, which makes it difficult to know where to find information and support.
Although there are various articles online, I couldn’t find anything which encompassed the whole SSNHL experience, all in one place. There was a real need for a resource where people could access reliable information and support in dealing with SSNHL and related conditions such as tinnitus, vertigo and associated emotional effects of losing hearing so suddenly. So, I decided to make one myself.
Through crowdfunding, I was able to get the project off the ground by financing the initial start-up and running costs of the website.
In creating the website, I sought support from hearing loss and tinnitus organisations and charities, audiologists, and hearing aid manufacturers and providers.
On April 19th, 2021, I launched the Sudden Hearing Loss Support website—the first website dedicated to providing information and support to people affected by sudden hearing loss. There are two main aims of the website:
I hope this resource will be a reliable source of information and support, and that it will prompt people affected to seek immediate medical attention, helping them to have the best chance of recovering their hearing.
We’ve all dealt with it: that waxy, gooey, flaky stuff that comes out of our ears from time to time. It’s called earwax, of course. But what is it, actually? Is it good or bad? And how much is too much?
Let’s get to the bottom of all your questions about earwax.
Let’s start with what it is. Earwax is a natural substance produced by your body. Its formal medical name is cerumen, and it’s made up of a body secretion called sebum, plus some skin cells and dirt and other debris.
If that sounds a little gross, well, now you know why everyone just calls it earwax.
First off, we want to make sure that this point is clear: earwax is good, not bad. (At least most of the time.) The inner workings of your ear are extremely complex. They’re also very sensitive — they need to be if you want to hear fine details from far away. And, crucially, some components of your inner ear do not heal or repair themselves if they become damaged.
Earwax plays a large role in protecting these sensitive components by trapping dirt and other debris that enters your ear canal. Your ear produces wax both to clean itself and protect the sensitive parts.
If you notice the texture of your earwax changing over time, you may be concerned that there’s a problem. The same is true if you notice that your earwax seems noticeably different than someone else’s. But there are perfectly normal reasons for both of these scenarios.
Your ethnicity can affect your earwax: those with East Asian or Native American ancestry tend to have drier, flakier earwax than those of other backgrounds. Your environment and even your diet can play a role. Expect earwax to be darker in colour when you have been in a dirty environment, for example.
Of course, if your earwax changes drastically or in a way that is concerning, a visit to your GP can allay any concerns.
While earwax is natural and helpful, sometimes it can get annoying. And some people just naturally produce more of the stuff than others. Usually, excess earwax simply falls out of the ear. Or you may notice small clumps in the outer ear which you may simply wipe away with a cloth.
But sometimes earwax can accumulate in the ear canal and not come out as it should.
If you have too much earwax in your ear, you could suffer a partial or full blockage of the ear canal. Symptoms of this include your ears feeling full, ringing ears, partial hearing loss or infection.
If you’re experiencing symptoms like these, it may be time to consider ear wax removal. But before you jump into home remedies, there are some things you should know.
Many of us grew up using cotton buds or other tools to “get the earwax out.” For some, this is even a part of their grooming routine, like brushing their teeth.
However, doing this is counterproductive and can even damage your ears.
You should never stick anything down your ear canal for any reason. Not cotton buds, bobby pins, fingers or anything else. While you may manage some minor ear wax removal in this way, you’ll push more of the stuff down your ear canal. And pushing wax deeper into your ear canal is a recipe for blockages.
Not to mention, pushing an object down your ear canal is a prime way to damage the canal or even your eardrum.
The best home remedy for ear wax removal is using a few drops of medical-grade olive or almond oil. Drop two or three drops in your ear several times a day for up to a week, and many blockages will loosen and begin to fall out naturally.
If this method doesn’t work, it’s time to visit a hearing centre for professional ear wax removal. Almond Hearing can help with one of several safe and usually painless methods.
If you know or suspect that you have hearing loss, you may wonder about hearing aids. You may already know that hearing loss is not reversible, so it’s fair to wonder why hearing aids help at all. You might also already know that hearing aids make sounds louder. But isn’t it true that too much volume can increase hearing loss?
These are all fair questions, but the truth is, hearing aids do help many people with hearing loss. Understanding how hearing aids work is the first step in overcoming fear or suspicion about hearing aids and getting back to hearing more in your everyday life.
Before we dive into how hearing aids work, we need to review how hearing loss typically works. While there are multiple types of hearing loss, most people with hearing loss have suffered damage to the hair cells in the inner ear.
Healthy hair cells pick up vibrations of various sizes and transmit those signals to the brain, which interprets these audible sounds. But with hearing loss, there are fewer cells to do this work, so they can’t receive signals as well.
There are various causes for this kind of damage, including illness, injury and age. But whatever the cause, people dealing with this kind of hearing loss will benefit from using hearing aids. And the sooner you start, the more benefit you’ll hear.
Hearing aids can vary widely in style, functionality and price. But at the core, they all have the same three parts: a microphone, an amplifier and a speaker. The microphone picks up the audio that’s near the ear and sends those signals to the amplifier. The amplifier then powers the speaker, which sends those same audio signals into the ear at a higher volume.
It’s also important to know that hearing aids don’t work exactly like traditional microphones (or healthy human ears). They don’t intend to pick up (or amplify) the entire sound spectrum evenly, but instead tend to focus on the frequencies most common in human speech. These are the frequencies most crucial to patients, after all.
For people living with hearing loss related to damaged or dead hair cells, hearing aids can improve hearing and quality of life. Unless a person is suffering from profound hearing loss (deafness), some hair cells remain functional. These cells continue receiving audio as vibrations, but they tend to do better with larger (louder) vibrations.
By amplifying the sound coming into the ear, hearing aids turn natural sounds into larger vibrations, allowing users to hear more than they can in a natural environment. The more hearing loss a person is dealing with, the more amplification will be needed to produce a positive effect.
If you’re concerned about your hearing and aren’t sure what to do next, the team at Almond Hearing is here for you. We can analyse your hearing via a hearing test and determine whether hearing aids will help you. Contact us today to book an appointment.
Want to know more about hearing aids? Read our next article on the subject: Can you use a smartphone with hearing aids?
Here at Almond Hearing, we are glad to help people by answering whatever questions they have about what it’s like to use hearing aids. One question that we get quite frequently is this: can you use a smartphone with hearing aids?
Nearly everyone uses a smartphone these days, and we hear from people who are worried that their smartphone experience will be worse if they get hearing aids. The short answer is that yes, there are a number of hearing aid compatible smartphones (and smartphone compatible hearing aids).
In other words, yes, you can connect some hearing aids to some smartphones. However, you need the right hearing aids and the right smartphone.
Below, we’ll cover the basics for both iPhone and Android.
If you own (or plan to own) an Apple iPhone, getting your hearing aids connected is a little more straightforward. All iPhones dating back to at least the iPhone 5S feature an HAC Rating of M3, T4. This means that just about any iPhone can connect to just about any hearing aid. That said, the company is quick to point out that every hearing aid model is different, and performance can vary widely.
If you own an iPhone, purchasing a hearing aid with the Made for iPhone designation will give you a better experience. These high-quality hearing aids connect seamlessly with your iPhone with a high level of audio quality, and they can be controlled natively from your iPhone.
To get your hearing aid connected to an iPhone, follow these steps:
Doing this will change the acoustic response of your phone so that hearing aids in telecoil mode will work even better.
In older iPhones, this feature may be named Hearing Aid Mode.
In general, because compatibility is nearly universal with iPhone, we tend to recommend people with hearing loss who need to connect hearing aids to their smartphones stick with Apple. You’ll know you have a compatible phone, and you’ll likely improve your experience.
Over in the Android world, things aren’t quite so simple. Starting much later with Android 10.0, Google finally made connecting hearing aids a standard feature. But because Google doesn’t control what every Android phone maker does and doesn’t include, there’s far less universality here. Even Google’s own Pixel phones have a range of compatibility and HAC ratings that’s far more confusing than the iPhone line-up’s.
If you’re using an Android smartphone, check your phone’s compatibility carefully before proceeding. And if you already have your hearing aids, make sure that your specific model is compatible with a given Android phone before buying the phone.
If you’re using Android 10.0 or later, do this:
f you’re concerned about confusing compatibility requirements, the best option is Phonak’s Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids. They can connect to any Bluetooth-enabled smartphone from the phone’s Bluetooth menu and be configured from the accompanying app. These hearing aids can also pair with your Bluetooth-enabled landline for maximum flexibility.
In the end, ensuring that your hearing aids and smartphone are compatible is somewhat complex. If you’d like a little guidance, Almond Hearing can help. Stop by soon to see the latest Made for iPhone hearing aids as well as other broadly compatible models.
You can discover more about hearing aids in our article: How Do Hearing Aids Work?
Here at Almond Hearing, we receive all sorts of questions about hearing loss and hearing aids. We are happy to serve our community by providing useful resources and answers to common questions.
One such question is about the various types of hearing aids. There are quite a few, and understanding the differences can be a bit to absorb — especially right after receiving a hearing loss diagnosis.
On that point: if you suspect that you or a loved one are dealing with hearing loss, don’t wait. Get evaluated by your GP or by audiology specialists like Almond Hearing as soon as you can. The sooner you seek help, the sooner you can potentially improve the quality of your hearing.
If you’re looking for an easy-to-understand guide to the different types of hearing aids, you’ll find it just below. Most of these perform the same essential function; it’s just a matter of how they do it and where they are positioned.
The most common hearing aid is the behind the ear (BTE) hearing aid. This is the type that comes to mind when most people think of a hearing aid. It has a plastic body that rides behind the ear. This part is connected via plastic tube to an earpiece or earmould that sits on or fits into your outer ear.
BTE hearing aids are widely compatible and can support a wide range of hearing loss levels. You can find them in neutral skin tones or in vibrant patterns as well.
RITE hearing aids have a slightly smaller body but otherwise look similar to BTE devices. The chief difference here is that the speaker rests in the ear, inside the earmould or dome. BTE devices place the speaker in the plastic body and transmit the sound through the tubing.
RITE devices are slimmer and perhaps more attractive, but they cannot produce as much magnification and aren’t appropriate for those with severe hearing loss.
If you cannot or do not want to wear anything behind your ear, an in the ear hearing aid may be your ideal solution. This style sits in your ear just as modern “true wireless” earbuds do, so it’s visible from the side (but not from the back).
Shrink down an ITE device so that it barely extends past the ear canal, and you have an ITC device. They’re hardly visible but can be hard to keep perfectly in place. They also lack amplification power due to their small size.
If you want the smallest, most discreet hearing aid available, look for CIC and IIC hearing aids. Be aware of the downsides, though: these, too, are not powerful enough for those with severe hearing loss. They are also more likely to require repair from sitting in a hot, moist environment (in the ear canal). Further, this style of aid is not suitable for individuals who produce a lot of wax or sweat.
The differences between many of these types are slight, and it takes professional skill to evaluate which type is right for your unique situation. Schedule a visit with Almond Hearing today to discuss which type of hearing aid is best for you.
Most people who wonder whether they have hearing loss have already noticed some frustrations with their hearing. You may feel like you can’t hear as clearly as you used to, or perhaps certain settings like a crowded room create real challenges.
Many of the signs of hearing loss are fairly common and consistent among those suffering from it. Here are several of the top signs. If one or more of these sounds familiar, it’s time to visit an audiologist for a hearing test.
If you struggle to hear a conversation in a crowded or noisy environment — more than the others in the group — this could be a sign of hearing loss. Damaged ears can’t differentiate between background noise and speech as well as healthy ears, making noisy spaces problematic.
If you feel like you have the TV or other audio source set to a comfortable level and others are complaining about the volume, you may be dealing with hearing loss. We’re not talking about jamming out or partying here— just a volume that seems reasonable and normal to you but seems too much for others.
People with hearing loss often struggle to pick out one voice when two are talking, and dialog might overall seem muffled. If you find yourself frustrated with conversations (especially group conversations) and feel like no one is speaking clearly, the problem might actually be hearing loss.
If speaking on the phone seems harder than a real-life conversation, or if you frequently misunderstand exactly what someone’s saying (even though you can hear them speaking well enough), you may be dealing with high-frequency hearing loss. The detail of many consonants is in the higher frequencies, and it’s hard to parse out what people are saying once these frequencies start to fade.
There are all sorts of “free online hearing tests” out there that claim they can diagnose your hearing loss. In fact, if you’ve been searching about hearing loss online, you’ve probably already come across one of these. It’s natural to wonder if you can just use one of those tests from the comfort of home.
Unfortunately, most of these tests are not at all scientific. They tend to be sales-driven rather than having your best interest at heart, too. And they’re incapable of being particularly accurate since the sound of those tests is entirely dependent on the headphones or speakers you play the tests over.
The best approach to diagnosing hearing loss is to take a professional hearing test, called an audiogram, at an audiology clinic like Almond Hearing.
The top signs mentioned above are a great place to start in determining whether you might be dealing with hearing loss. However, there’s no substitute for a professionally administered hearing test. If the above signs suggest potential hearing loss, you can schedule a hearing test today at Almond Hearing. Our team can confirm whether you have hearing loss and create an individualised plan to help you retake control of your hearing.
Reach out now to schedule your hearing test.
Do you have an upcoming hearing test already scheduled? Or are you wondering whether you should get one done to check on the state of your hearing? If you or those close to you have noticed changes in your hearing, it’s important to get checked.
The team at Almond Hearing are here for you, and we want to help with any concerns you might have. Here’s what you can expect in the hearing test process, plus how you can best prepare for your hearing test.
When you arrive for your hearing test, an audiologist will explain what to expect throughout the visit. Your audiologist will first check your ears for any physical blockages (typically, ear wax) that would affect hearing and the test results.
You’ll also be asked some questions about your hearing. These will likely include whether you’ve had any injuries or illnesses affecting your ears, whether you’ve had a history of auditory trauma (sustained loud volumes), and when you first noticed difficulties hearing.
Next is the test itself, called an audiogram. You’ll wear a set of headphones for somewhere between 20 – 25 minutes. The Audiologist will play a sequence of sounds, and you’ll indicate by pressing a button when you believe you’ve heard a sound. In most cases, this test is done one ear at a time, since hearing loss can occur at differing levels in either ear.
The audiologist is measuring two things with this test: which frequencies you can or can’t hear (e.g., are high, middle or low pitches problematic for you?) and at what volume sounds have to be for you to hear them. These measurements are compared against a normal hearing pattern to establish the scope of your hearing loss.
If your audiogram reveals some hearing loss, your audiologist may add additional testing, such as a speech testing, to further analyse which spoken sounds are problematic for you.
Once additional testing is completed (if needed), your audiologist will outline a treatment plan for you. Expect to learn about the various hearing aids that could improve your hearing ability, as well as what the calibration and rehab processes look like.
Many patients wonder how to prepare for a hearing test. The best thing you can do to prepare is to give some thought to your history and hearing journey so you can give your audiologist a complete picture.
Ready for Your Hearing Test? Almond Hearing Is Here for You
If you’re ready to schedule your hearing test and begin reclaiming your hearing, Almond Hearing is ready to serve you. Learn more about our services and reach out today to schedule your initial visit.
