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Hearing Aid Assistance
A Review of Popular Hearing Aid Products
With dozens of hearing aid manufacturers, there is a lot of competition to retain the consumer's business. Companies continually try to advance their technologies to make their products the best hearing aids on the market. With all of the advances now underway and over the past 20 years, a hard-of-hearing person can look forward to benefiting from this competition and hearing aid assistance.
Siemens
These days, the Siemens company has its corporate hand in a huge variety of markets, and hearing aids are no exception. Siemens strives to offer consumers the best hearing aids in the world. Siemens manufactures one out of every five hearing aids in the world. They offer a complete range of hearing aids from behind-the-ear, completely-in-the-ear, digital and programmable models. Siemens is the leader in hearing aid manufacturing and continues to develop new outstanding products. They guarantee that they have a custom model to fit every lifestyle.
Starkey
Starkey’s mission is to provide better hearing, not just the best hearing aids. This company was the first to offer the no-obligation free trial and "worry-free" warranty all of its products. Starkey has over 33 laboratories in 18 countries around the world. With a staff of over 4,000, this company is at the forefront of hearing aid technology. Starkey also began the Starkey Hearing Foundation. This foundation is a non-profit organization that provides hearing aid assistance. This charitable foundation provides more than twenty thousand hearing aids to financially distressed, hearing impaired people across the globe.
Phonak
Phonak is also among the most trusted names in hearing aid manufacturing. This company is a leading innovator of new hearing aid technology and may offer some of the best hearing aids available for purchase. Phonak offers a wide range of digital hearing aids as well as a plethora of high-tech specialty products and accessories.
Oticon
Oticon offers a variety of hearing aid products for people with mild to profound hearing loss. Oticon believes in putting the needs of the hearing impaired first when developing new and innovative products. The company’s motto is, "We Put People First". Apparently, this hearing aid assistance has paid off. Founded in 1904, Oticon is among the oldest hearing aid manufacturers in the U.S.
Resound
Resound offers a full line of digital and non-digital hearing aid solutions. The mission of Resound is to bring back happiness and better the quality of life of those living with hearing loss. This company understands the difficulties and pressures faced by these individuals as well as their loved ones. Because the company is comprised of dedicated and caring innovators, they continue to be among the leading distributors of hearing aids in America.
Beltone
Beltone has been in the hearing aid business for over 65 years. They have decades of experience developing some of the best and most respected hearing aids available. They specialize in lightweight, durable and virtually invisible hearing aids that can help a wide range of hearing difficulties. In recent surveys, Beltone has received over a 90% customer satisfaction rating.
With the existence such advanced technologies in the 21st century, people do not have to resign to deal with hearing loss. So many options and price ranges are available that nearly everyone can afford some make or model. For those who are un-or-underinsured, many hearing aid manufacturers offer assistance to make their products more affordable. Do some research and speak to your audiologist if you are experiencing hearing loss at any stage. He or she may know of resources or organizations that help with purchasing a hearing aid to those who cannot afford one themselves.
Music, Musicians and Hearing Loss
Whether you're a musician or just a music lover, playing your music too loud on a regular basis can cause hearing related problems. For example, if you're one of those people who like to drive around in a "boom box car" with the music up full blast you should consider turning the music down quite a bit. Those "boom box cars" can generate up to 130 decibels of sound, which is very near if not over the human hearing pain threshold. A typical value for this threshold of pain is 120 decibels. To put things into perspective, a soft whisper is about 30 decibels while a train is around 100 decibels. The average rock concert is around 120 decibels, which is right at the pain threshold. On a personal note, I wear earplugs to every concert as hearing aid assistance.
Hearing impairment is measured by the amount of level of loss in what are called decibels (dB) hearing level (HL). Decibels are like degrees of a thermometer. As temperature increases, so do the number of degrees. As the volume of sound increases, so do the number of decibels. A normal conversation will usually range between 45 and 55 dB. A baby crying falls around 60 dB and busy downtown traffic can be almost painful at 90 dB. If you can hear sounds between 0 and 25 dB most of the time, your hearing is pretty normal and you most likely don't need an aid, although it could enhance your abilities in some situations. If you only hear sounds above 25 dB HL, your loss may be mild, moderate, or severe.
Hearing loss can be basically categorized in four ways: mild, moderate,severe, and deaf. Mild loss is considered to be a loss up to 40 decibels, which will usually lead to trouble in hearing ordinary conversation. Moderate hearing loss is a loss of between 40 and 60 decibels. This usually means that voices must be raised for the impaired person to hear them. Severe loss, which is loss over 60 decibels, would require that people shout for the impaired person to hear them. According to the World Health Organization, the term "deaf" should only be applied to individuals with impairment so severe that they cannot benefit from sound amplification or hearing aid assistance.
Even the slightest loss of hearing can make life difficult. Although conversation is audible at low frequencies which usually means the deeper voices, it's much more difficult with higher pitched voices. This is because with typical loss, the ability to hear high sounds is the first to go, which means it will be harder to hear birds or women's voices. As the problem worsens, the loss of the lower tone reception soon follows.
A major problem with hearing loss is that 90% of the time the loss is so subtle and gradual that people don't always notice it until it's too late and some loss has occurred. Additionally, musicians most likely suffer from not just hearing loss but also have ringing in their ears and pitch-perception problems, which might cause them to inadvertently play a C sharp note instead of a straight C without proper hearing aid assistance. Some musicians, especially those who start out young such as violinists, start losing their hearing as early as the age of 10.
Music lovers should moderate in the length of time and level of loud music to which they expose their ears.
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