April 6, 2010 Issue

               HEARING LOSS HELP e-Zine
"The premier e-Zine for people with hearing loss"

Volume 5, Number 2              April 6, 2010
Publisher: Neil Bauman      neil@hearinglosshelp.com
            http://www.hearinglosshelp.com
    Copyright Center for Hearing Loss Help 2010

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                      "Hearing loss may change your life,
                        but your life need not be any less
                                rewarding and fulfilling
                        because you have a hearing loss."

                                                              — Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

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Please recommend and/or forward this issue of Hearing Loss Help e-Zine to at least one of your hard of hearing friends, or to anyone you know that is interested in successfully living with their hearing loss. We just ask that you keep this e-Zine intact and only forward it in its entirety.
 

================================================== In this issue ==================================================
 

1. News Items

— This New Hearing Aid Goes "Clik"
— The SoundBite Fits Where?—An In-the-Mouth (ITM) Hearing Aid
— Affordable Hearing Aids for Under $200.00?

2. Beware of (Ototoxic) Drugs That Can Damage Your Ears

— Surprise! Acetaminophen Is Ototoxic After All
— Salt Therapy—A Natural Way to Kill Respiratory and Ear Infections Without
    Using Ototoxic Drugs

— Loud Noise Really Does Damage Your Hearing!

4. Tinnitus & Other Phantom Sounds

— Nodding Chime Tinnitus
— Will Wearing Hearing Aids Help My Tinnitus?

5. Effective Coping Strategies

— Ten Questions Teens Ask About Hearing and Hearing Loss

6. Information on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants and/or Assistive
    Devices

— Options for Single-Sided Deafness
 

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1. News Items
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This New Hearing Aid Goes "Clik"

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Ear Technology Inc. has done it again! "Done what?" you ask. They've come up with another cool product. You probably first knew them for their Cadillac of hearing aid drying and disinfecting systems—the Dry & Store. Then about 3 or 4 years ago they designed their unique TransEar BTE bone conduction hearing aid for people with single-sided deafness. The TransEar uses a special ear mold as the bone conductor.

Now they've come up with a new concept in hearing aid programming and design—what they call the Clik system—where all the programming is done with the click of a button on the hearing aid itself. There is no need for computers, programming interface boxes, etc.

What this means is that instead of programming this hearing aid in the sterile, quiet environment of your audiologist’s office, you can both step out into the street and program it right there for those exact noisy listening conditions.

What’s even cooler, is that if you are a savvy hearing aid wearer, you can program this hearing aid yourself. (Your audiologist will have to show you the programming "trick" first.) This means you can program/tweak the Clik hearing aid in your home, or office, or wherever you typically spend your time in order to get optimal hearing with it under real-life conditions.

The Clik hearing aid is specifically designed for the millions of people who have the typical mild to moderate ski-slope (high-frequency) hearing loss. It comes with 5 algorithms pre-programmed for quiet environments, and another 5 algorithms for noisy situations.

In addition, the Clik hearing aid comes with not one, but two t-coils—something I've been wanting for years. One t-coil is vertically polarized for use with telephones and neckloops, and the other t-coil is horizontally polarized for use with room loops. That way you almost always get optimal coupling with any magnetic induction device. Furthermore, the hearing aid automatically uses the t-coil with the louder signal—you don't have to fool around switching between them.

The Clik hearing aid is simple to use. One button controls the volume. The second button controls its three memories—one for quiet, one for noise, and the third for t-coil use.

I love their sense of humor. Instead of one beep for memory one, two beeps for memory two etc., they give you the typical sounds for which these various memories are used. Thus for the noise setting you hear a short burst of (white) noise. When switching into the t-coil mode, you momentarily hear a dial tone. Cool, huh? (For the quiet setting, since you can't hear "quiet", it has to beep
to let you know you are in that memory.)

You have full control over the volume—you set it to what is comfortable for you. Its 8 channel wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) keeps loud sounds from becoming too loud while at the same time amplifying softer sounds so you can hear them.

Like most new hearing aids, it has adaptive feedback cancellation so it won't "squeal" in your ear. It also uses directional microphones and incorporates noise reduction technology to reduce the background sounds that make it so hard to understand speech in noise.

Another cool feature is that it functions as either an open fit aid for those with mild to moderate losses, or as a regular aid with an ear mold for those with more severe hearing losses.

Oh, yes, before I forget, the Clik hearing aid doesn't cost an arm and a leg—an arm maybe, but definitely not the leg!

For more information on this neat new hearing aid, talk to your audiologist, or check out the Clik web site.

—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—

The SoundBite Fits Where?—An In-the-Mouth (ITM) Hearing Aid

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

You've all heard of sound bytes (short pithy chunks of speech), but this interesting hearing aid literally puts the bite on sound. That’s why they named it the SoundBite.

According to their web site, "Sonitus Medical^TM is pioneering the development of the world's first non-surgical, removable hearing and communication solution that is designed to imperceptibly transmit sound via the teeth."

Well, I've got news for their "hype writers". Far from being the first, they are actually a "Johnny come lately"—489 years late to be exact. You see, hearing through your teeth is nothing new. Some of the earliest "hearing aids" were held in the teeth and thus transmitted sounds to the inner ear via bone conduction. There are published reports of such devices as early as A.D. 1521, although "dental hearing aids" did not become popular until Richard Rhodes of Chicago, IL patented and began selling his Audiphone in 1879. (That’s still 131 years ago!) Surprisingly, this Audiphone produced up to 35 dB of amplification.

Actually, using the teeth to transmit sound vibrations to the cochlea is not as strange as it might seem at first glance. The late Dr. Berger explained, "It may surprise some to learn that sound conducted through the teeth is a more efficient bone conduction route than that through the skull, particularly for low-frequency sounds." So maybe the SoundBite’s time has come.

With the advent of the SoundBite, we have yet another acronym to add to the already prolific "alphabet soup" of hearing aids. Thus, in addition to BTE, ITE, ITC, and CIC hearing aids, we now have to add—ITM (in-the-mouth) hearing aids.

The Sonitus SoundBite is currently in clinical trials in the USA. It is being touted as a solution for people with single-sided deafness, and for those with conductive hearing losses. As such it would be another alternative to Cochlear's Bone- Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) and Ear Technology's TransEar bone conduction hearing aid.

The SoundBite consists of two parts. First, there is what looks like a traditional BTE hearing aid. The BTE portion contains the microphone and a tiny transmitter that wirelessly transmits the sounds it receives to what looks like an overgrown dental retainer that fits beside the upper molars. The in-the-mouth piece is custom fitted from tooth impressions made by your dentist (much as ear molds are custom made by your audiologist to fit your ears).

One side of the ITM piece houses the amplifier and tooth conduction vibrator while the other side contains the rechargeable battery. The SoundBite is custom fitted for either the left and right side of your mouth, depending whether your left or right ear has the hearing loss.

I don't know whether I'd want to wear an in-the-mouth hearing aid, but you will shortly have that option.

Learn more about the SoundBite hearing aid here, and see a good set of pictures of this new hearing aid here.

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Having trouble hearing your iPod (or MP3 player) in true stereo?

If you wear hearing aids that have t-coils in them, the dual Music-Links will let you hear beautiful, clear, true-stereo sounds in both ears! Click here to learn more about the Music Links.

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Affordable Hearing Aids for Under $200.00?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Many people have asked me, "Where can I find an affordable hearing aid? They all cost so much, and I'm on a limited income. Can you help me?"

Typically hearing aids are expensive, ranging from around $800.00 at the low end, and on up to $3,000 or $4,000 each for high-end models. Such aids are out of the reach of those with severely limited incomes.

I've written about sources of help for purchasing hearing aids before, but even some sources of help require the person to put up hundreds of dollars as their "share" of the cost, and even this may be too much for some people to handle.

Fortunately, a new outfit, MDHearingAid, is now producing low-end hearing aids at a price many people can afford, no matter what their income. Marketed under the Acoustitone brand name, these hearing aids were made to the specifications of ENT Dr. Cherukuri, the founder of MDHearingAid.

At present, there are just two models available-the Acoustitone MAX which normally sells for $129.99 (currently on sale on the MDHearingAid web site for $89.99), and the more advanced Acoustitone PRO which normally sells for $259.99 (currently on sale for $149.99). These prices are hard to beat!

The Acoustitone MAX is a very basic unit. Dr. Cherukuri designed it primarily for "home-bound seniors that need help hearing the television and family members." Its only control is the volume control. Actually, it is somewhat reminiscent of the first behind- the-ear hearing aids that came out in the mid 1950s in that it has a button receiver to which snaps a generic ear tip. (There are 3 ear tips of various sizes.)

The more advanced Acoustitone PRO is a much better value (in my opinion) since it has a directional microphone, and a two-channel tone control which decreases background noise and customizes the output for people with either a predominantly flat "curve" (hearing loss about the same at all frequencies) or the much more typical ski-slope curve (high frequency hearing loss). It also can use a custom-fitted ear mold, although it comes with 3 generic ear tips of various sizes.

Both of these hearing aids amplify the critical speech frequencies between 1,000 Hz and 4,000 Hz.

Note: neither of these hearing aids have t-coils which are so important for coupling hearing aids to the many assistive listening devices that help us hear ever so much better under poor listening conditions when hearing aids by themselves are not that helpful.

The good news is that MDHearingAid will soon be introducing a third hearing aid that will indeed have a t-coil. It might be well worth waiting for this new model whenever it comes out.

To learn more about these very affordable hearing aids, point your browser to the MDHearingaid website.
 

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2. Beware of (Ototoxic) Drugs That Can Damage Your Ears
===============================================

Surprise! Acetaminophen Is Ototoxic After All

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Until the mid 1990s, Acetaminophen (known as Paracetamol in Europe) was not thought to be ototoxic at all. Thus in the second edition of my book, "Ototoxic Drugs Exposed" I do not even mention Acetaminophen.

All that has changed. New research has revealed that rather than not being ototoxic at all, Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is actually quite ototoxic.

Thus people who take high doses of Vicodin (a combination of Acetaminophen and Hydrocodone) for a number of months can develop almost total hearing loss.

Since Acetaminophen was "not ototoxic", I assumed that it was the Hydrocodone that caused the massive hearing losses being reported. Not so according to research conducted at the House Ear Institute. They found, to their surprise, that it was the Acetaminophen that was ototoxic and not the Hydrocodone.

You see, in high doses, Acetaminophen kills the liver, thus you die before massive hearing loss has a chance to develop. However, the researchers found that when taking Hydrocodone with Acetaminophen, somehow the Hydrocodone protected the liver. Thus you lived to tell the tale, but massive hearing loss could be a result.

Now, another study, reported in the American Journal of Medicine (Vol. 123, Issue 3, March, 2010), reveals that even just taking low doses of Acetaminophen over several years results in increased risk of hearing loss.

For example, in a study of 26,917 men between the ages of 40 and 75 at the beginning of the study, men that used Acetaminophen at least twice a week had a 22% increased risk of hearing loss. However, when only men under the age of 50 were considered, the increased risk factor skyrocketed to 99%.

This reveals that Acetaminophen, when taken regularly over as few as 1 to 4 years can slowly and insidiously destroy your hearing without your even being aware of it. You have been warned.

To learn which drugs are (or can be) ototoxic, see "Ototoxic Drugs Exposed". This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 763 drugs, 30 herbs and 148 chemicals.

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Having trouble hearing on your cell phone because of lack of volume or interference?

If you wear hearing aids that have t-coils in them, try the dual T-Links and hear beautiful, clear, interference-free sounds in both ears! Click here to learn more about the T-Links.

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Salt Therapy—A Natural Way to Kill Respiratory and Ear Infections Without Using Ototoxic Drugs

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Today it seems that more and more people have allergies, sinus infections and middle ear infections than ever before. Typically doctors prescribe antibiotics and other drugs to treat these conditions. Unfortunately, these drugs often can be ototoxic.

To make matters worse, these conditions tend to recur so these drugs are prescribed over and over again.

As people are becoming more aware of the ototoxic properties of antibiotics and other drugs, they ask me what they can do/take to get rid of these infections/conditions without the risk of ototoxic side effects such as hearing loss and tinnitus.

Recently I came across information on a natural therapy that is not ototoxic and apparently works for many people. It goes by various names such as "salt therapy", "halotherapy" and "speleotherapy".

Did you ever notice when you go to the beach, especially when the wind is blowing and thus the waves are pounding the surf, the invigorating salt air really cleans out your sinuses? That is the essence of salt therapy.

Although known in ancient and medieval times, salt therapy had its modern beginnings in the mid 18th century when Dr. Feliks Boczkowski noticed that workers in the Polish salt mine at Wielezka did not suffer from lung diseases. As a result, he wrote a book about the benefits of salt dust back in 1843. His successor, M. Poljakowski set up a salt spa at Velicko, near Krakow, (that is still in operation) based on these observations. From this beginning, salt spas soon sprung up throughout many eastern European countries.

The original spas were actually salt caves or grottos and salt rooms in working salt mines. Treatment consisted of spending some time in these salt rooms breathing the salt-laden air. This form of salt therapy is called speleotherapy from the Greek word "speleos" - "cave".

Since not everyone lived near salt mines or salt caves, some entrepreneurs mined big blocks of salt and set up artificial salt caves (rooms) where people could come and breathe the salt-laden air given off from these blocks of salt.

A later development were salt rooms—rooms that were coated in several layers of salt—plus a salt-dust generator that blew finely crushed dry salt dust into the air. This treatment is called halotherapy from "halos" the Greek word for salt.

To be effective the salt particles in the air must be exceedingly small (0.3 - 0.5 microns) so they can reach the deepest/smallest recesses in the lungs, sinuses and other parts of the respiratory tract.

Salt therapy works because salt is a natural preservative and disinfectant. When you breathe in this microscopic natural salt dust it dries up and disinfects the mucous membranes in your sinuses and lungs, and even in your Eustachian tubes and middle ears.

Not only does salt therapy kill the pathogens causing your sinus infections, it also shrinks the mucous membranes so you can breathe easier. Thus, it can be a boon to people with sinus problems, allergies, asthma, middle ear infections and related conditions.

Although salt therapy is quite common in eastern Europe, it has been slow to catch on here in the USA, but that is changing. For example, there are now salt rooms in Encino, CA and Naples, FL (and in Kitchener and London, Ontario for Canadians) to name some of them.

If you want to learn more about salt therapy and how it might help you, here are some links to get you started.

General articles on salt therapy:

Salt therapy is like a breath of fresh air

Benefits of halotherapy

Introduction and background on speleotherapy and halotherapy

Ukrainian mine helps asthmatics

Ukrainian salt mines reinvented as a haven for asthma sufferers

Locations of some "Salt Rooms" in the USA and Canada

Salt "cave" in Naples, FL

Salt "chalet" in Encino, CA  

Iris Wellbeing salt therapy "room" in Kitchener, ON

Salt therapy "room" in London, ON

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3. Answers to Your Questions
===============================================
 

If you have a question, or if something has been puzzling you concerning your ears, email it to mailto:neil@hearinglosshelp.com and put "e-zine question" as the subject. Suitable questions will be answered here.

Loud Noise Really Does Damage Your Hearing!

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A young lady explained: "I have been noticing for about 12 months now that I am really finding it hard to hear in bars, restaurants and noisy environments. Because of this, I yell when I am talking to those around me because I think the people I'm talking to can't hear me. This then means I strain my vocal chords and the next morning can barely talk and it takes hours to warm up my voice. Also, my voice is gradually getting huskier.

At first I thought it was voice nodules so I went to an ENT and he checked everything and said 'no, you're fine—just stop yelling' and left it at that.

It has gotten considerably worse in the last 6 months and I have finally realized that I am yelling because I can't hear the people around me, and when I talk normally it sounds to me like I am whispering. (My sister actually said 'Stop yelling! We can hear you fine. Can't you hear us fine?' If I was old I would understand, but I am only 26!

Is there anything I can do to stop this getting worse? Does this mean I have some loss of hearing? I work in the events industry. Could the loud show music that I am often exposed to be the reason for this? If yes, will continuing to work with loud music make this worse?

I would really appreciate any advice you can give me, I need some treatment but I'm not sure what I need at the moment!"

I think you are beginning to realize that you must have a hearing loss, although you don't want to believe it is true.

The truth is, you do indeed have a significant hearing loss, especially in the higher frequencies. When you get a hearing test, your audiogram will very likely show a significant hearing loss around 4,000 Hz. We call this a "noise notch".

One of the first signs of hearing loss is that you can't understand people when you are in noisy situations such as the bars and restaurants you mention.

Another sign is that you often speak (yell) louder than those around you because you don't hear your voice as loud as you used to.

We are used to hearing our voices at a certain level—thus as we lose our hearing, we tend to talk louder so we can still hear our voices at the old level. The result, to those around us, is we sound like we are yelling.

I'm surprised that your ENT was so ignorant of hearing loss that he didn't immediately suspect a hearing loss and had your hearing tested.

Although you are only 26, you have "old" ears. You have already damaged them from all the loud noise you have been around (and/or perhaps other factors such as taking ototoxic drugs).

In order to stop your hearing loss from getting worse, there are two things you need to do. First, avoid noisy places as much as possible. If the average sound level is above 80 dB or so, it is too loud and will eventually damage your ears.

Second, if you have to be in loud environments, wear ear protectors such as the foam ear plugs that you can get at almost any drugstore. These will work fine as long as they have a dB rating of 25 to 30 dB.

You need to see an audiologist and ask for a "complete audiological evaluation". Your audiologist will then be able to tell you exactly what your degree of hearing loss is—and what you can do about it.

In quiet situations you will find that wearing hearing aids will really help you understand speech better. In noisy situations, take your hearing aids off and put in the ear protectors.

You need to start doing this now. Your voice box will love you for it—not to mention your ears, and also those around you to whom you've been "yelling".

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4. Tinnitus & Other Phantom Sounds
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Nodding Chime Tinnitus

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A woman explained: "When I nod my head, or shake it from side to side (yes-ing or no-ing), I hear chimes. Kind of like those chime toys that babies have, that when they are touched sway side to side and there's a little chime inside. Do you know of anyone else that experiences this?"

Hearing chimes when you nod or shake your head is not particularly common to be sure, but it is not unknown either. I knew a lady that every time she shook her head she heard the pure tone "F". You have some thing like she has.

There are all sorts of strange kinds of tinnitus. For example, some people hear a special tinnitus sound when they turn their head all the way right or left, or bend over (somatic tinnitus). Others hear their tinnitus when they move their eyes (gaze-evoked tinnitus). Your tinnitus chimes when you nod or shake your head.

I'm curious how common this kind of tinnitus is. If any of you reading this have a similar kind of tinnitus, I'd love to hear of your experiences.

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Having trouble hearing your television? Wouldn't you like to hear beautiful clear sound piped directly to your hearing aids?

If so, and you wear hearing aids that have t-coils in them, treat yourself to the Cadillac of room loop systems. Click on the above link to learn more.

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Will Wearing Hearing Aids Help My Tinnitus?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote: "I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease. I have horrible tinnitus and can tell my hearing has gone horribly downhill. My question is, can a hearing aid help with the tinnitus to shut it out or anything? When I'm in a room with stuff going on I don't usually hear it AS well as I do in a quiet room, but it's still enough to really bug me."

Excellent question. Hearing aids in and of themselves do not affect the loudness of your tinnitus as such. Rather, they amplify sounds so you hear more (and louder) sounds. The good news is that this partially masks your tinnitus so you don't notice it as much.

It is basically the same effect as you have already found when in a noisy room—your tinnitus doesn't appear to be as loud because your brain has lots of real sounds on which to concentrate. Furthermore, in a noisy situation, the contrast between the background sound level and your tinnitus is much less than if you were in a quiet room.

However, when you are in a quiet location there is nothing to mask your tinnitus sounds. Thus, you perceive them as louder and more intrusive. Wearing a hearing aid in a quiet room will pick up the softer sounds you can no longer hear and thus help mask your tinnitus.

When your tinnitus is bothering you and you are in a quiet place, you need to enrich your environment with real sounds—turn on the TV, listen to a radio, stereo, iPod or MP3 player, and/or wear hearing aids.

This is especially important at night when the room is quiet. Some people find that just having a fan running, or a clock radio playing music really helps take their focus off their tinnitus. Use whatever works to give your brain real sounds to listen to so you don't focus on your tinnitus.

You see, if you focus on your tinnitus, you will perceive your tinnitus as becoming louder and louder and more and more intrusive as the days go by. Therefore, you want to focus on the loves of your life, and the things you are doing, rather than on your tinnitus. When you do this, you'll notice, if you stop at that point and think about it, that your tinnitus now appears softer and much less intrusive. This should be your goal.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and the things you can do to help bring it under control, see the book, "When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here's How".

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5.  Effective Coping Strategies
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Ten Questions Teens Ask About Hearing and Hearing Loss

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A high school teen wrote: "Thank you for taking the time to answer 10 questions which I hope will enrich my knowledge on the subject of hearing loss in teenagers. I would love to learn some new information to not only better my understanding on the topic, but to better the lives of my peers and allow them to live more hearing-friendly lives. Here are my questions:

Question 1: In words that any teenager could understand, what are the risk factors that are most likely to cause hearing loss at a young age?

By far the most common risk to hearing is exposing your ears to loud sounds, especially for extended periods of time. The louder the sound and the longer you listen to it, the greater the risk of resulting hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing or other sounds in your ears). Keeping all sounds below 80 dB (decibels) will eliminate this risk.

A second risk factor is hearing loss resulting from middle ear infections. Ear infections are quite common from birth up through elementary school, but ear infections at any age can cause hearing loss. Fortunately, hearing loss from ear infections in often temporary and hearing comes back when the "gunk" (to use a fancy medical term) drains out of your middle ears via your Eustachian tubes in the back of your throat. However, if the doctor prescribes an antibiotic to kill the infection, the antibiotic can itself may cause hearing loss. (See below).

A third risk factor is taking one of the many drugs that can damage your ears. These are called ototoxic drugs. There are hundreds of these ototoxic drugs. Some can cause hearing loss within a few days, while others require taking the drug for extended periods over several to many years. The end result is  the same—hearing loss, tinnitus and/or balance problems.

Those are 3 of the main risk factors for young people. Of course there are many others such as infectious diseases (measles, mumps, chickenpox, etc), viruses, genetics (I was born with a severe hereditary hearing loss), trauma to your ears, etc.

Question 2: How frequently do you hear about teenagers with some degree of hearing loss?

The statistics reveal that about 1 in 5 teens has a significant hearing loss (19%). That means a LOT of school age young people have some hearing loss whether they realize it or not. Since hearing loss typically begins in the very high frequencies, people typically aren't aware they have a hearing loss until it works its way down into the speech frequencies. By that time the person has a significant hearing loss that makes it hard for them to understand speech, particularly in noisy situations.

Question 3: In your opinion, what is the most common type of hearing loss in teenagers?

There are two common kinds of hearing loss—conductive and sensorineural.

A conductive loss is a mechanical loss in the middle ear. Such losses are often temporary or can be treated medically. A typical cause is gunk (fluid) in your middle ears caused by a middle ear infection. This is probably the most common kind of hearing loss in young children.

The second kind of hearing loss is a sensorineural hearing loss. This is an inner ear hearing loss. A common cause in teens is exposing their ears to loud sounds. About 90% of adults with hearing loss have a sensorineural hearing loss.

Question 4: What kind of research is being done to try and find a cure for hearing loss?

The all time best "cure" for hearing loss is prevention of hearing loss in the first place. Don't expose your ears to loud sounds, especially for extended periods of time.

One line of current research is looking at anti-oxidants and other things that can help prevent hearing loss after being exposed to loud sounds—such as soldiers are exposed to (gunfire, explosions, etc.)

Another line of research is finding the genes responsible for various genetic hearing losses. Once doctors know which genes are responsible, they want to see if they can find a way to alter the genetic mutations to prevent such hearing losses in the future.

Yet another line of research is delving into the secrets to regenerating hair cells in the inner ear. If this proves successful, some degree of hearing may be restored. Quite a bit of effort is being poured into this line of research and researchers are optimistic they will have results within the next 20 years or so.

Question 5: What kinds of activities/hobbies do teens participate in that are most damaging to their hearing?

Loud noisy situations are the main culprits. This can range from loud music concerts, listening to iPods/MP3 players at high volumes, attending loud sports venues (crowded stadiums, race car tracks, etc), using loud recreational vehicles (motorcycles and ATVs), using firearms without wearing ear plugs, etc.

Question 6: Tinnitus is usually a common warning symptom of hearing loss. Is this treatable?

Tinnitus may be a sign of hearing loss or impending hearing loss, or it can be a stand-alone condition. About 70% of the people with hearing loss have tinnitus associated with it.

There are a number of ways to treat tinnitus—none of which work for everyone. Most people with tinnitus are never able to eliminate it completely. Rather, they learn techniques to reduce the volume and intrusiveness of their tinnitus so that it doesn't bother them. This is called becoming "habituated" to your tinnitus.

Question 7: Many people believe that iPods and MP3 players are dangerous to people's hearing. What is your opinion on this?

Without a doubt, this is true IF you crank the volume way up. Some of these devices can put out 110 dB of sound. That is much too loud for hearing health. However, if you listen to these devices at volumes such that the music peaks are always below 80 dB, then there is no problem with them damaging your hearing. At least that is the current thinking. A good rule of thumb is to listen to your music at the same volume as you hear people talking.

Incidentally, having your ears exposed to sustained sounds at 80 dB all the time is not the best either. Our ears (and our brains) like respite from noise. It is best to not expose your ears to sustained sounds for long periods for your general well-being. Silence at times is good.

Question 8: How would having hearing loss affect a teenager's daily life?

Hearing loss affects your daily life in many different ways—too numerous to mention here. However, here are four significant ways.

First, you feel left out when you can't hear the chit-chat around you, so you tend to withdraw from your friends and family. This can lead to depression and other psychological problems. Also, when you can't hear others, they tend to leave you out, and this makes you feel unwanted and worthless. Loneliness and poor feelings of self-worth are real problems with hard of hearing people of any age.

Second, you have much more difficulty in school maintaining good grades since you miss a lot of what the teacher says and most classroom discussion.

Third, you have much more difficulty making and maintaining good relationships with the opposite sex. Dating can be a real "minefield" when you can't hear well.

Fourth, you have difficulty understanding the radio, TV, telephone and movies so you tend to avoid those activities. This leaves a big hole in your social development.

Question 9: For a teenager with hearing loss, what would be the best treatment for their condition?

If you have a conductive loss, then seeing an ear specialist (ENT or otologist) is a good first step. Often an ear specialist can help fix the loss since conductive losses are really just mechanical problems in the middle ear and often can be successfully treated medically or surgically.

However, if you have a sensorineural hearing loss, there is typically nothing medically that can be done at this time (apart from getting a cochlear implant if you have little to no hearing left). In this case, the best "treatment" is to have a complete audiological evaluation by an audiologist to determine exactly your type and degree of hearing loss. Then, get, and wear, properly-fitted hearing aids if your audiologists recommends them, and do the following things.

A. Use assistive devices when your hearing aids don't help you much such as in noisy situations, or where you are at a significant distance from the speaker. Assistive devices include personal amplifiers, FM systems, loop systems, etc. (Incidentally, you can listen to most assistive devices with ear buds if you are not wearing hearing aids.)

B. Learn to speechread (lip read). Speechreading together with your residual hearing can really make a difference. I used my speechreading skills all through school and college. It was critical to my success.

C. Finally, learn and use the many, many coping strategies that help you hear better. These include such simple things as get close, have the light on the speaker's face, cut out background noise, speak face to face, and so on.

Question 10: What is your advice to every teenager to protect their hearing on a day to day basis?

Turn the sound down! Don't become addicted to loud sound in the first place. Don't listen to iPods/MP3 players at volumes more than 80 dB. Either avoid loud venues, or wear properly-rated ear protectors when in noisy environments. You can get good foam ear protectors at almost any drug store for a few bucks. Get ones rated at 25 or 30 dB of protection. Just doing these things can help prevent most noise-induced hearing loss in teens.

"Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to help me further my education, understand my condition, and also educate my peers about protecting something that most people take for granted. You have my gratitude for sharing your wealth of knowledge and your time."

You're welcome. I wish more teens were as interested as you in protecting their precious hearing, because once it is gone, it is gone! Thus, the time to learn good hearing conservation habits is right now before it is too late.

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6. Information on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants and/or
     Assistive Devices
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Options for Single-Sided Deafness

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man explained: "I am deaf on my left side due to four acoustic neuroma surgeries. I now have a TransEar hearing aid but it doesn't work like I expected. How about a CROS aid? Also, what else is new on the market?

There are a number of solutions for single-sided deafness.

1. If you have normal hearing on your good side, just be deaf on one side and practice good coping strategies to help overcome it such as sitting with your good ear "into the room" when in church, in meetings, etc. When chatting, have the person you are talking to either sit opposite you or sit on your good side—this kind of thing.

2. Get a bone-conduction hearing aid that was designed for single-sided deafness. There are three "kinds" out there of which I'm aware. All use the principle of bone conduction to transfer the sound from your deaf side to the good side.

A. Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA). This involves having a titanium screw (post) drilled into your skull and the sound processor sits on this post. This is an invasive procedure and by far the most expensive.

C. TransEar. Which you already have. This is a BTE hearing aid that has a special transducer (vibrator) that vibrates a special ear mold that fits deep in your ear canal. Note: a new model is coming out shortly that might give you better results.

D. SoundBite. This is the "new kid on the block" and is still in trials. It vibrates your back molars to conduct the sound to your other ear.

3. Get a CROS hearing aid. Cross aids are basically one hearing aid in two pieces. You wear the part that contains the microphone and transmitter on your bad side, and the part that contains the receiver and amplifier on your good side. It feeds the sounds from your deaf side to your good side. Because you wear a loose-fitting ear mold, you still hear all the sounds from your good side as well.

4. Get certain high-end regular hearing aids that "talk" to each other. You can set them such that any sounds picked up by the bad ear side are automatically transmitted to the good ear (crossover) so you can hear them.

CROS aids don't seem to be very popular any more. Maybe because regular hearing aids that can do crossover (talk to each other) can do much the same thing.

I think the darling of the industry at the moment is the BAHA. It is worth investigating if you don't mind the surgery and risks and expense involved.

However, you might also want to investigate the SoundBite. Perhaps it will be a good aid for you. Maybe you could get in the trials. Check out their web site.

Do your homework on all of the above, then talk to your audiologist about these various options and decide on what seems the best course of action for you.

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                       HEARING LOSS HELP E-zine

Neil Bauman, Publisher               Center for Hearing Loss Help
49 Piston Court                       Stewartstown, PA 17363 USA
Phone: (717) 993-8555                       Fax (717) 993-6661
http://www.hearinglosshelp.com     neil@hearinglosshelp.com

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