June 9, 2011 Issue

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

Volume 6, Number 2              June 9, 2011
Publisher: Neil Bauman      neil@hearinglosshelp.com
            http://www.hearinglosshelp.com
    Copyright Center for Hearing Loss Help 2011

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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

— Waterproof Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants—Here They Come
— Service Animals Defined as Dogs Only
— Watch Out! Cell Phone Use Can Damage Your Hearing
— Why People Don't Get and Wear Hearing Aids?
— Noise Exposure and Time: A New Way of Looking at It

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

— Do You Have to Worry about Ototoxicity If You've Already Lost Your Hearing?

— Tussling Over the TV Remote—A Solution

4. Tinnitus & Other Phantom Sounds

— "Stop the Ringing"—What's the Score on This Product?

5. Effective Coping Strategies

— How to Effectively Talk with Hard of Hearing People
— Dealing with the Traffic Police When You Can't Hear

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

— His 'n Hers Bed Shaker Alarm Clock
— Making Your CapTel 800i Phone Work in a Different Room from Your Router
— The New Envoy "Esteem" Fully-Implanted Hearing Aid

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1. News Items
===============================================

Waterproof Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants—Here They Come

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Did you ever wish you could wear your hearing aids or cochlear implants so you could hear while swimming or splashing around in the water? How about when you were out boating, or while you were in the shower, or caught out jogging when a sudden deluge soaks you to the skin, or when working outside in the heat with the sweat pouring off you?

In the past, activities such as these often caused problems with hearing aids and cochlear implants that necessitated expensive repairs.

The good news is that this is slowly changing. Today, the trend is to make some hearing aids and cochlear implants waterproof so they can be used under all kinds of conditions without causing any damage to them.

Waterproof hearing aids are not exactly new. Few people know this, but Rion of Japan put out the first waterproof analog hearing aid—called the Dolphin—back around 1996. I wrote about the waterproof Dolphin hearing aid in August, 2008.

Now Siemens is getting into the act with their new Aquarius behind-the-ear hearing aid—the first "waterproof" digital hearing aid. It is rated as IP57— basically waterproof to 3 feet for 30 minutes. You can learn more about the new Aquarius hearing aid, just announced on April 5, 2011, here.

For cochlear implant users, Cochlear Corp. was the first CI manufacturer off the block with their Nucleus 5, a "waterproof" BTE speech processor, released back in September, 2009. It meets the same IP57 ratings for dust and water intrusion as the Aquarius.

Coming in the fall of 2011, assuming all goes well, is Advanced Bionics' new waterproof speech processor named the "Neptune", according to their May 24, 2011 presentation.

The Neptune will be a body-worn processor, certified to IP68 standards, in other words, totally waterproof.

If you are interested in exactly what these standards mean, IP stands for "Ingress Protection". Ingress Protection is how well the hearing aid (or any other device) keeps foreign "stuff" out. The first number relates to solid particles (dust). A level 5—like the Aquarius and Nucleus 5—are "protected against dust, limited ingress (no harmful deposit)." while the highest level for solid particles—6—like the Neptune, is "totally protected against dust".

The second number is the level of protection against water (liquids). Level 7 (Aquarius & Nucleus 5) means "protected against the effect of immersion between 15 cm [6"] and 1 m [3']", while the highest level—8—(the Neptune) is "protected against long periods of immersion under pressure".

Thus the new Neptune meets the highest standards for being waterproof—continuous immersion and no restriction on the depth (within reason), so you should be able to wear it as long as you want while diving and swimming under water, taking a shower, or any other activity that involves water.

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Service Animals Defined as Dogs Only

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) gave disabled people the right to bring their service animals with them into public places and on public transportation.

Unfortunately, this soon became abused as it didn't take long before people were defining various animals as their service animal—so there were "service" pigs, monkeys, birds, snakes, horses, etc. as well as dogs accompanying their "masters" into public places, and no one could do anything about it.

Now the government has issued new regulations defining exactly what a service animal is.

Part 36 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Public Accommodations and Commercial Facilities (as amended by the final rule published on September 15, 2010) Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 28 U.S.C. 509, 510; 42 U.S.C. 12186(b).

Subpart A – General § 36.101 Purpose.

"The purpose of this part is to implement title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12181), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by public accommodations and requires places of public accommodation and commercial facilities to be designed, constructed, and altered in compliance with the accessibility standards established by this part."

Under Section 36-104 (Definitions) it reads:

"Service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are not service animals for the purposes of this definition. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual's disability. Examples of work or tasks include, but are not limited to, assisting individuals who are blind or have low vision with navigation and other tasks, alerting individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing to the presence of people or sounds, providing non-violent protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair, assisting an individual during a seizure, alerting individuals to the presence of allergens, retrieving items such as medicine or the telephone, providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to individuals with mobility disabilities, and helping persons with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors. The crime deterrent effects of an animal's presence and the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship do not constitute work or tasks for the purposes of this definition."

There is now only one exception to the rule that only dogs have the right to accompany their masters into public places. That exception is given to miniature horses (even though they are not recognized as service animals. Here is the pertinent part of the regulations.

Section 36.302 (c) (9) reads:

(9) Miniature horses.

"(i) A public accommodation shall make reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures to permit the use of a miniature horse by an individual with a disability if the miniature horse has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of the individual with a disability.

(ii) Assessment factors. In determining whether reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures can be made to allow a miniature horse into a specific facility, a public accommodation shall consider –

(A) The type, size, and weight of the miniature horse and whether the facility can accommodate these features;

(B) Whether the handler has sufficient control of the miniature horse;

(C) Whether the miniature horse is housebroken; and

(D) Whether the miniature horse's presence in a specific facility compromises legitimate safety requirements that are necessary for safe operation.

(iii) Other requirements. Sections 36.302(c)(3) through (c)(8), which apply to service animals, shall also APPLY to miniature horses."

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Watch Out! Cell Phone Use Can Damage Your Hearing

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

From time to time scientists have raised the question of cell (mobile) phone safety and how it may affect our brains since the antennas of cell phones are transmitting electromagnetic energy into our heads.

In the past there have been concerns that cell phone usage may cause various kinds of brain cancers. Now new concerns are being raised concerning whether the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones might also affect our hearing. In fact, just such a paper was presented at the 2010 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) annual meeting and Oto Expo September 26-29 in Boston, MA. (1)

Researchers studied 125 people who were long-term (more than one year) cell phone users and 58 controls who had never used cell phones. The purpose of this study was to assess and compare potential changes in hearing function both in the inner ear, and in the central auditory pathways in the brain due to chronic exposure to electromagnetic waves from using cell phones.

Everyone in the study underwent a battery of audiological tests including "pure tone audiometry (250-12 kHz), tympanometry, distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE), auditory brain responses (ABR), and middle latency responses (MLRs)."

The results of this study showed that people that had regularly used cell (mobile) phones for more than 3 years were at "a significantly higher risk of having DPOAEs absent as compared with controls. They were found to have higher speech frequency thresholds and lower MLR wave and Na and Pa amplitudes." (1) In plain English, this means that cell phone users had more hearing loss than non-cell phone users. Interestingly enough, the hearing loss was the same in both ears, not just the ear to which the phone was normally held.

They concluded that long-term and intensive mobile phone use may "damage the cochlea and the auditory cortex".

What does this mean to you? Just this—land-line (corded) phones are obviously safer—both to your health and to your hearing than cell phones.

If you are going to use a cell phone, keeping it as far away from your head as is reasonably possible would be a wise move. In other words, as much as possible, rather than holding the cell phone up to your ear, do texting, use the speaker-phone function, use a bluetooth headset or use an amplified neckloop or T-links. Using any of these methods/devices will keep your phone at some distance from your head. As a result, your phone will not be unnecessarily zapping your brain with excessive electromagnetic radiation and thus possibly causing you even more hearing loss.

If you have to hold your cell phone up to your head, keep your calls short. However, to be as safe as possible, whenever you are around a corded landline phone, use it in preference to your cell phone. (Although this study didn't look at cordless landline phones, since they also produce electromagnetic radiation right at your head level, you might be wise to limit your use of these phones too—until long-term studies prove whether they are safe or not.)

(1) Panda, Naresh, et al. 2010. Auditory Changes in Mobile Users Is Evidence Forthcoming? Article presented at the 2010 AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting; September 26-29, 2010; Boston, Massachusetts.

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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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Why People Don't Get and Wear Hearing Aids

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A recent study (1) has given more insight into why people with hearing loss don't bother to get and wear hearing aids. A number of people were given an initial hearing screening. Those that failed the screening, but did not follow up with a full hearing assessment (and go on to get hearing aids) were questioned why they didn't follow up. Below are their responses. (Note: respondents could give multiple responses, thus the percentages add up to more than 100%.)

• 49% of respondents felt their hearing was still "good enough" and thus they could get by with the hearing they had.
   
• 28% of respondents felt that other health or family issues had a higher priority.
   
• 18% of respondents weren't convinced that a hearing aid would help them.
   
• 15% of respondents felt that hearing aids were too expensive for them to afford.
   
• However, a whopping 54% of respondents basically procrastinated and did nothing (undecided, intend to, too busy). Obviously to them hearing better is not a priority in their lives.

Since hearing loss often slowly sneaks up on a person, many people with hearing loss aren't even aware that they are not hearing as well as they used to. Thus, without a comparison of what normal hearing is really like, they feel that there is nothing wrong with their hearing, or that any hearing loss they might have is so little that it doesn't significantly affect their lives.

Another interesting thing that came out of this study was that the results of a hearing handicap questionnaire was a better predictor of those who would purchase hearing aids than a pure tone audiogram that showed their actual degree of hearing loss.

For example, people that believed their hearing loss was negatively affecting their lives were more likely to get hearing aids than those that didn't believe their hearing loss was affecting their lives, irrespective of the actual degree of hearing loss as show by the audiogram.

Thus, if a person with a relatively mild loss believed his hearing loss was negatively affecting his life, he would be more likely to purchase hearing aids than another person with a greater degree of hearing loss who did not believe that hearing loss was affecting his life.

This means that in order to convince a person they need to get their hearing loss attended to, you need to show him how his lack of hearing is negatively affecting his life. In fact, 50% of the people that got hearing aids did so because their hearing loss was causing a lot of stress with family members and friends,
while 35% reported they got hearing aids in order to satisfy their families(1).

Thus ultimately, it boils down to your lifestyle. If you want to be around and interact with people, you are much more amenable to getting hearing aids than if you have a more solitary lifestyle and thus don't perceive you are missing much.

(1) Medwetsky & Scherer. 2011. "Factors Influencing Individuals' Decisions to Access Hearing Care Services". The Hearing Review. Vol 18, No. 5, May 2011. pp. 24-32.

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Noise Exposure and Time: A New Way of Looking at It

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

It's no secret that you need to protect your ears from louder sounds if you want to preserve your hearing over your lifetime. However, for the average person, the decibel (dB) scale makes in difficult to understand the actual impact of increasingly loud sounds on their ears.

For example, a sound of 100 dB is not 20 units louder than a sound of 80 dB, nor is it 20 TIMES louder. In actual fact, it is 100 times as loud, but this is not obvious unless you understand the logarithmic nature of the decibel scale.

Thus, a new way of understanding sound will make it easier to put these numbers into perspective. This new unit of sound measurement is the Pasques (Pascals-squared-seconds). Using this scale, you can immediately see the relative difference between sound levels.

Using the above example, a sound of 80 dB for one second yields a sound exposure of 0.04 Pasques. A sound of 90 dB for one second yields a sound exposure of 0.4 Pasques while a sound exposure of 100 dB for one second yields a sound exposure of 4.0 Pasques. You can readily see that 4.0 Pasques is 100 times the exposure as 0.04 Pasques.

If you were exposed to a sound of 110 dB for one second, the result in Pasques would be 10 times greater or 40.0 Pasques and for 120 dB the result would be 400 Pasques.

Thus a sound of 120 dB (400 Pasques) is obviously 10,000 times as intense than a sound at 80 dB (0.04 Pasques). You can see a more complete table of the conversion of dB to Pasques here.

Where this really comes home to you is looking at your lifetime exposure to sound. It is considered safe to exposure your ears to continuous sounds of 80 dB. Thus if you are on a job 8 hours a day for 40 years, you should not have noise induced hearing loss—even though you are exposing your ears to a lifetime sound exposure on the job of 2000 hours per year.

Now if you were in a really noisy environment (certain mills, construction sites, recreational events [ball games, NASCAR racing, shooting] or musical events [night-clubs, concerts]) you might be exposing your ears to sounds of 115 dB.

The question is, "What is the maximum safe time (number of hours per year) you can expose your ears to without damage?" (Remember if the sound was at 80 dB you could expose your ears to it for 2000 hours without damage. That would be equivalent to a yearly sound dose of 288,000 Pasques.)

You're not going to believe it, but the maximum safe time for exposing your ears to sounds at 115 dB is just 38 minutes per year! (This would also be equivalent to 288,000 Pasques.)

How many people go to events that have loud sounds that exceed 115 dB and last in total for half an hour or more? If you've ever done that, you've just exceeded your noise quota for a whole year. Not a good idea. The above example dramatically shows why you need to take ear protectors and use them as the sound levels rise—if you value your hearing.

(1) Drott & Bruce. 2011. "A Different Look at Noise Exposure, Hearing Loss, and Time Limits". The Hearing Review. Vol. 18, No. 5, May 2011. pp. 34-36.

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2. Beware of (Ototoxic) Drugs That Can Damage Your Ears
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Do You Have to Worry about Ototoxicity if You've Already Lost Your Hearing?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked, "After you've already lost all your hearing, what difference does it make whether the drug you are taking is ototoxic or not?"

That's a good question. If you now have no useful hearing remaining, you wouldn't think you'd have to worry about taking ototoxic drugs, would you? I mean, you don't have any hearing left to lose—or do you?

This would be true if you are deaf and are planning on staying deaf for the rest of you life. However, if you want to hear via cochlear implants (CIs), taking ototoxic drugs can still cause you hearing problems even though the electrodes in your cochlear implants effectively bypass the dead hair cells in your inner ears.

This is because some ototoxic drugs affect the retrocochlear auditory system. "Retrocochlear" is just a fancy medical term that refers to the auditory system on the far side of (after) your cochlea—specifically your auditory nerves and the auditory parts of your brain.

Anything that damages or negatively affects your auditory nerves or the auditory circuits in your brain will affect how well your CI works. Unfortunately, some ototoxic drugs affect how your auditory nerves transmit the sound signals to your brain, and/or affect how well your brain processes these sound signals. This can affect how well you hear with your CI.

In addition, there are many other reasons for avoiding ototoxic drugs besides just hearing loss. What about tinnitus? Do you really want tinnitus—where your ears ring, roar, buzz, sizzle, hum, click, hiss, chirp, whistle, rumble, etc.—even though you can't hear? More than 520 ototoxic drugs can cause tinnitus.

What about the many vestibular (balance) side effects? Are you, for some strange reason, looking forward to experiencing horrible vertigo (spinning sensation), dizziness, ataxia (staggering gait), nystagmus (jerking eyes) or oscillopsia (bouncing vision) because an ototoxic drug has damaged your vestibular system?

Furthermore, the side effects of ototoxic drugs damaging your vestibular system can affect your vision, your memory and your sense of well-being. In addition, you may end up fatigued, nauseous and suffering from muscular aches and pains, including ear pain.

All of these are ototoxic side effects. As you can now see, the side effects of ototoxic drugs can damage far more than just your hearing. that is why you want to be careful, and only take ototoxic drugs when it is absolutely necessary.

Don't let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears and cause hearing loss, tinnitus or balance problems. To learn which drugs are ototoxic, get the 3rd edition of  Ototoxic Drugs Exposed. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbals 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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3. Answers to Your Questions
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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.

Tussling Over the TV Remote—A Solution

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A wife asked, "I admire those couples who tussle over the TV remote with their spouses. This obviously means they watch TV together. My husband and I have our own TVs in different rooms and never watch TV together. This is a pathetic solution. Is there a way we can amicably watch TV together?

Tussling over the TV remote is a common occurrence with many couples. Add hearing loss to the mix and sometimes the "fur flies" or the couple does what you do and watch their TVs alone in separate rooms. To me this is not the way to enjoy a close marriage.

You need to think outside the box and find a good solution—one that allows you both to enjoy watching TV together, yet having regard for your differences as husband and wife, and the differences in your degrees of hearing.

My wife, Diane, and I watch our TVs together and never tussle with the remote. We have found a solution that works for us. You could do something similar to what we do.

We have our two TVs sitting side by side in the living room. (Looks weird, I know—but it works for us.) Diane watches her TV and I watch mine. She watches one channel (as many women do) while I often flip through all the channels (as many men do) and yet we never interfere with each others programs.

Here's how we do it. Our "union rules" require that we always have the closed captions visible on both of our TVs. That way either of us can glance over and watch each others' shows whenever we want to. My TV's speaker is always muted when Diane is around so I don't bother her. If I want sound, I just listen through my room loop and t-coils on my hearing aids (or loop receiver when I choose not to wear my hearing aids). In turn, since Diane has much better hearing than I have, she keeps the volume on her TV so low that I can't hear it. Thus, it doesn't bother me.

So there we sit—together—watching TV—happy as clams!

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4. Tinnitus & Other Phantom Sounds
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"Stop the Ringing"—What's the Score on This Product?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady explained, "I just wanted to send you this link to see if you have seen this before and if it is anything worth looking into for my tinnitus. I'm very hesitant."

I checked out this website. This website is basically a high-pressure sales website that is long on hype and short on facts. (In fact, I couldn't find a single helpful fact regarding tinnitus on this website at all.) All they sell you for $37.00 is an eBook that is only 25 pages long—and written in very large print—otherwise it would only be about 10 pages long.

I downloaded and read through the entire "book" in about 7 minutes. That alone tells you there is not a lot of information in it—to put it mildly.

Much of the information in this "book" is probably good, although the details are skimpy. I have never come across some of the so-called "popular" cures for tinnitus like putting 2 or 3 onion juice drops in your ears. Thus, I have to wonder just how popular and effective this method really is. I've never come across this "cure" before, and I've been researching and writing about tinnitus for a good number of years.

One of the "cures" it lists is ear candling. It touts ear candling as an "old home remedy" that "can be extremely effective". The truth is that ear candling is a known quack "cure". It does not work, and furthermore, it can harm your ears if you "slip up" and let hot wax get in your ear canals.

This "book" recommends getting more exercise, watching your diet, cutting down on alcohol and coffee—things like that. None of these things are bad in themselves, but do not cure tinnitus in most people. If they did, the cure for tinnitus would be within easy reach of every person and no one would be complaining of their tinnitus.

This "book" does not cite any research, or contain any references, so you cannot check things out for yourself.

Personally, I think you could spend your money much better elsewhere. I know I just wasted my money.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and what you can do to help bring it under your control, you would do much better to check out "When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here's How". Not only is it much cheaper, packed with solid information to help you, but it also contains 7 pages of references so you can check things out for yourself.

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5.  Effective Coping Strategies
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How to Effectively Talk with Hard of Hearing People

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked, "Is there a handy guide that I could give to friends/coworkers, about ways to best communicate with a person with hearing loss. I have seen a couple of lists in the past, but can not find them."

Here are a couple of things that will help you. First, I wrote an article called "Effective Communication in the Family". In this article, there is a link to a two-page letter that you can freely print out, personalize, sign and give to your anyone (family members, friends, coworkers). This letter gives the most helpful tips on effectively communicating with hard of hearing people.

In addition, I have written a short book on this very subject called "Talking with Hard of Hearing People—Here's How to Do It Right!" This little book gives 21 tips for talking with hard of hearing people one-to-one or in small groups. It gives an additional 12 tips on talking to hard of hearing people in larger groups and meetings.

Furthermore, there are an additional eight critical tips for talking to hard of hearing people under emergency situations, and another dozen tips for talking to hard of hearing people in hospitals and nursing homes.

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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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Dealing with the Traffic Police When You Can't Hear

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A young lady wrote, "I am hoping to get my learner's license soon. I have some questions. How do you deal with the cops when you are driving? What are you supposed to do when you can't hear? Do you have any advice about driving with hearing loss?"

As far as dealing with the police, the easiest way is to avoid having to get up close and personal with them in the first place. The way you do this is to always obey the traffic laws—no speeding, no running stop signs or red lights, signal before changing lanes, wear your seat belt, no drinking and driving, don't use your cell phone when driving, etc. When you do this the police will leave you alone. In fact, your chances of being stopped by the police will be almost nil. I know. This has worked for me after driving for more decades than I care to remember.

However, there are always situations beyond your control where you may be unceremoniously pulled over by the police, and they may not be thinking of you very kindly at that moment either. This is when you need to be prepared and do all the right things because you can't hear what they are telling you.

For example, you may be unlucky enough to have been driving the same make and color of car as the getaway car seen leaving the scene of a violent robbery. It is at night so you can't see to speechread the officers. What you do next will make the difference between the police treating you and your hearing loss with respect, or finding yourself manhandled and thrown face-down in the mud.

Before you find yourself in such a situation, you need to read my article called "Visor Cards—Bridging the Communications Gap When Stopped by the Police". This article explains how you can effectively use special visor cards to make the police aware that you can't hear them. Furthermore, in this article there is a link for downloading and printing your own visor cards for free (or you can purchase them already made up if you so desire).

Tens of thousands of people have already downloaded these visor cards. They are well accepted by police departments. In fact, a number of police departments have asked my permission to print up and distribute these visor cards in their own areas.

In addition to being prepared for the police stopping you, you also need to learn how to drive safely when you can't hear the warning sirens of emergency vehicles near you. You can learn a number of tips and tricks that will help you in such situations in my article called "Driving Safely with Hearing Loss".

I wish you well in your driving adventures in the future. Put the tips in these articles in place, and you can expect decades of trouble-free driving in spite of your hearing loss.

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If you are receiving this issue of Hearing Loss Help e-zine as a forward, you can sign up for your own subscription at http://www.hearinglosshelp.com, or send a blank email to hearingloss-158260@autocontactor.com. Hearing Loss Help e- zine doesn't cost you a cent!

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6. Information on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants and/or
     Assistive Devices
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His 'n Hers Bed Shaker Alarm Clock

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

ClearSounds has come up with a nifty idea—a dual alarm clock/bed shaker combination. They've got all the bases covered—audible alert, visual alert and tactile alert. You can have any combination of these alerts on at the same time.

They also have a unique feature—dual bed shakers that work with separate alarm settings. Thus, for example, if you have to get up at 5:30, you can set your bed shaker to go off at that time (your bed shaker is under your pillow or the mattress on your side of the bed). You can leave the audible and visual alerts off so you don't wake up your spouse. Then, say your spouse has to get up at 6:45, she can set her alarm to go off via the bed shaker and/or the audible/visual alerts.

If your spouse has normal hearing, she doesn't want to have a heart attack every time the alarm goes off at 87 dB like you might need. Not a problem. She can have the alarm set to a three stage audible alert. When it initially goes off it is a soft intermittent sound. If she doesn't respond in 20 seconds or so, then it produces a louder sound at more frequent intervals. If that doesn't work then it goes off full volume with a "medley of sounds". Cool feature.

Furthermore, this clock utilizes the new 520 Hz square wave technology. 520 Hz square wave sounds are needed by most hard of hearing people since they typically can't hear higher-frequency sounds well. Studies have proven that 520 Hz square wave sounds wake up just about anyone that still has any hearing.

This alarm clock also hooks up to your telephone so if your phone rings it will shake your bed to alert you.

There are lots of other features you can read about here.

After putting one of these alarm clocks through its paces, I can only see one down side. There is no battery backup. If the power should fail for even a few seconds while you are sleeping, your clock will lose all its alarm settings so it won't wake you up on time. If you have stable power this normally won't be a problem, but if your power tends to flicker, you might want to plug this clock into a UPS (universal power supply) available at any computer store to keep it running whenever the power fails.

As a valued subscriber to the Hearing Loss Help eZine, I have a special for you. If you would like to get one of these brand new alarm clocks for yourself, click on the above link. Then, when you are on the shopping cart check out page, enter the coupon code "SW200AC" into the coupon code box and you'll receive an extra $7.00 off the price.

Do it now while you are still thinking about it as this offer is only good until the last day of June.

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Making Your CapTel 800i Phone Work in a Different Room from Your Router

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked, "I have my high-speed internet connection (router) in one room, but I want to use my CapTel 800i phone in another room. Is there an easy way to do this without stringing an Ethernet line to that room?"

You betcha! One way is to get a power line Ethernet adapter kit. Essentially, this provides you with a high-speed Ethernet connection anywhere in your house via your existing power lines.

The Ethernet adapter kit comes with two adapters. You plug one adapter into an electrical wall outlet near your router. Then you plug the Ethernet cable provided into the Ethernet adapter and plug the other end to an Ethernet jack on your router.

You plug the second Ethernet adapter into an electrical wall outlet in the room where you want your CapTel 800i located. Then you plug your CapTel phone's Ethernet cable into the adapter. That's basically all there is to it. Easy, huh? (Thanks to Lauren Cramer of Hamilton Relay for this nifty idea.)

Note: It is better to plug the adapters directly into wall outlets rather than into power bars or power strips.

Power line Ethernet adapters are readily available from stores such as Radio Shack, Wal-Mart, etc., or on-line from many places including Amazon. To search for one, just type "power line Ethernet adapter" into Google's search box and you will find a number of sources for them.

These adapters come in different prices based on their speed. An adapter that runs at 85 Mbps (perfectly adequate for running the CapTel 800i) costs in the neighborhood of $70.00. If you want an even faster Ethernet connection, expect to pay around $115.00 for a 200 Mbps adapter kit. (I purchased a 200 Mbps NETGEAR Ethernet adapter from Staples for $120.00 for my second CapTel 800i phone that is not near my router, and it works great with this adapter.)

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The New Envoy "Esteem" Fully-Implanted Hearing Aid

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked, "Do you know anything about the new "Esteem" device? The ad says it is an implantable device that needs nothing outside the skull. As far as I can tell (without understanding what the ads are saying) it might be a replacement for a CI. What can you tell me about it?"

What you have seen advertised is the new Envoy "Esteem". Basically, the Envoy "Esteem" is a hearing aid that is fully implanted in your head. It uses some great technology in some areas and not so great technology in other areas—but it is just a hearing aid. It is not anything like a cochlear implant (CI).

One of the good things about this technology is that it uses your outer ear and ear canal to collect and filter/amplify sounds naturally rather that using an artificial means such as a microphone. That's good.

Another good thing is that since it is all in your head, it is totally waterproof. You can swim with it and never worry about water leaking into it and shorting it out.

On the other side of the coin, there are some things I don't like about it. First, they "break" the ossicular chain. In other words they pull the 3 bones apart so the hammer's vibration no longer is directly coupled to the stirrup via the anvil. Basically, they cut the anvil out of the chain. What this means is that you lose your residual hearing (apart from bone conduction). Thus, if your battery dies, you essentially go deaf. You can't just use your residual hearing until you get the battery replaced.

There have been other designs in the past that used what I consider a better design—which was NOT breaking the ossicular chain so your residual hearing remained intact—and then the hearing aid amplified the sounds you needed. I wish the Envoy "Esteem" had used a similar approach.

Here's how the "Esteem" works. What they do is fit a sensitive transducer to the hammer (the first of the three bones in your middle ear). When the eardrum vibrates, it vibrates the hammer and the transducer attached to the hammer converts this vibration into electrical energy—just like a microphone does. The sound signal is processed just like it is in a regular hearing aid and then the output is sent to another transducer that is attached to the stirrup (the third of the three bones in your middle ear). This transducer works exactly the same, but in reverse, to the one on the hammer. It takes the electrical signal and converts it back into vibrations that causes the oval window to vibrate in the normal manner—albeit at a "louder" volume so you can hear better.

You accomplish exactly the same thing with a regular hearing aid—injecting an amplified into the ear canal thus making the eardrum vibrate more vigorously, which in turn makes the three bones vibrate more vigorously and thus down to the oval window. The only basic difference is that in the Esteem this is all done
internally, not externally. The Esteem amplifier and battery are surgically implanted in a hollowed out portion of the mastoid bone behind your ear.

Note that that Esteem is just a different kind of hearing aid, and as such has the same limitations of other hearing aids. For example, it cannot give you back discrimination if you have low discrimination (word recognition) scores.

Furthermore, it cannot use techniques such as directional microphones and noise-canceling microphones.

The Esteem has a remote control so you can adjust the volume and turn the aid off if you want to.

Apart from the battery dying and leaving you deaf, there are a couple of other downsides to this device. One is you need an operation every few years to replace the battery.

Two is that as technology improves, you are stuck with old technology in your head—much like people with CIs are. Sure the software can be upgraded, but not the device itself without an operation to replace the implanted parts, with its inherent risks.

In addition, you can't directly couple this hearing aid to any assistive devices—there is no t-coil (or even provision to have one)—so you will not be able to use room loops, neckloops, etc. unless you get a separate loop receiver and use earbuds to get the sounds into your ear canals. (But since you can do that, and there are loop receivers readily available, this isn't really a problem—you just need to wear an external loop receiver.)

Theoretically you should be able to use bluetooth devices "normally"—you'd wear a bluetooth receiver hung on your ear like everyone else does and the sound will be captured by the Esteem and amplified just like any other sounds entering your ear canal.

Learn more about the Envoy "Esteem" here.
 

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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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