Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley recently published their findings on tinnitus and have a few new suggestions for treatment. One of the new treatment ideas was retraining the brain. Loud noises damages to the hair cells in the inner ear which in return leave a gap in frequencies that these hair cells send to the brain. More or less, ringing doesn’t originate in the ear, but in the brain, in areas such as the auditory cortex, which is receiving input from the ear. One theory is that the ringing is a phantom noise made by neurons that have lost their sensory input from the ear, therefore they start firing off spontaneously. By retraining the brain, researchers hope that they could reduce spontaneous firing by giving the cells a new form of input. Through reorganizing the cortical map, researchers believe that this would resolve tinnitus.

Another suggestion to help cure tinnitus was to find a drug that would be able to inhibit the random firing by neurons in the auditory cortex. Through a study done on rats with tinnitus, when the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA was increased, the rat’s tinnitus was cured. Though, there is still much work that must be done before any of this treatment could be used in people, as the side effects of increased GABA currently prohibit its human use.

These steps are huge in finding a treatment for tinnitus and a cure could mean peace for so many people. If you suffer from tinnitus, contact HearFlorida. The hearing care professionals at HearFlorida offer tinnitus treatments.

Click here for more information about tinnitus and the treatments available

To prevent kids from seriously damaging their ears, it is important to educate them on how to safely listen to music. A new campaign called Listen To Your Buds is doing just that! The campaign teaches parents how to teach their children about safely listening to music with their earbuds. The younger the children are taught about safe listening, the better. Hopefully, then they will develop good listening habits and the message will filter over to older siblings. The campaign asks parents to pledge to keep their children’s hearing safe by Always protecting their child’s hearing from loud noise, teaching their child not to listen to music too loud or for too long and to share the message about safe listening and the importance of hearing health with my family and friends

HearFlorida would like to ask all of the parents to take the pledge to save their children’s hearing. Join the fight to keep children’s hearing safe from noise induced hearing loss. For more information on Listen to your Buds you can visit www.ListenToyourBuds.org.

Don’t let having a speech or hearing impairment keep you from communicating with other around you. You shouldn’t feel misunderstood or confused when trying to commutate with others, but if you do don’t be afraid to seek help. Reach out to members who support Better Hearing and Speech Month for help. HearFlorida Audiology Group is here to help you with your hearing needs. Our supportive doctors will take the time to help you through your hearing exam and beyond. We understand that support is one of the most important things of a patient who has a hearing and or speech impairment.

You can help others who suffer from a speech or hearing impairment by supporting Better Hearing and Speech  Month. With your help, awareness will be raised and support will be given. For more information on both Better Hearing and Speech Month and The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, please visit their website.  Remember, you can help change the life of someone with your support in the month of May.

Travel does not have to be avoided because of hearing loss. If you wear a hearing aid, there are many things that you can do to help make your travels safe, comfortable, and enjoyable. Do not worry about the rules surrounding boarding airplanes with hearing aids anymore.  The Transportation Security Administrations’ regulations allow people with any level of hearing loss to wear their hearing aids on planes.

Hearing aids are no longer an inconvenience at check points, passing through metal detectors and even inside the plane. The only requirement is that hearing aids must be turned off during take off and landing. Besides this fact, there is no other issue related to wearing your hearing aids when you traveling. All hearing aids and devices will be allowed through security checkpoints once cleared through screening.

The Transportation Security Administration has provided some travel guidelines that you can follow to assure a safe and pleasant experience when you travel wearing your hearing aids.

• It is not necessary to remove hearing aids at security checkpoints.
• It is best if you wear your hearing device while going through the metal detector.
• According to Otolaryngologist and Otolaryngology surgeons, hearing devices such as hearing aids are not affected by X-ray inspection, the walk-through metal detector, or the hand-held metal detector.
• If the screening process is unclear to you, ask the Security Officer to write the information down.
• If you can read lips or are hard of hearing, ask the Security Officer to look directly at you and repeat the information slowly.
• If you need to communicate with the Security Officer, inform her/him of your disability and the way in which you can communicate. TSA Security Officers are trained to provide whatever assistance they can to persons with hearing disabilities.
• If you are concerned or uncomfortable with going through the walk-thorough metal detector, you can ask for a full body pat-down of your person and a visual and physical inspection of the exterior component while it remains on your body.

So, for your next trip plan ahead, inform your fellow travelers, transportation hosts, and airport staff that you are hearing-impaired and you will be traveling wearing your hearing aids. Therefore, they will be prepared to provide you with all the attention and details that you deserve. This also will ensure you to have a more enjoyable trip through today’s hectic airport experience.

Velocity by Sonic offers you a natural hearing experience. This means that the sound you hear does not sound processed, like its coming through a radio or telephone. Once your custom hearing aid settings are right you should expect a natural sound and settle for nothing less. Velocity by Sonic is jam packed with convenience-driven features that not only improve sound quality, but allow you to truly forget fussing with adjustments during different situations of your everyday life. With this level of automation and user-friendly features, you surely will be hearing in overdrive.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits that Velocity by Sonic has for you.

1. Velocity by Sonic offers several adaptive directional systems and noise reduction settings to assist in background noise situations. For example:
• Attending parties or social functions
• Shopping at grocery stores or malls
• Participating in outdoor activities
• Small group dinners with family or friends

The Hands-Free Universal feature automatically selects which directional microphone settings to use to give you the best hearing in difficult listening environments.

2. Provides advanced automatic operation

3. Delivers a more natural listening and communication experience. Speech enhancement technology emphasizes speech like sounds, improving ease of listening and speech understanding. Sonic Velocity is designed to preserve the natural sound quality provided by the human ear through a unique, patented approach to digital sound processing.

4. Sonic Sound provides independent noise processing in up to 24 compression channels. This technology reads the environment for noise level and speech sources and automatically adjusts the highs and lows (pitch) to produce the most natural listening experience based on the inputs.

5. Velocity by Sonic uses an Adaptive Feedback Canceller and Situational Feedback Control to reduce whistle and squeal.
6. Auto Telephone takes the effort out of switching to a telephone program.
 
7. Data Logging records how you use Velocity, and also records your sound environments to allow for better customizing of the hearing aids to your needs. With this feature you maximize the usage of your hearing aid at highest quality.

8. Voice Alerts. Velocity by Sonic provides voice alerts; this hearing aid can let you know when the battery is getting low. Also, it can remind you to call your hearing health care professional for a tune-up.
 
The Velocity hearing aid by Sonic is designed to fit your lifestyle, and offers unique features adapted to your specific needs. Velocity also provides the fitting flexibility that your hearing care professional needs to help you achieve your specific hearing goals.

Contact a hearing care professional at one of the Hear Florida hearing care centers today to see if Velocity by Sonic may be right for you!

Dot2 by Resound is the first instrument that provides all the benefits of a full-sized model in the smallest hearing aid available. Today, you can enjoy high performance and the best digital technology packed into one of the smallest hearing aids on the market. Different from others hearing aid devices, Dot2 by Resound does not sacrifice sound quality for cosmetics.  Its sound quality is powerful, thanks to its unique Surround Sound Processor, which offers clear sound quality even in the most difficult listening situations.

Benefits

Dot2 by Resound has many excellent features designed to help you hear more clearly and naturally. 

• Surround Sound – An innovative technology that helps the hearing aids mimics the ear and improves your hearing in noise.  It also helps you to know where sounds are coming from when you hear them. 
• Dual Feedback Cancellation – two feedback cancellation systems that work together to provide a more whistle or background noise free listening experience
• Multi Focus Adaptive Directional Microphones – An advanced directional microphone system with three different settings: 120 and 180 degrees to provide more precise hearing when you need it.  The narrower the setting, the less background noise interferes. 
• Acceptance Manager – Your hearing professional can set the hearing aids so that they automatically increase in volume over time.  This is to give your brain time to get used to the amplified sound.
• Wind Manager – When wind blows on the microphone, the hearing aids will reduce the sound after a few seconds.
• Echo Control – It helps reduce the bothersome effects of echoes in rooms.
• Automatic programming - This means it is at home in any environment, and requires no manual adjustments from you.  Dot2 adjusts to your preferences; you enjoy optimal hearing without having to do anything. This hearing aid really shines in difficult situations like restaurants or parties because of the unique personalized programming and sophisticated directional microphones.
• Out of sight design – Its unique ergonomic design also makes it lightweight and comfortable to wear. It hides behind the ear so nobody else sees it.

Dot2 by resound  gives you the opportunity to choose a combination of technology level, color and even an option to custom-mold to the ear’s shape, for a device that matches the wearer perfectly. It is available in 14 colors to fully express your individuality

For more information about our hearing aids, or to see if the Dot2 by ReSound may be right for you, Contact our hearing care professionals at one of our south Florida hearing care centers.

Personal sound amplification devices amplify everything including noise. Where as, hearing aids are able to be programmed and adjusted for your unique hearing loss so that they can focus on the sounds that you are not able to hear.

In fact, some of these over-the-counter hearing devices can actually cause more hearing damage because they amplify sounds you do not need amplified. The result can mean an even greater hearing loss.

To be fit for a hearing aid, you must first take a hearing test to determine exactly what type of hearing loss you have. The results of the hearing test are used to help select the most appropriate hearing aid for your type of hearing loss.  To find out if you have a hearing loss and what type of hearing loss you have, schedule an appointment for a hearing test and consultation.

To schedule an appointment for a hearing test, contact us at one of our south Florida hearing care centers. Our hearing professionals can help you decide if a hearing aid is the right choice for you.

It’s not uncommon for people who wear hearing aids or have implanted hearing devices to have a hard time trying to use cell phones. Some cell phones can cause radiofrequency interference with hearing aids, so the user hears high-pitched whistling sounds, buzzes, or static.

Luckily, the compatibility of cell phones and hearing aids is improving. Some phones have lower radiofrequency emissions or use different technologies that can reduce the unwanted effects on hearing aids. Also, hearing aid companies have developed new hearing aid technology to reduce whistling sounds, buzzing sounds, and static noise. The FCC now requires cell phone manufacturers to test and rate their wireless handsets’ hearing aid compatibility using the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) C63.19 standard. These ratings give an indication of the likelihood a cell phone may interfere with hearing aids; the higher the rating, the less likely the cell phone-hearing aid combination will experience undesired interference. Hearing aid users should read and understand these ratings when choosing a cell phone.

At Hear Florida, our hearing professionals can help you find a “cell phone friendly” hearing aid hearing aid just for you. Contact one of our south Florida hearing care centers today and speak with a qualified and experienced hearing professional.

Battery – Put a brand new battery in the hearing aid. Be sure the battery is the right size and is inserted correctly. If you have trouble closing the battery door, the battery is in backwards. Don’t save batteries once they have been used as they tend to get mixed up with the new ones.

Battery door – Be sure the battery door is closed completely (snapped shut) when the hearing aid is being used.

Wax – Wax build up is the most common cause of hearing aid breakdown. Look at the canal end of the hearing aid and see if there is wax in the small portholes. You will need to use a some sort of bright light to see into the sound tube. If the tube is clogged with wax, use the little wire tool provided with the hearing aid or a soft toothbrush and brush the wax out of the hearing aid holding the hearing aid downwards so that the wax will flow toward the floor.

Correct positioning – Be sure that the hearing aid is positioned in the ear correctly and pushed firmly, but not forcefully, down into the ear canal. Looking in the mirror is sometimes helpful to make sure your hearing aid is not sticking out of your ear. Sometimes a hearing aid hurts the ear and people try to avoid the problem by pulling the aid out of the ear a little. Don’t do this. If the hearing aid hurts, you should contact your audiologist and set up an appointment immediately. Be sure the hearing aid is in the correct ear. Most hearing aids have a red marking for the right ear and blue marking for the left ear.

Tubing – If the hearing aid is a behind-the-ear type, check to be sure the tubing is not twisted, cracked, or plugged. Hold it up to the light and look for drops of moisture in the tubing. If the tubing does not look normal, contact your audiologist immediately so the tubing can be replaced.

Whistling – If the hearing aid whistles, make sure the hearing aid is inserted correctly. Be sure the volume is not turned up too high. Finally, make sure your ears are not clogged with wax.

Booklets – Read the instruction booklets that came with your hearing aid. They are very helpful in troubleshooting any problems that you may be having with your hearing instruments.

If you are still having problems with your hearing aid, contact a south Florida audiologist at Hear Floirda. We can help you fix your hearing aid!

What is nerve damage and does your doctor really know what he or she is talking about?

The term “nerve damage” refers to sensorineural hearing loss or permanent hearing loss which may have resulted from noise exposure, head trauma, surgery or aging. In every individual, there are approximately 40,000 – 50,000 hearing hair cells within our cochlea a.k.a. our hearing mechanism. In most cases, patients with nerve damage still have 10,000 to 20,000 hearing hair cells working but the other 20,000 to 30,000 are not functional. The purpose of hearing amplification devices a.k.a. hearing aids is to stimulate those active hearing hair cells in order for you to hear again. In fact, most patients who are benefiting from hearing aids have permanent nerve damage or sensorineural hearing loss. Only patients who are deaf cannot benefit from hearing aids. However, in those extreme cases, there may be other communication options such as a cochlear implant.

Contact one of our south Florida hearing doctors at Hear Florida and find out if hearing aids are the right solution for you.