Hearing With the Times
Posted by Living Sounds
My name is Adele Collingwood. I’m a registered Hearing Aid Practitioner, Board Certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences. The designation provides me the privilege and responsibility to perform hearing tests and select and dispense hearing aids. I’ve been attending to hearing and hearing healthcare needs for more than a dozen years.
The science of fitting hearing aids has certainly changed over the years. When I began, hearing aids were analog and could often only be adjusted by rotating a few dials on the faceplate of a hearing aid with a tiny screwdriver. For some models there was only one dial for low frequency and another for high frequency.
“All I want is to be able to hear people speak clearly!!!”
It’s an almost desperate request and I’ve heard it many times in the years that I have been dispensing hearing aids.
To be able to hear speech clearly in the presence of noise seems like such a simple request. Yet not one taken lightly by myself, the company I work for, or the manufacturers I represent.
Consider the size of a hearing aid microphone. It can be smaller than a kernel of corn, and still we expect it to pick up the sound of speech clearly and deliver it to the listener’s hearing impaired ear, at a distance of sometimes over twenty feet or more, and still not pick up unwanted sound or noise in the process. It can be a challenge.
We like challenges. The good news is that technology is only getting better and faster. Like all things electronic, the evolution of change is fast paced and innovation abounds.
The future is now!! From analog hearing aids with tiny dials, the next big step was in the mid ‘90s when digital sound processing was introduced. This allowed us to more accurately manipulate sound and shape frequencies for better understanding of speech.
Today new features include lightning fast Voice IQ technology, a leading noise reduction and speech preservation system that gives users the best opportunity to hear clearly. Today hearing aids are self-learning; gradually adjusting to a client’s volume control preferences. Hearing aids can even be adjusted via a touch-tone phone to enhance client convenience and can be made so small as to be completely invisible and beyond detection in the ear canal.
Today a powerful hearing aid doesn’t have to mean having a large, brown device attached to you. Power and accuracy can be packed into very compact and ergonomic shapes that disappear behind the ear.
As a hearing aid practitioner, I can’t bring back hearing that has been permanently diminished by time and noise exposure, but I can provide discreet, accurate and comfortable options to enhance the sounds of life and get you back into the world of great conversations. It all starts with a phone call. To have your hearing tested, please call or email us or click here to book an appointment.
