The Ear is Unique

Posted on February 8, 2012 by hearing helper

Housed in the densest bone of the body, the temporal bone, the ear may be the most complex organ in the body. It is the only organ to contain 2 senses: hearing and balance.

Our hearing is so sensitive that it can detect a -6 decibel sound that causes the tympanic membrane to vibrate less than the diameter of a hydrogen molecule. Yet it can also analyze a 90 decibel sound that is over a million times stronger.

The ear contains the 3 smallest bones in the body. The smallest of these bones, the stapes, is strengthened by its arch-like shape. The arched shape makes it look like a stirrup and allows a reduction in mass that would otherwise reduce high frequency sensitivity. Connected to the stapes is the smallest muscle in the body, the stapedius.

The vestibular part of the inner ear contains gyroscopic structures that are sensitive to head movement in any direction and that help control eye movement. The hearing part of the inner ear is the cochlea and is about the size of a large garden pea.

Like the eye, the cochlea has 2 types of sensory cells. The inner hair cells number about 3000 per ear and the outer hair cells number about 15000 per ear. These hair cells are innervated by both afferent nerve fibers (carrying information from the ear to the brain) and, uniquely, efferent nerve fibers (carrying information from the brain to the ear).

The outer hair cells are a sensory cell but they also have a mechanical motility: they move under their own power! No other sensory cell does this. This motility tunes the inner ear and enhances its sensitivity.

Not only does the cochlea receive sound, it makes sounds called otoacoustic emissions. Otoacoustic emissions are are probably a by-product of the outer hair cell motility. These cochlear emissions can be detected by a microphone placed in the ear canal.

The hearing nerve is the only cranial nerve that twists around itself like the threads of a screw. This is probably due to the unique shape of the cochlea, which is coiled in a way that conserves precious space.

The ear, it ain’t not complex.

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How to Clean Your Ears

Posted on February 5, 2012 by hearing helper

The first thing people think about when cleaning their ears is a cotton swab – and cerumen (earwax) will sometimes adhere to the cotton and come out with the swab.

However, it can also push the cerumen deeper in the ear and can over-clean the skin of the car. Over-cleaning the ear canal makes it prone to itching and infection.

Cerumen protects your ear by repelling moisture, bacteria, and fungi.

So how do you clean your ears? Cover your finger with a handkerchief or washcloth and wipe what you can get with your finger. Do not worry about cleaning down inside the ear canal. In most people, it is self-cleaning.

Do not worry about cerumen that is deeper than the ear canal entrance: it is supposed to be there and is not a sign of poor hygiene.

A few words about ear candling: it does not work. Do not do it.

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Talking to a Hearing Impaired Person

Posted on February 4, 2012 by hearing helper

Here are a few suggestions for talking to a hearing impaired person:

-Talk directly to the person. If you are facing them they not only get a better speech signal, they can make use of the visual cues of speech. About 30% of speech sounds are visible on the face and most people, even normal hearing people, can make use of at least some of these visual cues.

-Talk at a normal, or slightly above normal, loudness. Shouted speech is difficult to understand and soft speech may still be difficult for some hearing-aided individuals.

-Do not talk too fast, but not too slow either. No hearing aid in the world will slow down fast speech. Slow, exaggerated speech is also difficult to understand.

-If the person does not understand you or asks for a repeat, it may not help to raise your voice. When you raise your voice, your articulation often suffers, but you also raise mostly the vowel sounds of speech (predominantly low frequency) and not the consonants (predominantly high frequency). Most hearing impaired people need just some of the frequencies of speech raised and the hearing aid is probably already doing that. So, if you are asked for a repeat, remember that even some normal hearing individuals need a repeat sometimes. Try rewording what you said. For example, you might say, “It is supposed to rain today.” When you have to repeat you might consider saying, “The weather report this morning said that we are supposed to get some rain.”

-If you are the hearing impaired person, it is helpful to tell the talker what part of their conversation you understood and what part you did not. When all else fails, ask them to spell a key work.

-Speak clearly. You don’t need to exaggerate, but there is a difference between clearly spoken speech and mumbled speech.

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Dogs Like Hearing Aids

Posted on February 3, 2012 by hearing helper


True Story: In one year I had 24 hearing aids bitten/swallowed/mangled by dogs. One young lady had it happen to her twice within the span of two months. When she first got her hearing aid she didn’t realize that dogs, especially puppies, will do this, and sure enough, that’s what her new puppy did.

We replaced the aid and this time she knew to store the aid where the puppy couldn’t get it when the aid was not in use (at night when she went to bed). However, she was rough-housing with the dog one day and the aid got knocked out of her ear and the dog bit the brand new hearing aid.

So, you are forewarned. Your dog really, really wants to bite your hearing aid. Sometimes cats do too.

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My Trouble is Understanding Speech

Posted on January 29, 2012 by hearing helper

“I hear ok, I just don’t understand what is said.”

If this is you, trouble understanding speech is almost always a hearing loss. Because hearing loss is frequency specific, many hearing impaired people hear lots of sounds very well, or even normally.

However, there are lots of sounds or parts of sounds that they do not hear. Because the loss of hearing if often very gradual to develop, they do not notice that they are missing some sounds and they don’t notice that music is muffled. They notice that they have difficulty understanding speech.

If you have trouble understanding speech, get a comprehensive ear and hearing evaluation. This is not a screening test, and this is not a free test.

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Cleaning Hearing Aids

Posted on January 26, 2012 by hearing helper

Clean the wax and skin debris from the shell of the hearing aid by wiping it with a cloth, tissue or handkerchief that has been moistened with a solution made for hearing aids, or with vinegar.

All hearing aids that fit in your ear have a receiver port. The receiver port is a hole that is located at the end of the canal portion of the aid. There are often 2 holes here, the receiver port and the vent.

Turn the hearing aid upside down over a toothbrush, as shown above, and run the receiver port back and forth in the bristles of the brush. Much of the dried wax will dislodge and fall away from the hearing aid in this manner.

Clean the receiver port in the morning after the aid has been out of your ear all night. This allows the wax to dry. If you clean the aid when the wax is moist it may smear and not crumble away from the hearing aid.

Do not put anything on the toothbrush, it should be dry. And do not use your spouse’s toothbrush, he or she will eventually notice a funny taste.

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Size 13 battery

Size 10 battery


Hearing Aid Batteries
Hearing aid batteries come in 4 sizes, from smallest to largest: size 10, 312, 13 and 675. The smallest, the size 10, measures about 3 mm thick by 5 mm in diameter. The largest, size 675, is about 5 mm thick by 11 mm in diameter.

Batteries of this size could power your watch a year or so, but hearing aids use a lot more power than watches. Hearing aid batteries are not like watch batteries in materials or voltage, and they are less expensive than watch batteries.

How quickly the battery is used depends on a number of factors, including the size of the battery. The largest battery, the 675, might, MIGHT, last 2 or more weeks. The smallest battery will generally last between 2 and 6 days. Other factors that affect battery life include how much electrical current your hearing draws and how fresh the battery is. If you wear your hearing aid 24 hours a day (not recommended), your battery will not last as many days as someone with the same hearing aid but who wears the hearing aid 10 hours a day.

Modern hearing aid batteries are zinc-air and have a voltage of 1.35 to 1.4 volts. Batteries of years past were mercury and silver oxide and had a much smaller capacity (they didn’t last as long) than current batteries. Most hearing aid batteries stop working when the battery voltage drops below 1.2 volts. Making a digital amplifier of a hearing aid work on these small voltages was one of the hearing aid industry’s shining moments.

Hearing aid batteries are called zinc-air because air is an active ingredient in making the battery work. The colored tab, or sticker, on the battery is designed to keep air out of the hearing aid. This tab prevents air from entering the cell and activating it before it is ready to be used. Removing the tab activates the battery and makes it ready to use in your hearing aid.

Size 10 batteries have a yellow sticker; 312 a brown tab; 13 an orange tab; and 675 a blue tab. Do not take the sticker off until you are ready to use the battery. The tab (sticker) extends the shelf-life of the battery.

Changing the battery is not a big deal, but there are hearing aids designed to be placed and worn in your ear for months before having the aid removed and replaced. In other words, the battery in these extended wear hearing aids lasts several months, and the aids (and batteries) are not designed to be removed by the wearer. There is a trade-off between this convenience of not having to change the battery, but having to keep the hearing aid in your ear 24 hours a day.

Many hearing aids can use rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries have been around for over 30 years and have improved over the years in ease of use and hours of use per charge. However, rechargeable batteries have not become as commonly used as standard zinc-air batteries.

If you want a rechargeable battery, keep in mind that you still need to have a few conventional zinc-air batteries around in case you don’t get your rechargeable batteries charged for some reason, for example if the electricity goes out over night. Rechargeable batteries also need to be replaced occasionally, sometimes every year.

Posted on January 22, 2012 by hearing helper | 3 Comments

List of Important Points When Considering Hearing Aids

Posted on January 18, 2012 by hearing helper

1. Step #1 is to get a thorough evaluation of your hearing. This is not a screening and is not usually a free test. The accuracy of the test results are vital to how well you will hear with hearing aids.

2. If you hear ok, but just have trouble understanding speech, that is still almost always a hearing loss.

3. Make an appointment for evaluation with someone who knows both hearing and ears. Get your hearing aids from someone who knows both hearing and hearing aids, and how to couple one to the other.

4. If possible, get your hearing aid locally, just as you would your dentures or glasses.

5. A person with one ear (one hearing aid) does not hear as well as someone with two ears (hearing aids for both ears).

6. The state of the science in fitting hearing aids is with real-ear, probe-microphone measures, where a microphone is placed close to your eardrum so that the sound at your eardrum from the hearing aid can be compared back to the results of Step #1 (complete hearing evaluation).

7. Hearing everything, or hearing more than what you heard without hearing aids, can take some getting used to. It takes some people six weeks, or longer, to acclimate to this.

8. Your voice will sound different to you.

9. Don’t get hung up of the manufacturer or model of hearing aid. Get hung-up on who is fitting you with hearing aids. There are lots of details to the process of fitting a hearing aid.

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The best hearing aid?

Posted on January 4, 2011 by hearing helper

Hearing aids change the sound gets to your ear. Lots of things have to happen to make that sound the correct sound, but there is no mystery or magic.

Many people have a “hardware store” view toward hearing aids: they think that all they have to do is find the best hearing aid to hear better, that somewhere there is a hearing aid that works best and that what matters the most is the plastic thing that goes in your ear which must have some kind of mystery-stuff in it. Often people spend hours on the internet searching through advertising for that best hearing aid.

What makes the best hearing aid for you is the physical fit, the venting, the usage, the diagnostc procedures leading to the hearing aid fitting, and ultimately the sound produced at your eardrum that are important to the best hearing you can get, not who manufactured the hardware. It’s not brand A against brand B against brand C. It is the sound produced at your eardrum.

The take-home lesson is not to get hung-up on the manufacturer or model of hearing aid. Get hung-up on who is fitting you with hearing aids. The best hearing aid for you, is one that is:

1. Based on accurate information about your hearing.
2. One that you can, and will, wear most of your waking hours.
3. One that makes all of the speech spectrum audible to you without distortion.

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Hearing Aid Help Welcome

Posted on September 29, 2010 by hearing helper

If you are hearing impaired, there is about an 80-90% likelihood that you have some type of hair cell impairment. The hair cells and their supportive system in the inner ear are usually what is responsible for the impaired hearing that leads to hearing aids. We might someday have an elixir that can treat most of the causes of hair cell impairment, and even regenerate the hair cells. What we have until then is hearing aids.
Hearing aids change the sound that gets to your hair cells. Lots of things have to happen to make that sound the correct sound, but there is no mystery about this process.
In subsequent blogs, I will talk about what to expect when looking for hearing aids, how to clean them, how to check batteries, and how to wear hearing aids.

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