Hearing Aids Australia News

News:

Look out for new hearing product releases and break throughs.

Phonak Audeo M (Marvel) Bluetooth Hearing Aid - Made for Android & iPhone.
This hearing aid has amazing features like streaming to both ears and has various features and models across the range.

One wearer said:

"As a keen surfer the only trouble I have with
					
this hearing aid is it being so comfortable I don't 
					
know if I am wearing it. Soemtimes I panic when I 
					
put my head underwater thinking it is still on..."

New System for comparing prices

With the help of an experienced audiologist we are working on creating a simple system for comparing hearing aids.
The tool will allow you to compare -:

By Price
By Brand
By Style

This will be unique in Australia and will take some months of development so please return to check the progress. Finally the mystery of hearing aid prices will be simplified. Currently there is a rapid take over of many existing hearing centres and still very little way of comparing prices easily in Australia.

Noise Levels and Noise Pollution can be fatal

Noise Levels
Sleep disturbance and hearing loss are the most obvious tolls of noise pollution.

Noise not only annoying may also be fatal. A study in Europe in 2007 monitored nearly 5000 people who lived close to six major airports, measuring their blood pressure as noise rose and fell.
"The higher the noise levels, the higher the risk of hypertension [a major risk factor for heart disease]," Dr Lars Jarup.
Based on this study other researchers estimated that three percent of all fatal heart attacks can be attributed to excess noise.

With the airport study even when the subjects slept through a landing and a take-off, their blood pressure rose.

Noise of more than 80 decibels could be associated with an increase n aggressive behaviour, a fact confirmed by the 1998 Brisbane Community Noise Survey.

Sax Player "Hearing loss in Australia will increse from one in six people a few years ago to one in four next year[2010]" Janette Thorburn principal audiologist from Australian Hearing. The increase is due to a big jump in the 20 to 40 age group having more hearing loss.

Research by Access Economics shows that by far the greatest cause of hearing loss in this age group is music from clubs and pubs and personal music players. "Noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible. The problem is it is very gradual so you don't notice it happening," Thornburn says.

...going to concerts and leaving with ringing ears and muffled hearing is "fine if it happens every few months" says Thorburn. Essentially you will recover but if it happens too repeatedly (e.g. also using a portable MP3 player), your inner ear cells give up and die. Your high pitch hearing is usually the first to go - and already this can lead to hearing problems. These high frequency sounds denote the tone and meaning of words eg. you start having problems picking up the difference between similar words like "ship" and "chip".

Musicians Hearing Products

Musicians Hearing Protection Custom made In-Ear monitors provide you with both excellent sound and proper hearing protection for live gigs, whilst eliminating the need for foldback monitors on the stage.

Auditory Deprivation

Many audiologists have noticed that in some older people when fitted with hearing aids they can actually hear however they sometimes still do not understand speach well.

Hearing Better

"It's not about what you hear it is about what you do with what you hear"

The term auditory deprivation refers to a person's lack of adequate hearing stimulation.
More on auditory deprivation »

The First Invisible Hearing Aid - Now available in Australia

Invisible Hearing Aids A US company Lyric Hearing has developed a hearing aid that is invisble to the eye and designed for extended wear. It sits deep in the ear canal, is not surgically inserted and is worn for months at a time.

Battery lasts up to 120 days
A programmable sound processing system designed to work millimeters from the tympanic membrane and allow for both microphone and receiver placement deep in the ear canal
Its deep placement enhances sound quality

Invisible to the eye The aid is offered to patients on a yearly subscription basis. Invisible Hearing Aid Video Demo
This type of device is an exciting break through - and a good indicator of where hearing aids may be heading in the future.
This hearing aid can be worn in the shower and tests have been made on swimmers surfers and divers however will need to use plugs to prevent the devices from getting wet.

Australian Prices for Invisible Hearing Aid

Subscrpition per ear	Annual Payment	Monthly Rates	Maximal devices
3 Years	$1900	$175	21
2 Years	$2150	$195	14
1 Year	$2400	$220	7

The latest version of the Lyric is now even smaller. Hence it is suitable to a larger range of people.

This type of device is ideal for anyone who may prefer to not have anyone notice their hearing aid. TV Presenters, politicians etc would benefit from 100% discretion. Please return as we will publish a list of providers of Lyric Invisible Hearing Aids in Australia when available.

Related Invisible Products
Starkey offer a new product called Soundlens - more information on an invisible hearing aid

Hearing Aid Insurance

Hearing aids are small, fragile and valuable. It is easy to lose and damage a hearing aid. Hearing aid insurance typically includes :-

Low excess from $100
Covers accidental loss and damage
New for old replacement repair
Australia-wide cover
Worldwide cover up to 28 days per trip
Flexible terms from 1 - 3 years
48 hour claims turnaround

You may be able to claim a medial expense tax refund for hearing aid insurance.
Check your household policy as to whether it covers you. In some cases you need to register it as a valuable item before it is covered. How much does Hearing Aid Insurance Cost

Typically hearing aid insurance would cost less than 5% of the cost of your aid per year.

Hearing loss can cause fatigue and other health side effects

Straining to hear a conversation and follow radio and other media can make you feel fatigued and irritable especailly if there is some background noise.
Todays hearing aids are much better in these environments, many can detect conversation and zone in on the speech whilst reducing backgrond noise.
If you have only a mild hearing loss you may only notice problems in noisy situations.

Recent research from ABC Health Report [full transcript 1-12-2009]

Recent research following the wellbeing of several hundred thousand people has found that hearing loss has a significant impact on people's physical and mental health.

Dr Anthony Hogan is a Research Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University.

...And we theorised that it was actually the physical demand of trying to communicate in those situations, when you weren't acknowledging your hearing loss or when you weren't managing it particularly well, that would have impacts on your physical and mental health.

...hearing loss is highly stigmatised in our society and in fact it's been stigmatised since the times of Ancient Greece, through Biblical times, Medieval times.

...But typically we end up having to make a big physical effort to be able to communicate but at the same time protect our self esteem so that we don't make a fool of ourselves by getting things wrong. And we think this is the process which sets up this stress reaction and it sets up a chemical reaction in the body resulting in these physical and mental health effects...

we actually are just seeing are the fact that people have reduced physical wellbeing on these comparative measures

Do Hearing Aids Help?

Another question that kind of begs here is do hearing aids actually help and we know from studies in the quite prominent journal Lancet that 40% of people in the community with hearing aids are unhappy with them. The message in this data though is that hearing aids help, by themselves they are not enough there are other things we now need to do but hearing aids actually do have an impact on improving your health related quality of life and your wellbeing.

from ABC Health Report
This is an excellent interview with could be summarised as:-