Showband Legend Dickie Rock is full of praise for Hidden Hearing

Showband Legend Dickie Rock is full of praise for Hidden Hearing

Recently, Irish music legend Dickie Rock was gracious and appreciative enough of Hidden Hearing’s service to send in a wonderful Testimonial.“I’ve been blessed with a really enjoyable music career but I suppose it was no surprise that it would eventually impact on my hearing. I didn’t really notice when my hearing started to deteriorate a few years ago, but my wife and children started to notice that I would have the television turned up too loud. I can’t say enough about the guys in Hidden Hearing, who provided a first class service from day one and they continue to provide an excellent aftercare service.”

New Bluetooth hearing aids from Panasonic

Panasonic has announced its newest line of hearing aid devices that feature Bluetooth connectivity. For Panasonic, it was past time that it announced a product like this, as Bluetooth is now one of the common features for hearing assistance devices.

Called the R1-W series, the line of receiver-in-canal hearing aids boasts several features, including the capability for you to connect directly to your smartphone or television via an add-on called the “Hearing Hub.” It also allows the recording of voice memos that can be played directly back into the earpieces at high quality. One of the areas where the R1-W really shines is the battery life that it’s reported to get. Panasonic is claiming that the ear pieces can go for 300 hours before needing a fresh set of batteries, which is really quite impressive.

The technology requires that you carry a transmitter on your belt to relay the sound signal to the matching earpieces. If you get out of range of this unit, the earpieces will cease to work. The range for Bluetooth is relatively short, especially for high quality signal transmission. While the R1-W brings convergence for hearing assistance with everyday tasks, it’s definitely late to the party. Competing manufacturers have long since had Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids, and have since moved on to working to create waterproof units for individuals that lead active lifestyles. Still, because people of all ages suffer from hearing loss, hearing aids like the R1-W present options to consumers that are savvy when it comes to understanding the technology behind them. Hidden Hearing offers a range of hearing devices including new invisible hearing aids. If you have any questions about hearing loss or hearing aids contact Hidden Hearing.

Public transportation users put themselves at risk for permanent, irreversible hearing loss.

Modern city living may help drive the need for more audiologists

Modern lifestyles may also be contributing to individuals’ need to see an audiologist. A recent study in Environmental Science & Technology shows that modern city living can cause hearing loss and damage in many individuals.

Modern city living may help drive the need for more audiology degree holders. A report shows that about one in 10 people who use mass transit exceed their recommended noise exposure during their commute. However, the biggest contributor to hearing loss was MP3 players and stereos, which many people opt to use during their morning and afternoon commutes. Unfortunately, on their way to and from work, a majority of public transportation users put themselves at risk for permanent, irreversible hearing loss.

As this trend continues to harm individuals’ hearing, it could create an even stronger demand for more professionals to earn a doctorate degree in audiology! If you have any questions about hearing loss or hearing tests contact Hidden Hearing.

A partially deaf dancer is one of the first to wear a new waterproof hearing aid.

Kirsty Swain, finished fourth in the BBC talent show, So You Think You Can Dance, this summer.

Kirsty Swain,  finished fourth in the BBC talent show, So You Think You Can Dance, this summer.

She has now been unveiled as one of the first people to wear the Siemens waterproof and shock resistant hearing instrument, Aquaris.

The hearing instrument has opened up a whole new world to the jazz dancer who has spoken out against the stigma associated with hearing loss.

As a child she was excluded and embarrassed to wear her hearing aids and her active lifestyle as a dancer, teacher and performer has posed a number of issues.

Unable to find a hearing aid that could withstand the sweat and rigours of dancing, she preferred to dance without.

As a result, her dancing career has been shaped by the struggle to hear rhythm and she has learnt to dance by music vibrations and copying others to pick up routines.

She said: “I have had trouble in the past with hearing instruments getting sweaty, slipping and being uncomfortable when exercising, but with the Aquaris I can run along hearing everything, without the slightest problem. “I’ve been swimming with it and couldn’t believe how amazing it was. I could hear people standing beside the pool chatting as I swam underwater, more than most people, which made me feel quite special.

“Aquaris is absolutely brilliant. It adjusts to any situation I am in whether it’s the bar, the studio, on stage or watching TV on the couch. I can also swim, dance, run and jump in the shower without thinking. When I’m in the studio, I am able to hear the music and teacher’s voice clearer than ever before.”

She was also fitted with a miniTek, which uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly communicate sound between her Aquaris hearing instrument and television, mobile phone and MP3 player.

If you have any questions about hearing aids contact Hidden Hearing.

“iPod oblivion” a safety risk to pedestrians

Walking with your head in the clouds can be dangerous – but not as perilous as listening to your iPod. The number of people suffering serious injury or death while wearing headphones for electrical devices such as MP3 players has tripled in six years, according to a US study.

An increase in the use of headphones while walking in the street has led to a dramatic rise in the number of injuries, with teenagers, men and young adults the most at risk from hurting themselves while their thoughts were elsewhere, the study says.

In compiling the study, experts studied data from 2004 to 2011. They found that 116 people in the US wearing headphones had died or been seriously hurt during that period. The number of people who died or were injured leapt from 16 in 2004-05 to 47 in 2010-11.

Most victims were men (68%) and under the age of 30 (67%), with about one in 10 of all cases under the age of 18.

Of the accidents studied, 89% occurred in urban areas, and more than half of the victims – 55% – were struck by trains.

According to the study, published online in the journal Injury Prevention, 81 of the 116 incidents, or 70%, resulted in death.

The study – which did not extend to cases involving mobile phones, including hands-free sets – found that the wearing of headphones may in many cases have played a direct part in the incident, as the users could not hear warnings that they were in danger. In 29% of the cases, an explicit warning – such as a shout, a horn or a siren – had been sounded before the accident.

The experts concluded: “The use of headphones with handheld devices may pose a safety risk to pedestrians, especially in environments with moving vehicles. Further research is needed to determine if and how headphone use compromises pedestrian safety.”

Previous studies have shown that people wearing headphones – or who are distracted because they are talking on a mobile phone – can be affected by “inattentional blindness”, a reduction in attention to external stimuli that has also been dubbed “iPod oblivion”. This can result, for example, in people paying less attention to traffic when crossing the street. Headphone wearers have also been shown to suffer a reduced ability to hear a range of ambient noises.

Listening to music players to loud can cause hearing damage

Hearing Expert Martyn graduates from Cambridge

Dundalk's Martyn Mulry Graduates from Ruskin University Cambridge

A hearing expert from Dundalk has received one of the highest accolades in audiology having graduated recently from the Angela Ruskin University in Cambridge. Martyn Mulry audiologist with Hidden Hearing, Dublin Street Dundalk graduated with a Degree in Sciences in Hearing Aid Audiology. The Cambridge course was undertaken as part of a continuous training program me which Hidden Hearing audiologists undertake. The hearing Aid Audiology course is renowned internationally as being one of the most advanced courses of it’s kind. This is added to Martyn’s numerous qualifications including a registered member of the panel with the Dept. of Social & Family Affairs for processing Medical Appliance Benefits. If you are lucky enough to live close to Dundalk you can avail of Martyn’s expertise if you have any questions about hearing loss or hearing aids. Hidden Hearing offer free hearing tests.

Courtney DeJoie was honored for helping to change people's perception of people with hearing loss.

We came across this article from New Jersey via North Jersey.com where a Hidden Hearing style heroes awards program doing similar work awarded a special cert to a very courageous 9 year old. An article appeared about how 9-year-old Courtney DeJoie, who overcame the challenges she faced when, as a first-grader, it was found that she had a hearing deficit, was published in Community Life. After extensive testing, she was fitted with hearing aids in the summer before she began second grade. Her mother, Donna, said, at first, she was “very resistant” about wearing them. But that summer she met three children – triplets – who would soon become her best friends. Two of them are hearing impaired. Her mom said that meeting them made all the difference.

By the time the school year started she wasn’t self-conscious about her hearing aids. But she faced another challenge, this one academic. She struggled with her school work because it had been difficult for her to keep up before she got her hearing aids. She got the academic support she needed by switching to Brookside School, where the triplets went to school, and goes to classes with her hearing impaired friends.

Her second grade teacher at Washington School invited her to come and speak to her current students about what it’s like to be hearing impaired. And she wrote a book about how she met her best friends.

Her story inspired her audiologist at Valley Hospital, Patricia E. Connelly, PhD, who diagnosed her hearing impairment, and Tom Higgins, of Advanced Hearing Services in Ramsey, who fitted her with hearing aids, to nominate her for an, “Oticon Focus on People Award,” offered by Oticon, a company that designs and manufactures hearing aids. Connelly said Courtney, “exemplifies everything wonderful about being a great kid, first, and, second, about not letting hearing loss impact at all in a negative way.”

Although Courtney wasn’t a finalist, she received an honorary award in recognition of her achievements, dedication and spirit, demonstrating that hearing loss does not have to limit a person’s ability to succeed.

If you have any questions about the Hidden Hearing Heroes Awards or anything about hearing loss or hearing aids contact Hidden Hearing.

ARTICLE SOURCE: NORTH JERSEY.COM BY KATHRYN BURGER

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