It’s easy to see why: It’s sleek, functional, and features cutting-edge “touch” technology–scrolling and choosing is as simple as the flick of a finger.

What’s the connection between an iPhone and a hearing aid?


That’s the question Starkley Laboratories sought to answer. Their answer, the S-Series with Sweep ™ technology for behind-the-ear hearing aids, won them the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Innovations 2010 Award in the Health and Wellness category. This technology does away with the buttons and dials of past hearing aids, and instead uses a touch-sensitive interface that allows the user to adjust volume and settings smoothly and easily.

The advantages over traditional buttons are obvious; tiny buttons can be difficult to adjust, especially for the elderly who constitute the biggest users of BTE hearing aids. Furthermore, the variety of dials and buttons can oxidize and fail over time, or allow moisture and dirt to impact their ability to work properly.

Sweep technology is effective and user-friendly. If you are having issues with your Behind-the-Ear hearing aid, or simply want to upgrade to a more user-friendly model, it might be right for you.

All hearing aids are not made equal.

If you visit an audiologist and are diagnosed with mild or moderate hearing loss, it may not be necessary for you to purchase a costly top of the line hearing aid.

When choosing a hearing aid by price, it’s important to get all the needed personal features, even if purchasing an inexpensive hearing aid. Luckily, there are lower-cost hearing aids that ably amplify sound – the most crucial goal of a hearing aid. Some are directional hearing aids – making conversation easier by focusing the hearing aid in a particular direction.

Those searching for inexpensive hearing aids will find more digital options than ever before–with a wide range of features that can be tailored to fit your particular lifestyle. If you live a more relaxed lifestyle, you may not need the bevy of features offered by the most expensive hearing solutions. On the other hand, if you live an active lifestyle you may want to look into a more premium hearing aid.

As always, the first step to determining what kind of hearing aid is right for you is visiting a hearing specialist and getting tested.

If you need more information on lower-cost hearing aids or any inquiries in general, please don’t hesitate to call or email us.

Hearing aids are expensive. Hearing aids are also incredibly important – lifesaving. Considering these two facts, it’s no surprise that people want the best out of their hearing aids. The best value. The best performance. The best hearing aid accessories available.

Enter Phonak.

Phonak is an international hearing vendor dedicated to making life easier for hearing loss sufferers everywhere. For the past 6 decades, Phonak has been dedicated not only to providing the best possible hearing aid technology, but also to raising awareness and information about hearing loss the world over.

Phonak’s revolutionary lines includes the Audéo Smart, the world’s smallest hearing aid with fully wireless functionality, the Versata, a sleek and advanced solution to constantly shifting soundscapes, and the Nios Micro, the most advanced pediatric hearing solution. In the world. Ever.

These lines come with a variety of exciting features; from DuoPhone, which imbues cell phone calls with a clarity previously unimaginable for hearing loss sufferers, to Soundrecover, which reorients difficult-to-hear high frequency sounds for those with issues on that end of the spectrum.

Phonak is committed to helping those with hearing loss, and it shows in every product. We carry every Phonak product, and if you would like some more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Attractive. Easy-to use. Functional.

Those are the hallmark qualities of Unitron hearing aids. Unitron employs purpose-driven technology to promote clearer, easier hearing. What sets Unitron apart is the range of dynamic features it offers:

• DuoLink, which assures that sound stimuli are heard in both ears
• UDirect, which assures functionality with Bluetooth devices
• Cable-Free Programming
• Noise-Reduction
• Anti-Shock

Perhaps what’s most exciting about the Unitron Passport hearing aids is the endless number of ways you can make them yours.  Smart Control allows you to adjust the parameters  to what you need. Not only that, but the addition of Self-Learning means that the aid gradually and intelligently begins to adapt to what you need without your even needing to program it.

The way it blends with a high level of functionality makes the Unitron Passport an excellent choice in hearing aids.

Hearing loss has a variety of negative impacts for it’s sufferer.

One common one is impairment that results in inability to distinguish high-frequency sounds. Traditionally, the greater the hearing loss, the more gain needs to be applied at that frequency. However, for some people, hearing sensitivity is so poor in the high frequencies that it is not possible to provide sufficient gain and achieve audibility. In many cases, the gain is limited by acoustic feedback or by discomfort, resulting from excessive loudness. Cochlear damage renders these sorts of frequency problems with hearing:

>>An inability to recognize certain speech sounds

>>Difficulty distinguishing high-pitched background sounds–like bird chirps and songs

>>Difficulty in maintaining speech quality

>>Difficulty, especially in children, in developing proper speech

These hearing loss challenges are by no means easy; however, Phonak has developed a revolutionary new technology to help combat it.

It’s known as SoundRecover, and it compresses high-frequency noise into lower frequencies–where a person suffering from hearing loss can better distinguish them.

Because only a selected range of frequencies is targeted (those above a given range), SoundRecover is able to more accurately combat high-frequency hearing loss. Not only is SoundRecover active all the time, the settings are based on the user’s hearing loss, which means better compression, and an overall better hearing aid for the patient.

To learn more about SoundRecover, visit the Phonak’s website.

In some situations, omnidirectional microphones can be preferable; hence, many modern hearing aids feature a toggle that allows the hearing aid wearer to choose between the two types. Thus, the hearing aid provides a greater and more focused benefit.

This hearing aid technology is further sophisticated by what are called “adaptive directional microphones.” These hearing aid devices are better able to distinguish speech from noise and automatically filter out noise from a given angle.

No small feat: not even healthy ears can do that!

Hearing aids are like other medical products used to assist anyone who has a disability. To make a comparison,  you don’t always need a prescription from a doctor to buy your medicine and sometimes can get what your looking for over the counter–this is now happening in the world of hearing aids.

The question we need to really ask ourselves as well as other hearing professionals is, it a good idea to buy a hearing aid without having it properly  made to one’s degree of hearing loss? Anyone who gets a hearing aid or is thinking of getting one should first see an audiologist to see what the best option would be.

The audiologist will first test your hearing to see if there is any hearing loss–and how strong it has become. If necessary, the audiologist will then recommend whether or not you should get a hearing aid. This is extremely important. If someone buys a hearing aid without seeing an audiologist beforehand, one of two outcomes will result–both of which are negative and will only hurt the patient in need.

The first possible outcome is that the hearing aid would be too weak. As a result, it would  not only be a waste of your money, but the patient’s  hearing would not improve as a result. The second outcome is that could be too strong of a hearing aid. This would be disastrous. If it is too powerful it would cause noise induced hearing loss. This hearing loss is irreversible and will never be restored to what it once was.

An audiologist suggesting a custom hearing aid benefits the patient and at time hearing loss could be fixed without the use of a hearing aid depending on the type of hearing loss.

So getting a custom hearing aids with assistance from an audiologist is the best practice. Every individual has different levels of hearing loss. When it comes to hearing aids, see an audiologist to get help with your hearing problems, don’t take the cheap way out and damage it.

The way in which we hear is a rather complex system involving the smallest bones in the human body known as the  Stapes, but it also includes several small snail shaped object known as the cochlea. The cochlea are critical to the hearing process and if damaged can cause hearing loss–either mild or severe.

However, nowadays there is a cochlear implant surgery which can help improve your hearing significantly if you have a severe hearing loss. Let’s take a look  and see why cochlear implants can help those with profound hearing loss:

The cochlea has three parts which are filled with a watery fluid, and whenever there are vibrations received from the stapes in the middle ear, the water will shift according to the frequency. From that point, thousands of tiny hair cells will begin to vibrate– converting the movement of the fluid into electric signals. These electric signals are then moved to the auditory nerves which then pass on to the brainstem for further processing. So we can see that the cochlea is very important to the hearing process and if there is a problem why it would cause profound hearing loss.

Fortunately hearing technology is constantly improving–cochlear implants are a new piece of technology that can help regain much of the hearing which was lost. The cochlear implant is used to stimulate the auditory nerves electrically–this is different from a hearing aid which primarily amplify. The cochlear implant is very powerful and is usually implanted into children and adults with a severe hearing loss.

The technology for helping combat hearing loss recently has become very innovative. Recently, a  new software has been produced for cochlear implants and hearing aids which can help differentiate sounds and improve speech recognition significantly. It is great to see technology being used to combat hearing loss!

1) It receives the sounds which it receives from the microphone in the hearing aid, which then turns into binary code.

2) The binary code is deciphered and determines what the sounds are.

3) Once this is complete, it then amplifies the sounds accordingly as to not be too loud or too low.

One question people often ask is about feedback–how strong is it? The digital hearing aid actually minimizes the feedback received through a noise distinction process. Sound recognition is also a feature that has helped make the digital hearing aid the dominant hearing aid of the last five years. Before, analog hearing aids just amplified all the sounds and would cause much higher feedback noises. On the contrary, digital hearing aids actually adjust to distinguish different sounds so while it does have some feedback, it’s  minimal.

Digital hearing aids have setting which the user can program–ideal for traveling since it can more easily adjust to the environment and new surroundings. It is no wonder why digital hearing aids are dominating the market–combating hearing loss, but that doesn’t mean analog hearing aids are gone. Realistically, they are more difficult to find and less patients use them–within a few years they will be completely off the markets.

Like any hearing aid, analog hearing aids come in many different styles and sizes–from behind the ear to inside the canal hearing aids.

Analog hearing aids were among the first successful electrical hearing aids and are basically a sound amplifier. They takes sound waves and amplifies them, making them more audible to the hearer. Analog hearing aids make it simple to adjust the volume. Using an analog hearing aid gives you more control over the noise volume–if it is too loud, you can lower the volume and if it’s to quiet, you can raise it. This is good for anyone who deals with a predictable noise levels-–conversation, general background noise, or even watching television. They’re a good option for someone who doesn’t tend to travel much or end up in noisy environments. These are the obvious benefits, but there are also some drawbacks as well.

The analog hearing aid does pose some problems –it doesn’t just amplify noise you’d want to hear but can’t, it also amplifies noise you can still hear and that don’t need to. You might turn up your hearing aid to hear a conversation better, and end up getting an earful of background noise instead. And because the hearing aid can’t adjust itself automatically, many users end up endlessly fiddling with it as the changing levels of  nearby noise. Adjusting the volume can sometimes lead to  loud screeching shrills.

Analog hearing aids are still available on the market today, even though digital hearing aids are much more popular–especially for people who have only recently developed hearing loss. For now, analog hearing aids still have their fans – and for many years, they were the best option to combating hearing loss.