Summer Travel Tips with Hearing Aids

Summertime is upon us and that means warm weather, time spent outdoors and family vacations! But summer weather and traveling can be stressful for those with hearing aids, which is why we want to share some tips to ensure you have an enjoyable, stress-free summer!

1. Let People KnowWhen traveling it’s important to make sure people know you wear hearing aids. When you’re going through airport security, hearing aids can set off the metal detectors, so tell a security officer to avoid issues. Other traveling scenarios where it’s good to let people know about your hearing aids include riding in cabs and dining out at restaurants. This information will help your cab driver or waiter/waitress provide better service and understanding. 

2. Ensure ProtectionMake sure you keep your hearing aids in a protective case and out of direct sunlight when you are not wearing them and remove them before swimming or during activities where you might be exposed to water. If your vacation includes attending a loud area or event, be sure to bring earplugs to help block out extra noise. Just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean you can let your guard down with your hearing aids. 

3. Get OrganizedBefore you get to your travel destination, make sure to map out hearing-friendly locations. Most public lines of transportation, museums, theaters, etc. provide assistive listening devices to help those with hearing loss understand announcements better. If you use Bluetooth accessories, don’t forget to bring those along. They can make it easier to talk to flight attendants, airline employees or anyone else in noisy environments. 

4. Take ExtrasDon’t get caught on vacation without properly working hearing aids! Make sure you pack extra batteries, domes, wax guards and all other hearing aid accessories that you might need while you’re away from home.Enjoy your vacation! 

Traveling should be an enjoyable experience. Make the most of your trip by planning ahead. Have questions about how to care for your hearing aids? Call Evolution Hearing in Charlottesville, VA at 434-260-8007 or call our Raleigh, NC location at 919-670-3258 today. 

Content Source

The Difference Between Cochlear Implants and Hearing Aids

You probably know what a hearing aid does, but have you ever heard of a cochlear implant?

While hearing aids are used to treat varying degrees of hearing loss by amplifying sound, a cochlear implant is used when hearing aids are insufficient. They transform sounds into electrical energy that stimulates your auditory nerve. These devices are implanted surgically and are used to treat profound hearing loss due to absent or reduced cochlear hair cell function.
 

Both of these medical devices are used to treat sensorineural hearing loss, which is the most common type of hearing loss, but hearing aids are much more common.

In fact, in 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimated that 12 million Americans wear hearing aids and roughly 58,000 adults and 38,000 children use cochlear implants. To put those statistics into perspective, for every one person wearing a cochlear implant, there are 125 people wearing hearing aids. 
 

So how does the cochlear implant work?

It is made up of two parts: the internal receiver/stimulator and the microphone and magnetic transmitting coil. The internal receiver is surgically implanted in your ear, while the microphone and coil fit externally behind the ear and on the side of the head. The microphone picks up sound, translates it into coded signals and sends it through the transmitting coil to the implant located under the skin. Electrical energy is then sent to the electrodes in the cochlea, which stimulates the auditory nerve and travels to the brain for interpretation.
 

Is a cochlear implant right for you?

Most cochlear implant recipients try hearing aids out first. If you’ve tried hearing aids and they haven’t benefitted you due to profound sensorineural hearing loss or congenital deafness, then cochlear implant surgery may be something to consider. To determine whether or not it’s the right move, you will need to have audiologic testing, a medical exam and possible x-rays/MRI.
 

Fortunately, the majority of individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss will benefit from traditional hearing aids. Although hearing aids don’t process sound like cochlear implants, they are less expensive and can be manually adjusted, repaired, replaced and removed easily.
 

For more information on cochlear implants or hearing aids and information on how we can help you, call Evolution Hearing at our Charlottesville, VA office at 434-260-8007 or our Raleigh, NC location at 919-670-3258.

Content Source

Assistive Listening Devices

Hearing loss can affect us in multiple ways throughout our lives. Thankfully our experts at Evolution Hearing have access to the latest technology offering Assistive Listening Devices for improved experiences with your family and friends no matter where you are.

At Evolution Hearing, everyone is working for patients to recover from hearing issues. We understand the threat to qualitative life if a person has a hearing problem and thus, we have best Audiologists of Raleigh and Virginia like Dr Ashley Lindberg, Dr Kristin Koch and Dr Kathleen Culbertson.

Content Source

Common Sounds That Can Hurt Your Hearing

Your ears are very delicate, so it’s no surprise that hearing loss is a common chronic health condition. But did you know, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s the third most common chronic health condition in America? And exposure to loud noises is the leading cause. Because hearing damage is permanent, we want to share the types of sounds that could be damaging your hearing so you can do your part in protecting your ears.

What is considered “too loud”?

Sounds are measured in adjusted decibels (dBA) and a normal conversation is typically measured at around 60 dBA. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, when a sound reaches 85 dBA it can begin to cause harm to your hearing.

Common, every day sounds that could be doing damage to your hearing:
Loud (85-100 dBA) sounds include:
• Handsaw
• Lawnmower
• Garbage disposal
• Heavy traffic
• Noisy restaurant
• Vacuum cleaner
• Hair dryer
• Blender
• Factory machinery

Eight or more hours of exposure to noises in this decibel range can cause hearing damage over time.
Very Loud (101-120 dBA) sounds include:
• Baby crying
• Squeaky toys
• Snow blower
• Leaf blower
• Live sporting events
• Subway
• Chainsaw
• Passing motorcycle
• Headphones (turned all the way up)


Exposure to sounds in this decibel range can cause damage in just 2 hours; this includes listening to music in your headphones on full blast.

 
Painfully Loud (121-170 dBA) sounds include:
• Rock Concert
• Airplane taking off
• Stereo turned up
• Balloon popping
• Police or Ambulance sirens
• Jackhammer
• Firearms
• Fireworks (at 3 feet)

Sounds in this decibel range can cause hearing damage in as little as 30 seconds.

You can protect your hearing! Throw earplugs in your purse or pockets if you know you’ll be somewhere very loud (at a rock concert) or just in case you need to use them. If you believe you’re suffering from hearing loss please call Evolution Hearing at our Charlottesville, VA location, 434-260-8007 or at our Raleigh, NC location, 919-670-3258 to schedule an appointment today.

Content Source

Do you suffer from listening fatigue?

If you regularly feel exhausted despite how much sleep you get, have you considered hearing loss as a possible cause?

You may not immediately think “hearing loss” when you think of “fatigue”, but if you suffer from hearing loss listening fatigue is a real issue. People with normal hearing don’t realize how exhausting and frustrating it is to live with hearing loss. When you have moderate hearing loss you generally only hear 50% of what is said, which means you have to fill in the gaps with a combination of lip reading, context clues and guessing. That is a lot of work for your brain to do all day long.




Listening fatigue is a very common problem among hard-of-hearing individuals. According to the department of Psychology at the University of California Berkeley, listening fatigue is due to the extra mental work hard-of-hearing people must do to get through the day. In fact, a survey done by the Danish Institute for Social Research found that as many as one in five people who suffer from hearing loss give up on the job market, and for those that do work, almost 15% are so tired by the end of the work day they have no energy left for leisurely pursuits.

How Hearing Aids Can Help

There is good news. Hearing aids help to drastically reduce the energy needed for those hard-of-hearing. Because hearing aids help restore the sounds missed with hearing loss, the brain uses less energy trying to figure out what people are saying. Most of our patients tell us that once they were fit with hearing devices, they had more energy at the end of the day and didn’t feel as wiped out after loud outings, such as going out to eat in a noisy restaurant. Modern day hearing aids now come with features that isolate and amplify the sounds you want to hear while significantly reducing the noises you don’t want to hear.

Next Steps

If you aren’t sure you need a hearing aid, seeing an audiologist will help you make the decision. You may not be ready for a hearing aid, but you won’t know until you see a specialist. A proper hearing test will help you determine if a hearing aid can help improve your energy levels and your overall well being.
To learn more about listening fatigue and hearing aids please call Evolution Hearing in Charlottesville, VA at 434-260-8007 or our Raleigh, NC location at 919-670-3258.

Content Source: Hearing Aid North Carolina

Hearing Loss Doctor North Carolina

The physical impairment is not a disease that will take away the quality of your life. The people who face this kind of impairment often feel demotivated and depressed but they don’t need to. You can know about this, better at Evolution Hearing. The Evolution Hearing as the name suggests deals with hearing issues.

Life is difficult if you cannot hear or comprehend what is happening around you. We at Evolution Hearing believe in justice and it could be achieved only if every person could live a quality life. Life is filled with beautiful sounds of your family members, birds chirping, soothing music, waves on the beach, etc. To miss out on that is not a fair deal. Thus, we have made it a mission to help you rediscover the sounds.

We make sure that all of our patients are informed about the different treatment options that we can provide, and we discuss your hearing before discussing devices. We provide devices like Amplifiers, FM systems, vibrating wireless alarms, Bluetooth audio streaming devices, etc.


With the correct hearing aids prescribed by our qualified audiologist, you can enjoy comfort and a better quality of life.

How to Properly Clean Your Ears

Content Source : Audiologist In Raleigh North Carolina

Did you know that cleaning your ears improperly could possibly weaken your hearing ability? Because your ear is such a delicate and intricate body part, it requires a bit of special care. In order to better understand the ear and how to properly care for it, here are some important tips for keeping your ears healthy.

1. The truth about earwax

Many people think earwax is gross, but the truth is it plays a very important role in keeping your ears healthy. It protects the ear canal skin and serves as a self-cleaning agent with protective, lubricating and antibacterial properties. Without earwax, our ears can become dry, itchy and open to infections.

The best thing you can do for your ears is to not put anything in them smaller than your elbow. Earwax isn’t formed in the deep part of our ear canals. So items like cotton swabs actually push wax deeper into the ear and are often the cause of wax blockage against the eardrum. Let nature run its course when it comes to earwax and use a washcloth or a tissue to wipe your outer ear after showering.

2. When ears need to be cleaned

In an ideal world, ear canals should never need to be cleaned. But unfortunately sometimes earwax can accumulate and cause a condition caused cerumen (earwax) impaction, which can result in:

Earaches or a “plugged” sensation in the earPartial hearing loss Tinnitus
Itching, odor or discharge Coughing If you experience any of these symptoms, first see your doctor or hearing health care provider. If earwax is the culprit, your doctor or a trained Audiologist can remove it.

3. Earwax and hearing aids

If you wear hearing aids, you know that earwax can be a pain. Earwax can clog the receivers and/or domes of the hearing aid, which can reduce the effectiveness of the device. A lot of users actually notice an increase in wax production when they begin wearing hearing aids.

It’s very important to properly clean and care for your hearing aids as instructed by your hearing health care professional. Make sure you are cleaning your hearing aids daily by wiping them off with a cloth or a tissue.

There is no real way to prevent excessive earwax, but if you use hearing aids or are prone to repeated wax impaction, consider a routine preventative cleaning from an Audiologist or physician every 6 to 12 months.

To schedule a diagnostic hearing evaluation, please call Evolution Hearing in Charlottesville, VA at 434-260-8007 or our Raleigh, NC location at 919-670-3258.