We’ve all been told the routine advice on raising productivity at work: don’t multi-task, minimize interruptions, say no to meetings, establish self-imposed deadlines, etc.

But what about the manipulation of background sound? Can boosting work productivity really be as simple as playing particular types of music or sounds?

It turns out that both music and nature sounds have been found to have beneficial effects at work.

Let’s start with nature sounds.

Nature Sounds

The Acoustical Society of America presented findings showing that workers can get more done and feel more positive at work when nature sounds are playing in the background.

The study consisted of three sessions in the same room, where researchers had participants complete tests while listening to a variety of soundscapes. Each session had a unique type of sound playing in the background, as follows:

• First session: office sounds muffled by white noise
• Second session: office sounds muffled by nature sounds
• Third session: office sounds with no masking noise

The final results? The employees performed better on the tests when listening to nature sounds and also felt more positive about the setting and the job.

The nature sounds were also greatly preferred over the white noise even though white noise presented a comparable masking effect.

Here’s a playlist of comforting nature sounds for you to try out yourself.

Music

If you’re not into nature sounds, research from the University of Windsor demonstrates that listening to music can have similar beneficial impacts on work productivity.

They found that listening to music on the job improves mood and lessens anxiety, which creates an emotional state conducive to enhanced creative problem solving.

Participants that listened to music reported better moods, produced higher quality work, and devoted less time on each task.

Granted, the study was limited to information technology specialists, but there’s reason to think the effect is more widespread.

What style of music was revealed to have the greatest effect? It turns out that the genre is less important than the positive emotional response it evokes in the listener.

Which means the difference between classical music and heavy metal is insignificant provided that the music improves your mood.

Did you know that several hearing aid models allow you to stream music directly to the hearing aids from your smartphone or music player?

If you have hearing loss, or are considering an upgrade, ask us about the latest technology you could use to start enhancing productivity at work.

In the US, tinnitus (ringing in the ears) affects 20 percent of the total population, and hearing loss is present in 90 percent of the cases.

With such a strong connection between tinnitus and hearing loss, you would think people would be more likely to seek treatment for one or both ailments.

But believe it or not we find the reverse. Among those who avoid treatment for hearing loss, 39 percent (9 million people) do so because they feel that nothing can be done about their tinnitus.

That’s 9 million people that are suffering unnecessarily when a treatment program exists that could both enhance hearing and relieve tinnitus concurrently.

That treatment method is the professional fitting of hearing aids.

In a recent survey of hearing health experts, it was discovered that 60 percent of patients reported some amount of tinnitus relief when wearing hearing aids, while 22 percent confirmed considerable relief.

Based on these percentages, if the 9 million who have given up on tinnitus utilized hearing aids, 5.4 million would realize some degree of alleviation and about 2 million would realize significant relief.

But how do hearing aids actually mitigate the intensity of tinnitus?

The scientific consensus is that hearing loss brings about decreased sound stimulation reaching the brain. In reaction, the brain goes through maladaptive neurological changes that bring about the perception of sound when no exterior sound source is present.

It’s this very subjective feature that makes tinnitus so perplexing to diagnose and treat, and why prescription drugs or surgical procedures typically have little impact. There’s simply no physical structure to repair or chemistry to modify.

But there is a way to reach the perception of sound, a way to help the brain adjust or reverse its response to diminished sound stimulation.

With the help of hearing aids, amplified sound can help readjust the brain to standard levels of sound stimulation and concurrently offer a masking effect for the sounds of tinnitus.

For people with hearing loss, tinnitus is more noticeable because the tinnitus is louder relative to the volume of external sound. By turning up the volume on external sound, tinnitus can disappear into the background.

In addition, some hearing aids can furnish sound therapy directly to the user, which can be tailored for each patient.

Hearing aids, coupled with sound and behavioral therapy, are at present the best tinnitus treatment options available. The majority of patients describe some amount of relief and many patients report substantial relief.

Are you ready to give hearing aids a chance? Schedule an appointment today!

What do the top horror movies all have in common?

They all have memorable soundtracks that arouse an instantaneous sense of fear. As a matter of fact, if you watch the films without any sound, they become a great deal less scary.

But what is it about the music that renders it frightening? More specifically, if sounds are simply vibrations in the air, what is it about our biology that makes us respond with fear?

The Fear Response

In terms of evolutionary biology, there’s an obvious survival advantage to the instantaneous acknowledgment of a harmful situation.

Thinking is time consuming, especially when you’re staring a ravenous lion in the face. When every second counts, you don’t have the time to stop and process the information deliberately.

Given that it takes longer to process and contemplate visual information, the animal brain is wired to react to faster sound-processing mechanisms—a trait that provides survival advantage and has been selected for in the wild.

And that’s precisely what we see in nature: several vertebrates—humans included—generate and react to harsh, nonlinear sounds and vocalizations when alarmed. This creates a nearly instant feeling of fear or anxiety.

But what is it about nonlinear sound that makes it scary?

When an animal screams, it produces a scratchy, irregular sound that extends the capacity of the vocal cords beyond their typical range.

Our brains have evolved to recognize the properties of nonlinear sound as abnormal and suggestive of dangerous situations.

The interesting thing is, we can artificially simulate a variety of these nonlinear sounds to get the same instantaneous fear response in humans.

And so, what was once a successful biological adaptation in the wild has now been co-opted by the movie industry to produce scarier films.

Music and Fear

We all are familiar with the shower scene from the classic movie Psycho, and it’s probably one of the most terrifying scenes in the history of cinema.

But if you view the scene without sound, it loses the majority of its impact. It’s only when you add back in the high-pitched screeching and bone-chilling staccato music that the fear response becomes fully engaged.

To confirm our natural aversion to this nonlinear sound, UCLA evolutionary biologist Daniel Blumstein conducted a study examining the emotional reactions to two types of music.

Participants in the study listened to a collection of emotionally neutral scores and scores that incorporated nonlinear elements.

As anticipated, the music with nonlinear characteristics aroused the most powerful emotional reactions and negative feelings. This response is simply an element of our anatomy and physiology.

Whether Hollywood understands this physiology or not, it appreciates instinctively that the use of nonlinear disharmonious sound is still the most effective way to get a rise out of the audience.

Want to see the fear response in action?

Listen to these 10 Essential Horror Movie Scores.

If you think hearing loss only happens to older people, you may be surprised to discover that today 1 out of every 5 teens has some amount of hearing loss in the US. Furthermore, the rate of hearing loss in teens is 30 percent higher than it was in the 1980s and 90s.

It should come as no great surprise then that this has caught the notice of the World Health Organization, who in answer issued a report notifying us that 1.1 billion teens and young adults worldwide are at risk for hearing loss from harmful listening practices.

Those dangerous practices include attending deafening sporting events and concerts without hearing protection, along with the unsafe use of earphones.

But it’s the use of headphones that could very well be the most significant threat.

Think about how frequently we all listen to music since it became transportable. We listen in the car, in the workplace, at the gym, and at home. We listen while out for a walk and even while falling asleep. We can combine music into nearly every aspect of our lives.

That quantity of exposure—if you’re not careful—can slowly and silently steal your hearing at a young age, leading to hearing aids later in life.

And considering that no one’s prepared to forfeit music, we have to uncover other ways to protect our hearing. Luckily, there are simple preventative measures we can all take.

The following are three vital safety tips you can make use of to protect your hearing without compromising your music.

1. Limit Volume

Any sound louder than 85 decibels can produce permanent hearing loss, but you don’t need to buy yourself a sound meter to measure the decibel level of your music.

Instead, a good rule of thumb is to keep your music player volume at no higher than 60 percent of the max volume. Any higher and you’ll likely be over the 85-decibel ceiling.

In fact, at their loudest, MP3 music players can pump out more than 105 decibels. And since the decibel scale, like the Richter scale, is logarithmic, 105 decibels is approximately 100 times as intense as 85.

An additional tip: normal conversation registers at about 60 decibels. Therefore, if while listening to music you have to raise your voice when speaking to someone, that’s a good signal that you should turn down the volume.

2. Limit the Time

Hearing injury is not only a function of volume; it’s also a function of time. The longer you subject your ears to loud sounds, the more extensive the injury can be.

Which brings us to the next rule of thumb: the 60/60 rule. We previously recommended that you keep your MP3 player volume at 60 percent of its max volume. The other component is making sure you limit the listening time to under 60 minutes a day at this volume. And bear in mind that lower volumes can handle longer listening times.

Taking regular rest breaks from the sound is also important, as 60 decibels without interruption for two hours can be a lot more damaging than four half-hour intervals distributed throughout the day.

3. Select the Appropriate Headphones

The reason many of us have a hard time keeping our music player volume at under 60 percent of its max is a consequence of background noise. As environmental noise increases, like in a busy fitness center, we have to compensate by boosting the music volume.

The remedy to this is the usage of noise-cancelling headphones. If background noise is lessened, sound volume can be reduced, and high-quality music can be enjoyed at lower volumes.

Low-quality earbuds, in contrast, have the twin disadvantage of being closer to your eardrum and being incapable of limiting background noise. The quality of sound is diminished as well, and coupled with the distracting external sound, increasing the volume is the only way to compensate.

The bottom line: it’s well worth the money to spend money on a pair of high quality headphones, preferably ones that have noise-cancelling capability. That way, you can stick to the 60/60 rule without sacrificing the quality of your music and, more importantly, your hearing down the road.

As hearing professionals, there’s one particular type of hearing aid that we all are worried about. It’s bad for the patient, and it can deter others from even making an effort to give hearing aids an opportunity.

They’re regarded as “in-the-drawer” hearing aids. Compared with behind-the-ear or in-the-canal hearing aids, ITD hearing aids never see the light of day, demoralizing the patient and anyone the patient informs about their unpleasant experience.

For the countless numbers of people that have owned hearing aids, a good number will call it quits on the possibility of healthier hearing for one reason or another. However, with today’s advanced technology, we know that this should not be the case.

But hearing aids can be complicated. There are several things that can go wrong, creating a negative experience and causing people to stop trying. But there are ways to protect against this, actions you can take to ensure that, with a little patience, you get the optimal results.

If you’ve had a bad experience in the past, know someone who has, or are thinking about giving hearing aids a try, you’ll want to continue reading. By becoming familiar with the reasons some people give up on hearing aids, you can avert the same mistakes.

Below are the primary reasons people give up on hearing aids.

1. Purchasing the wrong hearing aid or device

Let’s begin with the fact that everyone’s hearing is distinct. Your hearing loss, just like your fingerprint, is also unique to you. Additionally, most people with hearing loss have more difficulty hearing higher-pitched sounds, like speech, compared to other sounds.

As a result, if you select a device that amplifies all sound evenly, like most personal sound amplifiers, sound quality will be affected, and you’ll still most likely be drowning out speech. You’ll need a hearing aid that is programmed to amplify the specific sounds and frequencies you have difficulty with, while suppressing background noise simultaneously.

Only programmable digital hearing aids have this capacity.

2. Incorrect hearing aid programming or fitting

Seeing as hearing loss is unique, the hearing aid must be custom-programmed for you specifically. If the configurations are inaccurate, or your hearing has changed throughout the years, your hearing professional may have to adjust the settings.

Far too frequently, people give up too quickly, when all they require is some adjustment to the amplification settings. Additionally, if your hearing changes, you may need the settings updated. Think about it like prescription glasses; when your vision changes, you update the prescription.

Also, nearly all hearing aids are custom-molded to the curves of the ear. If you find the fit uncomfortable, it may either just take some time to get used to or you may need a new mold. Either way, this shouldn’t prevent you from attaining better hearing.

3. Not giving hearing aids a chance to work

There are two problems here: 1) managing expectations, and 2) giving up too quickly.

If you think that hearing aids will instantly return your hearing to normal, you’re setting yourself up for discouragement. Hearing aids will enhance your hearing drastically, but it takes some time to get used to.

At the outset, your hearing aids may be uncomfortable and loud. This is normal; you’ll be hearing sounds you haven’t heard in years, and the amplification will sound “off.” Your brain will adjust, but not over night. Plan on giving your hearing aids about 6-8 weeks before your brain properly adapts to the sound.

Your persistence will be worth it—for patients who give themselves time to adjust, satisfaction rates skyrocket to over 70 percent.

4. Difficulty hearing in noisy surroundings

Individuals with brand new hearing aids can become easily overwhelmed in chaotic, noisy environments with a lot of sound. This can happen for a few reasons.

First, if you right away begin using your new hearing aid in noisy settings—before giving yourself a chance to adapt to them at home—the sound can be overpowering. Try to adjust in tranquil environments before testing at a loud restaurant, for example.

Second, you’ll have to adjust to the loud environments too, just like you did at home. It’s common to have one bad experience and give up, but keep in mind, your brain will adapt over time.

And last, you may just need to update your hearing aids. The latest models are becoming progressively better at eliminating background noise and enhancing speech. You’ll want to reap the benefits of the new technology as the speed of change is rapid.

It’s true that hearing aids are not for everyone, but the next time you hear a story about how hearing aids don’t work, you should start questioning if any of the above is applicable.

The fact that hearing aids didn’t work for someone else doesn’t mean they won’t work for you, particularly if you work together with a established hearing care provider. And if you’ve had a negative experience in the past yourself, perhaps a fresh start, better technology, and professional care will make all the difference.

The thing about hearing loss is that it’s easy to ignore. You can deny it for years, compensating for poor hearing by turning up the volume on your phone or TV and pressuring people to repeat themselves.

But in combination with the strain this places on personal relationships, there are additional, hidden consequences of untreated hearing loss that are not as conspicuous but more concerning.

Listed below are six possible consequences of untreated hearing loss.

1. Missing out

Hearing loss can cause you to lose out on vital conversations and common sounds like birds chirping or the sound of rain on the rooftop. Common household sounds continuously fade as your private world of sound narrows.

2. Anxiety and depression

A study by the National Council on the Aging revealed that those with untreated hearing loss age 50 and older were more likely to report depression, anxiety, and paranoia and were less sociable as compared to those who wore hearing aids.

Hearing loss can bring about impaired relationships, anxiety, social isolation, and ultimately depression. Hearing loss can be upsetting and embarrassing and can have considerable emotional effects.

3. Cognitive decline

Hearing loss can affect your thinking and memory. Johns Hopkins Medicine found that those with hearing loss experienced rates of cognitive decline 30-40 percent faster than people with normal hearing.

The rate of decline depends upon the degree of hearing loss, but on average, those with hearing loss developed considerable impairment in cognitive skill 3.2 years sooner than those with normal hearing.

4. Listening fatigue

Listening requires energy, and when you fight to hear certain words or have to continually fill in the blanks, the additional effort is exhausting. Individuals with hearing loss describe higher levels of fatigue at the days end, particularly following long meetings or group activities.

5. Diminished work performance

The Better Hearing Institute found that, according to a survey of more than 40,000 households, hearing loss negatively influenced yearly household income by an average of as much as $12,000. The financial impact was directly connected to the extent of hearing loss.

The findings make sense. Hearing loss can cause communication problems and mistakes on the job, limiting productivity, promotions, and in some cases taking people out of the marketplace.

6. Safety concerns

People with hearing loss can fail to hear alarm systems, sirens, or other alerts to potentially hazardous circumstances. They’re also more likely to have a history of falling.

According to a study from Johns Hopkins University, hearing loss has been associated with an increased risk of falling. Those with mild hearing loss were nearly three times more likely to have a history of falling and the likelihood of falling increased as hearing loss became more serious.

The truth is hearing loss is not just a trivial annoyance—it has a variety of physical, mental, and social consequences that can considerably reduce an individual’s overall quality of life. But the good news is that it’s virtually all preventable.

Most of the consequences we just reviewed are the result of diminished sound stimulation to the brain. Modern hearing aids, while not able to restore hearing completely to normal, nevertheless can provide the amplification necessary to avoid most or all of these consequences.

That’s why the majority of patients are pleased with their hearing aid’s overall performance. It allows them to effortlessly understand speech, hear without continuously struggling, and enjoy the sounds they’ve been missing for years.

Don’t risk the consequences—test the new technology and find out for yourself how your life can improve.

A balance disorder is a condition that makes you feel dizzy or unsteady, inducing the sensation of spinning or floating or moving. And although abbreviated or trivial episodes of dizziness are common and no cause for concern, more severe sensations of spinning (vertigo) or long term dizzy spells should be evaluated.

Along with dizziness, you may also experience other symptoms including nausea, variations in heart rate, anxiety, or panic. Again, if these episodes are especially severe or prolonged, it’s wise to seek professional care.

The types and causes of balance disorders are numerous, but before we get to that, let’s briefly review how the body normally preserves its sense of balance.

How the body maintains its balance

We take our body’s ability to maintain balance for granted because it typically operates effortlessly behind-the-scenes. But when you think about it, maintaining balance is really an impressive feat.

Even in motion, your body is able to perceive its location in space and make modifications to hold your body upright, while calling for little to any mindful regulation. Even when you close your eyes, and eliminate all visual cues, you can accurately sense the position of your head as you shift it up or down, left or right.

That’s because your vestibular system—the assortment of organs and structures in your inner ear—can sense any changes in your head position, transmitting nerve signals to advise your brain of the change.

Structures in the inner ear known as semicircular canals consist of three fluid-filled ducts positioned at approximately right angles to each other. When you move your head, the fluid moves together with it, stimulating the nerve cells that send the information to your brain.

This, coupled with visual cues and musculoskeletal sensory information, signals the brain to precise changes in head and body position.

Common balance disorders and causes

Balance disorders are a consequence of a disruption within the vestibular system or with the brain and its capacity to evaluate and act on the information.

Balance disorders can for that reason be caused by anything that influences the inner ear or brain. This list includes, but is not restricted to, medications, benign tumors, ear infections, head injuries, low blood pressure or other cardiovascular conditions, and some neurological conditions.

Common balance disorders include Meniere’s Disease, Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV), Labyrinthitis, Vestibular Neuronitis, along with many others. Each disorder has its own specific causes and symptoms and can be diagnosed only by a professional.

Diagnosis and treatment of balance disorders

The diagnosis and treatment of any balance disorder begins by ruling out any medical conditions or medications that might be producing the symptoms. You may need to change medications or seek treatment for any underlying cardiovascular, neurological, or musculoskeletal condition.

If your balance problem is caused by problems with the inner ear, such as with Meniere’s Disease, treatment may include things like diet and lifestyle changes, physical manipulations of the head, or medications to lessen the symptoms. Your healthcare provider can offer more information specified to your condition and symptoms.

Have you ever had difficulties hearing in a crowded room or restaurant but can hear just fine at home? Do you have particular trouble hearing higher-pitched voices or TV dialogue?

If so, you may have hearing loss, and hearing aids may be able to help you.

But how exactly do hearing aids work? Are they basic amplifiers, or something more elaborate?

This week we’ll be evaluating how hearing aids work and how they are a bit more advanced than many people recognize. But first, let’s begin with how normal hearing works.

How Normal Hearing Works

The hearing process commences with sound. Sound is essentially a type of energy that travels in waves, like ripples in a lake. Things cause sound in the environment when they generate vibrations in the air, and those vibrations are eventually captured and transmitted to the ear canal by the outer ear.

Just after passing through the ear canal, the sound vibrations strike the eardrum. The eardrum then vibrates, creating and amplifying the original signal which is then transferred by the middle ear bones to the snail-shaped organ of the middle ear referred to as the cochlea.

The cochlea is full of fluid and very small nerve cells called cilia. The vibrations sent from the middle ear bones stir the fluid and stimulate the cilia. The cilia then transmit electrical signals to the brain and the brain interprets those signals as sound.

With most instances of noise-induced hearing loss, there is injury to the cilia. Consequently, the inbound signal to the brain is weaker and sounds seem softer or muffled. But not all sound frequencies are equally weakened. Generally, the higher-pitched sounds, such as speech, are impacted to a greater extent.

In a raucous setting, like a restaurant, your ability to hear speech is diminished because your brain is receiving a weakened signal for high-frequency sounds. At the same time, background noise, which is low-frequency, is getting through normally, drowning out the speech.

How Hearing Aids Can Help

You can see that the solution is not merely amplifying all sound. If you were to do that, you’d just continue to drown out speech as the background noise grows to be louder relative to the speech sounds.

The solution is selective amplification of only the frequencies you have a hard time hearing. And that is only feasible by having your hearing professionally examined and your hearing aids professionally programmed to enhance these specific frequencies.

How Hearing Aids Precisely Amplify Sound

Present day hearing aids consist of five internal parts: the microphone, amplifier, speaker, battery, and computer chip. But hearing aids are not just ordinary amplifiers—they’re sophisticated electronic devices that modify the properties of sound.

This happens via the computer chip. Everyone’s hearing is one-of-a-kind, like a fingerprint, and so the frequencies you need amplified will vary. The astounding part is, those frequencies can be determined precisely with a professional hearing test, technically known as an audiogram.

Once your hearing professional has these numbers, your hearing aid can be programmed to amplify the frequencies you have the most trouble with, improving upon speech recognition in the process.

Here’s how it works: the hearing aid picks up sound in the environment with the microphone and transfers the sound to the computer chip. The computer chip then translates the sound into digital information so that it can distinguish between assorted frequencies.

Then, based upon the programmed settings, the high-frequency sounds are enhanced, the low-frequency background sounds are suppressed, and the refined sound is presented to your ear via the speaker.

So will your hearing revert perfectly to normal?

While your hearing will not completely revert to normal, that shouldn’t prevent you from accomplishing major gains in your hearing. For nearly all people, the amplification supplied is all they need to comprehend speech and participate in effective and effortless communication.

Think about it this way. If your eye doctor told you they could improve your vision from 20/80 to 20/25, would you forfeit prescription glasses because you couldn’t get to 20/20? Of course not; you’d be able to function just fine with 20/25 vision and the gain from 20/80 would be substantive.

Are you set to discover the improvements you can attain with contemporary hearing aids? Give us a call today!

The hearing exam truly is the easy part. The tricky part is acknowledging your hearing loss and actually booking the hearing test in the first place.

You have probably read the stats by now: 48 million individuals in the US have hearing loss but only a small fraction actually do anything about it, and only 20 percent of people who would reap benefits from hearing aids actually make use of them.

So if you’ve already arranged your hearing test, congrats, you’ve already conquered the greatest obstacle to healthier hearing.

The hearing exam, as you’ll discover, is a simple and easy, non-invasive process that will confirm the level of your hearing loss to help establish the most suitable method of treatment.

After you first arrive at the office, you’ll start by submitting some paperwork. Then, you’ll meet with your hearing care provider to go over your hearing health history.

Your Hearing Health History

Your hearing loss, if present, can be triggered by direct exposure to loud sound, the normal aging process, or by an underlying ailment. You’ll want to rule out any underlying conditions prior to moving on to the actual hearing exam.

If you have an earwax impaction, as an example, you may very well be hearing better within minutes shortly after a professional cleaning. The existence of any other ailments will be analyzed and the appropriate referral made, if necessary.

After reviewing your basic medical history, you’ll go over your subjection to loud sounds, your hearing loss symptoms, and what you would like to achieve with better hearing.

It’s imperative to determine possible causes, how symptoms are influencing your life, and how better hearing will improve your life, which is all things considered the entire point. Be wary of the practitioner that doesn’t seem to really care about the reasons why you want to enhance your hearing to begin with.

Testing Your Hearing

There’s one more step prior to starting the hearing test: the visual investigation of the ear with an instrument known as an otoscope. This will help in ruling out any problems with the ear canal, the eardrum, or the excessive buildup of earwax.

Next, you’ll be accompanied to a sound-treated room with your hearing care provider. You’ll be required to wear headphones, and the specialist will start to play you some sounds.

You’ll be presented with various sounds at multiple frequencies, and you’ll be requested to identify the quietest sounds you can hear at each pitch. This is labeled your hearing threshold, and the hearing care professional will record these values on a diagram called an audiogram.

The hearing exam may also entail speech testing, where you’ll be instructed to repeat the words delivered to you. Various types of words, delivered at different volumes with and without background noise, will be introduced. This will help ascertain if hearing aids can help you with speech comprehension.

At the conclusion of the testing, your hearing care professional will review the results with you.

Reviewing Your Hearing Test Results

Referring to your audiogram, your hearing care provider will now talk about your hearing in both ears. Contingent on the results, your hearing will be characterized as normal or as exhibiting mild, moderate, severe, or profound hearing loss.

If a hearing loss is present, the next step is discussing your treatment options. Given that there are no current medical or surgical treatments to repair hearing damage, this means examining your hearing aid options.

Present hearing aids come in a whole range of shapes, sizes, and colors, at different price ranges with several advanced features. In picking out your hearing aids, it’s essential to work with an expert hearing care professional for three main reasons:

1. They can help you find the best hearing aid model to satisfy all of your objectives.
2. They can help you determine the advanced functions you need—as well as with the ones you don’t—at a price that works with your budget.
3. They can program your new hearing aids to amplify only the sounds you have difficulty hearing—ascertained by the hearing test—ensuring optimal sound quality.

And that’s it, a fast, easy procedure in exchange for a lifetime of better hearing. We’d say that’s a very good deal.

We look forward to seeing you!

You would think that hearing loss should be obvious to spot, but it’s not as straightforward to notice as you may believe.

First, most people with hearing loss have challenges only with certain sounds and in specific situations. Consequently, if you can hear normally on some occasions, you’ll be inclined to blame other factors or other people for the occasions you do have a tough time hearing.

Second, hearing loss comes about slowly over the years, so it’s challenging to detect the slow progression. It’s simpler and easier to blame it on other people for mumbling, or to turn up the TV volume a bit higher, than to admit that you might have hearing loss.

As a result, the signs and symptoms can be subtle. You need to understand what to watch out for, and although it’s easy to disavow that you have hearing loss, you should be honest with yourself about the warning signs.

Here are the top 10 to watch out for. If you detect the presence of any, it may be time to organize a hearing test.

1. You experience ringing or buzzing in the ears – this might be indicative of permanent hearing injury. Hearing aids can not only help you hear better, but they may additionally be able to minimize the ringing in your ears.
2. You can’t hear normal household sounds – hearing loss can make it difficult to hear the doorbell, the telephone ringing, or a friend shouting your name from another room.
3. You have difficulty comprehending TV dialogue – speech is usually a lot more difficult to hear than other types of sound. This often manifests itself as trouble following movie or television show plots.
4. You have your cellphone, TV, or radio at maximum volume – if you can hear the television, phone, or radio much better than you can hear personal conversations, check the volume settings on your technology. You may have these gadgets set at elevated volumes while at the same time thinking that everyone else talks too quietly.
5. You request that people repeat themselves often – you notice that you say “what?” a lot, or that you need to ask people to repeat themselves when you’re not facing them.
6. You frequently misunderstand what people are saying – consonants are higher-pitched, and therefore more difficult to hear, than vowels. Since consonants communicate the majority of the meaning in a sentence, speech comprehension suffers.
7. You have difficulty hearing all the words in a conversation – select sounds and letters are more difficult to hear than others. Consequently, you can hear the majority of the words in a sentence, but that you have to more often than not try to fill in the blanks.
8. You have difficulty hearing when your back is to the speaker – you may be dependent on lip reading, body gestures, and other cues to meaning much more than you think. When you’re not facing the speaker, and can’t use these cues, you may have difficulty comprehending speech.
9. You have a hard time hearing with a great deal of background noise – as hearing loss gets to be more serious, contesting noise becomes more of a challenge. You may be able to hear speech in tranquil settings, but it becomes progressively difficult to follow conversations in a noisy setting like a restaurant.
10. People complain that you shout or have the TV volume too loud – people may remark that you have the television volume too loud or that you have the proclivity to shout. It doesn’t appear to be this way to you because you’re compensating for your hearing loss.

Do you have one or more of the top 10 warning signs of hearing loss? If so, set up your hearing test today, and take the steps to start living a better, more productive, and healthier life.