Hearing & Audiology Clinic | Hearing aids | Echo Audiology

Have you ever gone out to a concert and noticed a ringing in your ears at the end of the night? We call this tinnitus. Tinnitus is the perception of a sound, in the absence of an external source. In other words, you are hearing a sound that no one else around you can hear. Sometimes it is in one ear, in both ears, or can also be perceived in the middle of the head. It can change in intensity (volume), it can change in pitch, and it can sometimes come and go, or be there all the time. Everyone who experiences tinnitus can have a different experience. There are two types of tinnitus: subjective and objective. When we talk about tinnitus, we generally refer to the subjective one, where you hear a sound that no one else can hear. That said, objective tinnitus can also occur, where someone who listens next to your ear can also hear your tinnitus. This is fairly rare and is typically caused by a physical problem within the structures around your ears. Original Post:  Get a...

Are you experiencing a ringing, buzzing, hissing or humming sound in one or both ears? Does it seem like the annoying sound is in the middle of your head? Puzzled by high pitched tones or static sounds that people around you do not seem to hear? If you or a family member are experiencing these symptoms, you may be suffering from tinnitus. What is Tinnitus? It is a perception of sound in your ears, in the absence of an external source: You may hear the same sounds, or different ones each time They may vary in pitch or intensity, from low roars to high squeals They may vary in frequency, start and stop, or in some cases, occur all the time Read on to understand what causes tinnitus, when you should report it to your Audiologist and how various external factors may influence this condition. Everything You Should Know about Tinnitus Tinnitus is a symptom, not a condition in itself. It is typically an indication of an underlying issue, such as, a problem with your ear, h...

When you have hearing loss, your auditory system and your brain don’t get as much stimulation as they once had when you had normal hearing. Essentially, with a hearing loss, your hearing nerve and your brain are not getting enough exercise. So, when you first get hearing aids, you are basically suddenly asking your brain to work much harder, because you a hearing more signals coming from your daily environments. If you think about it, if I were to ask you to run a marathon, could you instantly do it? Probably not, unless you were already training for it. It is the same for your brain.  When you first get hearing aids, some patients can get a little tired because their body is receiving more stimuli from the environment. Occasionally, patients can also get a  headache because their brain is a bit on overdrive , hearing all these sounds again. Read More :  https://www.echoaudiology.com/can-hearing-aids-cause-headaches/

If your grandparents had hearing aids, you may know what feedback is. It is the annoying high pitch sound that comes out of a hearing aid. Basically, it is the sound signal that leaks out of the hearing aid, cycles around and is picked up again by the microphone from the hearing aid. It is the same acoustic principal as hearing that loud noise when someone on a stage has the microphone too close to the speaker.  In earlier days, feedback in hearing aids was a major issue that hearing aid technology could not fix or control very well. The features within the hearing aid technology was not advanced enough to tell the hearing aid to eliminate feedback when it heard it. The styles of hearing aids that were available at the time were also not elaborate enough to cope with all degrees and shapes of hearing losses. The good news, the styles of hearing aids that are now available and the advancements in technology are good enough that that you should not experience feedback. This s...

Hearing loss is typically gradual. For most people, they don’t really notice their hearing declining until someone in their surroundings points it out. A lot of people think that experiencing hearing difficulties come with age, or that their difficulties are not necessarily caused by hearing loss itself, but rather caused by other people mumbling. In some cases, they are correct. But for most people, the cause of their problems really does stem from damage to their hearing. When you have a gradual hearing loss, your brain slowly adjusts to hearing differently, year after year. When we fit a hearing aid on someone who has had hearing loss for years, the amount of volume they are now hearing can be a bit shocking, so they feel like they are hearing a bit of an echo, which actually comes  from natural reverberation of sound  that hasn’t been heard in a while. Read More:  https://www.echoaudiology.com/can-hearing-aids-cause-echos-background-noise/

When we fit a patient with hearing aids, one of the first comments we hear is: “I can hear my own voice”. It may seem like a weird comment, especially if you are looking at this from the outside. But if you think about it, throughout your life, your brain has gotten used to hearing your own voice, so it’s not a signal we pay attention to.  We could call this acclimatization. An example of this is when you put a shirt on, you don’t really keep paying attention to the feel of it on your skin. This same acclimatization process happens when you get hearing aids, and especially with your own voice, because it is the one signal we hear on a daily basis. Audiologists sometimes call this a  sensation of occlusion . Basically, the patient can feel like their ears are blocked, and therefore their voice is louder. Another reason they feel it’s louder is because they are now hearing a fuller range of speech due to their hearing loss, and they are also hearing their voice through a ...

Do you have Itchy ears after your hearing aid fitting? Everyone’s ears are different. They are different in the shape and size, and they are different in their levels of sensitivity. When we first fit a patient with hearing aids, some people don’t notice them at all, while others may feel like there is something foreign in their ear. One of the  symptoms that people may experience is itchiness . Sometimes this is caused by a skin condition like eczema, that the hearing aid is now exacerbating. In these cases, we often recommend for our patients to check in with their family Physician to see if there is a lotion that they can apply on their ear canal. Remember, the ear canal is basically just another area covered with skin. In these cases, whatever lotion is appropriate usually works. If there are no skin conditions that the patient is aware of, they can also try Eargene. It is a product that most Audiology clinics carry, that helps to alleviate this sensation of itchiness. ...