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The Ontario Infant Hearing Program: A Parent’s Guide to Newborn Hearing Screening

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash Few things matter more to new parents than knowing their baby is healthy. Among the screening tests offered shortly after birth, the newborn hearing screening is one of the most important yet often overlooked. Hearing plays a critical role in a child’s early development, supporting speech and language acquisition, communication, learning, and social interaction. Identifying any hearing differences as early as possible gives families and healthcare professionals the best opportunity to provide timely support. Ontario has had a universal newborn hearing screening program in place since the early 2000s, delivered through the Infant Hearing Program

What Your Audiologist Needs to Know About Your Health and Daily Life

A hearing test is an important part of understanding your hearing, but it doesn’t tell your audiologist everything. Your health, daily routine, listening environments, and personal goals can all influence the type of hearing care that may work best for you. Knowing what to tell your audiologist helps them see the full picture. A recent health change, a new challenge at work, or difficulty following conversations in restaurants may seem unrelated to your appointment, but these details can provide useful context. The more specific you can be, the easier it is to build a hearing care plan around your real life.

A man holding his ear, showing signs of Tinnitus pain

Understanding Tinnitus And Why It Happens

Tinnitus is often described as ringing in the ears, but it can sound different from person to person. Some people hear buzzing, humming, hissing, clicking, or even a whooshing sound, even when there is no outside noise causing it. For some, it comes and goes. For others, it can become a constant background sound. Tinnitus is also more common than many people realize. More than 40% of Canadians will experience tinnitus at some point in their lives, and for some, it can become bothersome enough to affect sleep, concentration, mood, and daily comfort. Understanding tinnitus means looking at what it is,

Elderly woman with short white hair, wearing a light blue jacket, leans forward with a hand to her ear, struggling with hearing loss.

How Do You Know If You Have Hearing Loss

Have you started asking people to repeat themselves more often? Maybe conversations in busy restaurants feel harder to follow, or you’ve noticed the television volume creeping higher than everyone else prefers. Hearing loss often develops gradually, which can make the early signs easy to dismiss. What feels like occasional mishearing or background noise frustration may actually be the beginning of a change in your hearing. Because hearing loss can happen slowly, many people do not realize how much they have been missing until someone else points it out. Recognizing the signs early can help you take action sooner, making it easier

The Hidden Impact of Headphones: Are You Listening Safely in 2026?

Headphones have become part of daily life. They’re on during commutes, at the gym, through the workday, and well into the evening. For many people, including teenagers and young adults, they’re in use for several hours a day. Yet very few people think about what prolonged listening at high volumes is doing to their hearing over time. This post explains how headphone use can affect your hearing, what the warning signs look like, and what safe listening means in practice. Can Headphones Cause Permanent Hearing Loss? Yes. Repeated exposure to loud sound through headphones can permanently damage the hair cells of

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ARE YOU OVERLOOKING SOMETHING?

In today’s day and age of personal listening devices, most people often take their hearing for granted. Many others are either unaware that they have a hearing deficiency or dismiss the fact that they are placing their hearing at risk by exposing their ears to loud noises. Think you are immune to hearing loss? Think again! Hearing loss is the third most common physical condition after arthritis and heart disease. And if you think hearing loss is primarily a problem for older adults, you should know that gradual hearing loss can affect individuals of all ages. While there is a strong

MAKING A HIGH PITCH

Unlike children and teenagers, many adults are unable to hear high-pitched sounds. This is due to age as well as accumulated exposure to loud noise, which takes its toll on the ear’s hearing mechanism. This inability to hear high frequencies certainly places many adults at a disadvantage; however, some have found a way to make this age-related hearing discrepancy work in their favour. In order to discourage teens from loitering outside stores and shops, some security companies have developed a sound system that emits high-frequency sounds that teens find annoying. While this may be unpleasant for young, adults cannot hear the

ARE YOU LOSING YOUR HAIR?

As we age, hair loss becomes a distinct certainty for many men and women. As much as hair loss is largely a cosmetic concern, there is another type of age-related hair loss that poses a more significant issue. Inside of the inner ear are tiny hairs that pick-up sound waves and convert them into nerve signals. From there, the brain interprets those signals as sound. These tiny receptors known as “hair cells” can die or are become damaged most often due to age-related inner-ear changes and excessive noise. When this happens, they do not grow back. As a result, hearing loss

DEPRESSION TIED TO HEARING LOSS

Hearing loss can lead to more than missed snippets of conversation that leave hearing-impaired individuals at a loss for words. According to an analysis of the hearing ability and psychological states over 18,000 adults, hearing-impaired people are more likely to suffer from depression than those with excellent hearing and even those who are completely deaf. While the female participants were less likely than their male counterparts to suffer from hearing loss, they were more likely to experience depression as a result of their hearing impairment. These findings, which confirm the results of previous smaller studies, may prompt people suffering from depression

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