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a hearing aid fitting appointment with a audiologist showing the patient how to put in his hearing aid

What Happens During a Hearing Aid Fitting and Follow Up

Choosing hearing aids can feel like the biggest step in improving your hearing. Once you’ve selected the devices, you may expect to put them on, turn them on and head home. Hearing aids need more preparation than that. They have to be programmed for your hearing, checked while you’re wearing them and adjusted so they feel comfortable. A hearing aid fitting is the appointment where those pieces come together. Your audiologist sets up the devices, verifies how they’re performing and teaches you how to use them. You’ll then try them during your regular activities and return for follow up care based

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

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SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT HEARING LOSS

While it may not come as a surprise that smoking is linked with increased risk of hearing loss, it may come as a revelation to many that teens exposed to secondhand smoke may be at higher risk for hearing loss. While these findings do not necessarily prove that secondhand smoke directly causes hearing loss, it certainly provides one more good reason to not smoke and to stay away from smokers. It must also be pointed out that most of the teens with secondhand smoke exposure and hearing loss did not know that their hearing was impaired. This is important because lack

RIGHT ON THE BUTTON

The great strides in hearing instrument design can be partially attributed to the tiny batteries that power sophisticated digital systems. However, this capability comes with a potential price. To young children, button batteries look like shiny coins. And as young children are prone to do, they often put things in their mouths that pose a danger. A swallowed button battery may become lodged in the esophagus, where it introduces an electrical current that flows through the tissue without children betraying any signs of obvious injury. The number of small children treated in emergency rooms for swallowed batteries has nearly doubled in

PRESBYCUSIS

The term “presbycusis” refers to the slow and progressive loss of hearing that affects both ears to the same degree, usually starting around the age of 50. This age-related loss of hearing most often starts in the high-frequency range, where conversation is conducted The term “presbycusis” refers to the slow and progressive loss of hearing that affects both ears to the same degree, usually starting around the age of 50. This age-related loss of hearing most often starts in the high-frequency range, where conversation is conducted

GAMING TINNITUS

While there is no current cure for “tinnitus,” researchers have developed a computer game that they hope will bring relief. The persistent noise that tinnitus sufferers endure in their heads is the result of wayward sound-processing nerve cells producing the illusion of non-existent sound. The concept of the computer game under development calls for tinnitus sufferers to complete a jigsaw puzzle on a tablet computer by using audio cues to find puzzle pieces. As they move their fingers on the screen, the sound tells them if they are on the right path. The sounds are tailored to the characteristics of each

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