Hearing tests

Trouble Hearing and Understanding? Get a Diagnostic Hearing Test.

By Monique Hammond / September 18, 2024 / Comments Off on Trouble Hearing and Understanding? Get a Diagnostic Hearing Test.

Hearing is very complicated. There are many reasons why people can have hearing loss and not all hearing loss is the same. There are different types and degrees of hearing loss. But where is the problem? What part(s) of the ear is/are involved? Does the auditory cortex (hearing part of the brain) have trouble decoding…

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Why Medicare Does Not Cover Hearing Aids

By Monique Hammond / May 8, 2024 / Comments Off on Why Medicare Does Not Cover Hearing Aids

Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people 65 years of age and older. Younger people with certain disabilities and those with end-stage kidney disease also qualify. Medicare falls under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act. Although it has undergone some changes since it was signed into action in 1965, the Original Medicare…

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Five Strategies to Protect and Preserve Hearing

By Monique Hammond / January 22, 2024 / Comments Off on Five Strategies to Protect and Preserve Hearing

Hearing connects us to our social and professional worlds. It allows us to enjoy the sounds of speech, nature, and music. Unfortunately, people all too often fail to appreciate this precious sense. They rarely feel motivated to protect and preserve their hearing. They take it for granted until it fades away and they experience the…

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Hearing Loss Increases Fall Risks

By Monique Hammond / October 27, 2023 / Comments Off on Hearing Loss Increases Fall Risks

To maintain body equilibrium, the brain coordinates input from the eyes and ears and from sensors located throughout the body in the muscles and bones. While normal hearing supports the brain’s balance function, hearing loss has a destabilizing effect and becomes a safety issue.  According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, even a mild hearing loss can…

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Unilateral Hearing Loss (UHL) Impacts Quality of Life and Safety

By Monique Hammond / August 22, 2023 / Comments Off on Unilateral Hearing Loss (UHL) Impacts Quality of Life and Safety

Unilateral Hearing Loss (UHL) is also called Single-Sided Hearing Loss, which means that only one ear has some degree of loss. When the loss becomes profound, it is referred to as Single-sided Deafness (SSD). Roughly 7% of adults in the United States have some degree of UHL. We hear our best when the brain gets…

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Hearing Loss as Risk for Dementia

By Monique Hammond / May 30, 2023 / Comments Off on Hearing Loss as Risk for Dementia

Nerves and brain areas that are not kept active through stimulation and input fall into disuse. They shrink and die off in a process called atrophy. Hearing and its involvement in cognitive functions is no different. Yet, when researchers at Johns Hopkins first published their findings of a link between hearing loss and dementia, it…

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Better Hearing and Speech Improve Communication

By Monique Hammond / May 12, 2022 / Comments Off on Better Hearing and Speech Improve Communication

Every year the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) dedicates the month of May to raising public awareness about communication disorders related to hearing and speech. This year’s theme  – “Connecting People” –recognizes once more that hearing and speech are essential components for effective communication at any age.  And so, those whose lives are affected by struggles…

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Headphones

Making the Most of DIY Hearing Care

By Monique Hammond / March 2, 2022 / Comments Off on Making the Most of DIY Hearing Care

Over-simplifying hearing loss?  The son who had accompanied his mother to a hearing loss meeting shared confidentially that he liked his music loud and that he did not worry about hearing damage. He felt that he heard enough and that nowadays hearing loss is easy. “With all of that technology out there, you fix it…

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Improved communication year round

Improved Communication Year-round

By Monique Hammond / December 8, 2021 / Comments Off on Improved Communication Year-round

Be included, not excluded! There is no time like the Holidays to remind those with hearing loss of the dreaded oncoming communication crunch. The struggle to understand speech in noisy groups and places makes it hard to participate in conversations and activities. And so. it is easy to feel excluded rather than included during the peak…

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Subjective Tinnitus

The Phantom Sounds of Subjective Tinnitus

By Monique Hammond / October 19, 2021 / Comments Off on The Phantom Sounds of Subjective Tinnitus

Subjective Tinnitus, the infamous “ringing in the ears” derives its name from the Latin verb tinnire, which means “to ring.” It is said to be a symptom of an underlying process rather than a condition in itself. Usually simply referred to as “Tinnitus,” it is defined as the perception of sound in the absence of an outside noise…

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