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Good Sound Audiology

Hearing loss affects more than just your hearing

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Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic health conditions in the world.  According to the World Health Organization, 466 million people have disabling hearing loss.  Hearing loss can present in all age ranges; however, hearing loss typically affects the aging population.

On average, one in every three people over the age of 65 have hearing loss.  Traditional adult onset hearing loss present as a loss of hearing sensitivity and reduced speech understanding, which greatly impacts one’s ability to communicate effectively.  Not only does hearing loss negatively impact one’s ability to communicate, but it also can affect one’s psychosocial health.  Several significant relationships have been found between hearing loss, anxiety, depression, and loneliness.  Although these associations are important, the one that is most relevant is the relationship between hearing loss and cognitive decline.

When someone has hearing loss, auditory sounds are not being transmitted to the brain properly.  This lack of auditory stimulation leads to a cortical restructuring of the brain.  This, over time, can reduce one’s ability to discern speech.  If someone with hearing loss ignores their hearing and communication difficulties, their ability to differentiate speech sounds also becomes worse.  Research has shown that the decrease in one’s word understanding ability is correlated to cognitive decline.

Treating hearing loss with hearing aids has been shown to minimize or reduce hearing loss related cognitive decline.  Wearing hearing aids can also improve speech understanding (which can lead to increased confidence and social participation) and improve one’s quality of life.

If you believe you or a loved one has hearing loss, but do not wear hearing aids, check out what our current hearing aid users say about how hearing aids have significantly improved their quality of life. If you have questions or would like to schedule a hearing evaluation call (480) 497-0780.

What is that stuff in my ears? Is it ear wax?

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The ear is a completely separate environment from the rest of your body and the outside world.  The inside of your ear is a hot and humid place.  Typically what we find in our ears is ear wax or medical professionals call it cerumen.  You have two glands in your ear, one produces a waxy substance and the other produces oils.  This combination creates a yellow brown wax that we find in our ears.  It may be gross to think about wax being in our ears, but it is there for a reason.  Ear wax helps protect our ears from bacteria, fungus, dirt, debris and even bugs!  It is also there to keep our ear canals from drying out and moisturizing the skin. Many people try cleaning the wax out of their ears, however the ears will clean themselves out on their own if you let them.  Over time the natural migration of skin will push ear wax out of your ear.  You may never see it happen, but as you sleep and bathe little bits of wax and skin come out of your ears.

If you use q-tips to clean your ears you should stop now!

Q-tips tend to cause more problems.  When you put a q-tip in your ear you get a little bit of wax on the end of the q-tip and think you got it out, but what you really did is push most of the ear wax further down your ear canal.  Over time this can lead to impacted ear wax in your ear canal.  You will plug up your ears and you can cause a temporary hearing loss, not to mention at this point the only way the impacted ear wax will come out of your ear is to have it removed by an audiologist or your primary care physician.  Not only can q-tips cause impacted wax, but they rip the delicate skin of your ear canal causing red, dry, itchy, irritated skin which in turn make people use more q-tips to itch their irritated ear canals.  If you have been using q-tips schedule an appointment with us to have the status of your ears evaluated. Besides q-tips, people try putting other items in their ears to clean or itch them.  Some of these items include bobby pins, safety pins, keys and pens.  Putting items into your ears is dangerous because if you go too far into the ear you can puncture your eardrum!  Puncturing your eardrum is extremely painful and will cause hearing loss.  If this were to ever happen to you, you should seek medical attention and in the best case scenario the eardrum will heal, however depending on the amount of damage caused the eardrum may never heal completely.  If you have put something in your ears and hearing loss has occurred schedule an appointment today to have a complete hearing evaluation performed.

So what do you do about ear wax, how do you clean it out?

If you leave your ears alone they will push the wax out by themselves.  If you are a person who produces a lot of ear wax or it has become impacted you can purchase wax removal kits from an audiologist or from a pharmacy.  Good Sound Audiology has wax removal kits available for purchase and our staff will be more than happy to provide you with personal instructions for proper use.  If purchase elsewhere, follow the instructions on the kit, after the designated time of use the wax may be gone completely or mostly gone in which you would no longer need to continue to use the kit.  If a significant amount of ear wax remains in the ear or you are unsure if it came out, have an audiologist or your primary care physician take a look in your ears because they can confirm if it is still in your ears or remove the remaining ear wax.  If you need to have wax removed schedule an appointment with one of our audiologists.

The Truth About Hearing Aid Repairs and Maintenance

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It is not uncommon for hearing aids to require some degree of service each year, which is why they are sold with warranties and repair coverage.

But just how often each person’s hearing aids will need repair is difficult to predict. 

That’s because variables like usage, care, and even your lifestyle come into play. Are you active? Do you work in an office, or at a job that’s outside or is physically demanding? Do you live in a warm, wet or humid climate? Do you store your hearing aids in their case every night? Use a drying case? Throw them in the bottom of your purse when you aren’t wearing them? Diligently remove them before every shower or when you go out in the pouring rain? You get the idea. 

And because hearing aids sit inside or behind your ear, they are exposed to elements that are not exactly ideal. Humidity, earwax, moisture and debris can each affect hearing aid performance and longevity. By far, the majority of repairs that clinics and manufacturers see are simply to remove wax and debris.

Hearing aids are built to be worn every day and can handle a lot. But they are small, sophisticated electronic devices, and need to be treated as such. So while it’s impossible to know how often your hearing aids will need to be repaired, I can tell you that regular cleaning, routine maintenance and diligent care will go a long way to keeping them on your ears and out of the repair shop.

Regular cleanings are included in your purchase price with Good Sound Audiology (if you purchased your hearing aids elsewhere, there will be a small fee). There is no appointment necessary. Stop in to one of our offices today!

Good Sound Audiology is a full-service audiology practice offering a full range of hearing loss services including comprehensive hearing evaluations and hearing aids. Our East Valley clinics serve the greater Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler, Tempe, and Scottsdale areas.