About Hearing Loss

  • Natural_Hearing_Images_001Hearing loss is more than just how well your ears hear sounds, it is also your brain’s ability to interpret those sounds that improves your hearing. Hearing aids not only improve your hearing,  but also helps improve your brain function.
  • The longer you wait to get help, the harder it is to restore hearing ability. Hearing loss has now been linked to mental illnesses such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders.
    “their finding may offer a starting point for interventions — even as simple as hearing aids — that could delay or prevent dementia by improving patients’ hearing.”
    John Hopkins Medicine
    New Release Published Feb 14, 2011
  • Not all manufacturers are the same. They each specialize in something a little different in order to distinguish themselves in the market place.
  • Not all hearing aid clinics are the same. There are many different products on the market from PHONAK, Siemens, Starkey to  Oticon, Unitron, Widex, and many more.  Few clinics can provide you with all these different options. Many only have 1 or 2 brands available.   That’s just not good enough.
  • Hearing aids are only as good as the person who programs them. All hearing aids are now digitally programmed  and it takes a knowledgeable provider to maximize your hearing.
  • We at Natural Hearing Solutions have actual factory experience. This means we have hands-on experience with the construction of hearing aids.  From design to development we understand how hearing aids are made which gives us a unique edge in our ability to program them.

“How much does one’s quality of life need to diminish before it is considered worthwhile to correct hearing loss?”

That is why, at NHS, we go “above and beyond” to provide you with the most diverse line of hearing aids available. With the latest up-to-date hearing aid technology, we can make sure you are offered the hearing aids that best fit your hearing loss and your lifestyle. With a wide range of pricing, 60 day 100% money back guarantee, and 12 month 0% interest available, there is no better time than the present to start your journey. Get back to the life you deserve. Natural Hearing Solutions; Experience the Difference.

10 Warning Signs of Hearing Loss

  1. People seem to mumble more frequently.
  2. You ask people to repeat themselves.
  3. You have a difficult time understanding telephone conversations.
  4. Your family complains that you listen to the television or radio too loud.
  5. You have been told you speak too loud.
  6. You find it difficult to understand all the words in a conversation.
  7. You experience ringing in your ears.
  8. You do not hear normal sounds such as the doorbell or the faucet dripping.
  9. You have difficulty understanding conversation when background noise is present such as a large group, crowd, or the waitress at a restaurant.
  10. You have trouble hearing when your back is turned to the speaker.

 

Natural_Hearing_Images_002“How much does one’s quality of life need to diminish before it is considered worthwhile to correct hearing loss?”

Empirical evidence suggests, “The sooner the better.” When uncorrected, hearing impairment progresses to the MODERATE LOSS STAGE, comprising Pure Tone Thresholds between 45-65dB HL, where the effects become more marked and more evident to observers. However, by this time, without correction, behavior changes can become more deeply rooted. For instance, it’s a hostile world out there to one who cannot hear well. Regular exposure to (perceived) hostility brings defensiveness and a tendency toward shifting blame in social misunderstandings. Detachment from bonded relationships brings feelings of isolation and rejection. Lessened auditory clues in the environment — which are ordinarily used by hearing individuals to stimulate short and long-term memory — bring depression, frustration, and auditory memory loss.

Hearing loss can cause withdrawing from or dominating, conversations. This develops avoidance of group situations, especially where background levels interfere with conversation. These tendencies cause one to limit social contacts and feel unappreciated or misunderstood.

Types of Hearing Loss:
Hearing loss can be categorized by where or what part of the auditory system is damaged. There are three basic types of hearing loss: sensorineural hearing loss, conductive hearing loss, and mixed hearing loss.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common type of hearing loss and occurs when there is damage to the inner ear (cochlea), or to the nerve pathways from the inner ear (retrocochlear), to the brain. This is most commonly caused by noise exposure and aging. Sensorineural hearing loss not only involves a reduction in sound level, or ability to hear faint sounds, but also affects speech understanding, or ability to hear clearly.

Conditions that may cause Sensorineural hearing loss include diseases, birth injury, drugs that are toxic to the auditory system, and genetic syndromes. Sensorineural hearing loss may also occur as a result of noise exposure, viruses, head trauma, aging, and tumors.Natural_Hearing_Images_005

Conductive Hearing Loss
Conductive hearing loss occurs when sound is not conducted efficiently through the outer ear canal to the eardrum and the tiny bones (ossicles) of the middle ear. Conductive hearing loss usually involves a reduction in sound level, or the ability to hear faint sounds.

Conditions that may cause a Conductive hearing loss include:

  • Conditions associated with middle ear pathology such as fluid in the middle ear from colds, allergies (serous otitis media), poor eustachian tube function, ear infection (otitis media),
    perforated eardrum, benign tumors
  • Impacted earwax (cerumen)
  • Infection in the ear canal (external otitis)
  • Presence of a foreign body
  • Absence or malformation of the outer ear, ear canal, or middle ear

Mixed Hearing Loss
Sometimes a conductive hearing loss occurs in combination with a sensorineural hearing loss. In other words, there may be damage in the outer or middle ear and in the inner ear (cochlea) or auditory nerve. When this occurs, the hearing loss is referred to as a mixed hearing loss.