Continuing service key to success with hearing aids

In the Middle Ages, when someone suffered from hearing loss, people put horns to their ears, akin to cupping a hand around the ear. These later evolved into fabricated metal ear trumpets.
Aids to help people who suffer from hearing loss have come a long way since then. Over the past 100 years, hearing aids have gone from vacuum tube machines the size of a table to transistors to digital processors and now include Bluetooth technology to aid people with hearing loss.
Danny Gnewikow, PhD and president of Audiology Hearing Aid Associates, Inc., which has offices in Lynchburg and Danville, has seen technology improve in a big way in the past 37 years he’s practiced audiology.
Devices today can be linked to Bluetooth phones and televisions to aid in hearing, he said.
“The hearing aids pick up a Bluetooth signal that’s paired to the telephone,” Gnewikow said. People can sync up their hearing aids through wireless Bluetooth technology directly to a TV’s audio output and continue to hear the broadcast, even if they walk out of the room. “It’s like a radio transmission.”
Most hearing aids today also have two microphones per ear, enabling directional hearing, he said. Digital processors have aided the device’s usefulness by amplifying the select frequencies the user needs and allowing for a reduction in background noise. The devices can also adjust their own volume.
Glenn Kurka, a certified hearing aid specialist at Miracle Ear Center in Lynchburg, said the newest technologies minimize feedback issues and can reduce ambient noise.
“Multi-adaptive directional [microphones] gives the hearing aid the ability to automatically scan several regions of sound around the hearer and make adjustments automatically to reduce sounds like air conditioning fans, background music and noisy groups of people near the hearer,” Kurka said in an e-mail.
Most hearing aids today are worn behind the ear, but they are much smaller than they used to be. Gnewikow said he’s been wearing one for three years, and most people can’t tell.
“Cosmetics are not as much of an issue as they used to be,” Gnewikow said.
Kurka said a majority of people with hearing loss prefer behind-the-ear style because of several factors, including their near invisibility, better feedback control, and ease of maintenance and cleaning.
Having a good audiologist programming the hearing aids is the most critical factor, Gnewikow said.
“Hearing aids work extremely well if they fit properly.”
A newer technique that helps set up a hearing aid is called “probe measures,” also known as “real ear measures.” A tiny microphone is inserted in the opening of the ear and measures what the hearing aid is doing in the ear, he said.
The cost of a hearing aid ranges from $1,000 to more than $3,000, he said, but most are in the $2,000 range. People might be able to find cheaper prices on the internet, but Gnewikow said that doesn’t include the services of a trained audiologist programming the device to a patient’s needs.
Kurka said prices generally range from $1,200 to $3,500 per hearing aid. He said price is based on technology of the aid and not the style.
The cost of the aid not only includes the device, but also the programming and service, Gnewikow said.
The fitting process is continuous. For example, if a patient’s hearing changes down the road, the hearing aid can be adjusted. He said some of those fees, along with insurance on the aid, are built into the initial cost.
“Hearing aids are a service-heavy industry,” Gnewikow said.
Kurka said specialists perform regular tests on patients to determine if the hearing aid is performing as it should be.
“The purchase of hearing aids is a one-time event, but the service to care for the cleaning, programming, annual testing to compare hearing loss over the years, are very important,” Kurka said.
Davidson writes for The News & Advance.