Healthy Living

March 4, 2016

New Technology Helps Teach Your Brain to Hear Again

Almost 30% of people between the ages 50 and 59 suffer from some degree of hearing loss in one or both ears; 45% of those between 60 and 69 have impaired hearing; and three-quarters of those over 70 do.While all those high school and college rock concerts didn’t help, there are plenty of other contributors to diminished hearing, including aging, genetics, smoking, poor diet, and diabetes. These all destroy the hair cells in the inner ear which send auditory signals to your brain. Unfortunately, once hair cells are damaged, they’re kaput. So how can you fix this? Get a hearing aid!

Research proves that the longer you wait, the harder it may be to treat your hearing loss. The brain can actually “relearn” the ability to hear by reprograming itself with proper stimulation through technology. This means that you are actually able to “teach” your brain to hear again, by wearing well fitted hearing technology. Our ears and brain work together as a system with the brain doing the heavy lifting. Oticon, a major manufacturer of cutting edge hearing technology, has announced the release of BrainHearing™. This “brain first” technology is designed to provide better hearing with less effort by giving the brain the clearest, purest, sound signals to decode and supporting the hard work your brain does to understand sound. Super small and fit invisibly in the ear canal or tucked discreetly behind the ear, this sound processing platform supports the brain’s entire process of making sense of sound. According to Oticon, only those parts of the signal which the individual ear does not hear well are modified, thus capturing and preserving the unique characteristics of speech. The technology enables the hearing aids to be fine-tuned matching each person’s unique hearing profile and personal sound preferences.

Bottom line: You hear better with less effort by giving your brain exactly what it needs to hear! Remember, always consult a licensed, certified Doctor of Audiology to recommend technology to meet your hearing needs. Feel free to call us with any questions!

-Cynthia Serota, Director