← Return to How does hearing loss change you?

Discussion

How does hearing loss change you?

Hearing Loss | Last Active: Jun 22 9:15am | Replies (172)

Comment receiving replies
@nurseheadakes

In the last 5 to 10 years, technology has expanded to areas unbelievable when compared to what we had just 20 years ago. I am in my upper 60's and had NO knowledge of technology for my hearing loss. I was in every sense of the word - deaf. Technology has gone through exceptional strides to work on developing a computer that can live inside as well as outside your ear. It use to be worn around your chest or around your belt area. They were amplifiers - somewhat like they were around the early 1990's and year 2000 when I receive my first set of hearing aids. No digital hearing aids...yet. They would come soon with young minds inventing the mobile phones and newer and smaller computers/laptops etc. You see, with the technology age came the idea of making everything smaller and stronger - doing everything with a microchip. Gathering sounds - noises you hear is a very techie thing in the world that we live. Our speech can be measured by what you see on your audiogram - if you want to use a simple diagram. It can get more detailed if you look at music though. All of the instruments and sounds of music are at a much larger range then the human voice. Even animals, birds and other sounds around us - all have different tones and vibrations in the air that need to be measured to be caught in the ear or by the hearing aid. This is definitely a science that is still in it's infancy. Down the road, and they are working on the music portion now, you will be able to hear music with the hearing aids of the future. But right now, we need to be patient. What we once were able to hear with our original ears, before our hearing loss, they will work hard to mimic it with aids as best as they can in the future.

Jump to this post


Replies to "In the last 5 to 10 years, technology has expanded to areas unbelievable when compared to..."

I agree, all this technology is wonderful. And the new aids I have are much better than the old ones.

They may eat batteries for lunch, but the highs are better. I suppose they are sampling the input sound at a higher bit rate which uses more power and thus the shortened battery life. Because I hate disposable products due to their impact on the environment, I went for the rechargeable option, but I need to recharge a half hour mid-day for them to make it until I go to bed.

However, the thing I'm anticipating most, and it might be a dream; it's medical science figuring out how to re-grow the cilia 'hair cells' or whatever else is needed to cure the problem instead of treating it.

The aids are like a crutch to a person with one broken leg. They might get your from point A to point B, but not like they did before the problem.

Even with the aids I need captioning, and I avoid big groups in noisy places as the chatter tends to be a blur. I'm sure that's not uncommon in this group.

Whenever I read anything about a cure, it's always 5-10 years in the future. Of course it was 5=10 years in the future 10 years ago. It's obviously not an easy problem to solve, but I'm glad they are still working on it.

I guy can dream, can't he?

Bob