Telephone Use with Hearing Aids

Courtesy of Coastal Ear, Nose & Throat

During the holidays, we have the opportunity to spend time our family members and friends who we might not get to see often throughout the rest of the year. Why not enhance your daily communication with those close to you by improving hearing ability on the telephone? Understanding speech on the phone is a significant area of difficulty for the majority of individuals with hearing loss.
Our ability to understand speech is augmented by the cues provided by looking at someone’s face when they are talking and by binaural listening (hearing with two ears). Communication via the telephone can be extremely difficult due to the loss of visual cues and relying on only one ear. In the past, individuals with hearing aids may have experienced whistling when attempting to use the telephone in conjunction with their hearing aid. The technology available today allows for improved telephone communication.
Hearing aids can now come equipped with a telecoil to improve telephone use. The telecoil circuit allows for electromagnetic communication between the telephone and the hearing aid by positioning them appropriately close together – a program button can be provided on the hearing aid if an individual has difficulty with maintaining the position of the phone. How do you obtain the most optimal telecoil response with a hearing aid? Your landline phone should have at least a 100 milliamps per meter (mA/m) magnetic strength in order to achieve a good connection to the hearing aid telecoil. If your phone is not emitting a strong enough magnetic field, a magnet can be placed on the phone receiver. Cell phones should have a minimum of a M3/T3 rating. The M refers to use with the hearing aid microphone; whereas the T refers to the use with the hearing aid telecoil. The higher the rating, the better compatibility is with the hearing aid – M4/T4 provides the best compatibility.
Even more exciting … some of the hearing aid manufacturers have recently developed technology that allows the hearing aid to automatically send the telephone response to both hearing aids simultaneously to regain the binaural listening, which is lost with traditional telephone use. In addition, many hearing aids are Bluetooth compatible to allow for hands-free cell phone use without having to take out the hearing aids to use a hands-free Bluetooth device for the cell phone while driving.
Individuals with a more severe degree of hearing loss may require use of a captioned telephone or phone relay service. Captioned telephones have a visual display of every word that the person you are communicating with to improve your ability to understand speech on the phone. IP Relay Service is available for individuals who use American Sign Language as their primary means of communication to allow for telephone communication.

Remember to enjoy your holiday season and keep in touch with the ones you love!

Suzanne McCorry is Doctor of Audiology at Coastal Ear, Nose and Throat in Neptune, NJ, and can be contacted at 732-280-7855; sbmccorry@coastalhearing.com; http://www.coastalhearing.com

www.coastalhearing.com

sbmccorry@coastalhearing.com

Coastal Ear, Nose and Throat Urges Area Residents to Listen Up in a Down Economy
and Address Hearing Loss During Better Hearing and Speech Month

Neptune, May 1, 2009—May 1 marks the start of Better Hearing and Speech Month, a month dedicated to educating consumers about the need to assure that their hearing is healthy. This year, Coastal Ear, Nose and Throat is joining with the Better Hearing Institute (BHI) to educate Americans on how hearing health affects job security, performance, and employment opportunities. Coastal Ear, Nose and Throat is encouraging people of all ages who are either seeking employment or who want to protect their jobs to make sure that unaddressed hearing loss doesn’t pose a barrier to employment success. BHI is offering an online hearing test where people can quickly and confidentially assess if they need a comprehensive hearing check by Coastal’s hearing professionals. Please visit our website at http://www.coastalhearing.com/ under helpful links to take the Better Hearing Institute hearing test.
“Never before has good hearing been so important,” says Suzanne McCorry, an audiologist in Neptune. “Hearing your best can be a smart job security strategy in a tough job market. How an employee is perceived by employers is effected by how he or she hears. Job candidates need to sound sharp during an interview. And employees who aren’t sure what an employer is asking can’t answer their best.”
According to the International Listening Association (ILA), listening is one of the top skills employers seek in entry-level employees and in those being promoted. Individual performance in an organization is found to be directly related to listening ability or perceived listening effectiveness.
When people with even mild hearing loss use hearing aids, they improve their job performance, increase their earning potential, enhance their communication skills, improve their professional and interpersonal relationships, stave off depression, and better their quality of life.
According to a BHI national study—“Impact of Hearing Loss on Household Income"—Americans with unaddressed hearing loss make less money than people with normal hearing. The study found that wearing a hearing aid reduces the amount of income lost. Specifically, untreated hearing loss negatively affects household income, on average, up to $23,000 per year depending on the degree of hearing loss. The use of hearing aids mitigates those negative effects by about 50 percent.

“Treating hearing loss early is no longer an option,” says Sergei Kochkin, PhD, Executive Director of BHI. “It is a career imperative. Great workplace communication is critical to both job performance and to getting a job. Great communication starts with great listening. And great listening starts with the ability to hear. We urge everyone to take that first, most critical step to ensuring career success by visiting http://www.hearingcheck.org/. Do it today.“
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Suzanne McCorry is Director of Audiology at Coastal Ear, Nose and Throat in Neptune, NJ, and can be contacted at 732-280-7855; sbmccorry@coastalhearing.com; http://www.coastalhearing.com/