Broadwater Hearing Care

St. Petersburg, Florida

Good Healthcare includes Hearing Screenings

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After age 50, regular hearing screenings are an important part of health care. Regular hearing screenings are often overlooked by family physicians, so it is important to ask and seek out hearing screenings from a licensed audiologist. Another study has come out linking hearing loss to mental decline. A study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry on April 25, 2016 has shown that adults age 80-99 with hearing loss were more likely to have dementia than adults age … [Read more...]

Hearing Well Improves Quality of Life

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My mother was diagnosed with a hearing loss at the age of 52. At that time, we did not have the technology available to help her. She was fit with hearing aids at the age of 60 and wore hearing aids for the next 27 years. Not only did it make communicating with her much easier, early adoption allowed her to maintain her brain’s ability to understand speech. Even though her hearing got progressively worse over 30 + years, her ability to understand words never changed. This is why it is so … [Read more...]

The Brain Adjusts to Sounds

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When a person is first fit with hearing aids, it is not unusual for them to remark about “noises” that they hear. The Brain is adjusting to the sounds. Most people have waited several years before getting their first pair of hearing aids. Hearing changes gradually over time and the brain also adjusts to the lack of sounds. Sounds disappear or may sound different. Even though we generally start by setting hearing aids softer than the patient’s target, it isn’t unusual to hear comments like “my … [Read more...]

Is Hearing Loss “Normal”

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Every once in a while I see a new patient who tells me that hearing loss is normal “for their age”. That is like saying losing teeth is normal “for their age”. Hearing loss is never normal. Yes, the older we get, the more likely it is that we will develop hearing loss. This does not mean that it is normal. Hearing loss has been linked to all sorts of problems like dementia, depression, falling, isolation, reduced earning potential, and general poorer quality of life. No … [Read more...]

The Neuroscience of Brain Hearing

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We have suspected for a long time that if you do not use your hearing, you lose your ability to understand speech. We now have research that shows exactly that. Anu Sharma, PhD, professor at the Center for Neuroscience and the Institute for Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder has shown that untreated hearing loss leads to loss of speech understanding. What this means for us, is that if a hearing loss is diagnosed treated early, (usually with hearing aids), … [Read more...]

Occupational Noise Exposure

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Many of us work in noise. Sometimes it is pretty obvious. Factory work, for instance. For others, it isn’t so clean cut. Construction sites are very loud and there is a lot of new building construction taking place in downtown St. Petersburg. Take a policeman directing traffic. Traffic is pretty loud and can cause hearing loss over time. Or wait staff in a restaurant. Some restaurants are extremely loud. If you, or a loved one works in situations similar to these, hearing … [Read more...]

Continuing Education – Audiology

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I have found that continuing education is so important. It allows me to keep up with important changes in technology, hearing, hearing protection, tinnitus and rehabilitation. I attended AudiologyNow!, the annual conference of the American Academy of Audiology last month. I learned about preventing hearing loss through better nutrition, new treatments for the tinnitus patient, and of course, all about new technology to help my patients to lead a better life through better hearing. … [Read more...]

Mindfulness

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Mindfulness seems to be the new buzz word. The cure-all for almost everything. It is easy to be skeptical, but it can be helpful for managing many conditions. Mindfulness can be an important part of tinnitus management. It helps to retrain the brain so that the tinnitus suffer will have a reduction in symptoms. It is one more tool to help end suffering. If you or a loved one are having difficulty with tinnitus (ringing in the ears) we can help. There is no need to suffer. If … [Read more...]

Keeping your Hearing Aids In

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I occasionally will see a patient who wears their hearing aids all day, for work, meetings, etc. and take them out the minute they arrive home. The spouse of one such patient recently confided in me that his wife “wears her hearing aids for everyone but me.” How sad. He feels that his wife doesn’t think he is important enough to bother with hearing him. Those of us with normal hearing, hear 24 hours a day, no breaks. The brain is designed to hear and when it doesn’t get the stimulation it … [Read more...]

Gardening with Hearing Aids

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Living in Florida makes gardening an attractive hobby year round. For those of you who wear hearing aids, sometimes the hearing aids are better left in the house. Between the dirt, sweat, and the possibility of losing your hearing aids out in the yard, it is better to leave them in the house. Why take unnecessary chances? If you are using a lawn mower, leaf blower, or other power tool, hearing protection is a must. Don’t use your MP3 player to drown out the noise it is even worse for your … [Read more...]