Hearing and additional products
Hearing impairment occurs when there’s a problem with or damage to one or more parts of the ear. There are different types of hearing loss and the degree of loss can vary significantly from person to person. The main types of hearing loss are Conductive and Sensorineural. Conductive is a problem with the outer or middle ear, this is typically caused by a blockage or other structural problems that interfere with how sound is conducted through the ear. Sensorineural, which is caused by damage to the inner ear cochlea or auditory nerve, the most common type is caused by the outer hair cells not functioning correctly. The person then has trouble hearing clearly and particularly struggles with speech.
There are approximately 9 million hard of hearing people in the UK, with 6.5million over the age of 60. There are a number of reasons that cause this hearing loss and some examples are age related loss, congenital, birth, illness, noise exposure or head injuries. The severity of hearing loss varies from person to person and is typically measured to an outcome of mild, moderate, severe or profound and can be the same or different in either ear.
There is nothing that can repair the damage caused by hearing loss but there are ways to improve it and ensure hearing improvement and quality of life. The best way to improve hearing is the use of hearing aids, the modern products are technically advanced and will be programmed by an audiologist to meet an individual’s hearing loss and will ensure hearing improvement in the areas that hearing has been lost.
There are however situations where hearing aids need additional support in particular for environments with background noise or rooms with poor acoustics, such as restaurants, cafes, meeting rooms, classrooms, places of worship or even at home with friends and family. For these environments or situations assistive devices or room loops will help and ensure speech or sound from a particular source is sent directly into an individuals hearing aids. This ensures clarity of speech and understanding even with background noise or distance between the source and the individual.
At Gordon Morris we specialise in assistive devices and loop systems and can support, advise and provide a solution for most environments and needs. If you are looking for a solution please contact us.