Does your partner tell you the TV is up too loud?
It is predicted that about 70% of hearing aids have not been set to prescription which means the majority of people are still struggling to hear their best, even when wearing their hearing aids. This also causes dissatisfaction with hearing aids and also negatively impacts neuroplasticity in the brain.
Many people don’t know that their hearing aids need to have their prescription placed into their hearing aid with Real Ear Measures. These measures make sure your hearing aids are performing optimally and providing your best ability to hear. Research showed that when a low technology hearing aid was set to a person’s prescription using Real Ear Measures it out-performed higher technologies that were just set with the computer’s estimation. When the higher technology levels then had Real Ear Measures run, the technology was able to work well and the person’s ability to hear speech in background noise greatly improved. This means anybody who purchases these higher technology hearing aids without Real Ear Measures don’t receive the benefits they are paying for.
At Conversations Hearing, we are one of the few hearing care providers to ensure all our clients’ hearing aids are set to their prescription target and therefore receiving the optimal performance from their hearing aids.
If you feel you are not getting the benefit you need from your hearing aids or you want a hearing provider that follows best practices – make an appointment with Shevawn by calling 5356 9385 or pop into Conversations Hearing in Beerwah Marketplace, next to the butchers.
Valente et al (2018). Differences in word and phoneme recognition in quiet, sentence recognition in noise, and subjective outcomes between manufacturer first-fit and hearing aid programmed to NAL-NL2 using real-ear measures