If you’re shopping for hearing aids, you likely have a number of questions about your investment, such as:

How much will my hearing aids really cost?

How can I be sure I’m getting the best price on my hearing aids?

Will insurance or Medicare cover hearing aids?

What payment options are available?

Price is a major consideration when it comes to hearing aids, as it should be. A hearing aid might be the most advanced piece of technology someone will ever own. Hearing aids are advanced computers that are meant to work as one with our bodies. Hundreds of millions of dollars go into their research and development every year. How we perceive sound is so delicate that a highly advanced piece of technology is required to do the job right.

Why is sound so complicated?  Sound can be perceived differently from one person to another. Just because you can hear well at some frequencies doesn’t mean that you can hear well at all frequencies.  Most people with hearing loss don’t have a problem hearing sound itself. Their difficulty lies in hearing it clearly among all the sounds of life that exists in the world. It’s not easy to listen to a child’s voice in a crowded room. A listener not only has to hear the child, they must be able understand them too.  We can close our eyes and know a car is driving by us or a plane is flying over-head. We’re able to distinguish the difference between the ocean waves from a hand clap. It’s possible to tell if something is in front of us or behind us, if it’s close or far away. The examples are endless.

What is this sense of sound and overall awareness worth to us?  Putting hearing aid cost into perspective. The average pair of hearing aids will last about 5 years. When you look only at the one time up front cost it may seem somewhat expensive at first glance. But when you break it down to the monthly cost over a 5 year period the value becomes obvious. Depending on what hearing aids you select, the monthly cost could be just over $100 for the higher end products or just under $50 for the more value oriented ones. Let’s keep it easy and split that right down the middle and say the 5 year cost of hearing aids is around $75 per month. What does that compare to? Hearing aids now become similar to a cable bill. You could be in a set of high quality hearing aids for the same cost as your daily coffee. If you decide on value oriented hearing aids, the monthly cost could be less than a tank of gas.

If you are or have been experiencing difficulty hearing CALL NOW and take the first steps you need to find out if you are a candidate for hearing aids. Absolute Hearing Care Centers are happy to offer a FREE consultation and give you all the information you need to make an informed decision.

CALL NOW: 843-839-1936

First … Let’s define what is Ototoxicity?

Ototoxicity refers to drug or chemical-related damage to the inner ear, resulting in damage to the organs responsible for hearing and balance. Ototoxicity occurs as a side-effect of certain drugs and substances, which damages inner ear hair cells and has been known to cause sensorineural hearing loss. Ototoxic substances include several therapeutic medicines (e.g. aminoglycoside antibiotics, some anti-cancer agents, loop diuretics, anti-malarial drugs and aspirin), and other environmental substances (e.g. mercury, lead and arsenic). Depending on the strength of the drug and its side-effects, hearing loss or other disorders may be temporary or permanent.

Beyond prescription or over the counter medications, many people slowly damage their hearing with common substances such as caffeine and alcohol. While the impact of these substances is more gradual over the course of many years, the resulting hearing loss is typically permanent. Changes to a person’s lifestyle earlier in life can dramatically reduce one’s risk for developing sensorineural hearing loss.

Understanding Ototoxicity and Hearing Loss

Sensorineural hearing loss is one of three types of hearing loss and relates specifically to the structures of the inner ear.

After sound waves have made their way from the outer ear through the middle ear, and the waves have become vibrations created by the eardrum, the vibrations move through the inner ear structure, where they are picked up by inner ear hair cells. These cells are responsible for translating sound wave vibrations into neural signals that are processed and recognized by the auditory cortex of the brain as sound.

Ototoxicity causes the death of these inner ear hair cells, which do not regenerate. This leads to sensorineural hearing loss.

Hearing loss should be treated as soon as possible; if left untreated for an extended period of time, the neural pathways that process sound in the brain will fall into disrepair and will make treating hearing loss more difficult in the long term.

Medications that may cause hearing loss

Aminoglycoside Antibiotics

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are a strong and effective treatment for inflammatory bacterial infections such as meningitis, bacteremia, and respiratory diseases in patients with cystic fibrosis.

At the Oregon Hearing Research Center, Dr. Peter Steyger and his colleagues tested the effects of aminoglycoside antibiotics on mice, one group healthy and the other infected with inflammatory bacteria.

They found that both groups experienced levels of hearing loss, with the infected mice experiencing a higher degree.

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are frequently used in developing countries with warm climates due to their ease of storage (they do not require refrigeration). They are also used in the US, where they are administered to infants in intensive care units.

Though aminoglycoside antibiotics are life-saving in cases of lethal infection, they may cause permanent hearing loss.

Chemotherapy Drugs

For patients battling cancer, chemotherapy drugs may also lead to permanent hearing loss. Two particular drugs, cisplatin and carboplatin, have been found to affect the inner ear.

Cisplatin is used to treat solid tumors such as ovarian, testicular, cervical, lung, head, neck, and bladder cancers. Studies conducted on the ototoxicity of cisplatin reveal that “hearing loss following cisplatin chemotherapy appears to be variable…related to dose, age of the patient, and other factors, such as noise exposure.”

Both cisplatin and carboplatin are crucial in cancer treatments, but medical professionals tend to monitor hearing throughout a patient’s treatment.

Salicylate pain relievers

Salicylate pain relievers are composed of acetylsalicylic acid, most commonly known as aspirin.

Aspirin is used to treat inflammation and pain, and is also prescribed to patients with a history of stroke, unstable angina, or myocardial infarction. Salicylic acid enters the cochlea of the ear shortly after absorption, which may lead to tinnitus and sensorineural hearing loss.

Hearing loss due to salicylate pain relievers occurs more commonly in elderly patients.

Loop Diuretics

Loop diuretics are used to treat congestive heart failure, renal failure, cirrhosis, and hypertension.

Ototoxicity from usage of loop diuretics occurs in 6-7% of patients. Patients have also complained of tinnitus (a ringing of the ears) as well as dysequilibrium.

To prevent hearing loss from loop diuretics, it is recommended that medical professionals use the lowest possible doses to achieve desired effects.

Other Substances that can cause hearing loss

Nicotine

Americans consume the highest amount of caffeine at 971 tons per year. While coffee, tea and sodas are commonplace for most American households, we may be causing harm to our hearing without realizing it.

Studies are suggesting that caffeine may play an indirect role in sensorineural hearing loss. Instead of causing a loss, caffeine delays and reduces your natural ability to recover after extended exposure to loud noises like concerts or power tools. The ear will work hard to repair the damage from an occasional rock concert, but when consuming caffeine that repair process is delayed according to Montreal based researchers.

Alcohol

Alcohol has long been villainized for causing a host of health problems including liver damage, high blood pressure and heart disease. If alcohol makes a frequent appearance in your routine, you’ll need to add hearing loss to the list of potential health consequences.

Alcohol damages the central auditory cortex, the part of your brain responsible for deciphering sounds brought to it by your ear. So while your ears may be in perfect working order, your brain may have trouble understanding what it’s hearing.  Alcohol intake seems to most often affect a person’s ability to process lower frequency sounds.

In a study out of London, participants usually regained their normal hearing abilities once they stopped drinking. However researchers hypothesize that repeated alcohol induced hearing loss can permanently damage hearing abilities over time.

Caffeine

In a recent study out of Japan, researchers spent 8 years tracking the hearing abilities of over 50,000 participants. Researchers concluded that smoking is in fact associated with an increased risk for hearing loss, with the number of cigarettes impacting the level of risk.

Amazingly the risk of hearing loss declined for those who quit smoking even as few as 5 years before the start of the study. The findings are encouraging for those wishing to improve their health by ending a nicotine habit.

If you have questions or concerns, you should have your hearing evaluated further by a certified hearing professional. This evaluation is simple and painless but could mark the beginning of a better life. Best part, it’s free!

Click here to schedule your free hearing assessment.

Almost 35 million people in the U.S. know they have a hearing problem, but half of them have never had their hearing evaluated by a professional. The problem is that hearing loss is more than a personal nuisance; there are serious consequences to ignoring hearing loss, including negative medical, emotional, and social changes.

Medical and Emotional Consequences

A growing body of scientific research indicates that hearing loss can lead to or enhance the effects of serious medical and emotional conditions.

Auditory Deprivation: People with hearing loss transmit incomplete signals to the brain, effectively “starving” the brain and leading to auditory deprivation. Prolonged auditory deprivation may cause your brain to forget how to interpret hearing impulses, leading to decreasing communication and other problems.

Dementia and Alzheimer disease: People with hearing problems are more likely to develop reasoning disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study from the National Institute of Aging.

Depression: Research shows that people with untreated hearing loss are more likely to feel depressed, anxious, and withdrawn. Research also indicates that treatment with hearing aids can significantly improve a person’s quality of life and well-being.

Lifestyle Consequences

“Gait and balance are things most people take for granted, but they are actually very cognitively demanding,”  “If hearing loss imposes a cognitive load, there may be fewer cognitive resources to help with maintaining balance and gait.”

Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D., at Johns Hopkins

Untreated hearing loss leads to serious negative lifestyle changes, which often effect family, friends, and others. These changes include personal safety like balance; irritability; pessimism; anger; fatigue; tension; stress; isolation; withdrawal; and diminished overall health.

The Bottom Line

• Untreated hearing loss can damage your physical, emotional, and social health and well-being. This will also distress your life companion, family, and friends.
• The effects of hearing loss can be diminished with current technology (digital hearing aids, cochlear implants) and post-fitting rehabilitation.
• A hearing exam by a well-qualified Audiologist may reveal serious underlying medical conditions before you actually have any symptoms. Early detection is often critical for optimal recovery from these medical problems.

Should You Get a Hearing Exam?

The following questions from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders will help you determine if you need to have your hearing evaluated by a certified hearing professional:

*Do you often ask people to repeat themselves?

*Do you have trouble following conversations when two or more people talk at the same time?

*Do people complain that you turn the TV volume up too high?

*Do you strain to understand conversations? Do you have trouble hearing in noisy backgrounds?

*Do you have trouble understanding conversations with women and children?

*Do people seem to mumble (or not speak clearly)?

*Do you misunderstand and respond incorrectly to what others are saying?

*Do people get annoyed because you misunderstand what they say?

If you answered yes to more than two of these questions, you should have your hearing evaluated further by a certified hearing professional. This evaluation is simple and painless but could mark the beginning of a better life. Best part, it’s free!

Click here to schedule your free hearing assessment.