For Individuals With Hearing Loss

• Tell others how best to talk with you.
• Face your audience directly.
• Position with back-lighting.
• Anticipate and make a plan for difficult situations.
• Pay attention.
• Concentrate on the speaker.
• Integrate visual and written cues.
• Ask for clarification.
• Acknowledge when communication is not understood.
• Defer conversation when fatigued.
• Show appreciation for efforts made when others assist you.

For Individuals Conversing With Those Who Have Hearing Loss

• Get attention first.
• Face and speak directly.
• Position for face-lighting.
• Avoid noisy environments.
• Ask how to facilitate communication.
• Refrain from shouting.
• Speak clearly at a moderate pace.
• Keep mouth cues clear.
• Use facial expressions and gestures.
• Rephrase if communication is not understood.
• Give cues when changing subjects in conversation.
• Be patient if response is slow.
• Stay positive and relaxed.
• Be respectful.

Audiology Services of West Virginia offers a wide variety of custom and non-custom hearing protection at affordable prices from the most trusted ear mold manufacturers in the world. Make an appointment today to get fitted with custom hearing protection so that you can help to avoid damage to your hearing.

Noise is one of the most common causes of hearing loss, and one of the most common occupational illnesses in the United States. A single shot from a firearm, experienced at close range, may permanently damage your hearing in an instant. Repeated exposures to loud machinery may, over an extended period of time, present serious risks to human hearing.

• 10 million Americans have already suffered irreversible hearing damage from noise;
• 30 million are exposed to dangerous noise levels each day.
• The effects of noise on hearing are often underestimated because the damage takes place so gradually.

How much is too much noise?

Click on image to view noise chart.

Audiology Services of West Virginia offers a wide variety of musician’s monitors for professionals and amateurs alike. Musician’s monitors are ideal for listening to a personal mix of music, vocals and/or instrumentation while at the same time protecting the musician from damaging levels of noise exposure.

The doctors at Audiology Services of West Virginia are skilled in the evaluation and treatment of tinnitus. If you or someone you know suffers from tinnitus, we urge you to contact our clinic today to schedule your evaluation.

TINNITUS (RINGING IN THE EARS) 

Tinnitus is the perception of a sound that has no external source. Some of the more common sounds reported are ringing, humming, buzzing, and cricket-like noises. It can be constant or intermittent and is heard in one ear, both ears or in the head. Tinnitus can originate in the middle ear (behind the eardrum) or in the sensorineural auditory system.

MANAGEMENT OF TINNITUS
For most tinnitus sufferers, there is no cure. There is no pill or surgery that has been shown to eliminate tinnitus in scientific studies that have been replicated and accepted by the healthcare community.

There are some important exceptions to this. Some forms of tinnitus, particularly middle-ear tinnitus, can be treated. Sometimes a medication can cause tinnitus, and stopping or changing medications can eliminate the tinnitus (check with whoever prescribed the medication).

There are two broad categories of treatments that help people adjust to their tinnitus.

• Counseling can be beneficial with thoughts and emotions, hearing, sleep and concentration. One example of this approach is Tinnitus Activities Treatment, which includes individualized collaborative counseling in each of these areas.
• Sound Therapy. Many tinnitus sufferers report that the presence of background sound reduces the prominence or the loudness of their tinnitus. The background sound can be present in the environment (e.g. fan noise). There are nonwearable devices that produce pleasant background sound (e.g. raindrops). Additionally, wearable maskers or sound generators are available that produce a ‘shhh’ noise (these can also be combined with hearing aids). The use of hearing aids improves communication, reduces the stress associated with intensive listening, and also can partially mask the tinnitus. Music can also be very effective in nonwearable and wearable devices.
• Self-help Books. There are also some excellent self-help books available. CALL TO FIND OUT MORE.

Audiology Services of West Virginia is proud to be a part of the Cochlear Provider Network and is skilled at the assessment, fitting and adjustment of cochlear implants, hybrid hearing and bone anchored hearing aids.

Hearing loss can strike anyone of any age at any time. Perhaps you’ve had it since childhood. Perhaps you first noticed it at work, struggling to hear co-workers or presentations. Perhaps it was at a party. Or, perhaps, it’s been a part of your life for so long that you can’t remember how it started.

Just as no two stories of hearing loss are the same, neither are the stories of overcoming it. In many situations, Cochlear™ can help with one of these treatment options – hybrid hearing, a cochlear implant or a bone conduction implant. To determine if either is right for you, schedule an appointment with a one of our audiologists to start the discussion.

Designed to help adults and children with severe to profound hearing loss, our Cochlear™ Nucleus® System mimics the natural hearing function of the inner ear. Using a uniquely designed electrode, it bypasses damage to the inner ear and delivers sound directly to your cochlea.

How Cochlear Implant Hearing Works?

1. Microphones on the sound processor pick up sounds and the processor converts them into digital information.
2. This information is transferred through the coil to the implant just under the skin.
3. The implant sends electrical signals down the electrode into the cochlea.
4. The hearing nerve fibers in the cochlea pick up the signals and send them to the brain, giving the sensation of sound.

Designed to help adults with high-frequency hearing loss, our Cochlear™ Nucleus® Hybrid Implant System is a combination of two proven technologies brought together. It’s the only FDA-approved hearing solution that restores access to the high-frequency hearing you are missing through cochlear implant technology, while enhancing your low-frequency hearing through acoustic amplification—all in one device.

*Hybrid hearing approved only for use with the Hybrid L24 Implant.

Designed to help people with conductive hearing loss, mixed hearing loss and single-sided deafness, the Cochlear Baha^® System utilizes your body’s natural ability to conduct sound. By connecting to the bone behind your ear, the Baha System bypasses the damaged outer or middle ear and sends sound directly to your healthy inner ear, where sound comes to life.

At Audiology Services of West Virginia we realize that not everyone needs or is ready for traditional hearing aid amplification. In some cases minor communication challenges may require just a little help from a personal sound amplifier. We proudly offer the Starkey AMP as well as The Bean Quiet Sound Amplifier by Etymotic Research to fill this need. Schedule an appointment today to see if AMP or The Bean is right for you!

Starkey AMP

Quick Overview

The AMP made by Starkey is offered as an invisible option to tackle minor communication difficulties where hearing aids are not yet warranted. The AMP is comfortable, easy to use, and is programmable by an audiologist, which is different than most amplifiers available!

The BEAN® Quiet Sound Amplifier®

Quick Overview

The BEAN^® amplifies sounds and enhances your hearing experience so your conversations become more effective in the car, in social situations, and at a distance. It comes in two models–The BEAN and the T-coil BEAN.