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>> Hello and welcome to HealthLine.

I'm Jennifer Blomquist.

I have the privilege of hosting the program tonight.

So glad you joined us.

If you're a regular you kind of know how this goes.

We have a guest live here in the studio and we give you the opportunity to call in and ask questions about why we keep that phone number at the bottom of the screen.

If you're new to the show, let me just explain a couple of things.

So the phone number like you see is (969) 27 two zero if you're outside of Fort Wayne it's still a free call toll free call.

Just put an 866- in front of there you have two options and you call in my favorite option is you call in, you talk to the call screener and then they will at some point put you through live and you can ask your question live.

That's always nice because sometimes our guest likes to get more information for you to give you a better answer, a more complete answer.

So that's a great option.

But if you're maybe more shy or you prefer not to ask to live, you certainly can do that just when you talk to the call screener relay the question to them and then I will ask our guest that question for you.

So either way you get an answer and great free advice tonight.

So just want to keep you aware of all your options.

Let's go ahead and introduce you to tonight's guest if you watch regularly you've seen this guy before.

This is Ted Blanford.

He has a hearing instrument specialist and knows everything there is to know about hearing instruments, about getting your hearing checked all sorts of fun stuff like that.

>> So maybe you are dealing with an issue regarding hearing or maybe you just had Thanksgiving with some relatives last week and maybe you're concerned about somebody you haven't seen.

>> You know, there are a lot of families that they only see each other at Thanksgiving or Christmas time and maybe you've noticed some changes in your concern.

So Ted, your guy to ask the questions about tonight.

>> But good to see you, Ted.

Great to be here.

It's always fun to come in well and it's so great we always that we have such great viewers and they always ask great questions.

So for those questions we are so please call call us at any time we're going to start discussing things regarding hearing instruments but please feel free to call it any time.

>> Well that was one thing when we did our program last month we were saying hey, the holidays are coming up.

>> You don't want to miss out on those important conversations because if you can't hear we've talked before it leads to isolation.

>> Well, it can what would what really comes to family friends gathering?

We are we're social we're human beings are social.

We love to be around people.

We love to be into the gatherings of the people we love and we are we love the most to be around.

>> And if you cannot hear a conversation you can't be part of their lives too.

>> And my grandmother said something that was really profound.

She says if I if I'm with the people I love, I can't hear their questions.

I can't give them my soul.

They're my ears are they're the gateway to where I give them my soul and I love to hear the stories about the ice in the ice box.

>> I bicycle rides and my grandfather Oscar and all those wonderful things.

If I didn't if she couldn't hear and understand the questions and there's no way I can get that information we have living history around us all the time.

We could be part of those conversations and they're alive and our holidays when we do it the most and this is when we are the most important.

>> So if you know somebody is suffering from some hearing loss or they feel isolated and you notice especially those holiday season time frame, that's the time to have that conversation and make sure that it's something special.

It's could be a gift of hearing of not just for the person with the hearing loss but everyone around them.

>> It's very, very important.

Well, you know, it's like you've said so many times in the past we don't really think much about gosh, we most people go to the doctor at least once a year.

I hear I checked you know, you get new glasses once a year.

A lot of people's insurance will cover that dental check ups.

You know, it's always recommended to a year.

I mean there's so many things that we don't think twice about.

>> Yeah, I got to go there twice a year.

Once you're hearing you never hear because I'm about seventy four percent of people will do go to their opthamologist yearly and their dentist about sixty sixty five percent of their dentists annually but twenty three twenty four percent and go see anybody about their hearing and not necessarily on a yearly basis as every other two or three maybe four years and a lot of folks have not seen someone to help them with their hearing or at least find out where their hearing is since grade school.

>> Well last year I used to get the test in school and that was and even then it was just a screening.

It wasn't really a full hearing evaluation.

And if you're one of those folks and you're wondering if there is an issue or better yet get a baseline, find out where you are today in case something does happen, you notice there is a shift.

>> You can see how much it was, how much of a shift it was.

Yeah, even if you're a younger person we've talked about this before to men and women alike.

You know, I mean maybe you're not having an issue but yeah, I mean it's it can be helpful, like you said to see how it's maybe changed like any chronic any like any chronic disease.

If you identify it early, you care for early, you manage it for the rest of your life and you're happy that way you can you can manage it to be successful in life and if you ignore it and it becomes too bad a little bit too late it could be a problem.

>> Well and it's not a pet you've emphasizes before.

It's not a painful no it is not visit I mean you go do you want to kind of walk people through what what you would expect and a typical typical on a typical hearing evaluation you're going to go in like any other doctor's appointment.

You're going to give up some you're going to give some information about your hearing loss, about your health history and things like this.

So the hearing health professional understands who you are and what's going on and what your concerns are and then they're going to do an otoscope your oldest Coppock exam look inside your ear canal and a lot of times you can be able to be part of that as well because it's a video otoscope that looks inside your ear so you can see exactly what the hearing a health professional is also looking at and after that they do a familiar word test to find out whether you hear and understand because that's really important to understand to know this is not just hearing because most folks say I can't hear well what they're trying to say is they don't quite understand what's being said.

>> That is a very big distinction.

So a familiar word test would be would be part of that and a familiar voice test having someone that you are around all the time a spouse, a adult child or a friend to come in with you to use their voice to help you hear and understand and then of course the beeps in the bong's what we call the beeps in the Bong's and the basic audiogram where we find out what you can and cannot hear based on thresholds and frequency.

>> And of course then most of the hearing health professionals would be able to find a solution for you and demonstrate how much a hearing aid would be able to help you based on your hearing loss prescriptively.

And if you look at the screen here, you can see there's two different actually several quadrants.

But if you on the vertical line to the left of the vertical line says I hear well those are the sounds that identify sound around you.

Those are the low tones, the low tones say yes, I know that there is sound there and to the right you have the high frequencies and that says I understand these sounds here do not generate a lot of energy but they give me meaning to the words and they give meaning to the sounds so you can have conversation and cognitive understanding.

Those are two completely different sides of your hearing test and that right there will be the distinction between success of a solution and just getting something to get by understanding your hearing and understanding you're hearing loss is very, very important to know that and I'm hearing health professionals here in Fort Wayne are a top notch.

>> Oh yeah.

It's just and we Ted has brought some hairy instruments with that I I want to show people that we did in the meantime get a course we'll take that first and then get to the hearing instruments.

This is from somebody named Bais wanted to know can you experience feedback in your hearing aid.

>> Absolutely.

As a matter of fact feedback was one of the leading causes for people not to like their hearing aids.

>> And what happens is is too much power going into the ear at a specific frequency that bounces off the eardrum comes back and it goes up like a microphone next to a speaker kind of feedback several things that need to be done.

No.

One, if you have hearing aids and it does this see you hearing health professional to have it adjusted to do to make sure that it's fitting correctly, make sure fitting in there tight enough or if it needs to be adjusted for the frequencies to not do that to you or have the hearing aid adjusted to make sure is it is in your realm of your of your frequency and gain.

>> There's a whole bunch of other big words there that you know, frankly make sure it's fitting right and make sure it's adjusted correctly.

>> You're hearing health professional will help you with that and the feedback is very, very common if it's not fit properly.

>> Yeah.

And the great thing is once you have established a relationship with somebody, it's nice to think absolutely is one of the things where you just keep going back and they can you once you hear part of the hearing family you're hearing professional be able to help you with that very, very easily.

>> It's nice to have that relationship.

I want to appreciate or tell Baze I appreciate that call and question.

It was super and you can do the same thing.

You can call in yeah.

We can take your question that way where you just call in and give it to the call screener or you can ask it live.

That's why the phone number is at the bottom of the screen up until the end of the show it's (969) 27 two zero against the toll free call if you're outside of Fort Wayne as long as you put an 866- in front of their one thing talk about hearing instruments, they've come a very long way and they certainly have they're not what most of us growing up in the seventies I remember them being kind of clunky and very noticeable and the ones that are on the table out here I can assure you do not look like that.

>> Absolutely.

And if you look at the look at the advancement just in the designs alone, you see you see hearing aids.

>> They go completely into the canals.

Hearing aids goes outside of the canal of hearing aids.

You go behind the ear and things like that while the as advanced as the outside shells of the hearing aids and the size of the hearing aids has advanced, so has the technology hearing aids now can connect to your smartphone so you can hear and understand on your telephone much more easily.

They connect they connect in other ways to allow the hearing aid to go to analyze the environment around you so it's a most optimum ability to hear and understand in background noise in cluttered and loud difficult listening situations or someone across the table to you when you want to have a nice small intimate conversaion with someone at a et cetera restaurant or something like that.

And it allows the hearing aid can analyze the environment around you to be able to bring a conversation into and give you as close to normal and natural hearing as possible.

>> It is not your grandfather's hearing anymore now and and it shows by size and by technology is quite amazing.

We have artificial intelligence and embedded into hearing aids today and there's also Bluetooth compatibility like I had mentioned before.

But it is something it allows us to have as close to normal and natural hearing as we possibly can.

>> Yeah, and I agree with you just knowing a lot of my relatives as they were you know, as I was growing up that was the thing then that like you said, they didn't like him because of the feedback.

They didn't like him because they were just kind of clunky and very noticeable and just I don't I feel like it's not even just the technology but also it's become a more compassionate industry.

>> Absolutely.

I always told my father you're hearing loss is so much more visible than you're hearing aids ever would be and it allows you to be part of the world.

>> Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

And I you know, we've experienced that in our house too or my husband has some hearing issues and it's a huge turnoff to kids like even my kids did not even want to it was too much work to try and communicate with him even though they love my husband they still do and now he can hear them which is a great result.

>> That's a real tough issue.

It is.

It is and it can be hurtful.

So well we are getting some more calls.

I'm going to go ahead and get to these questions.

Let's see Marcia Marcia called in and she said she has tinnitus and how should she treat that?

>> That's a really good question and the tinnitus is the one that is tinnitus.

It's ringing buzzing or wooshing sounds in your ear that no one else can hear but you if you have tinnitus or tinnitus in your ears.

First things first is make sure you get evaluated and find out where that where that tinnitus is and you're hearing health professional be able to help you find out how to treat it the best now tinnitus canopy there's no cure for it.

It is part of the sounds in your brain and it is activated by the by the organs your ear.

So they are very well connected but to be able to manage them it is generally with a hearing aid, with masking with masking capability and tinnitus prescriptive capabilities in them.

And the first step is always to see you're hearing health professional and to find out where your hearing is and where where the tinnitus could be and is ringing inside that audiogram that we showed earlier today.

You know, it'll show us exactly where you are to your ringing is and the professional can help you pinpoint where that is and then help you relieve it by masking or ambient sounds correctly.

>> So first step is always get a hearing test.

Well, and we had another gentleman named Ray who called in and kind of ask the same thing after Marsha called in and about the ringing in the ears and you know, it's not going to it sounds like it wouldn't really go away until you get it addressed or does it sometimes on its own and well there's there's several now understand this there is no cure for tinnitus and not everybody experiences the same thing as everyone else because we are unique.

Our brain is unique in tinnitus is unique to the person that is experiencing it.

But there is hope there is the ability to have it managed and but you have to find out where it is and what it is and how we can manage it the best and the first step again seeing and hearing health health care, professional to be able to pinpoint that now depending on how how long it's been, what causes there's several reasons that tinnitus occurs.

It could be toxic.

There's there's probably two hundred over the counter and prescription drugs that one of their top three side effects is ringing of the ears.

It could be a head injury.

It could be something as simple as wax.

But you don't know until you see someone to help you find out.

And that's the very first step and a lot of a lot of the hearing health professionals out there have examinations where it's at no cost so you can find out what's going on and then be able to have an intelligent understanding of what's going on so you can make a good decision.

>> Yeah, that is we've had some people in the past year where it's debilitating like it interrupts their sleep.

I mean it's very it sounds horrible to me the statistics of the VA they could make you cry.

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

So definitely no reason not to address it.

You didn't do anything wrong.

It's not going to hurt to get it addressed.

Just get it checked out for sure.

Let's see we have another person to call Janice called and she said she's on her second pair of hearing aids but she's having trouble keeping them charged.

That's the one thing that's different.

You know, you can recharge them so she's wondering what she should do Ted?

>> Well, that was that was one of the things I didn't mention whether or not our grandfather's hearing aids it's rechargeable hearing from now depending on the age of the hearing aid generally a hearing comes with a three year manufacturer warranty and within that three year manufacturer warranty, that lithium battery that's inside that charged hearing instrument has a lifespan and generally what the what the industry says it's about a one thousand charges or three years worth of charging in each hearing instrument if you're experiencing them that keeping a charge see you're hearing health care professional and ask them to send it in to the manufacturer and have that battery replaced or at least and find out if there's something wrong with the hearing instruments itself and then you can have that taken care of for you.

>> It's something very, very simple when the charge is not keeping keeping up with your lifestyle is to make sure that the hearing is is in good repair and that the battery is actually something that's keeping a charge itself because like anything else, lithium batteries in every other battery there's they're unpredictable at times.

Sometimes they last a long time.

Sometimes they don't last a long time.

And also if you don't like a lot of our patients do and folks out there wear them 10, 12, 14, 16 hours a day you're going to pull a charge on those so you and your profession will be able to help you with that for sure.

>> That's a good question.

>> Yeah, I feel like we haven't really talked about how you can charge them now just like your cell phone the the the rechargeable feature has has really allowed our patients allowed the folks with hearing us to be able to have a much more active lifestyle, not have to carry batteries around all the time and change batteries and those with dexterity issues.

It's opened up a whole new world for folks that have difficulty moving around small things and the rechargeable has given them freedom.

>> It's really amazing.

Yeah, I used to always have a coupon clipper and there was always with a bat you know there always be batteries on sale and there was always a hearing a battery, you know but they I've seen them at the store and they are tiny so it would be hard to manage even the big ones are tiny.

>> Yeah right.

We just want to remind everybody that that we keep that phone number up at the bottom of the screen because we welcome your calls.

We've had several really good calls tonight.

Great questions and of course Ted has a wealth of expertize that he'd like to share with you.->> So don't be shy again.

All of our callers tonight have opted to just talk to the call screener and relay the question to them that way that's a great a great option or you can ask it live whichever you feel most comfortable doing.

It's (969) to seven to zero again it's still free call if you put 866- in front of there just in case you're outside of Fort Wayne.

>> Another thing I want to ask you about the hearing aids or we've talked before that they don't really cure hearing loss and that's something we really need to address because you saw one of the callers earlier said this is my second set of hearing instruments.

Yes.

Hearing aids do not stop hearing loss.

It helps us it helps us manage hearing loss but it does not stop our hearing loss.

And like anything else, there's a there's a life span and there's a range or a dynamic range of where hearing us from we can be effective if it goes beyond that range.

Of course the prescription needs a change very similar to glasses or anything else that would be progressive as it would be.

>> And even if it's a small amount of actual change on the chart that you see that can make a big difference in how well you hear and understand how effective the hearing aid can be for you so the hearing aids can slow down the hearing loss, hearing aids can manage the hearing loss and hearing aids can do one thing that I say is so much more important than everything else hearing aids can allow you to have that longevity for the next prescription to work with something even though it may have collapsed more that next prescriptin could be stronger and be able to get back with the nerve endings that have not deteriorated or died because you didn't wear hearing instruments before and it's just keeping those those nerve endings inside your cochlea alive and viable for the next prescription to be able to help you with that.

So know that you're hearing professional is going to be able to see you're going to charge a progression and be able to advise you at the best time to be able to either change a prescription or continue on with the prescription you're working with and it's important to be able listen to your professional with them.

>> You know one thing you know when you go to the doctor which most people I think go every year you don't realize like how much you like when they're doing the testing and you think oh my gosh, you know, this was there let's say well this is a prescription you have now but this is what you need and it's amazing and I'm sure it's the same with the hearing.

>> It's like you don't realize it until you get that tested and checked you.

Well, I'll be I'll be seeing that guy pretty soon too because I know that my eyes have changed just like anything else and it's been only been two years is because we are aging and that's how our bodies work.

And you know, like I said, we have great resources in Fort Wayneso there's no reason to be shy about it and it's just it's something that everybody experiences a wonderful, wonderful population of hearing professionals in this area.

>> It was quite amazing.

All right.

Well, again, call any time Ted and I are going to continue to talk about hearing aids or a couple of things we didn't get to last time that we want and want to discuss but we would love to hear from you even more than what we're talking about.

So feel free to call there again.

Is that number at the bottom of your screen?

One thing we we're going to talk about where wax guards and I was not really familiar with what those were until that wax GA's wax guards or exactly how they sound.

They're they're a they're a filter on the end of the hearing instrument that goes into your ear canal that protects the receiver from wax that's in your ear.

>> And oftentimes as a matter of fact, one of the one of the more common questions are my hearing aid stopped working.

Why?

And then the first question is did you change your wax guard and what a wax are does is it's a screen a protective protective screen.

I don't know if this you can see it on one of these here.

>> If you look down on my hand to the to the right of the that little white dot in the center of that >> Yeah.

Now that is a wax guard beyond that wax is the receiver and this is the part that goes into your ear canal and when that fills up with wax it basically blocks off sound and it allows you to know that it needs to be changed or cleaned now if you clean your wax gardens daily you shouldn't have an issue but you should change about once a month and what is with this filter does is it just protects the receiver.

That's what a wax guard is.

So it's guarding against wax and is that something that all the hearing aids pretty much have that now?

>> Yes.

Oh well yes.

I would say at least 90 plus percent of the hearing aids today have a wax card or a wax filter on them and it's it's just a precautionary measure to make sure that you're hearing is red tip top shape at all times.

>> Yeah, well that's nice to know that it could be something so simple simple it seems simple but it's very critical I'm sure.

>> Let's see we had another caller who wanted to ask a question, Ted so this is Shirley.

>> She said she is hearing her own voice a lot more and more loudly than when she's talking.

>> Is that related to a hearing issue?

Oh, that's a good question.

Now if you're hearing your own voice, that means the possibility that there's some occlusion or that hearing is your your ears may be a little bit blocked or you might have some sinus issues where you're feeling full inside your own ears.

>> But if you feel like you're talking louder and and you're having difficulty with kind of conversation, the first thing to do is make sure that your ears are ears are clear and you're hearing professional can do that and then you have a hearing exam to find out what your baseline is to see if that is what's causing you to raise your voice or loud talk more loudly in conversation.

>> Oftentimes when you do have a hearing loss you do raise your voice a little bit more to be able to hear yourself or self regulate our modulation in our in our voice.

But it sometimes goes just the opposite too far.

You hear someone take their voice way down as they don't want to sound loud so they don't exactly know how loud they're really talking.

>> So both of them could be related to a hearing loss.

But you don't know until you see a professional.

Yeah, for sure that it can be.

>> I would imagine that could be pretty annoying too.

So it can be very, very distracting to conversation.

Sure.

We only have like a minute left but we had one person calling Branda wanted to know if there's any kind of a recycling program for old hearing aids instead of just throwing them away.

>> Yes, there is too.

There's two ways you can do that.

I know that the Lions Club still accepts the instruments but also if you find a group of AT&T or hearing professional or someone that does work with with hearing aids, they'll be able to help you find a home for those hearing instruments one way or another even if it's something as simple as a group of five twenty three in the area that would be able to help with those to have them recycled and usually they go back to the manufacturer to be reconditioned and to help with the wood and distributed that way.

>> Yeah I mean yeah that's a great that's a really good question like one who would you really don't want to throw it away.

Yes you go with your glasses to another lions' colored glasses as well.

We are out of time sadly but we tend to like that one.

Yeah that was awesome and of course Ted you are awesome.

Ted Branford hearing instrument specialist so glad to see him again and so thankful to all of you for your great calls tonight.

So I'm Jennifer Blomquist.

>> Take care and we'll see in the next week.

Bye bye