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Are you looking for some exciting updates to improve hearing? Look for some exciting areas of emerging research at the end of this post! First, let’s look at some of the current strategies and technologies for how to improve hearing:
Reduce Distractions and Help with Focus
Do you have normal hearing, but have difficulty hearing? Or do you struggle to understand despite wearing your hearing aids? Let’s look at some ways for how to improve hearing for you:
- Ask your communication partner to get your attention and make eye contact before starting to speak. It’s much easier to focus when you aren’t busy with other tasks.
- Don’t try to talk from another room! Sometimes when I clarify with patients about when they have the most trouble, it turns out that their spouse/partner is in another room when speaking to them. Be in the same room and within 5 to 7 feet of the other person when having a conversation. This will make hearing and communicating so much easier.
- Repeat back what you heard and ask for clarification. Instead of asking “what?” repeat back the parts that you understood. For example, “I’m sorry what time is the meeting happening on Sunday?” This way, your communication partner knows that you understand a part of the conversation and knows exactly what needs clarification. This communication repair strategy also helps alleviate frustration from both sides.
- Optimize your environment. Noise, distance, and reverberation will always make it more difficult to hear. If you can reduce the volume of any background noise (e.g. the TV, radio, etc.) or move to a different room, that will make it much easier to hearing your communication partner. This is because you are reducing noise and improving the signal to noise ratio (SNR), thus requiring less listening effort and making use of a more clear speech signal for easier listening.
How to Improve Hearing: Make Time for Mindfulness
- Use mindfulness. Are you feeling stressed, tired, or overwhelmed? This can create mental “noise” and make it harder to focus. Set aside some time every day to do a guided meditation, breathing exercise, or progressive muscle relaxation exercise. Doing this will help manage stress and help you to focus better.
How to Improve Hearing: Advocate for Yourself
- Communication is a two-way street. If you are having trouble understanding your communication partner, speak up and ask them to slow down their rate of speech and enunciate their words. Advocate for yourself by asking for what you need in order to take part in the conversation. Reminder: shouting doesn’t help! Speaking slowly and clearly is the best way to help people understand.
How to Improve Hearing: Clean Your Hearing Aids
- Change your wax filters. Make sure you are regularly changing the wax filters on your hearing aids. This is a simple way to improve your hearing if the wax filter is plugged with wax or debris. Often, this small change can make a big difference!
- If you are not sure how to change this, see your audiologist or hearing care professional. They will be able to help with this and do any other cleaning or maintenance that is needed.
- Get regular hearing aid checks at least every six months. Regular check ups keep everything working as it should.
How to Improve Hearing: Get Your Ears Cleaned
- Do you get earwax build up? The ear is self-cleaning and does not require help from Q-tips. However, some of us produce more wax, or cerumen, than others and need professional cerumen management to keep it in check. If this is you, make regular appointments to have your ears cleaned and reduce any build up. You can also try a few drops of mineral oil in your ear to soften any wax and help it work its way out naturally.
How to Improve Hearing: Get a Hearing Aid Tune Up
- If you already having hearing aids, it may be time to clean your hearing aids or retest your hearing and adjust your hearing aids to your new hearing prescription.
- See an audiologist who does Real-Ear Measurement (REM). This tool is the gold standard for prescription verification in the field of audiology. It ensures that your hearing aids are amplifying at a level that is effective for your hearing loss, safe, and appropriate for speech audibility.
Exciting Hearing Technology Developments
Now, let’s look at some of the most exciting, up and coming technologies for how to improve hearing:
Medication – Clinical Trials Underway
FX – 322. This medication is not yet widely available. However, there is some very exciting work happening right now with Frequency Therapeutics. A clinical trial is underway and preliminary results show “first-ever statistically significant and clinically meaningful hearing improvement” for those with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) or history of noise exposure. This medication works by regenerating hair cells in the inner ear. Although results do not currently improve hearing thresholds, speech understanding can improve by as much as 20%. As clarity is often the primary struggle for those with SNHL, this result could truly be a game-changer.
Auditory Training
Many people struggle to understand speech in the presence of background noise. During my doctoral program at the University of Iowa, my capstone research project focused on improving speech understanding in background noise using a training model. This project was conducted with normal hearing listeners, using a selective attention training module. Another project (lead by Drs. Subong Kim and Inyong Choi), showed a measurable improvement in speech in noise listening task after 4 weeks. The Human Auditory Neuroscience Group (HANG) lab is continually doing research in this area and is one to watch. Although results are still preliminary here as well, future implications are exciting and will inform future training paradigms.
Remote Hearing Care Models
Have you heard of Eargo? This is a great product for those looking for a discrete treatment model. Eargo offers high quality products as well as a remote care model.
I hope you enjoyed these tips for how to improve hearing. We’d love to hear from you! Contact us here.
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