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FAQ

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3490 Laird Road, Mississauga, Ontario, L5L 5Y4 CANADA

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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Teto Test is Free?

Of Course. it is free. Davis & TETO provides a free online hearing test. you online need to input your email and name. nothing else is required.

Why is my hearing not “fixable”?

If you are over 40, less than 10% of your hearing has any fixable part. If someone says you are normal and without a hearing test or checking for a blocked ear or examining the ear canal or eardrum and looking to see if it is normal (middle ear) there is the possibility the other 1/3 of the ear (cochlea) or brain is not normal. The ear canal and eardrum have limits on what can be seen. The size of the ear canal, eardrum thickness, scaring, pinholes, retraction pockets, and many other visual obstructions are only a small part of how a person hears.

Audiometric pure tone testing can be interpreted; a physical examination and a history can decide where a problem is in the ear, the degree of hearing, and what needs to be done next.

A One-on-One conversation cannot decide the presence or absence of a hearing loss unless the loss is in the severe range or worse and with such significant loss that can be misleading if the person is a good lip reader and knows what the conversation is going to be about. People are rarely questioned on the specifics of a conversation so they can nod and smile which leads one to believe they hear and can fake normal hearing.

Why do some people say they do not need hearing aids when they do not hear me?

The pattern of change in loudness of hearing is usually gradual and starts in the normal loudness range first. Some people can compensate better than others to physical changes in hearing and vision especially.

How does age influence hearing loss?

Learning new skills is quicker for younger people while older people are less likely to adjust to change quickly. Hearing deteriorates with age. It takes older people longer to start looking for help. When hearing problems reach the 65dB range, a hearing loss becomes noticeable by everyone and especially a primary care physician that does not have access to a hearing test.

Often a hearing loss can be misinterpreted as a dementia problem by family, friends or even physicians.

Why do my friends think I don’t need a hearing aid, but my family does?

Friends do not want to hurt a person’s feelings and have limited contact. Friends usually assume no response or inconsistent response to speech is not a hearing problem but a mental or emotional thing. Hearing loss cannot be seen so it is the last thing a person thinks is wrong when you don’t answer or answer wrong.

One on one conversation cannot decide the presence or absence of a hearing loss.

Why does my voice sound like it has an echo or is too loud when I first try hearing aids?

As persons develop hearing loss, they begin to monitor the loudness of their voice more by feeling in the throat and touch within the mouth rather than hearing. When a hearing aid first goes on, you instantly start using your hearing to monitor your voice. Sound is traveling faster than feeling to the brain, but the echo usually disappears in 3 to 4 days. When a person over 40 starts losing hearing, they tend to talk louder and withdraw from noisy conversations.

What about the noise in my ear or tinnitus?

The worse a person’s hearing gets, the louder that person hears the noises in the ear or head because that person is not hearing other sounds.  Hearing aids usually help a person to be distracted from their tinnitus.  Some higher-end hearing aids seem to work better than others in helping tinnitus.  There are lots of opinions about where and why tinnitus occurs, but poor hearing is influencing the impact and hearing aids often help because you hear other sounds that distract from the tinnitus

How much is the cost of batteries for hearing aids?

A typical set of digital hearing aids will cost about 150.00 dollars per year worth of batteries to run.

How complicated are hearing aids to use?

Modern hearing aids can be pre-set or programmed in many ways from quite simple to complex.  Many hearing aids require only cleaning and battery change.  How complex a hearing aid needs to usually depend on the user’s needs.

Why do some people do better with hearing aids than others?

There are many factors other than the quality of the hearing aids and the skill of the person fitting the aids. Other crucial factors are where the damage is found, the degree of loss, the age and sex of the user, and how long they have had the loss. The longer one waits the harder it can be to adjust to better hearing, especially in males. The auditory area / gray matter shrinks from lack of use and how well pathways can be retrained is highly variable and not completely understood.

What is the difference between hearing quantity and hearing quality?

Quantity is how much of a loss you have in decibels or how much loudness you need to just hear while quality is how well you understand or your discrimination ability at your best loudness level or your Most Comfortable Level.

Why do males and females react differently to hearing aids?

Females do better quicker because they are more auditory oriented while males are more visually oriented. Females adjust in days while males often take weeks or months or refuse after a brief period. Because hearing aids require a relearning or adjustment period there are usually some adjustment problems that some use as a justification for not wearing hearing aids.

Why do even small amounts of wax cause feedback in hearing aids and reduced hearing?

Even small amounts of wax next to the sound output of the hearing aid can decrease loudness and cause feedback without the wax blocking the ear canal.

Why should a hearing aid user at minimum get their hearing retested every 2 years?

Over 40 years of age hearing usually is lost very gradually. It usually goes unnoticed especially in males because they depend on their low-frequency hearing and most males have a louder voice, so they hear males better. The opposite is true of females who have a high-frequency voice and usually a low-intensity voice. Females are therefore harder to hear in noise, so the male hears males better than females. A good rule of thumb is if females notice a hearing problem they are usually right.

Why does some background noise still bother new hearing aids users?

Noise rejections programs in hearing aids cannot always decide what you want to hear and what you do not want to hear. When background noise is mostly unwanted speech the hearing aid software can get confused. The overload point for a person’s ear with hearing loss does not change much over time but the point at which you just hear moves closer to the overload point as you lose your hearing. Our comfort level for hearing and the overload point become close together so it is harder to hear in loud noise. This is the useful range of hearing or dynamic range.

Why are males easier to hear than females in noise?

Males usually have a low-pitched voice and greater intensity where females usually are higher pitched with a lower intensity. High-frequency sound is lost or confused in noise which tends to be more low frequency and higher intensity except for speech noise.

Why are two hearing aids better than one?

The auditory combines the hearing in both ears to hear in noise and two ears are needed to locate where sound is coming from. The right ear feeds the left side of the brain which is usually the dominant side for speech understanding. The left ear tends to process nonmeaning information. The sound coming from two ears combines for more loudness.