Edmond Ayvazyan HIS, EET
Hearing Instrument Specialist & Electronic Engineering Technologist, Hearing Aid Source
Nine out of 10 people with hearing loss can improve their hearing with the help of hearing aids. But even after investing in them, some Canadians continue to suffer from a reduced quality of life, explains Hearing Instrument Specialist Edmond Ayvazyan of Hearing Aid Source, a company which offers free hearing aid assessments at their two locations in Toronto. This issue causes undue stress, and can result in detachment from social situations, decreased earning potential, depression, balance issues, and an accelerated onset of dementia.
“When a new client comes seeking help for their hearing aids, we often hear, ‘I’ve spent all this money, I’ve been back several times, I have the technology but it’s not helping me when I need it most. I still can’t hear at a distance, a meeting, at church, or in the theatre,’” Ayvazyan says. Often, the clients he sees have been told to accept their hearing capacity as is, and that no further adjustments are possible with their hearing aids. However, this simply does not have to be the case.
Ayvazyan sees two common problems with hearing aids: poor fit and improper tuning.
Poor fit
Fit-related issues can encompass anything from physical discomfort from wearing the hearing aids or due to poor sizing of the parts to improper “plumbing,” which allows too much of the amplified sound to leak out of the ear canal, causing many hearing aids to be under-amplified. A poor fit can also allow too much external background noise to leak into the ear canal, rendering all the speech-enhancing and noise reduction properties of advanced hearing aids moot.
Improper tuning
Hearing aids must be tuned specifically for each listener based on their hearing test results, and sometimes it’s not an easy process. Sound-tuning issues can lead to the inability to hear and/or understand speech in several environments, especially noisy ones. Under-amplification, over-amplification, and even a distortion of the true sound can all be attributed to tuning issues.
Most often, Ayvazyan sees a combination of these two issues and believes that people who don’t wear their hearing aids can benefit from his assessment and adjustment without having to buy a new pair of hearing devices. Most adjustments are successful in just one visit.
If you haven’t been getting the true value from your hearing aids, call or visit Hearing Aid Source to have your hearing aids assessed.
To learn more call 416-463-4327 or visit Hearing Aid Source
