Hearing Loss FAQ

One in 10 people have some degree of hearing loss. The most common signs include asking others to repeat themselves often, turning up the TV or radio or having difficulty hearing in a noisy room. Click here to take the two-minute hearing test.

The benefits of improved hearing are substantial:

• Reduced fatigue, frustration and stress.
• Greater confidence in the ability to communicate.
• Improved personal relationships.
• An enhanced sense of awareness, comfort and connection with one’s surroundings.
• The renewed ability to hear sounds that have been forgotten.

The noises people get in their ears is called tinnitus (tin-i-tus).  Everyone gets tinnitus from time to time.  You may hear the following sounds:

• Ring
• Drone
• Chirp
• Buzz
• Hiss

This can sometimes be a sign of noise exposure or a symptom associated with some health conditions.  Other times, tinnitus is present in perfectly healthy ears.

If you have it all or most of the time, ask your family doctor to refer you to Connect Hearing for a follow-up.  We do have suggestions and various devices that can help alleviate the annoyance of tinnitus.

Hearing loss results from a combination of factors including general aging, what your parents’ hearing was like, medications and noise exposure.  You have little control over the first three.  However, hearing loss due to noise exposure is preventable.  The loss is a result of the level of the noise and the time you are exposed to it.  The higher the noise level; the shorter the length of exposure before your hearing is damaged.

• Avoid or reduce harmful noise levels
• If you cannot eliminate harmful noise, wear approved hearing protection
• If you have to should to be heard, the noise level is loud enough to possibly damage hearing

If you have the usual “age” hearing loss, your hearing is better for the low pitches than for the high pitches.  Most of the vowel sounds in speech are in the lower pitches and most of the consonants are in the high pitches.  You hear the vowels so you know that someone is speaking but you miss some of the consonants so you hear something that wasn’t said or it may sound like people are mumbling to you.

We have two ears for a reason: your brain needs information from both ears to hear in “stereo”.  If your hearing is similar in both ears, you will usually do best with two hearing aids.  This allows better speech comprehension, sound quality and better ability to locate the source of sound.

No, you do not need a referral from your doctor. You can just click here to contact one of our locations that is best situated for you or call our customer service department at 1-800-563-4327 to book an appointment.

The cost of hearing aids varies depending on the type of hearing aid, the number of features as well as the services offered with the purchase. The type of hearing aid recommended is dependent on a persons hearing loss and lifestyle.

We would need to book a hearing evaluation appointment where our licensed hearing professionals would test your hearing and discuss the results. If hearing aids are recommended and you would like a no obligation trial period, they would order the hearing aids which take approximately take 2 weeks to come in. We would then schedule you for an appointment to be fitted with the hearing aids to make sure they sound and feel comfortable. 

Hearing aid technology is always improving. Some of the most noticeable advancements are open fit hearing aids which are beneficial for people who do not like the feeling of their ears being plugged, omni-directional microphones to help reduce back ground noise, as well as FM and Bluetooth capability allowing hearing aids to communicate with other devices like cell phones and televisions.