The American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) recommends a hearing screening once every decade when the person turns 50 years old and every three years for patients with known exposures or risk factors associated with hearing loss.

When a hearing aid isn’t working, it is often blocked with cerumen (earwax). Most modern hearing aids have a wax filter to prevent cerumen from damaging the electronics of the hearing aid. If you cannot change the wax filter or have run out of wax filters, call us today, and we will get the issue resolved for you. If you have changed the wax filter and the hearing aid is still not functioning, call us, and we will troubleshoot the problem ASAP.

Occasionally, hearing aids disconnect from paired Bluetooth devices. This is common with many Bluetooth devices, not just hearing aids. When Bluetooth was initially designed and developed, it was not meant to have multiple devices connected. Today, many Bluetooth devices are constantly fighting for control with other Bluetooth devices. As a result, hearing aids will occasionally disconnect from an already paired cell phone. To get the hearing aids reconnected to a Bluetooth device, it is best to “forget the device” (hearing aids) from your cell phone. Then, turn the hearing aids off and on again to put them into “pairing” mode. The hearing aids should be able to be repaired after doing this task. If the hearing aids still cannot be paired, please call us, and we will troubleshoot the issue further.

When someone uses a Q-tip to get cerumen out of their ears, they might get a little bit of cerumen on the Q-tip, and the person might think they’re doing great and got it all out, but sometimes this creates more of an issue than intended. The problem occurs when there is a moderate amount of cerumen in the ear, and a Q-tip unintentionally pushes cerumen deeper into the canal. The individual doing this will often be unaware of this issue until the wax hits the tympanic membrane (eardrum). If cerumen gets too deep into the ear, it makes it more difficult to remove it later. At Chagrin Hearing Center, we can remove cerumen quickly and painlessly. We have many tools to see how much cerumen is there and can remove the wax safely.

Sometimes. Many types of hearing loss are genetic – including age-related hearing loss. However, hearing loss due to loud noise exposure is not genetic.

Many restaurants these days are very loud, and this creates an issue with the ability to hear conversations. Many modern hearing aids have directional microphones, which allow the person to hear better from in front of them rather than from their sides and behind them. If you have trouble hearing well in loud restaurants with your hearing aids, call us today to see how we can improve your hearing ability. There might be a way to reconfigure the hearing aids to enhance noise reduction and allow you to hear better in loud restaurants.