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Smartphone Apps Offer Assistance to Those With Hearing Loss

It used to be that finding the help you needed to identify and treat your hearing loss could be a difficult and tedious process. It could even be difficult to know when it was time seek the advice of a qualified professional. Today, however, new technology is increasingly making it easier for more people to access the tools they need to understand and address their hearing loss. Smartphone technology and applications have emerged that offer people opportunities to test, monitor, and adjust their hearing in a variety of situations. Notably, there have been some interesting advances in hearing screening tools, personal sound amplification, and hearing aid remotes. Here, we discuss how the phone in your pocket could make your life easier through these three types of apps.

Screen Your Hearing at Home to Decide if You Need Help

Identifying hearing loss is not as straightforward as it seems. People experience many different types of hearing loss at different levels from different causes. In some cases, a person may not even realize they are having trouble hearing. Additionally, many people hesitate before seeking the advice of an audiologist, dismissing their own concerns, fearful of the cost, or for a variety of other reasons. Home screening apps allow a person to check their own hearing and decide if it’s time to seek treatment. While these apps are not a substitute for the opinion of a qualified professional, they can be a good place to start.

The apps offer different types of assessments, checking for problems at different frequencies in different situations. Some simulate background noises. In just a few minutes, users can be alerted to a potential hearing problem.

Personal Sound Amplification Apps Can Enhance Hearing

For some people, personal sound amplification can help them hear better in certain situations. Often, the severity of their hearing loss is not so great that they need an aid, but they still struggle to hear. Personal sound amplification apps work through the cell phone to make sounds louder, so dinner partners can be heard at the table in a busy restaurant, for example. Many of these apps can be connected to a Bluetooth headset worn behind the ear or simply through the phone speaker. Some even allow users to play back previous bits of conversation to catch anything they couldn’t hear the first time around.

New Apps Can Act as Hearing Aid Remote

For those who are using a hearing aid, new smartphone technology is trying to address those needs, too. Previously, people would wear a remote around their neck to control the settings on their hearing aid or would have to remove the hearing aid to make adjustments. Now, these new apps become the remote, allowing the user to adjust settings, monitor/record those adjustments, and share the information with an audiologist. Some of these new apps even come with geo-locators, so a lost aid can be tracked to its location or its last known location before the battery died.

Today, there are an increasing number of options for those who suffer from hearing loss. Between new technology and the helpful guidance of an audiologist, you can find ways to improve your hearing and continue to interact with the world with ease. For more information, call Medical Hearing Systems in Sarasota at 866-517-4415 to make an appointment.

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Sarasota Office
1901 Floyd Street, 2nd Floor
Sarasota, FL, 34239
(941) 203-4233

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8433 Enterprise Circle, Suite 150
Lakewood Ranch, FL, 34202
(941) 548-4227

Venice Office
400 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 260
Venice, FL, 34285
(941) 486-0950