Ever find yourself struggling to hear in business meetings, at dinners, awards ceremonies or even in pubs, restaurants and other public places. Business Eye Editor Richard Buckley did. Keep scrolling to find out more about his experiences from hearing-induced isolation to becoming an audio technology pioneer…
“One of the first things I noticed was the loud chirping of the birds. Suddenly, it felt as though they were perched on my shoulder instead of somewhere in the hedgerows. The sound of my feet crunching fallen leaves, distant car noises, the crashing of waves that weren’t crashing at all. Pages turn loudly. Household noises I’ve never heard before. The telly can be turned down to a sensible volume level. And that’s without starting on the jokes about being able to hear my wife’s voice.
A whole new world has opened up, but this is a world that had been there all the time. To use an old-fashioned phrase, I’d never really considered myself to be ‘hard of hearing’. But others certainly did, as I found out when I started to hear better than ever. Over the past few weeks, I’ve learnt from family and friends alike about how I’d failed to respond when they’d been talking to me. It came as no surprise. I’d been struggling for a while. But, like millions of others, I tried not to let it bother me too much. My hearing was OK, I reckoned, I wasn’t missing too much. Sufficient. It got me through. But then I did start to miss too much.
There’s a real sense of isolation when you can’t hear properly, and it came to a head for me in a busy coffee shop one Sunday lunchtime with a family group when I could only hear a roar of background chatter and precious little of what anyone was saying to me. Environments like that, cafes, restaurants and pubs, I love them all… particularly the pubs. But they are all a bit of an issue for those of us with hearing issues, depending on the acoustics. Background chatter turns into a cacophony and piped music becomes something to despise.
The problem with hearing loss is that, for some, it still carries a stigma. It’s one of the holy trinity of getting older, alongside dentures and reading glasses. Now that I’m a proud hearing aid user, I’ve achieved the hat trick and, do you know what, I don’t give a damn. I’d never met an audiologist before I turned up at Kingsbridge Hearing Care’s Donaghadee Clinic (the main one is at the main Kingsbridge Private Hospital site on Belfast’s Lisburn Road) for a spot of wax removal, the cause of my dull hearing, I reckoned. It was only when my hearing didn’t improve much after another session of wax excavation that the next step became inevitable – the hearing test.
“People often put off seeking help for their hearing loss longer than they should,” says Stephen Hunter, Principal Audiologist and Managing Director at Kingsbridge Hearing Care. “But, when they do start using today’s technology, we’re told time and time again that their lives had been transformed.” Kingsbridge Hearing Care has its main centre on the Kingsbridge Private Hospital site on Belfast’s Lisburn Road, but other clinics in Donaghadee, Holywood, Newtownabbey and at Ballykelly in the North West. The initial diagnosis can be a tad difficult. To tell the truth, I got a bit emotional. Hearing aids? Would they be closely followed by visits to care homes or coffin brochures? But it was an all too brief flirtation with our emotional side.
Once I made it back for the fitting, all of this in the capable hands of Kingsbridge Audiologist Caroline Fenning, I was ready for whatever fate had in store for me. As it happened, I was back out on the windy streets of Donaghadee an hour or so later with little hearing aids tucked behind each ear. And the impact was beyond anything I could have hoped for. I was like the proverbial child with a new toy, only this toy was life-changing.
Both Stephen Hunter and Caroline Fenning talk about Presbycusis deafness, the natural progression which means, in short, that we all lose hearing ability as we get older. “For some, it kicks in earlier than for others. That’s just a fact of life,” says Caroline. “We’ve got patients aged between 14 and 104, and all of them have had their lives radically improved by finding the right hearing solution.” Our particular solution, without wishing to boast, is right at the cutting edge of hearing aid technology. It’s the Phonak Audeo Infinio Sphere, the world’s first hearing aid harnessing the (beneficial) power of AI, but its proprietary chip architecture– for those who understand that kind of thing – has 53 times more processing power than the previous industry norm.
That’s a lot of technology to be carrying around behind one’s ear. And, having tried one of the older breed of Phonak aids while waiting for my all singing, all dancing Audeo Sphere Infinios to arrive, there is a very clear difference between the two. The professional audiologists think that these are a giant step forward and, from a patient perspective, it’s hard to disagree. These babies even come with their own app. What doesn’t these days? So you can adjust your hearing aids for differing scenarios. In fact, you can play around with them in lots of different ways… but you’re not encouraged to get too carried away. These are delicate pieces of high tech, after all.
But let’s go back for a moment to that noisy cafe which highlighted our own hearing decline. Life with today’s hearing technology is very different. Wind forward to Belfast’s newest hot restaurant, The Ivy, and blend in noisy tables of enthusiastic patrons and a girl DJ playing the kind of background tracks I wouldn’t usually thank you for. A month or two ago, it would have been a perfect storm of audio challenges. The other week, it was a breeze. And so was the packed pub I went to afterwards. Why? Because all you have to do is whip out your phone, click on the Phonak app, and turn from automatic mode (the day to day one) to Spheric Speech In Loud Noise mode. Not the catchiest name for a mode but it’s a remarkable piece of technology.
The rowdy tables, squeaking chairs, and that infernal music fade gently into the distance and you can hear what everyone around the table is saying. You can even hear them scratching themselves… From the deaf mute (well, not quite) who missed out of stuff, I’d matured into Mr. On The Ball. Since I’ve had them fitted, I haven’t had the little gems out of my ears except to charge them. And they’ll run all day without needing to do that.
My biggest worry? That I’ll get used to them and fail to appreciate what it was like before technology, and Kingsbridge Hearing Care, came to my rescue. But that won’t happen. I appreciate it too much.”
If you are experiencing hearing issues and are seeking a comprehensive hearing assessment, appointments can be booked one our website or by calling 02890667030.
Source: Business Eye