With the current cost of living crisis we are all looking at ways to save money. Unfortunately health care is something we don’t want to scrimp on and understandably so. Hearing health care often gets overlooked and is something that can be detrimental to our mental health and general well-being. Hearing loss sufferers can feel isolated from general conversation and a sense of loneliness can set in. The cost of hearing aids can be far too much for some to bear with the average cost of a pair today approx. £2,500 – £3,000 at most highstreet Audiology clinics. There
Hearing Health vs Health Apps
Easily accessible health apps on our smartphones made us become reliant on tracking everything about our health from step counting, sleep analysis and heart rate monitoring.
So, can these help you learn more about your own hearing health? Well, the short answer is yes. There’s a raft of available hearing tests online and mobile apps that test your hearing health, such as Apple’s built in monitoring of how loud a user listens to music and prompts warning messages if the listening volume is too loud and at potential harmful levels and it can also alert the user if they’ve listened to loud
Hearing aid Batteries
The majority of hearing aids in circulation are battery operated but rechargeable options are becoming a more popular option for a lot of people. But what are the benefits of having a battery powered hearing aid and what are the things to know about hearing aid batteries – let’s discuss.
Understanding hearing aid batteries
There are generally 4 different sizes of hearing aid batteries, and they are as follows:
It is worth noting that most hearing aid batteries are zinc air – this means the battery is only activated once it encounters oxygen and this encounter happens when you remove the battery tag. Once removed, a chemical
How Digital Hearing Aids work – The Basics
A digital hearing aid enables the programmer to adjust the levels in a way that suits the user – the aid is tailored to the user’s specific hearing loss requirements.
This can be adjusted time and time again and extra programmes can be added which are then also adjusted in such a way to help the user in particular environments e.g. noisy background situations. The idea is to ‘re-balance’ a person’s hearing to normal levels and to enhance the lost hearing frequencies that accompany hearing loss.
The majority of us will lose the high frequencies in our hearing as we get older
Tinnitus: an overview
Tinnitus affects 1 in 8 people and can be very distressing for some. But what exactly is tinnitus and can we help it?
Tinnitus is generally referred to as ringing or buzzing in our ears or head, it can be in one or both ears and can be intermittent or constant. It is recommended to seek GP advice if you suddenly appear to develop tinnitus, especially if it’s only in one ear. Tinnitus can come on suddenly due to exposure to high intense and loud sound such as gunfire or it can come on suddenly due to a medical condition. In general, it comes on gradually as we age and as the hearing begins to
Five hearing aid myths debunked
As hearing specialists with 30 plus years’ experience in the industry, we’ve encountered more myths than we can remember. Here’s five of the most common hearing myths we’ve heard, all debunked for your own peace of mind.
1). Hearing aids whistle all the time
In simple terms, hearing aids should not whistle.
What most people refer to as ‘whistling’ is actually feedback from the hearing aid and it is a common, frustrating issue for the hearing aid user which should not be ignored.
If you experience any ‘whistling’ at any point, you should contact your audiologist to investigate the cause and find a solution for
Measure Your Pupillary Distance with MIRA today
Did you know that MIRA, the next generation of measuring Pupillary Distance (PD), is already live in our webshop since the beginning of March 2018?
MIRA is a smartphone application which can measure your Pupillary Distance (PD) with only using your smartphone and a mirror. PD is the distance between the centres of the pupils, which is widely considered the most basic measure in optics. This measure is important so the focal points of the lenses can be positioned right in front of your pupils. This way you can have better glasses which suit you perfectly. Read more about the Pupillary Distance on the MIRA Measure blog. MIRA comes with a millimetre accuracy, which makes this method the most accurate online method for measuring PD. The image has to be taken in front of a half-length mirror in order to create a 3D model of the user on which the measurement can be done. In this way MIRA removes the need for scaling devices (such as credit card) and relies on algorithms based on your exact facial measurements. Read more about the technology behind MIRA on the MIRA Measure blog.
This service can be tried when ordering glasses at selectspecs.com. The ‘get measured by App’ option can be chosen during the ordering process under the ‘What is your Pupillary Distance?’ menu point. After the order is placed and confirmed an e-mail is sent to you from where the measurement can be accessed. If the App is not already downloaded then the same link first sends you to the AppStore. Then you only need to follow the steps provided by the application in order to take the perfect image. Finally, the image is uploaded to the cloud and then after the evaluation the PD result is sent back. The result e-mail also contains a link to a survey which helps MIRA Measure to collect valuable feedback for future improvements.
The application is easy to use. Based on the survey results almost 90% of the customers watch the tutorial video at the home screen of the app and more than 95% of the users feel easy or relatively easy the image taking process. The tutorial video already reached 1500 views on YouTube.
MIRA is becoming a more and more popular way to get PD measurement online. Based on the last 2 months the service has a more than 95% success rate and also almost 95% of the users feel more confident buying glasses online knowing that their Pupillary Distance was measured accurately.
Currently MIRA is only supported by Apple iOS devices (iPhone and iPad), but don’t worry in the upcoming few months the Android version of MIRA will be introduced as well at selectspecs.com. Until that point use your own iOS device or borrow your friend’s iOS device and measure your PD by the App at your next SelectSpecs order, and stay tuned for the Android release.