Bob Martin

Audiology is a wonderful profession! We get many opportunities to help people hear better, and, once in a while, we get to work miracles. My story today is about a miracle. To appreciate the beauty and depth of this story, it helps if you have seen My Fair Lady, the Lerner and Loewe Broadway musical that was made into an

I want to tell you a story that I promise is absolutely true! Many years ago, I fitted a hearing aid on John, a 50-year-old gentleman with substantial hearing loss. The hearing aid was manufactured by Audiotone, a Phoenix-based company. I was familiar with the staff at Audiotone because I went to school at Arizona State University, in Tempe, right

Most hard-of-hearing people derive substantial benefit from wearing hearing aids. Unfortunately, there are a few hard-of-hearing people who have such severe hearing loss that they cannot use hearing aids successfully. This article is written for these folks. However, before deciding that your hearing is so “bad” that hearing aids can’t help you, be sure you have consulted with at least

People use hearing aids in a variety of different places. Some places, such as home, are generally quiet; others, such as busy restaurants, tend to be noisy. The amplified sound that a hearing aid wearer hears is “shaped” by the audiologist, who makes computerized adjustments to the hearing aid program. The type of sound that works well in a quiet

Feedback is the term used to describe the “whistle” or “screeching” type of noise that hearing aids sometimes make. Feedback occurs with all audio systems, not only hearing aids. You have probably experienced feedback with public address (PA) systems and other audio systems at your school, church, or in a lecture hall. The feedback “screech” is heard when the amplified

Hearing aids are tiny instruments made with even tinier parts: the microphone, circuit chip, and speaker (receiver). Hearing aids deliver sound into the ear through a narrow “sound tube.” This tube is about the size of the lead in a pencil or a small strand of spaghetti. Because the tube is so tiny, it takes only a minuscule amount of

by Bob Martin   If you wear hearing aids, this week’s post is for you, your family, and anyone who helps you. It deals with this common problem: Your hearing with hearing aids was fine for several months, but now something has gone wrong and you don’t hear well anymore.   IS IT THE BATTERY? The first thing you need

By Robert L. Martin I am sometimes asked, “What about the hearing aids I see advertised in the newspaper or on the Internet?” The simple answer is “These hearing aids do not work.” To understand my answer, you need to know how hearing aids are fitted. There are many critical stages to a hearing aid fitting. These include: • making

By Robert L. Martin Scientific understanding of aging is changing rapidly. We used to believe that people got weak and forgetful as they aged. We also used to believe that the neurons in the brain could not be replaced if they were damaged. We thought that brain cells could not re-grow and that the synaptic interconnections between neurons could not

By Robert L. Martin If you have never worn hearing aids, it will take some time before you understand them. They are not like any other medical or electronic device. Some people try to compare hearing aids to cell phones or computers, but these comparisons are not valid. In writing this article, I asked one of my female patients how