June 23, 2024 • 40 mins
Lesleigh from Triton Hearing joined the Weekend Collective to chat about the varying degrees of hearing loss - as well as what tips we have to prevent hearing loss.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks
EDB and I.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Heard him seeing nothing's ever promised tomorrow the day when
a shot like timmisa hard away. So this is in
the name of love. Like Bribers say before you asked
me to go get a job today, can I at
least get a raised on a menu the wage? And
I know the government and Minister Age, so guess we
just pray like the Minister c I Bob throwing some
(00:31):
hot cars and things we see on the screen.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
And welcome back to the Weekend Collective. I'm Tim Beverage
and it's now time we want your cause. By the way,
I eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty text nine
and it's time for the Health Hub and joining us,
we're going to talk about hearing. And she is Leslie Smith,
ahead of audiology at Tritton Hearing and Leslie, good afternoon,
Good afternoon. Just get you to just fold your microphone
(00:55):
down a bit and just come a bit close to
it as a chatting that's great. How are you?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah? Good?
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Thanks? How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh? Pretty good? Now hearing wise, I have a chat
of it, but now we want your calls on hearing
any of the questions you've got about whether you're concerned
about hearing loss, or whether you are wondering whether you
need a hearing aid or someone else, or you want
information about what's the best way to prevent hearing loss.
But also if you are thinking you're going to need
(01:22):
a hearing aid, what's sort of what you would expect
at a typical a point where were basically everything about
hearing and hearing loss. And I think I actually think
the first way to start, I'm quite hot. I'm hot
at the moment on this topic. Fairly only because sometimes
when I come into the studio Leslie and I plug
in my headphones and they I can tell a person
(01:43):
who's just used them. I actually do say, gosh, I
think someone's got some hearing loss because they're quite loud.
But it's quite an insidious thing, isn't it that you
don't realize the changes that are going on in your
hearing because your brain is constantly adapting.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Yeah, yeah, right, you're right. It's a bit of a
chicky thing because noise damage is not just how loud
it is, it's how long you're exposed. And so it
could be that the volumes started off at a comfortable
level for those people, but then over the hours they've
slowly crept up the volume just to try to hear
over the background noise. Perhaps so, and it sneaks up
(02:18):
on you because you know they might not have noticed
it in a quiet place, but when they go to
background noise or restaurants or cafes that you know, you
might find you if it's someone in your family, you
might find that they're just watching a little bit more,
or they're laughing a little bit slower to the jokes, or.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Being a wallflower, because the brain does have quite an
amazing ability to compensate. I guess you start looking for
lip movement just to help confirm what you think you're
hearing exactly.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
You start watching a little bit more, and you have
your eyes and I guess you're the front part of
your brain trying to figure out patterns and to fill
in the gaps. So you end up working a bit harder.
So at the end of the day you've deciphered the
message the whole day long, so you might just be
a little bit more tired.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
One of the biggest dangers to or I don't know,
want to use dramatic language because then the wood that
came into my mouth was into my brain. Was hearing threats.
What are the biggest threats to people's hearing?
Speaker 5 (03:16):
The first signs?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I know, what are the causes? You know that the
major causes that the most troublesome causes.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Yeah, I'd say noise damage would be one. Another one
is any constriction to your blood flow. Actually, so diabetes,
heart disease. Anything that restricts your circulation can affect your ears.
So we all tend to lose our hearing a little
bit over age as well, So just the hair cells
in your ears, not the hair like on your head,
(03:43):
but little hair cells. When the sound comes in, they
bend over and that's what sends the signal to the brain.
So they just tend to get a little bit aged,
and that works so well.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Can you do anything to sort of give them a
bit of a shampoo condition? I mean I always ask
dumb questions because sometimes people will say, funnily enough, that's
not a dumb question because of X, Y and Z
and science.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
But anything that keeps your cardiovascular health as good as
it can be is the best thing you can do
to prevent any aging.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Where are those how far into your ear are those.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Little behind the ear drum and behind the three little
bones of hearing. It's the inner ear, which is shaped
like a snail and has billions of little wee hair
cells standing up. And as the sound wave goes through,
so think of it like a wave on the ocean,
it bends over those little hairs and off it sends
the signal to the brain.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So intuitively, I would imagine that there would be something
because if their physical structure and organic physical structure. But
I'm making this up as a go along. Is there
any work Is there any work going on with regards
to restoring people whose heirs have just gone that's the
online flat for the rest of the day.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yeah, Actually they've developed a drug that you can take
to regrow those hair cells. The problem is they haven't
figured out how to stop that growth, so there were
halfway there. And then there's also so a genetic kind
of hearing loss, which is similar to what I have,
and people are born without a certain protein and and
(05:11):
so there's there's something in the actual DNA that's that's missing.
And with the recent COVID epidemic and the vaccines using
a virus, you know, to transmit it. They've actually put
this gene therapy into the virus and injected into the
ear and they've restored when baby's hearing in the UK
so far, in particular hearing loss. Yeah, she had her
(05:34):
sister has double coclear implants, and she's had this gene
therapy using this virus as a vehicle to get it
into the ear, and her hearing is miraculously normal. It's
it's absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Oh my goodness, is that was she profoundly deaf at
the time?
Speaker 6 (05:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Yeah, profoundly?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
What can you tell her? A babies profoundly deaf because
by whether they were react because you can't say, hey,
can you hear this?
Speaker 5 (05:58):
I'm going to tell you something fascinating. Your eyes absorbed
light and that's what lets you see your ears. Right,
sound goes in, but you may not know that your
ear produces their tiny little echo of sound back out
of your ear. So they test babies by putting his
little headphones on. Sounds go in and they measure that
little tiny echo coming out to see if the hearing
is normal. And they also can test with just some
(06:21):
sticker electrodes that they put on the baby's head and
play sounds and watch the brain waves. So yeah, we can.
We can check to each frequency.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
And so what was the what was the physical Sorry?
So with the baby who had genetic hearing loss, Yeah,
and you said she was profoundly deft?
Speaker 5 (06:38):
Did you say profoundly zero or just a touch like nothing?
She was on the list for coclear implants. Yeah, and
her older sister already has co clear implants. Yeah. They
both had the same genetic mutations. So with this gene therapy,
it gave them back what they were missing protein wise,
and it fixed her hearing.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Why what did they do it? Why did they try
it on a baby rather than someone who was older.
Is it because they think that the development she could develop.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, I don't know the details of that. I'm not sure.
But her sister has the cocalarm plants. They're not going
to do that with her. She's she's happy with the
cochlearan plants and is carrying on doing well.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So I guess she feels it ain't bright, don't fix it.
Maybe that is amazing though, is that?
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Yeah? So I think we're going to see it in
our lifetime for sure.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Wow. Hey, by the way, just a quick question, is
the word deaf, okay these days, because you know how
people say, hey, what's wrong with you? Death or something
it feels I mean to people, is it Is it
a word that sort of you still use. It's like
as such and such as definitely you say you are
suffering from hearing loss, and death is more of a
I think it's.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Like everything description fit individual. But I grew up in
a deaf family and sign language is our first language,
and for us, deaf is the right term capital D deaf,
so we identify with deaf culture. You have a whole
different Yeah, but hearing loss, hard of hearing?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Checking the terminology because you never have, you know, because
times change and some words become It's like, okay, the
word would be if someone is disabled. People used to
throw around the word crippled, and that is not a
word you use. And that's why I was just checking,
because our terminology does change, and that's yeah, I was
hoping that was a reasonable.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
I'd say it's probably more acceptable hearing loss or hearing
impaired these days, but I think hard of hearing.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Is still so you have hearing aids yourself, yes, And
is that from just a young age or did you
get progressive hearing loss a.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
Bit of both, so yes, from a young age and
it is progressive, so it's getting worse every year. But
my grandparents profoundly deaf. You sign language. My dad's quite
hard of hearing. We all use sign language growing up
because of my grandparents being so close. And my daughter
has has a hearing loss as well, so it obviously
something runs in our family.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, so is that what you become an ordeologist in
steut of curious? I mean it does sound obvious as.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Well, but yeah, well, the thing is, nobody knows anything
about getting your hearing tested. You know, we see on
TV people getting their eyes tested, and you have the
eye chart in the in the doctor's office, but you know,
if you've never had your hearing tested, don't really know
what to expect. So when I was little, I was
back and forth all the time. I had four sets
of gromets as well, and you know I wanted to
(09:13):
be on the other side pushing all the fancy buttons,
not just the one button, you know. So yeah, that's
how I's how I got into it.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
How many changes, what changes have you seen so far
since you became an ordiologist? To head of audiology amazing.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Actually, So the first hearing aids that that I used
had had tiny little screwdriver adjustments and they were linear
and nothing was digital, and you had a million different
cables and plugs to plug the hearing aids physically. In
was the next step when they were analog but digitally programmable,
and now they're fully digital Bluetooth wireless. You just connect
(09:51):
everything wirelessly, and they even some of them even have
artificial intelligence inside to figure out background noise from speech
and enhance the speech and turn down the noise. It's
pretty neat.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
That is mind blowing. So it's not we're not just
talking an EQ here. We're talking art official intelligence which
is processing the sound and going hmm, that sounds like speech,
will pop that up. How quickly can it do it?
Speaker 5 (10:14):
In real time? Real time? Oh? Absolutely? And there's no
lag either with the Bluetooth connectivity. So I stream from
the TV straight to my hearing aids. Really yeah, and
I can hear it in real time without any any echo.
And my partner can watch a one volume, I can
watch at another volume, and you can even soon soon,
soon we'll be able to select different languages to listen
(10:36):
in in real time as well.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
So if you're hang on a minute, hold it so
I could be talking to you and you can say,
I could be talking in French and you would say,
just translate that for me as we go close.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
But not yet, I'm thinking about TV streaming. TV streaming,
so if it's been recorded in different languages, so Netflix,
for example, you can choose different languages. You know, if
your grandparents were from Korea and they wanted to watch,
you know, in their language, and you wanted to watch
in English.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Let's say everybody in real I was a step ahead
of it. Like in other words, you go on holiday
to Frantce and someone says something to you in French
and you would say and would translated.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
I don't think we're that far away though, because you
can stream that through your phone, so we could do that.
In theory, how big would your hearing aid need to
be to carry that sort of level of energy and
processing power? Not very big at all.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
You've brought in a collection of hearing aids. There are
the ones that look like there's a tiny there's three
that look like they fit over the back of your
ear with a tiny insertion into your ear, and then
there there's the big sort of old school clunky one. Yes,
I don't know if that's still in use now, but
it's molded saria. Yes, And then it gets a bit
smaller but smaller until there's one that's probably the size of.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
My probably.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Tip of my tip of my little finger, actually the
tip of a smaller person than me, but that is
it's way smaller than Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Yeah, for the recessing to determine speech from noise. It's
available in all of them. So the next level with
Bluetooth streaming, that chip is a little bit larger, the
receiver is a little bit larger, so that would be
probably from the medium sized battery upwards. And a lot
of them now are rechargeable, so there's that's also the
(12:25):
little charger case that I brought in that looks like
an air pod case kind of where the hearing aids
pop down into it and they charge overnight.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Are these so what's I'm guessing the most expensive one
is that one at the end that's tiny the size
of my pinky.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
That's a great question. Now the size is completely irrelevant.
It's what kind of computer chip and features are inside? Yep, yeah, okay,
so some people it depends on their type of hearing loss.
Some shapes will be more appropriate than others, and some
you need to have your own voice escape from your body,
so you can't block off your ear because you might
have excellent hearing for some sounds. So if you have
(13:00):
a partial hearing loss, you want one that doesn't block
off your ears.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Oh, I see, so one of the ones that fits
behind your ears with a much smaller and I don't.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Know what, do you call it a little sneaker that
goes in your ear?
Speaker 6 (13:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Yeah, and the little end on that speaker should have
lots of ventilation holes if your hearing is normal for
any of those pitches. And the other useful thing with
having the speaker in your ear is if your hearing
gets worse, you don't need to purchase any new hearing aids.
You just put a new speaker, a stronger speaker on
and it can keep up with you. So that's that's
the kind that I wear. So if my hearing continues
(13:32):
to get worse every year, then I don't need to
buy a new hearing aid. I just put a stronger
speaker on and then just adjust the sound output to match.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
In terms of the cause of general hearing losses. It
all to do with the hairs, those billions of.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
Hairs, not always, so that's a permanent hearing loss called
a sensory neural loss that's in the cochlea or the nerve.
But you can also have a conductive loss, which is
the ear drum or the three little bones of hearing.
So it's kind of like the equivalent of like an
amplifier basically, so you know, when you're underwater and you
can hear someone talking above the water, but it sounds
(14:05):
very very far away, that mismatch, that volume change. What
you'd need is an amplifier to hear somebody on the
other side. And that's what that part of our ear does.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It's funny because we're talking about hearing. I'm consciously adjusting
my headphones to see how much I need to turn
them down because I'm so tuned to it right now.
Just one other question. We're going to take your cause
by the way, eight hundred eighty ten eighty. There's lots
You may have lots of questions anything about hearing loss.
If you are concerned, you want to get some advice.
What's the procedure, what are you what are the range
(14:35):
of costs and anything that's involved with addressing your hearing concerns.
We want to hear from you on eight hundred eighty
ten eighty. You can text on nine two nine two.
Just one thing. I've always been curious about that if
it is a loud noise that causes those hairs to
lie flat, I guess or give up, how do you
prevent the cure not being the cause further cause, because
(14:58):
obviously a hearing aid turns up the sound, and so
how do you how do you stop that sort of
the cure being a cause of further ifness and just
chasing your tail?
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Yeah? Yeah, And what you're saying is like the glasses analogy, right,
Like if you're wearing glasses, your eyes get lazy, sort
of thing. With hearing aids, it doesn't really work like that.
So what tends to happen is the soft sounds. You
won't be able to hear them anymore. If it's noise damage,
you won't be able to hear the beginnings and ends
of the words just at a few pictures. So the
hearing aids will turn up the soft sounds enough that
(15:28):
you can hear them, but they still sound soft to you.
Medium sounds are turned up just a little bit and
then loud sounds are not touched at all or turned down. Actually,
so it's not like it's just overall volume. Everything is up.
It has has alternating volume depending on what the input.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Chris, it's fascinating. Look what your calls one eighty ten eighty.
My guest is Leslie Smith. She is Triton Hearings Head
of Audiology, so I think she's pretty well qualified to
answer answer your questions. If you've got me, we'd love
to hear from you. We've got lots we can talk about,
which will carry on with in just a moment this
news talk sai'd b. This is our health AaB. It's
(16:07):
twenty two and a half past four. Yes, and did
you know that one in six New Zealanders experience hearing
loss and choosing the right hearing solution for your individual
needs is important. Your local Triton Hearing team will work
with you to find the best hearing solution for your
(16:27):
listening needs, lifestyle and budget. So if you or someone
close to you is considering hearing aids, the twenty twenty
four Consumers Guide to Hearing Aids is out now and
available exclusively from Triton Hearing. It's the only truly independent
guide in New Zealand, so you know you're getting the
best advice. Find out about the latest hearing aids from
top brands. There's information on everything from features and styles
(16:49):
to a price guide to help you choose the right
hearing devices for your lifestyle and budget. To order your
free twenty twenty four Consumers Guide to Hearing Aids, simply
visit Tritonhearing dot co dot nz or you can call
on eight hundred forty five forty five forty two. That's
eight hundred forty five forty five forty two.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Property, parenting, politics plus health, money and the week's big issues.
It's all on the weekend Collector with Tim Beveridge used
Talk Sat B and we would.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Sign different dance and we would smoking runned things, making
a letter every song excepting Whiskey not taking but Marvel
singing Sweet Home Alabama, Our summer life. Yes, News Talk
(17:45):
set B eight hundred eighty ten eighty. This is the
week in collect for the health and my guest is
from Triton Hearing. It's Leslie Smith, Triton's Hearing. Triton Hearing's
head of audiology, and actually Leslie has brought in a
bunch of hearing aids for me to ever look at,
seven of them, including a sort of I don't know
how to describe it actually, but it's a little sort
of large bullet shaped device which Leslie acts as what
(18:06):
a remote.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Control, So the remote control. Yes, So for the tiny
hearing aids that go deep down in the canal that
are invisible, they're called iices invisible in the canal or
completely in the canal see ices. There's not enough room
for a Bluetooth chip because normally we would use your
phone smartphone app to be a full remote. But yeah,
(18:27):
it's like a little key chain that you can unscrew
the end of and it's got a little magnet that
you can hold close to your ear and it lets
you adjust through a couple of different volume stages or
different programs for different situations.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
You're telling me something interesting in the break about the
ability just so it's no longer just hearing fitscen rear
where you turn it up and down all and that's it.
You can for instance, you're saying if you go to
a quiz nite or something and the hearing and if
it's a bit loud and you're just you're hearing. Next
time you go to that quiz nit, because everything's linked
(18:59):
up with your phone's right, it'll say, oh, by the
way where it knows, oh we're quiz night, let's turn
down the volume.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
That's right. So it's part of the As I said,
the artificial intelligence has been around quite a while, but
there's a machine learning subset of it. So as you
go along every day, if you turn your volume up
on your app or in your remote control consistently, then
it will learn. So if you do that over three months,
(19:25):
then it will just start doing it for you so
you don't have to fiddle around with it anymore.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Amazing. Gosh, I love science. Doesn't science exciting? You know
what we can do? And that one you, by the way,
the thing about the gene therapy for the baby you
had hearing loss, that that is amazing. I think it's
very exciting.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
New.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Yes, look, I've got a few texts and we've got
well we're taking your calls on O eight one hundred
and eighty ten eighty What about this? One says guys
at work out wearing ear pods instead of ear muffs,
to listen to music. As an employer, where do I
stand on that. I'm of the opinion they are not
going to protect them cheers.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
That is such a good question. In fact, it came
up just yesterday and I've been doing some research on it.
But the it's I haven't found anything specific to New
Zealand yet. But from an employer's point of view, you
need to use hearing defenders that are certified and at
the right grading, And at the moment, the air pods
(20:20):
haven't been graded to my knowledge, so I would still
recommend that they use proper hearing defenders. But it is
an area that I'm going to do quite a bit of.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Research on, like hearing like literally hearing muffs that just
they block the sound as opposed to what about imagine
they're problematic, but noise canceling earphones and things.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah, yeah, and I think that's what that person texting
is inquiring about. So the AirPods or things that are
noise canceling, yes, they attenuate the sound, but they're not
certified according to the grading that they need for health
and safety regulations. It may be coming, but right now
I think you'd have to stick with the certified ear
muffs in order to meet the health and safety guidelines.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And actually you probably need to get some advice from
someone around your and obligation as an employer. But because
the people refuse to wear hearing and you've got to
give them a job to do, like go and operate
that chainsaw, and they say, I've got my EarPods and
and you're like, no, no, no, you've could put in
you want them to do the job. At some stage,
when does it become the just it's their fault, the employee.
(21:25):
But that's probably a legal question.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
And yeah, I'm not fully okay.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I didn't want to put any pressure on you on
that one. I should anyway, Right, let's go to some
calls stand by DearS.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Hello, oh hello.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
My question is I've got many years disease and I'm
deaf in one ear. We're going going deaf.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
My concern is will.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
It get progressively worse and then therefore have.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
To keep updating all the time to new aids? And
would the basic aid be okay? Because I can't afford
the expensive one?
Speaker 6 (22:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Have you got hearing aid now?
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Now I don't. I'm a bit to go and get
them right, right, So, with.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Many years disease. It often can be progressive, so it
may continue to drop a bit more. Without seeing your audigram,
it's a bit hard to say if it's dropped to
where it will stay or not, but I would factor
that into your decision making. And as I was saying before,
if you go for one that's behind the ear but
(22:32):
with a little speaker in your ear, they're quite discreet
because they have a little fine wire that's only one
millimeter that you can actually see and that goes down
into your ear. That's what I would recommend, because if
your hearing continue to drop, then you don't need to
purchase a new hearing aid. You can just get a
stronger speaker and have that one hearing aid adjusted as
(22:52):
you go. I would just a word of advice would
be to look for a provider that gives you maybe
free care and support going forward so that you don't
have to keep paying.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Yeah, that's when sure.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Yeah, I've always gone to try and so yeah, okay,
so behind the ear and the speaker in the ear.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Yes, yeah, that's what I would recommend, because then then
it could keep up with you and they do last
a long time. They're built for six years, but usually
the part behind the ear will actually last ten years
or so.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Right, okay, and sorry, go ahead. I just wondered does
it necessarily go to the other ear as well, or
does it affict the other ear that you had lost
the hearing because of many years in the other ear.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
That's a good question. Usually it will stay just with
the men years ear. There's rare cases where it's both years,
so probably it will be just the one ear is
the most likely scenario.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Okay, great, good, thanks good. Let's go to Alistair. Good Alistair. Hello, Hello,
I like to know.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
How long batteries will last in the future. Do you
think they may last five to teen years in the future.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
Oh, that's a good question. What kind of batteries do
you use?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Now?
Speaker 7 (24:21):
Oh I'm not sure. I'm not sure of a name, okay,
but of a trade name, I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
That's all right, that's all right. How long do yours last?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Now?
Speaker 5 (24:32):
How long do yours last?
Speaker 6 (24:34):
Now? A last three months?
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah? Okay, Oh that's good. So it's it's hard to say.
I'm not in the battery industry, but they do. They
do last longer and longer, so I know the rechargeable
ones last about two years now.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
Yes, they have improved over time.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
Yeah, yeah, it depends on how big they are too,
and what's inside the battery.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
Oh, yes, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Okay, thanks cheers ALUs the nastaying you might take care
bye bye. Hey, Actually, are some of them rechargeable these days?
I was looking at these really tiny ones. They don't
look like something. They all have a battery and that
lasts a long time. Or do you take them out
at night and pop them on something that charges them?
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Yes, they're both. So there's disposable batteries and some and
the tinier the battery, the faster they'll die. So the
tiniest ones are only two or three days. And then
if they're chargeable, then that's a more sensible way to
go because the last two years before the rechargeable battery
needs to be replaced. And then yep, just pop them
in a charger at nighttime and they just.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
They don't actually plug and it's just they inducted the
charge induction. Gosh, that's another bit of technology that blows
me away. Right, let's carry on with the Call's got
lots of texts and questions about this. Anthony High.
Speaker 8 (25:50):
Afternoon to both of you, Hi, I got pretty poor
hearing as a result of industrial power tools and things
back in the seventies and early eighties, at the time
when people weren't wearing we should have been. So also
on top of that, pretty severe tenus or tonight and
(26:13):
in recent times because I know my dad, who also
written in the same industry, had hearing aids up until
he passed away, and he had us through covered by
a SEC. I've been to two separate hearing tests where
you go into you're familiar with it, obviously soundproof room,
and you sit in that sound group room and you
put your headphones on and then you listen to a
(26:34):
series of different sounds, usually high pitched sounds. And the
first time that I did it, I came out and
the results came back and it said, no, you probably
wouldn't qualify for hearing aids. It's not very bad. And
I went, well, to be honest with you, in that booth,
my tonights and the high pitched noise that it actually
makes my ears made it difficult for me to positively
(26:58):
be sure that I'm actually properly hearing them, and I
put them through them and they said, come back again,
we'll have another tribe with what they call the test. Yes,
so I did that, but that sort of probably lean
in my favor a little bit more. But I still
felt that I was sitting in there pushing buttons. It
sounds that I wasn't. I was confusing between the tonight
this's and what they were playing. I actually don't think
(27:19):
it's an accurate test. It's difficult, isn't that what your opinion? Yeah,
it is, and maybe there's something else said I can do,
but I hand on heart. No, I've got hearing problems,
and I've got some good writs and i know what's
caused it. Yeah, And I'm not officient that wants to
go in there and play the fall and just say no,
I can't hear anything just so I can get Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Yeah, and that's right. I mean, you want it to
be scientific and you want it to be accurate, so
that that second test sounds like it was on the
right track for you. Because instead of using just a
flat beep, you know, just a beep, it's a bit
tricky to hear over the tenatus, so instead they played
you a warble sound, so it had kind of a
wiggly sort of a sound to it. To make it
a bit easier. There's a few other things that can
(27:57):
make it easier for you.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
To hear.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
They can beep the test on and off a few times,
because sometimes you can hear the on off better than
you can hear a flat sound, so that would be
my other recommendation is to have a warble and a
pulsed sound, and that will be easier for you to
hear over the tenetus. There's a few other objective tests
that can be done as well that you don't need
to rely on you pushing the button because it can
(28:22):
be challenging. And one is that OAE test I was
talking about earlier with babies, where they play a sound
in your ear and it measures the little echo coming
out of your ear, and that also can can help
to add, you know, to all the different pieces of
the puzzle for you.
Speaker 8 (28:39):
I feel that the bar is hit fairly high from
an a sec point of view, because I have no
doubt I've got hearing problems. I can't sort of cost
a table from someone in the room that's reasonably noisy
to hear what they're saying. All the symptoms are there,
and I thought this will be where I'm going I'm
going to have to go and get a hearing it
(28:59):
down two times in a row.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, it depends on the configuration of the shape of
the pattern of the hearing as well. So yeah, there's
lots of different factors. And then also with your age
as well, so there's there's several different eligibility criteria for ACC.
But it sounds like you've got a partial hearing loss
for sure. Some sounds like the clarity sounds might be.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Trickier with ACC. By the way, Anthony, I'd keep having
a crack at them. You make it difficult for them
to say no, okay, appeal, appeal, appeal, You'll be be
obstinate because I think so, yeah.
Speaker 8 (29:29):
I don't give up easy.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Good on you mate, Okay, thanks for good on. You're
good to know. Bye bye. Is coming up to twenty
to five News talkshit b got a bunch of calls,
plenty of text. So we're talking hearing with the head
of Triton Audiology hit Triton Hearings, head of Ideology. There
we go, Leslie Smith back in just a moment News Talks.
He'd be twenty to five. Welcome back to we can collective.
(30:05):
This is the health hub, and my guess is Leslie Smith,
head of ordeology at Triton Hearing, taking your calls. Let's
try and crack through as many as we can before
we wrap it up. Max. Hello, Hi.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
My question is is I've been dead for quite a while.
I've had five sets of hearing aids and I'm not happy.
I still can't hear very well. I've got my phone
on loud, I've got my hearing aids turned up. Should
I try some other hearing a person, Yeah, it.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Might be a good idea. Is it that they're not
loud enough, We're not clear enough? For Max?
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Well, my problem is is I hear somethings and then
other things just I'll never hear right. I've watched them
do the computer taste and all the rest of it.
I've ask them to turned them up. I mean I
can't when I play Bridge, sitting across to my car
partner on the other side, I have trouble hearing them
right right?
Speaker 5 (30:59):
And is it that the noise is too loud or
is it the voice is not clear?
Speaker 6 (31:03):
Well, I'm not sure because I've got on these hearing
aids that I've gotten now, which aren't quite two years old. Yeah,
I can turn them so I turned the background noise off. Yeah,
and I can turn them up so that I can
hear in front of me.
Speaker 8 (31:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Now, should I be going back and saying, look, these
hearing aids don't work.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
It sounds like they would need an adjustment because you
have all the features that you should have. The only
other thing I could recommend is like a remote microphone
that sits on the table or your partner wears, and
then you can hear that person from like ten meters
away really clearly. So that's the only other tech that
you could add to the system. But I would try
getting them readjusted first.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
So well, before I go back to my do you
have a triton hearing in Taranaki at all?
Speaker 5 (31:50):
In Taranaki? I'm sure we. I'm sure we must not
at the top of my head, but the address would be.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
Look, I might just look at that, because, as I say,
I've been beginning to get a bit annoyed with my
hearing aids because over the years, I mean I once
gotten sent back and saying I shouldn't work in the
dirty area. But I was a bloody plumber. Yeah, yeah,
I worked in dirty areas.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
We do have a great traiting clinic in New Plymouth.
Would that be you do? Yes, yep, yep.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Are you on the internet there, Max? Do you have
the Internet?
Speaker 6 (32:29):
I'm not very good, but I do. I couldn't have
it on my phone. I'm saying. It's just if I'm
on a c C. Would I still have to pay
AC fee or would I have to pay a full fee?
Speaker 1 (32:40):
No?
Speaker 5 (32:40):
No, you can just go along to a Traton clinic
and have a free full assessment and and then they
can give you some advice from there.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Okay, thanks, thanks Max. And look at if you're in
just Google Maps or something, just look for TRT and
hearing it. W'll give you the load with the one
nearest you. But also go try and hearing dot co
dot in Z. The Internet's pretty helpful that so these days,
and if you misspell it, they'll still go Did you
mean try and hearing? Yeah, that's the one. Thanks very much. Right.
More calls Beryl Hello.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Hello, Sorry, I've only just tuned in radio radio date
with you, but I couldn't get the name of your.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Visitor, Leslie Leslie.
Speaker 7 (33:19):
Okay, can I talk to Leslie?
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Yes, yes, I'm here.
Speaker 7 (33:22):
Berro Hello, Lucie, Look, I've only just chained. Don I
know that you're talking not to the last thing one,
but the one before at that tentatus with which I've
rung up. About what I would like to know is
a two on one question. One is can tinaous low
you're hearing? And two are they doing anything much about tinatus?
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Yeah, it's a really good question. Usually tinatus is a
side effect of hearing loss, So it's usually because your
hearing is down that you hear tinatus. And it's not
like it's going to make your hearing worse, but you'll
notice the tinatus louder the worse you're hearing is, and
you'll notice it louder in quiet places. So the best
(34:03):
thing to help with tinatus is twofold threefold. Probably One,
protect your ears from noisy sounds to avoid complete silence,
because that's when you'll hear it the worst. So if
you're trying to sleep at night, use like a fan
or some ambient sound. Put the radio on very softly.
That'll help to keep your ears busy, but not too loud,
(34:23):
just nice and softly in the background. And three, if
your hearing is down at all, try some kind of
hearing it that's not too loud, but just gives you
back the sounds that you're missing. So just gives you
back those soft sounds, and while you're wearing them, the
tenatus will go down about eighty percent. That's usually what happens.
Speaker 7 (34:44):
Yeah, that's Lousie so much.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Thanks, Beryl, cheers.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
Okay, nice to meet you, Beryl.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Somebody says that they had some hearing loss and they
went to someone who had performed a step addict to me,
which is something to do with that bone and the conductivity,
and it was said it was a miracle. Yeah, sort
of restortion of hearing loss.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
That's right. So for that person, those three little bones
of hearing and the ear drum, they act like an
amplifier like I was saying earlier. So if those three
little bones get too stiff, then the sound isn't amplified
going into the ear, so it's like wearing an ear
plug essentially. So having that little bone fixed would have
been yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Change changed his life. Yeah yeah, yeah, let's go to
another call. Bill.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Hello, oh h look reading.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Yes, hi Bill, I'm going to put you back to
my producer. We'll do a text or two and then
you can have a chat with him because you're just
a bit distant there. One of the questions we've got
someone about and worried about. My grandson constantly plugged in
with headphones twenty four to seven, working on zoom calls
at the gym, listening to music all the time. Is
this dangerous because my instinct would say, well, possibly if
(35:55):
he's got his settings wrong.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So again, it's any kind of noise
damage is how loud and how long you're exposed. So
the advice would be to where any kind of headphones,
either in the ear or over the ear headphones at
about fifty percent fifty to sixty percent, because that should
let you wear it safely for hours. It sounds like
that's what the situation is for this person. And as
(36:18):
you go louder and louder and louder, it just drastically
reduces the sound. So if you're wearing them at max,
for example, five to ten minutes would be damaging, So
you want to wear them around around mid volume.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Okay, here's another one from Kath. I have difficulty who
I'm talking with there, and there are other conversations going
on around me. I'm forty four sorts of a new
issue for me, it's likely a hearing problem or ADHD,
asks Kath, Well, we can't comment on ADHD. That does
sound like that is one of the one of the
signs that you would want to get your hearing checked
A nice Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
I would recommend just having a hearing test because it
could be that you're not deaf, but it could just
be very subtle at a couple of pitches.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
How much is the hearing what's the story with getting
your hearing checked?
Speaker 5 (36:57):
What's I mean free free test? Yep? Yeah, so we
believe in you know, awareness and getting your hearing test
before it becomes a problem. So hearing prevention is always
always the best. But yep, come in and have a
free test. You can have either a free screening or
a full diagnostic test, depending on what you need.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
So when do you start paying for things?
Speaker 5 (37:17):
Well, hearing aids aren't free, so you pay for hearing aid,
but we have free after care. So if you do
purchase a hearing aid, we're not going to run away,
and you have free appointments for life.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Okay, we need to take a moment. We'll be back
in just a tick. It's coming up to nine minutes
to five news Talk said, b.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
To soon Tuna.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
No, yes, welcome back. News Talk said, be gosh, time
flies when you're having fun. We're with the Leslie Smith Tritton,
Hearing's head of audiology. Look, look, we can only ever
scratched the top of the issues around hearing and all
the solutions that are there. But Leslie, the AI think
fascinates me as to the future of and it has
(38:07):
some people get upset about AI when it comes to
Google and not analyzing your data, but I want to
think that it comes to health products and things that
can improve your life. It really is quite exciting.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
Isn't that fascinating? Yeah, And it's been around for twenty
five years and hearing aids and it's only going to
keep getting better and better. So with the sound classifier,
so now the hearing aids can tell if it's music
and they don't alter the sound. In fact, they turn
off all the sound cleaning because of course you want
to hear music as pure as it is. They can
tell if you're on the phone, they can tell if
(38:37):
you're streaming, so they try to turn up the volume
a little bit and reduce the microphone a wee bit.
If they can tell if you're in background noise. If
it's background noise, that speech, and they can tell where
the speech is around you. So it's all around just
trying to trying to create that cocktail party effect. If
you have normal hearing, you can look at somebody and
focus on them and then chune everybody else out, or.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Even the entry level expenses, because imagine the price range
would be like any sort of thing, you can go
for the sort of basic one, but to get a
hearing aid as a relatively sophisticated hearing aid, what sort
of what's the ballpark that you're spending? Hard to say,
I guess.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
Yeah, well, middle of the road would probably be about
four and a half five and a half thousand for
a pair, and they start anywhere from five hundred dollars
for a pair.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
What are you getting for five hundred bucks?
Speaker 5 (39:26):
Two really good solid hearing aids Bluetooth capable, but without
all the sound classifiers.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Without the AI probably yes.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Yeah, so it would be more basic. It would be
more like I'm listening in quiet, or you can drive
it and say now I'm listening in background noise, so
they don't switch as automatically for you on their own.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
It's funny because well, I think sometimes with regards to
things that are important for our everyday existence and health,
we sometimes go all that's a lot, but then we
go spend fifteen hundred bucks on a cell phone without
thinking about it.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
Oh that's right.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
And so look, I'm not that I'm arguing either way,
but and yeah, the higher.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
Up in technology you go, the more and more automatic
it is, the more fidelity it has, it can and
cut down noise when you're in the car, for example,
so you can hear your passengers.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Just fascinating And if people want to learn more they
can go to Trent and Hearing And don't forget if
you want to check your hearing, it's free. Just call
up your local TRT and Hearing. And thanks very much, Leslie,
love to see you again.
Speaker 5 (40:19):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
We'll look forward to next time and we'll be back
just a minute. In just a moment, Smart Money is
next
Speaker 1 (40:27):
A very For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live
to News Talks it'd be weekends from three pm, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks
EDB and I.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Heard him seeing nothing's ever promised tomorrow the day when
a shot like timmisa hard away. So this is in
the name of love. Like Bribers say before you asked
me to go get a job today, can I at
least get a raised on a menu the wage? And
I know the government and Minister Age, so guess we
just pray like the Minister c I Bob throwing some
(00:31):
hot cars and things we see on the screen.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
And welcome back to the Weekend Collective. I'm Tim Beverage
and it's now time we want your cause. By the way,
I eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty text nine
and it's time for the Health Hub and joining us,
we're going to talk about hearing. And she is Leslie Smith,
ahead of audiology at Tritton Hearing and Leslie, good afternoon,
Good afternoon. Just get you to just fold your microphone
(00:55):
down a bit and just come a bit close to
it as a chatting that's great. How are you?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah? Good?
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Thanks? How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh? Pretty good? Now hearing wise, I have a chat
of it, but now we want your calls on hearing
any of the questions you've got about whether you're concerned
about hearing loss, or whether you are wondering whether you
need a hearing aid or someone else, or you want
information about what's the best way to prevent hearing loss.
But also if you are thinking you're going to need
(01:22):
a hearing aid, what's sort of what you would expect
at a typical a point where were basically everything about
hearing and hearing loss. And I think I actually think
the first way to start, I'm quite hot. I'm hot
at the moment on this topic. Fairly only because sometimes
when I come into the studio Leslie and I plug
in my headphones and they I can tell a person
(01:43):
who's just used them. I actually do say, gosh, I
think someone's got some hearing loss because they're quite loud.
But it's quite an insidious thing, isn't it that you
don't realize the changes that are going on in your
hearing because your brain is constantly adapting.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Yeah, yeah, right, you're right. It's a bit of a
chicky thing because noise damage is not just how loud
it is, it's how long you're exposed. And so it
could be that the volumes started off at a comfortable
level for those people, but then over the hours they've
slowly crept up the volume just to try to hear
over the background noise. Perhaps so, and it sneaks up
(02:18):
on you because you know they might not have noticed
it in a quiet place, but when they go to
background noise or restaurants or cafes that you know, you
might find you if it's someone in your family, you
might find that they're just watching a little bit more,
or they're laughing a little bit slower to the jokes, or.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Being a wallflower, because the brain does have quite an
amazing ability to compensate. I guess you start looking for
lip movement just to help confirm what you think you're
hearing exactly.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
You start watching a little bit more, and you have
your eyes and I guess you're the front part of
your brain trying to figure out patterns and to fill
in the gaps. So you end up working a bit harder.
So at the end of the day you've deciphered the
message the whole day long, so you might just be
a little bit more tired.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
One of the biggest dangers to or I don't know,
want to use dramatic language because then the wood that
came into my mouth was into my brain. Was hearing threats.
What are the biggest threats to people's hearing?
Speaker 5 (03:16):
The first signs?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I know, what are the causes? You know that the
major causes that the most troublesome causes.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Yeah, I'd say noise damage would be one. Another one
is any constriction to your blood flow. Actually, so diabetes,
heart disease. Anything that restricts your circulation can affect your ears.
So we all tend to lose our hearing a little
bit over age as well, So just the hair cells
in your ears, not the hair like on your head,
(03:43):
but little hair cells. When the sound comes in, they
bend over and that's what sends the signal to the brain.
So they just tend to get a little bit aged,
and that works so well.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Can you do anything to sort of give them a
bit of a shampoo condition? I mean I always ask
dumb questions because sometimes people will say, funnily enough, that's
not a dumb question because of X, Y and Z
and science.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
But anything that keeps your cardiovascular health as good as
it can be is the best thing you can do
to prevent any aging.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Where are those how far into your ear are those.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Little behind the ear drum and behind the three little
bones of hearing. It's the inner ear, which is shaped
like a snail and has billions of little wee hair
cells standing up. And as the sound wave goes through,
so think of it like a wave on the ocean,
it bends over those little hairs and off it sends
the signal to the brain.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So intuitively, I would imagine that there would be something
because if their physical structure and organic physical structure. But
I'm making this up as a go along. Is there
any work Is there any work going on with regards
to restoring people whose heirs have just gone that's the
online flat for the rest of the day.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yeah, Actually they've developed a drug that you can take
to regrow those hair cells. The problem is they haven't
figured out how to stop that growth, so there were
halfway there. And then there's also so a genetic kind
of hearing loss, which is similar to what I have,
and people are born without a certain protein and and
(05:11):
so there's there's something in the actual DNA that's that's missing.
And with the recent COVID epidemic and the vaccines using
a virus, you know, to transmit it. They've actually put
this gene therapy into the virus and injected into the
ear and they've restored when baby's hearing in the UK
so far, in particular hearing loss. Yeah, she had her
(05:34):
sister has double coclear implants, and she's had this gene
therapy using this virus as a vehicle to get it
into the ear, and her hearing is miraculously normal. It's
it's absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Oh my goodness, is that was she profoundly deaf at
the time?
Speaker 6 (05:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Yeah, profoundly?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
What can you tell her? A babies profoundly deaf because
by whether they were react because you can't say, hey,
can you hear this?
Speaker 5 (05:58):
I'm going to tell you something fascinating. Your eyes absorbed
light and that's what lets you see your ears. Right,
sound goes in, but you may not know that your
ear produces their tiny little echo of sound back out
of your ear. So they test babies by putting his
little headphones on. Sounds go in and they measure that
little tiny echo coming out to see if the hearing
is normal. And they also can test with just some
(06:21):
sticker electrodes that they put on the baby's head and
play sounds and watch the brain waves. So yeah, we can.
We can check to each frequency.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
And so what was the what was the physical Sorry?
So with the baby who had genetic hearing loss, Yeah,
and you said she was profoundly deft?
Speaker 5 (06:38):
Did you say profoundly zero or just a touch like nothing?
She was on the list for coclear implants. Yeah, and
her older sister already has co clear implants. Yeah. They
both had the same genetic mutations. So with this gene therapy,
it gave them back what they were missing protein wise,
and it fixed her hearing.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Why what did they do it? Why did they try
it on a baby rather than someone who was older.
Is it because they think that the development she could develop.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, I don't know the details of that. I'm not sure.
But her sister has the cocalarm plants. They're not going
to do that with her. She's she's happy with the
cochlearan plants and is carrying on doing well.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So I guess she feels it ain't bright, don't fix it.
Maybe that is amazing though, is that?
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Yeah? So I think we're going to see it in
our lifetime for sure.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Wow. Hey, by the way, just a quick question, is
the word deaf, okay these days, because you know how
people say, hey, what's wrong with you? Death or something
it feels I mean to people, is it Is it
a word that sort of you still use. It's like
as such and such as definitely you say you are
suffering from hearing loss, and death is more of a
I think it's.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Like everything description fit individual. But I grew up in
a deaf family and sign language is our first language,
and for us, deaf is the right term capital D deaf,
so we identify with deaf culture. You have a whole
different Yeah, but hearing loss, hard of hearing?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Checking the terminology because you never have, you know, because
times change and some words become It's like, okay, the
word would be if someone is disabled. People used to
throw around the word crippled, and that is not a
word you use. And that's why I was just checking,
because our terminology does change, and that's yeah, I was
hoping that was a reasonable.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
I'd say it's probably more acceptable hearing loss or hearing
impaired these days, but I think hard of hearing.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Is still so you have hearing aids yourself, yes, And
is that from just a young age or did you
get progressive hearing loss a.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
Bit of both, so yes, from a young age and
it is progressive, so it's getting worse every year. But
my grandparents profoundly deaf. You sign language. My dad's quite
hard of hearing. We all use sign language growing up
because of my grandparents being so close. And my daughter
has has a hearing loss as well, so it obviously
something runs in our family.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, so is that what you become an ordeologist in
steut of curious? I mean it does sound obvious as.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Well, but yeah, well, the thing is, nobody knows anything
about getting your hearing tested. You know, we see on
TV people getting their eyes tested, and you have the
eye chart in the in the doctor's office, but you know,
if you've never had your hearing tested, don't really know
what to expect. So when I was little, I was
back and forth all the time. I had four sets
of gromets as well, and you know I wanted to
(09:13):
be on the other side pushing all the fancy buttons,
not just the one button, you know. So yeah, that's
how I's how I got into it.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
How many changes, what changes have you seen so far
since you became an ordiologist? To head of audiology amazing.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Actually, So the first hearing aids that that I used
had had tiny little screwdriver adjustments and they were linear
and nothing was digital, and you had a million different
cables and plugs to plug the hearing aids physically. In
was the next step when they were analog but digitally programmable,
and now they're fully digital Bluetooth wireless. You just connect
(09:51):
everything wirelessly, and they even some of them even have
artificial intelligence inside to figure out background noise from speech
and enhance the speech and turn down the noise. It's
pretty neat.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
That is mind blowing. So it's not we're not just
talking an EQ here. We're talking art official intelligence which
is processing the sound and going hmm, that sounds like speech,
will pop that up. How quickly can it do it?
Speaker 5 (10:14):
In real time? Real time? Oh? Absolutely? And there's no
lag either with the Bluetooth connectivity. So I stream from
the TV straight to my hearing aids. Really yeah, and
I can hear it in real time without any any echo.
And my partner can watch a one volume, I can
watch at another volume, and you can even soon soon,
soon we'll be able to select different languages to listen
(10:36):
in in real time as well.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
So if you're hang on a minute, hold it so
I could be talking to you and you can say,
I could be talking in French and you would say,
just translate that for me as we go close.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
But not yet, I'm thinking about TV streaming. TV streaming,
so if it's been recorded in different languages, so Netflix,
for example, you can choose different languages. You know, if
your grandparents were from Korea and they wanted to watch,
you know, in their language, and you wanted to watch
in English.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Let's say everybody in real I was a step ahead
of it. Like in other words, you go on holiday
to Frantce and someone says something to you in French
and you would say and would translated.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
I don't think we're that far away though, because you
can stream that through your phone, so we could do that.
In theory, how big would your hearing aid need to
be to carry that sort of level of energy and
processing power? Not very big at all.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
You've brought in a collection of hearing aids. There are
the ones that look like there's a tiny there's three
that look like they fit over the back of your
ear with a tiny insertion into your ear, and then
there there's the big sort of old school clunky one. Yes,
I don't know if that's still in use now, but
it's molded saria. Yes, And then it gets a bit
smaller but smaller until there's one that's probably the size of.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
My probably.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Tip of my tip of my little finger, actually the
tip of a smaller person than me, but that is
it's way smaller than Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Yeah, for the recessing to determine speech from noise. It's
available in all of them. So the next level with
Bluetooth streaming, that chip is a little bit larger, the
receiver is a little bit larger, so that would be
probably from the medium sized battery upwards. And a lot
of them now are rechargeable, so there's that's also the
(12:25):
little charger case that I brought in that looks like
an air pod case kind of where the hearing aids
pop down into it and they charge overnight.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Are these so what's I'm guessing the most expensive one
is that one at the end that's tiny the size
of my pinky.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
That's a great question. Now the size is completely irrelevant.
It's what kind of computer chip and features are inside? Yep, yeah, okay,
so some people it depends on their type of hearing loss.
Some shapes will be more appropriate than others, and some
you need to have your own voice escape from your body,
so you can't block off your ear because you might
have excellent hearing for some sounds. So if you have
(13:00):
a partial hearing loss, you want one that doesn't block
off your ears.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Oh, I see, so one of the ones that fits
behind your ears with a much smaller and I don't.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Know what, do you call it a little sneaker that
goes in your ear?
Speaker 6 (13:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Yeah, and the little end on that speaker should have
lots of ventilation holes if your hearing is normal for
any of those pitches. And the other useful thing with
having the speaker in your ear is if your hearing
gets worse, you don't need to purchase any new hearing aids.
You just put a new speaker, a stronger speaker on
and it can keep up with you. So that's that's
the kind that I wear. So if my hearing continues
(13:32):
to get worse every year, then I don't need to
buy a new hearing aid. I just put a stronger
speaker on and then just adjust the sound output to match.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
In terms of the cause of general hearing losses. It
all to do with the hairs, those billions of.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
Hairs, not always, so that's a permanent hearing loss called
a sensory neural loss that's in the cochlea or the nerve.
But you can also have a conductive loss, which is
the ear drum or the three little bones of hearing.
So it's kind of like the equivalent of like an
amplifier basically, so you know, when you're underwater and you
can hear someone talking above the water, but it sounds
(14:05):
very very far away, that mismatch, that volume change. What
you'd need is an amplifier to hear somebody on the
other side. And that's what that part of our ear does.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It's funny because we're talking about hearing. I'm consciously adjusting
my headphones to see how much I need to turn
them down because I'm so tuned to it right now.
Just one other question. We're going to take your cause
by the way, eight hundred eighty ten eighty. There's lots
You may have lots of questions anything about hearing loss.
If you are concerned, you want to get some advice.
What's the procedure, what are you what are the range
(14:35):
of costs and anything that's involved with addressing your hearing concerns.
We want to hear from you on eight hundred eighty
ten eighty. You can text on nine two nine two.
Just one thing. I've always been curious about that if
it is a loud noise that causes those hairs to
lie flat, I guess or give up, how do you
prevent the cure not being the cause further cause, because
(14:58):
obviously a hearing aid turns up the sound, and so
how do you how do you stop that sort of
the cure being a cause of further ifness and just
chasing your tail?
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Yeah? Yeah, And what you're saying is like the glasses analogy, right,
Like if you're wearing glasses, your eyes get lazy, sort
of thing. With hearing aids, it doesn't really work like that.
So what tends to happen is the soft sounds. You
won't be able to hear them anymore. If it's noise damage,
you won't be able to hear the beginnings and ends
of the words just at a few pictures. So the
hearing aids will turn up the soft sounds enough that
(15:28):
you can hear them, but they still sound soft to you.
Medium sounds are turned up just a little bit and
then loud sounds are not touched at all or turned down. Actually,
so it's not like it's just overall volume. Everything is up.
It has has alternating volume depending on what the input.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Chris, it's fascinating. Look what your calls one eighty ten eighty.
My guest is Leslie Smith. She is Triton Hearings Head
of Audiology, so I think she's pretty well qualified to
answer answer your questions. If you've got me, we'd love
to hear from you. We've got lots we can talk about,
which will carry on with in just a moment this
news talk sai'd b. This is our health AaB. It's
(16:07):
twenty two and a half past four. Yes, and did
you know that one in six New Zealanders experience hearing
loss and choosing the right hearing solution for your individual
needs is important. Your local Triton Hearing team will work
with you to find the best hearing solution for your
(16:27):
listening needs, lifestyle and budget. So if you or someone
close to you is considering hearing aids, the twenty twenty
four Consumers Guide to Hearing Aids is out now and
available exclusively from Triton Hearing. It's the only truly independent
guide in New Zealand, so you know you're getting the
best advice. Find out about the latest hearing aids from
top brands. There's information on everything from features and styles
(16:49):
to a price guide to help you choose the right
hearing devices for your lifestyle and budget. To order your
free twenty twenty four Consumers Guide to Hearing Aids, simply
visit Tritonhearing dot co dot nz or you can call
on eight hundred forty five forty five forty two. That's
eight hundred forty five forty five forty two.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Property, parenting, politics plus health, money and the week's big issues.
It's all on the weekend Collector with Tim Beveridge used
Talk Sat B and we would.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Sign different dance and we would smoking runned things, making
a letter every song excepting Whiskey not taking but Marvel
singing Sweet Home Alabama, Our summer life. Yes, News Talk
(17:45):
set B eight hundred eighty ten eighty. This is the
week in collect for the health and my guest is
from Triton Hearing. It's Leslie Smith, Triton's Hearing. Triton Hearing's
head of audiology, and actually Leslie has brought in a
bunch of hearing aids for me to ever look at,
seven of them, including a sort of I don't know
how to describe it actually, but it's a little sort
of large bullet shaped device which Leslie acts as what
(18:06):
a remote.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Control, So the remote control. Yes, So for the tiny
hearing aids that go deep down in the canal that
are invisible, they're called iices invisible in the canal or
completely in the canal see ices. There's not enough room
for a Bluetooth chip because normally we would use your
phone smartphone app to be a full remote. But yeah,
(18:27):
it's like a little key chain that you can unscrew
the end of and it's got a little magnet that
you can hold close to your ear and it lets
you adjust through a couple of different volume stages or
different programs for different situations.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
You're telling me something interesting in the break about the
ability just so it's no longer just hearing fitscen rear
where you turn it up and down all and that's it.
You can for instance, you're saying if you go to
a quiz nite or something and the hearing and if
it's a bit loud and you're just you're hearing. Next
time you go to that quiz nit, because everything's linked
(18:59):
up with your phone's right, it'll say, oh, by the
way where it knows, oh we're quiz night, let's turn
down the volume.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
That's right. So it's part of the As I said,
the artificial intelligence has been around quite a while, but
there's a machine learning subset of it. So as you
go along every day, if you turn your volume up
on your app or in your remote control consistently, then
it will learn. So if you do that over three months,
(19:25):
then it will just start doing it for you so
you don't have to fiddle around with it anymore.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Amazing. Gosh, I love science. Doesn't science exciting? You know
what we can do? And that one you, by the way,
the thing about the gene therapy for the baby you
had hearing loss, that that is amazing. I think it's
very exciting.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
New.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Yes, look, I've got a few texts and we've got
well we're taking your calls on O eight one hundred
and eighty ten eighty What about this? One says guys
at work out wearing ear pods instead of ear muffs,
to listen to music. As an employer, where do I
stand on that. I'm of the opinion they are not
going to protect them cheers.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
That is such a good question. In fact, it came
up just yesterday and I've been doing some research on it.
But the it's I haven't found anything specific to New
Zealand yet. But from an employer's point of view, you
need to use hearing defenders that are certified and at
the right grading, And at the moment, the air pods
(20:20):
haven't been graded to my knowledge, so I would still
recommend that they use proper hearing defenders. But it is
an area that I'm going to do quite a bit of.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Research on, like hearing like literally hearing muffs that just
they block the sound as opposed to what about imagine
they're problematic, but noise canceling earphones and things.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah, yeah, and I think that's what that person texting
is inquiring about. So the AirPods or things that are
noise canceling, yes, they attenuate the sound, but they're not
certified according to the grading that they need for health
and safety regulations. It may be coming, but right now
I think you'd have to stick with the certified ear
muffs in order to meet the health and safety guidelines.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And actually you probably need to get some advice from
someone around your and obligation as an employer. But because
the people refuse to wear hearing and you've got to
give them a job to do, like go and operate
that chainsaw, and they say, I've got my EarPods and
and you're like, no, no, no, you've could put in
you want them to do the job. At some stage,
when does it become the just it's their fault, the employee.
(21:25):
But that's probably a legal question.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
And yeah, I'm not fully okay.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I didn't want to put any pressure on you on
that one. I should anyway, Right, let's go to some
calls stand by DearS.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Hello, oh hello.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
My question is I've got many years disease and I'm
deaf in one ear. We're going going deaf.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
My concern is will.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
It get progressively worse and then therefore have.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
To keep updating all the time to new aids? And
would the basic aid be okay? Because I can't afford
the expensive one?
Speaker 6 (22:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Have you got hearing aid now?
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Now I don't. I'm a bit to go and get
them right, right, So, with.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Many years disease. It often can be progressive, so it
may continue to drop a bit more. Without seeing your audigram,
it's a bit hard to say if it's dropped to
where it will stay or not, but I would factor
that into your decision making. And as I was saying before,
if you go for one that's behind the ear but
(22:32):
with a little speaker in your ear, they're quite discreet
because they have a little fine wire that's only one
millimeter that you can actually see and that goes down
into your ear. That's what I would recommend, because if
your hearing continue to drop, then you don't need to
purchase a new hearing aid. You can just get a
stronger speaker and have that one hearing aid adjusted as
(22:52):
you go. I would just a word of advice would
be to look for a provider that gives you maybe
free care and support going forward so that you don't
have to keep paying.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Yeah, that's when sure.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Yeah, I've always gone to try and so yeah, okay,
so behind the ear and the speaker in the ear.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Yes, yeah, that's what I would recommend, because then then
it could keep up with you and they do last
a long time. They're built for six years, but usually
the part behind the ear will actually last ten years
or so.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Right, okay, and sorry, go ahead. I just wondered does
it necessarily go to the other ear as well, or
does it affict the other ear that you had lost
the hearing because of many years in the other ear.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
That's a good question. Usually it will stay just with
the men years ear. There's rare cases where it's both years,
so probably it will be just the one ear is
the most likely scenario.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Okay, great, good, thanks good. Let's go to Alistair. Good Alistair. Hello, Hello,
I like to know.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
How long batteries will last in the future. Do you
think they may last five to teen years in the future.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
Oh, that's a good question. What kind of batteries do
you use?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Now?
Speaker 7 (24:21):
Oh I'm not sure. I'm not sure of a name, okay,
but of a trade name, I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
That's all right, that's all right. How long do yours last?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Now?
Speaker 5 (24:32):
How long do yours last?
Speaker 6 (24:34):
Now? A last three months?
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah? Okay, Oh that's good. So it's it's hard to say.
I'm not in the battery industry, but they do. They
do last longer and longer, so I know the rechargeable
ones last about two years now.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
Yes, they have improved over time.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
Yeah, yeah, it depends on how big they are too,
and what's inside the battery.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
Oh, yes, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Okay, thanks cheers ALUs the nastaying you might take care
bye bye. Hey, Actually, are some of them rechargeable these days?
I was looking at these really tiny ones. They don't
look like something. They all have a battery and that
lasts a long time. Or do you take them out
at night and pop them on something that charges them?
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Yes, they're both. So there's disposable batteries and some and
the tinier the battery, the faster they'll die. So the
tiniest ones are only two or three days. And then
if they're chargeable, then that's a more sensible way to
go because the last two years before the rechargeable battery
needs to be replaced. And then yep, just pop them
in a charger at nighttime and they just.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
They don't actually plug and it's just they inducted the
charge induction. Gosh, that's another bit of technology that blows
me away. Right, let's carry on with the Call's got
lots of texts and questions about this. Anthony High.
Speaker 8 (25:50):
Afternoon to both of you, Hi, I got pretty poor
hearing as a result of industrial power tools and things
back in the seventies and early eighties, at the time
when people weren't wearing we should have been. So also
on top of that, pretty severe tenus or tonight and
(26:13):
in recent times because I know my dad, who also
written in the same industry, had hearing aids up until
he passed away, and he had us through covered by
a SEC. I've been to two separate hearing tests where
you go into you're familiar with it, obviously soundproof room,
and you sit in that sound group room and you
put your headphones on and then you listen to a
(26:34):
series of different sounds, usually high pitched sounds. And the
first time that I did it, I came out and
the results came back and it said, no, you probably
wouldn't qualify for hearing aids. It's not very bad. And
I went, well, to be honest with you, in that booth,
my tonights and the high pitched noise that it actually
makes my ears made it difficult for me to positively
(26:58):
be sure that I'm actually properly hearing them, and I
put them through them and they said, come back again,
we'll have another tribe with what they call the test. Yes,
so I did that, but that sort of probably lean
in my favor a little bit more. But I still
felt that I was sitting in there pushing buttons. It
sounds that I wasn't. I was confusing between the tonight
this's and what they were playing. I actually don't think
(27:19):
it's an accurate test. It's difficult, isn't that what your opinion? Yeah,
it is, and maybe there's something else said I can do,
but I hand on heart. No, I've got hearing problems,
and I've got some good writs and i know what's
caused it. Yeah, And I'm not officient that wants to
go in there and play the fall and just say no,
I can't hear anything just so I can get Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Yeah, and that's right. I mean, you want it to
be scientific and you want it to be accurate, so
that that second test sounds like it was on the
right track for you. Because instead of using just a
flat beep, you know, just a beep, it's a bit
tricky to hear over the tenatus, so instead they played
you a warble sound, so it had kind of a
wiggly sort of a sound to it. To make it
a bit easier. There's a few other things that can
(27:57):
make it easier for you.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
To hear.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
They can beep the test on and off a few times,
because sometimes you can hear the on off better than
you can hear a flat sound, so that would be
my other recommendation is to have a warble and a
pulsed sound, and that will be easier for you to
hear over the tenetus. There's a few other objective tests
that can be done as well that you don't need
to rely on you pushing the button because it can
(28:22):
be challenging. And one is that OAE test I was
talking about earlier with babies, where they play a sound
in your ear and it measures the little echo coming
out of your ear, and that also can can help
to add, you know, to all the different pieces of
the puzzle for you.
Speaker 8 (28:39):
I feel that the bar is hit fairly high from
an a sec point of view, because I have no
doubt I've got hearing problems. I can't sort of cost
a table from someone in the room that's reasonably noisy
to hear what they're saying. All the symptoms are there,
and I thought this will be where I'm going I'm
going to have to go and get a hearing it
(28:59):
down two times in a row.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, it depends on the configuration of the shape of
the pattern of the hearing as well. So yeah, there's
lots of different factors. And then also with your age
as well, so there's there's several different eligibility criteria for ACC.
But it sounds like you've got a partial hearing loss
for sure. Some sounds like the clarity sounds might be.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Trickier with ACC. By the way, Anthony, I'd keep having
a crack at them. You make it difficult for them
to say no, okay, appeal, appeal, appeal, You'll be be
obstinate because I think so, yeah.
Speaker 8 (29:29):
I don't give up easy.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Good on you mate, Okay, thanks for good on. You're
good to know. Bye bye. Is coming up to twenty
to five News talkshit b got a bunch of calls,
plenty of text. So we're talking hearing with the head
of Triton Audiology hit Triton Hearings, head of Ideology. There
we go, Leslie Smith back in just a moment News Talks.
He'd be twenty to five. Welcome back to we can collective.
(30:05):
This is the health hub, and my guess is Leslie Smith,
head of ordeology at Triton Hearing, taking your calls. Let's
try and crack through as many as we can before
we wrap it up. Max. Hello, Hi.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
My question is is I've been dead for quite a while.
I've had five sets of hearing aids and I'm not happy.
I still can't hear very well. I've got my phone
on loud, I've got my hearing aids turned up. Should
I try some other hearing a person, Yeah, it.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Might be a good idea. Is it that they're not
loud enough, We're not clear enough? For Max?
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Well, my problem is is I hear somethings and then
other things just I'll never hear right. I've watched them
do the computer taste and all the rest of it.
I've ask them to turned them up. I mean I
can't when I play Bridge, sitting across to my car
partner on the other side, I have trouble hearing them
right right?
Speaker 5 (30:59):
And is it that the noise is too loud or
is it the voice is not clear?
Speaker 6 (31:03):
Well, I'm not sure because I've got on these hearing
aids that I've gotten now, which aren't quite two years old. Yeah,
I can turn them so I turned the background noise off. Yeah,
and I can turn them up so that I can
hear in front of me.
Speaker 8 (31:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Now, should I be going back and saying, look, these
hearing aids don't work.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
It sounds like they would need an adjustment because you
have all the features that you should have. The only
other thing I could recommend is like a remote microphone
that sits on the table or your partner wears, and
then you can hear that person from like ten meters
away really clearly. So that's the only other tech that
you could add to the system. But I would try
getting them readjusted first.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
So well, before I go back to my do you
have a triton hearing in Taranaki at all?
Speaker 5 (31:50):
In Taranaki? I'm sure we. I'm sure we must not
at the top of my head, but the address would be.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
Look, I might just look at that, because, as I say,
I've been beginning to get a bit annoyed with my
hearing aids because over the years, I mean I once
gotten sent back and saying I shouldn't work in the
dirty area. But I was a bloody plumber. Yeah, yeah,
I worked in dirty areas.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
We do have a great traiting clinic in New Plymouth.
Would that be you do? Yes, yep, yep.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Are you on the internet there, Max? Do you have
the Internet?
Speaker 6 (32:29):
I'm not very good, but I do. I couldn't have
it on my phone. I'm saying. It's just if I'm
on a c C. Would I still have to pay
AC fee or would I have to pay a full fee?
Speaker 1 (32:40):
No?
Speaker 5 (32:40):
No, you can just go along to a Traton clinic
and have a free full assessment and and then they
can give you some advice from there.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Okay, thanks, thanks Max. And look at if you're in
just Google Maps or something, just look for TRT and
hearing it. W'll give you the load with the one
nearest you. But also go try and hearing dot co
dot in Z. The Internet's pretty helpful that so these days,
and if you misspell it, they'll still go Did you
mean try and hearing? Yeah, that's the one. Thanks very much. Right.
More calls Beryl Hello.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Hello, Sorry, I've only just tuned in radio radio date
with you, but I couldn't get the name of your.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Visitor, Leslie Leslie.
Speaker 7 (33:19):
Okay, can I talk to Leslie?
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Yes, yes, I'm here.
Speaker 7 (33:22):
Berro Hello, Lucie, Look, I've only just chained. Don I
know that you're talking not to the last thing one,
but the one before at that tentatus with which I've
rung up. About what I would like to know is
a two on one question. One is can tinaous low
you're hearing? And two are they doing anything much about tinatus?
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Yeah, it's a really good question. Usually tinatus is a
side effect of hearing loss, So it's usually because your
hearing is down that you hear tinatus. And it's not
like it's going to make your hearing worse, but you'll
notice the tinatus louder the worse you're hearing is, and
you'll notice it louder in quiet places. So the best
(34:03):
thing to help with tinatus is twofold threefold. Probably One,
protect your ears from noisy sounds to avoid complete silence,
because that's when you'll hear it the worst. So if
you're trying to sleep at night, use like a fan
or some ambient sound. Put the radio on very softly.
That'll help to keep your ears busy, but not too loud,
(34:23):
just nice and softly in the background. And three, if
your hearing is down at all, try some kind of
hearing it that's not too loud, but just gives you
back the sounds that you're missing. So just gives you
back those soft sounds, and while you're wearing them, the
tenatus will go down about eighty percent. That's usually what happens.
Speaker 7 (34:44):
Yeah, that's Lousie so much.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Thanks, Beryl, cheers.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
Okay, nice to meet you, Beryl.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Somebody says that they had some hearing loss and they
went to someone who had performed a step addict to me,
which is something to do with that bone and the conductivity,
and it was said it was a miracle. Yeah, sort
of restortion of hearing loss.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
That's right. So for that person, those three little bones
of hearing and the ear drum, they act like an
amplifier like I was saying earlier. So if those three
little bones get too stiff, then the sound isn't amplified
going into the ear, so it's like wearing an ear
plug essentially. So having that little bone fixed would have
been yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Change changed his life. Yeah yeah, yeah, let's go to
another call. Bill.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Hello, oh h look reading.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Yes, hi Bill, I'm going to put you back to
my producer. We'll do a text or two and then
you can have a chat with him because you're just
a bit distant there. One of the questions we've got
someone about and worried about. My grandson constantly plugged in
with headphones twenty four to seven, working on zoom calls
at the gym, listening to music all the time. Is
this dangerous because my instinct would say, well, possibly if
(35:55):
he's got his settings wrong.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So again, it's any kind of noise
damage is how loud and how long you're exposed. So
the advice would be to where any kind of headphones,
either in the ear or over the ear headphones at
about fifty percent fifty to sixty percent, because that should
let you wear it safely for hours. It sounds like
that's what the situation is for this person. And as
(36:18):
you go louder and louder and louder, it just drastically
reduces the sound. So if you're wearing them at max,
for example, five to ten minutes would be damaging, So
you want to wear them around around mid volume.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Okay, here's another one from Kath. I have difficulty who
I'm talking with there, and there are other conversations going
on around me. I'm forty four sorts of a new
issue for me, it's likely a hearing problem or ADHD,
asks Kath, Well, we can't comment on ADHD. That does
sound like that is one of the one of the
signs that you would want to get your hearing checked
A nice Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
I would recommend just having a hearing test because it
could be that you're not deaf, but it could just
be very subtle at a couple of pitches.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
How much is the hearing what's the story with getting
your hearing checked?
Speaker 5 (36:57):
What's I mean free free test? Yep? Yeah, so we
believe in you know, awareness and getting your hearing test
before it becomes a problem. So hearing prevention is always
always the best. But yep, come in and have a
free test. You can have either a free screening or
a full diagnostic test, depending on what you need.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
So when do you start paying for things?
Speaker 5 (37:17):
Well, hearing aids aren't free, so you pay for hearing aid,
but we have free after care. So if you do
purchase a hearing aid, we're not going to run away,
and you have free appointments for life.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Okay, we need to take a moment. We'll be back
in just a tick. It's coming up to nine minutes
to five news Talk said, b.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
To soon Tuna.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
No, yes, welcome back. News Talk said, be gosh, time
flies when you're having fun. We're with the Leslie Smith Tritton,
Hearing's head of audiology. Look, look, we can only ever
scratched the top of the issues around hearing and all
the solutions that are there. But Leslie, the AI think
fascinates me as to the future of and it has
(38:07):
some people get upset about AI when it comes to
Google and not analyzing your data, but I want to
think that it comes to health products and things that
can improve your life. It really is quite exciting.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
Isn't that fascinating? Yeah, And it's been around for twenty
five years and hearing aids and it's only going to
keep getting better and better. So with the sound classifier,
so now the hearing aids can tell if it's music
and they don't alter the sound. In fact, they turn
off all the sound cleaning because of course you want
to hear music as pure as it is. They can
tell if you're on the phone, they can tell if
(38:37):
you're streaming, so they try to turn up the volume
a little bit and reduce the microphone a wee bit.
If they can tell if you're in background noise. If
it's background noise, that speech, and they can tell where
the speech is around you. So it's all around just
trying to trying to create that cocktail party effect. If
you have normal hearing, you can look at somebody and
focus on them and then chune everybody else out, or.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Even the entry level expenses, because imagine the price range
would be like any sort of thing, you can go
for the sort of basic one, but to get a
hearing aid as a relatively sophisticated hearing aid, what sort
of what's the ballpark that you're spending? Hard to say,
I guess.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
Yeah, well, middle of the road would probably be about
four and a half five and a half thousand for
a pair, and they start anywhere from five hundred dollars
for a pair.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
What are you getting for five hundred bucks?
Speaker 5 (39:26):
Two really good solid hearing aids Bluetooth capable, but without
all the sound classifiers.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Without the AI probably yes.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Yeah, so it would be more basic. It would be
more like I'm listening in quiet, or you can drive
it and say now I'm listening in background noise, so
they don't switch as automatically for you on their own.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
It's funny because well, I think sometimes with regards to
things that are important for our everyday existence and health,
we sometimes go all that's a lot, but then we
go spend fifteen hundred bucks on a cell phone without
thinking about it.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
Oh that's right.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
And so look, I'm not that I'm arguing either way,
but and yeah, the higher.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
Up in technology you go, the more and more automatic
it is, the more fidelity it has, it can and
cut down noise when you're in the car, for example,
so you can hear your passengers.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Just fascinating And if people want to learn more they
can go to Trent and Hearing And don't forget if
you want to check your hearing, it's free. Just call
up your local TRT and Hearing. And thanks very much, Leslie,
love to see you again.
Speaker 5 (40:19):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
We'll look forward to next time and we'll be back
just a minute. In just a moment, Smart Money is
next
Speaker 1 (40:27):
A very For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live
to News Talks it'd be weekends from three pm, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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