Making the Most of your Hearing
Hearing loss is still seen as a disability by many people. Accepting help from a hearing system still has a lot of stigma attached to it. This section of our website will highlight the experiences of inspirational people who don’t let their hearing loss affect their lives and have benefited from the assistance of Oliver Wright and DIGIClear.

Beverly Tankard has had hearing loss for 4-5 years now. She owns a book shop in Chingford and came to see us in 2006 to get some information on hearing loss and private hearing systems. The following are her feelings on hearing loss and seeking assistance.

Q: How did you become a bookshop owner?
A: I’ve always loved books and about 20 years ago I became very dissillusioned working in local government and a good friend working in the book trade helped me start my own shop. I’ve not looked back since.

Q: When did you first realise you had a hearing problem?
A: It was about 4 or 5 years ago; I began to realise I couldn’t hear the customers properly and would confuse P’s for B’s and S’s for F’s. My colleagues had to help me out by telling me what was being said…

Q: How did your hearing loss make you feel?
A: I felt cut-off and de-skilled. It got so bad that in 2006 I thought, that’s it, I’m going to do something about this.

Q: What has been your experience with DIGIClear Hearing Aids?
A: I was surprised at how young Oliver Wright was and how he was so reassuringly matter of fact about hearing
loss. During the fitting and follow-ups, as he explained what was going on, I steadily began to feel less embarrased about my hearing impairment and the fact that I wore hearing aids.

Q: How do you feel about your hearing loss now?
A: I’ve always been able to laugh at myself, but I couldn’t over my hearing loss, it was no joke. Now I would say that I am now quite the opposite and I don’t even mind showing people my Oticon Delta hearing aids. Before, I couldn’t watch video recordings of my favourite TV programs (like LOST) without having the sound turned right up, as there are no subtitles on programs recorded on VCRs. But it doesn’t matter now, as I watch TV with the ‘sound bar’ at 25%-30%, rather than at 66% which is where the sound was before…

Q: What advice would you give to others with a hearing loss?
A: Bite the Bullet - go to someone you can trust. Even though I’d remembered reading that if you stimulate your hearing more, it prevents it from going dormant, the ‘big-body’ NHS aids were not for me (and I’d tried them), so I ‘went private’. Yes, it can seem expensive – but what’s important to you? My hearing certainly is important to me, and it is essential that I hear well for my business. A hearing aid is never going to give you the hearing you had as a child, but I would say the Oticon Delta has restored about 70%-80% of what I had and it’s certainly well worth going to the bother of getting a hearing aid.

Rebecca has had a profound hearing loss for most of her life and relies on lip-reading for communication. Now in her 20’s she has had plenty of experience with hearing loss and the various forms of hearing system. In her own words Rebecca explains the process she went through getting used to her new hearing aids and how they benefited her. We hope you enjoy it!

“My story starts 2 years ago: I received digital hearing aids from the NHS and was very excited about them. These hearing aids improved the sound quality by having 3 switches to adapt to the different environments I found myself in. For example, if I was in a busy restaurant, I would switch to the 2nd setting to quieten down the background noise and focus the microphones directly to the person I was talking to. This was much better than my old hearing aids, but I found it annoying to keep switching the hearing aids according to where I was. Despite this, however, I didn’t think anything better would come along.

A few months ago at work while typing away at my computer, I was approached by my boss who told me enthusiastically about the newest digital hearing aids that his friend Oliver had been telling him about and that he would like me to try them out. I thought to myself, ‘how can they top the ones I already have?’ But as I listened to my boss explaining to me that Phonak had designed and created new smaller digital hearing aids called microPower, which will work on someone who is profoundly deaf, I quietly grew excited and curious and wanted to test them out!! On the train journey up to Oliver, I was really excited, but very nervous at the same time. I tried not to be too hopeful because there was always the possibility that it might not work. I kept thinking, how could tiny hearing aids benefit a profoundly deaf person who had needed big and powerful hearing aids all her life? A chat and a couple of hearing tests later and Oliver revealed the new hearing aids. They looked so small with really thin tubing attached to a tiny ear piece which you place inside the canal of your ear. Before I had a vague picture in my mind of these aids, but had no idea that it was possible for a hearing aid to be so small. Because of this I was worried I would have to turn them up to the maximum volume and consequently annoy those around me with that continuous high pitch whistling which sometimes happened with my old ones. After expressing this concern I was immediately reassured by Oliver that this would not happen.

After putting them in my ears, it felt very strange. First impressions – they felt really light! I kept having to touch them to make sure they were in my ears! Due to the lightness of these hearing aids, I didn’t have any discomfort as I sometimes had with my old ones: they would rub a lot on the tip of my ears and sometimes at the end of a long day I had to take them out to give them a break. After several months of wearing the new hearing aids, I have never had that problem! Another difference was that my ears felt what I can only describe as being empty without the full old earmoulds and this became very noticeable once I walked into the cold air – momentarily I felt sorry for the hearing people who didn’t have earmoulds to keep their ears warm all winter! The mould with the old digital hearing aids kept my ears warm but because the new earmoulds fit very comfortably only inside the ear canal, the rest of the ear is completely free. It is amazing – you can’t see the mould. However, after a few days of wearing them my ears began to get used to it and now it is like second nature.

Now for the sound – this was the scariest part. I so wanted them to work. After I switched them on, the sound was very quiet. I asked Oliver how to turn the volume up and he produced this very cool gadget style key ring! The volume and T switch is controlled via this key ring which makes life easier. The volume is done in steps and is equal in both hearing aids, whereas with the old ones you can’t really see what number the volume is on unless you take them out. I immediately turned the volume up and up and up and it still wasn’t as loud as the old ones – I felt slightly worried because I love volume and asked Oliver how to make them really loud. He explained that I couldn’t because these hearing aids were designed to focus on the clarity and not volume of noises and that this was something I’d get used to and be happy with in the long run, I remember feeling slightly disappointed though! But I thought they would still be worth a try for a month, after all I’d only had them in for 5 minutes. After a few hours wearing the aids, I picked up more sounds than I did with my old aids. I would have thought logically the louder the volume on the hearing aids, the more sounds they pick up. But in fact, I realised that it is not volume that matters, rather it is the clarity of the noises.

I asked Oliver how you could adjust the hearing aids sound according to the different environments like I could with the old ones. The surprise was that you don’t! These hearing aids do it automatically! Initially this felt a bit overwhelming. For example, when I go to the cinema, the theatre or watching TV, the hearing aid would automatically change the tone and volume. This can be a bit daunting because I am continually wondering why some noises had been quietened and how it was done for me. After talking to Oliver about this experience, he explained that the reason the hearing aids change is to try and make sounds around you fit into the comfort zone of your ears. I thought this was clever for someone who is hard of hearing, but is it really beneficial for me since I have such a profound hearing loss? When Oliver told me it was possible to change the sensitivity of these comfort adjustments I felt positive again. Now there was less automatic quietening of sounds and I really enjoyed watching the finals of the X-factor nice and loud! It is amazing how much technology has improved – at last hearing aids that could be tailored to my individual needs. Every deaf person is different and has various preferences and this is why these hearing aids are perfect because they can be adjusted accordingly.

Sounds are clearer and sharper. For example, after leaving Oliver’s office I could hear someone walking behind me on the way to the train station. On train journeys I could hear the ticket inspectors shouting behind me and so I was prepared to give them my ticket before they came over. Even as I am doing the shopping, I can hear shop assistants speaking to me when I am looking away – before I couldn’t do this, my friends would step in and explain that I am not being rude, I am deaf. I don’t have that problem anymore, well at least I hope not anyway!

It is important at this point to stress that these hearing aids make me more aware that someone is speaking to me, but it doesn’t help me to hear what they are saying. I still have to rely on lip-reading and facial expressions. It does take time to get used to the volume changes, but soon I became used to it and began to prefer the clarity over the volume of my old aids.
I would like to say a big thank you to Oliver at DIGIClear Hearing Aids for introducing me to the microPower hearing aids because they have made a huge impact on me in the past couple of months at work and socially. My friends and family noticed that I am more confident socially and for this reason I would recommend them to anyone!”