Easter Opening Hours 2013

House of Hearing will be closed on Good Friday 29th March up to and including Easter Monday 1st April. We will reopen on Tuesday 2nd April.

Have we earned your vote?

People of all ages around the UK are being invited to join the search for the country's top hearing expert. Audiologist of the Year is recognised as the leading accolade for hearing professionals and is judged by an independent panel of industry experts.

The award recognises the work of audiologists throughout Europe who go beyond the call of duty in their quest to deliver a life changing service for their patients and clients. Patients with inspirational stories to tell are encouraged to vote. It may be your hearing professional has provided support at a time of real need or delivered care over many years. Anyone can enter providing you've had a hearing device fitted in the last five years. All you need to do is to tell about the care you received and the difference it has made to your life. If you would like to help us again this year email us for a nomination form which you can download or complete on line.

www.audiologistoftheyear.eu

Why I'm looking forward to IEMs with ambient mics...

In a welcome development for current and prospective in-ear-monitor users, ACS have recently launched their Live! versions of their T-series custom IEMs.

IEMs from ACS are made from medical grade soft silicone, which gives unbeatable comfort and a perfect fit in the ear, ensuring that external sound is reduced by the maximum amount possible. This is an unmentionable bonus when listening to, for example, an mp3 player on public transport. Earlier this year, on a flight to the States, there were not one but two babies making themselves heard most of the way across the Atlantic. Plugged into the aircraft's entertainment system with my ACS T2s, I was only even remotely aware of the screaming when the movie I was watching went silent.

However, for musicians playing in a live environment, this almost total exclusion of external sound can be a problem. While the mix in your ears is carefully controlled and balanced, there is a deadness to being shut off like that which is difficult to describe, and fairly disconcerting. Shutting out the onstage noise from drums and guitar amps is nice... but it also removes the sensation of being connected to what else is going on on stage, and in particular, with the audience. Up to now, being a keyboard player in a band from time to time, I have got round this either by taking one monitor out, or if it was available, setting up a condenser microphone somewhere near me and feeding that in to my in-ear mix. The microphone solution is the better of the two, although it adds hassle and cost to the experience. Removing a monitor from one ear re-connects you to reality and returns you to the 'live' experience, but, perhaps particularly as a keyboard player playing stereophonic samples, ruins your in-ear mix, subjects your ear once again to potentially dangerous levels from drums and amps, and leaves you wondering why you spend a sizeable chunk of cash on a pair of in-ear-monitors.

This is why the built-in mics in the new ACS Live! series are so promising. A beltpack control unit will be available soon (estimated March 2012) allowing you control over how much external sound you get in the mix, which will inevitably be a different amount for different musicians, and differ from gig to gig and from venue to venue. Until then, the ambient mics will be disabled.

The second important feature in the new range is a removable cable. With IEMs being inserted and removed regularly by gigging musicians, the cable can be put under a fair amount of strain, most especially at the point it joins the monitor shell. With a recessed socket preventing damage to the contact pins, this should translate into more reliable and robust performance from the IEMs.

Hats off to ACS.

Battery offer now on!

With the Christmas season now upon us, we at the House of Hearing are delighted to extend our goodwill to all customers. Our incredibly popular battery offer returns once again this year, with a twelve pack of batteries on offer during December for £4.00 (normally £6.00).

House of Hearing comes to Glasgow!

House of Hearing are delighted to announce the opening of a new centre in Glasgow! This is a joint venture with Scotland's leading independent optical chain, Black & Lizars, and is the first of what we hope will be a series of new dispensing locations throughout Scotland.

The new store is situated in their highly impressive Fenwick Road branch, in the south side of Glasgow, and our dedicated audiology suite within the centre sits perfectly alongside the high level of clinical eye care and optical products already available in the store.


Colin I'Anson, one of our younger dispensing audiologists, originally hails from this part of the world, and he has taken responsibility for managing the store. Providing a centre in Glasgow is obviously a boon to many of our existing customers from the west, and part of our strategy to offer what we see as the highest level of digital hearing aid provision throughout Scotland.

If you wish to make an appointment to see Colin then please contact the store directly on 0141 621 1122.

New Staff Member!

We are delighted to welcome a new recruit to the House of Hearing staff.

David Parsons joined House of Hearing at the start of September and is enrolled on a two year hearing aid dispenser training programme linked to Queen Margaret University.

David already has qualifications in sound engineering and has worked in theatre production both here in Scotland and also on cruise liners across the world. With his technical expertise and wealth of colourful experience, we are sure he will fit in well on the good ship H of H!

Why do we have earwax?

The outer ear is made up of the ear itself and the canal that leads to your eardrum. The ear canal is about one inch long. The skin of the ear canal contains wax-producing glands that are not present anywhere else on your body.

At first, you might wonder why the ear canal is designed that way. After all, the ear canal is like a tunnel that needs to be open for you to hear properly. So why coat it with wax? Well, the skin that lines the ear canal is very sensitive, and a coating of wax helps protect it. In addition, because earwax is sticky, it can trap dirt and objects that accidentally get into the canal entrance before going any deeper. The quantity and quality of earwax vary from person to person - some people make lots of wax while others make very little.

The most important thing to know about earwax is that you should leave it alone. The ear canal will naturally self clean itself but if you try to remove earwax with a cotton bud, it usually accomplishes one of two unintended goals: Either the wax is pushed in deeper and potentially blocks the canal or the sensitive skin lining the canal is scratched which can lead to infection.

For details on House of Hearing's microsuction wax removal service, click here!

Waxing lyrical...

House of Hearing's reputation is built upon the provision of the highest level of care and service to our clients. We know that ear wax (or cerumen to give it the correct name) is not the most pleasant of substances, but if there’s one thing that regularly affects our patients, their hearing aids and our ability to carry out our job, it's wax! Blocked ears render hearing tests inaccurate, cause even the most sophisticated hearing aids to malfunction or whistle, and ear impressions to be useless.

Nearly two years ago House of Hearing established a full wax removal service in our Edinburgh centre. This service is provided by Mairi Macleod, who is both a registered nurse and a hearing aid audiologist. Mairi trained as an aural care nurse at Rotherham Primary Health Ear Care Centre, under the auspices of Sheffield University and then completed further specialist training in wax removal using microsuction through Stoke Mandeville hospital with Mr Ian Botrill, consultant ENT surgeon.

Wax removal is done using a microsuction machine, rather than the older irrigation techniques. This advanced practice, employed by ENT surgeons, is regarded as the safest method of wax removal. Mairi also illustrates the effects using video otoscopy, providing customers with a clear view of the ear canals before and after the procedure. In keeping with the high standards that we set at House of Hearing, her professionalism is regularly praised - by staff and customers alike.

Our wax removal service is available fortnightly, on a Tuesday or Wednesday at our Edinburgh premises. This service is available to our clients and members of the public. We are happy to take referrals from GP surgeries too, and will provide a report, including otoscopy photographs where required.

To make sure you ear canals are up to the job why not arrange to come in and experience the service for yourself.

Vote now!

Vote for your hearing care professional - People of all ages around the UK are being invited to join the search for the country's top hearing expert.

Audiologist of the Year is recognised as the leading accolade for hearing professionals and is judged by an independent panel of industry experts. Hearing aid wearers and the hard of hearing are encouraged to nominate hearing specialists for the 2011 Rayovac Audiologist of the Year award. The exciting award aims to celebrate the skill and dedication of the UK's 3000 plus hearing professionals who make a huge difference to the lives of their patients.

Patients with inspirational stories to tell are encouraged to vote. It may be your hearing professional has provided support at a time of real need or delivered care over many years. Anyone can enter providing you've had a hearing device fitted in the last five years. All you need to do is to tell about the care you received and the difference it has made to your life.

Anyone interested in entering the competition can find out more here where you can also cast your vote. The closing date for entries is July 15th 2011 and entries are judged on the quality of the story they tell.

House of Hearing upgrade testing suite

House of Hearing recently took delivery of a brand new Otometrics Astera high frequency audiometer, along with Otometrics' latest Aurical Freefit real-ear and visible-speech-mapping system, bringing several new dimensions to the testing and verification suite in our Edinburgh office.

With Edinburgh's tram project having hit the buffers somewhat, the prospect of quietly-efficient public transport passing by on the adjoining Shandwick Place is still something of a dream, and so all testing in the new suite is done in a soundproof booth.

The new audiometer allows testing to be carried out up to 20kHz (conventional audiometers are restricted to 8kHz), bringing a more complete picture of the hearing loss, and allowing the full performance of today's state of the art hearing aids to be unleashed. Modern hearing instruments are capable of amplifying up to 8kHz and in some cases even higher.

House of Hearing staff who have tried out their hearing with the new audiometer have been somewhat dismayed by their complete inability to hear anything above 16kHz...

Readers of this blog are invited to make an appointment to see if they can do any better! Give us a call on 0131 220 1220, or contact us via the website.

Going loopy at the Festival

As many of you will know, House of Hearing have branches in the Borders and Fife, as well as our main office in Edinburgh. Recently our Galashiels branch was asked to become involved with the Borders Book Festival and I am delighted to say that we have been able to support the festival with the provision of loop systems for hearing aid wearers at several venues. The event takes place from 17-20 June and attracts excellent speakers from the UK and beyond. I would encourage you to attend. For more information look at the website, or contact 0844 357 1060.