Five Questions for LeRoy Courier on Hearing Aids

Taking care of your hearing is vital to your health and sense of well-being. From Pensacola, FL, to Fairbanks, AK, hearing centers run by Miracle-Ear are available to help you improve you hearing with the assistance of state-of-the-art hearing aids. According to LeRoy Courier, the sole owner and operator of Miracle-Ear?s hearing center in Fairbanks, AK, educating his patients on hearing loss and hearing improvement is one of the best steps one can take to improving their hearing health. In an effort to educate others, Courier sat down with this reporter to respond to five key questions on hearing aids.

1. What is the most common cause of hearing loss that results in a need for hearing aids?

?Too much continuous loud noise. Case in point, I had a 15-year-old kid a couple years back in my hearing center in Fairbanks, AK, that we had luckily tested the year before and his hearing was normal. He had an iPod, and he was blaring it all the time. Within one year, he went from having normal hearing to needing hearing aids.?

2. What are your patients most common concerns on your hearing aids.

?Normally, it?s cost and whether people will see them. Since we have a 3-year warranty across most of the lines puts our patients at ease.?

3. How much improvement can a patient expect from hearing aids?

?That one can be hard to quantify. Hearing loss is more perceptive than eye loss, so we can say, if your eyesight is 20/20, and mine is 20/40, we?ll probably have the same prescription. But with hearing loss, the person?s perception can affect it. I?ve had people where I can look at their hearing tests, out the door they?d go, and they could swear up and down that they did not notice a difference. Then, I have other people that have such a slight loss, that I?ll throw a set of hearing aids on them, and they?ll say, ?Oh, my God! It?s so much better!? That?s why I like to demo hearing aids first in order to let the patients try them so they can actually see whether they would get a benefit.?

4. Are all hearing aids customized to a patient?s ear structure?

?Yes and no. If they require a custom ear mold, then yes, it will be custom-fit. Or, it could be like some of the open-fit technology that is composed of a preset series of tips. Over time, their body heat will shape the tubing, so it?s sort of molded to their ear, but there?s no real custom-fitting involved.?

5. Is there anything you can do to prevent hearing loss from occurring?

?Beforehand, there are lots of things you can do. There?s a whole variety of ear protection that you can use. They have different industrial standards for hearing protection, so if you?re doing one thing, and you may need something a little stronger, you can upgrade. Some people will use ear plugs and ear muffs; some people will use noise-cancelling headsets, so they can sit there and talk normally. I prefer custom-fit ear protection.?

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