Blog

Simple strategies to preserve your hearing Many activities we enjoy or perform while working are known to be dangerous to the organs of hearing. These organs are located in the inner ear (cochlea) and are easily damaged by exposure to noise of sufficient loudness and duration. Countless patients...

Because we specialize in disorders of hearing, balance and dizziness, we see many patients with a variety of symptoms. Many have difficulty hearing, some are bothered by noises in their ears (tinnitus), some suffer disruptive dizziness, and some report poor balance. Earlier blog articles have explor...

Born deaf vs acquired hearing loss Those of us who deal with the ears and hearing impairment often make distinctions based on the onset of a patient’s hearing loss. There are many patients who gradually lose their hearing, due to heredity, noise exposure, aging or other factors. Some lose functio...

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is a life-changing experience. Fear and uncertainty are natural reactions, with complex plans for treatment following extensive diagnostic work. Treatments can be highly aggressive, ranging from surgery to radiation to chemotherapy. A patient’s options may produce lif...

A hearing loss/diabetes link Hearing loss has long been associated with many health problems or diseases. These conditions may directly cause ear damage, such as in labyrinthitis, rubella, middle ear infection and others. In some cases the treatment itself may affect ear function, such as chemoth...

Sudden hearing loss It is well known among hearing healthcare practitioners that the average person waits seven years between the first suspicion of a hearing problem and a first trip to an audiologist. This is partly due to the insidious nature of typical hearing loss. It “sneaks up on you” and...

The hearing-tinnitus connection and positive implications for patients. Several times in a typical week patients will say during the course of an office visit, “I don’t really hear my tinnitus when I have my hearing aids on”. These patients are among the majority of tinnitus patients who have sig...

On Wednesday, June 3, we visited The Village at Unity, an excellent senior living facility in Greece. Over thirty residents joined us for our presentation “Balance, your ears and hearing”. Balance problems and dizziness are very common complaints to physicians among seniors. Our focus was educating...

It has been said that the inner ear is a balance organ first, a hearing organ second. The snail-shaped inner ear is divided into the cochlea at one end and the utricle, saccule, and semicircular canals at the other. The cochlea contains the hearing organs. The other structures house the organs of ba...

The recently televised 2015 US Open golf tournament brought with it the usual drama of great players, a difficult course, golfers who played well but faded, and others who persevered and won and spectacular shots. This year’s tournament, however, featured another kind of drama that was televised int...

In the world of hearing healthcare, as in all professions, there are standards we all must maintain. Practices that are licensed to dispense hearing instruments have strict laws and codes of ethics designed to ensure patients are dealt with in a professional and fair manner. These guidelines involve...

On Wednesday March 11 we presented an in-service on benign positional vertigo to the volunteer staff at St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center in the South Wedge section of Rochester. Over a dozen physicians, nurses, interns and staff attended this interactive vertigo workshop. We explained the purpose of...

There has been increased awareness of noise damage to hearing lately. People are increasingly cognizant of the punishment loud noises or music can inflict on our ears. Temporary damage can become permanent damage over time. OSHA has established guidelines about workplace noise “dosages”, and shooter...

Very often patients will ask us why they cannot hear well in noisy places, such as restaurants. Some of these people have normal or near-normal hearing. The situation is puzzling to them, since they don’t present with significant decrease in hearing, yet they are noticing a breakdown when in challen...

FREE BOX of BATTERIES contest!!! We want to thank you for being a patient at Clear Choice Hearing & Balance or one of our Facebook fans!!! To be ENTERED into the CONTEST you must LIKE “AND” SHARE this FACEBOOK post. The DEADLINE for ENTRIES is JANUARY 31, 2015! The box will be whatever siz...

We have long been proud to present a collaborative approach to the care of patients’ ears and hearing. With every patient we seek answers and direction from not only the patient’s symptoms and history, but also from our diagnostic testing. This may push us to ask about other systems in the body. It...

Frequently we will see patients with disruptive ear symptoms. These may be sudden hearing loss, plugged ear sensations, sudden-onset tinnitus, veering while walking or spinning dizziness sensations. Some of these people will wait weeks or even months to be examined. This may be due to either lack of...

You probably would not find it unusual for your primary physician to ask many questions regarding your health. We all know PCPs need to take a thorough history in order to fully diagnose and treat a problem or refer to an appropriate specialist. As audiology and hearing professionals, we often ask q...

On Friday, September 5, 2014 we visited a rehearsal of the Fairport High School Day Jazz Band, directed by Bill Tiberio. We have “adopted” this award-winning ensemble as part of the Adopt-a-Band program initiated by Etymotic Research. Students had an opportunity to learn about hearing, acoustics, th...

The vast majority of patients seen for hearing loss present with roughly the same hearing in each ear. Symmetric hearing is expected in typical cases related to aging, noise exposure, toxicity, heredity and many disease processes. Noise exposure may affect one ear to a greater extent if a constant s...

By now you may have heard of new hearing technology that is able to link (“stream”) your iPhone or other smart phone to hearing aids. The idea that a hearing aid user may be able to listen to a mobile phone through hearing aids via a wireless connection is long in coming, but it has become a reality...

Recently a female patient in her early 60s came to our office and reported she felt she had lost virtually all her remaining hearing over the past month. She had a long history of hearing loss, middle-ear disease, Eustachian tube dysfunction and multiple ear surgeries. She is a hearing aid user, but...

Much is known about the deterioration of hearing caused by noise exposure, toxicity and the aging process. Inner-ear or “sensory” hearing loss accounts for the majority of cases seen in hearing centers and reflects the risk factors of the population. Hearing, however, relies on more than the ear. Th...

Much has been written, here and elsewhere, about treatments for tinnitus, the often bothersome perception of phantom sounds. These sounds are reported as ringing, buzzing, hissing, humming or other essentially steady sounds in one or both ears. In our experience the problem is not the noise itself,...

Lately it seems hard to escape the constant flow of pharmaceutical commercials and print ads for a seemingly endless list of maladies. In our own office we see many patients whose medication lists span more than a full page. All of the drugs listed may be necessary and effective, however, do ALL dis...

Seek local professionals who are truly local. Much has been made in the press lately about businesses and jobs leaving or staying in New York State. One can easily argue the pros and cons of remaining in NY, however, it is no secret we have a long-standing tradition of excellence in the Rochester ar...

Screenings vs diagnostic evaluations Hearing centers may occasionally produce marketing materials enticing potential patients or clients with “free hearing screenings”. While the idea of getting some service for free may be appealing, and while quick screenings can be useful at informal occasions...

Many people use “dizziness” and “vertigo” interchangeably. While the group of conditions known as vertigo produce dizziness sensations, not all dizziness is vertigo. Let us examine the difference in these terms. Dizziness essentially refers to a sense of physical disorientation in space or illuso...

Just as our eyes inform us of the position of people or objects in our environment, our ears are also directional. Young children learn to turn their heads towards a sound. Stereo recordings fill our heads with music that stretches from side to side and fills the space in between. It is also not dif...

TreaOften we see patients with hearing loss who refer to themselves as “deaf”. Spouses may also chime in, “See, I told you you were deaf”. While we do not downplay the effects of hearing loss, we always gently correct the speaker when it is not used correctly. Mild or moderate hearing impairment and...