Chattanooga, TN – This week we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Tiffany Ahlberg from Ahlberg audiology to talk about the tech that’s available to those with hearing loss. My grandfather was always obsessed with gadgets and when he got hearing aids he was always looking for the next tech to come his way. Unfortunately he was not here to meet Dr. Ahlberg but the technology we have now is truly remarkable.
“There are so many different techy things when it comes to audiology. I feel like my whole job revolves around Tech stuff and so it doesn’t matter if it’s hearing devices like we fit for people with hearing losses or if it is something like a cochlear implant which is for very severe hearing losses and people with impaired word understanding but they both involve a lot of technology,” says Ahlberg. “So this cochlear implant is a piece that is surgically implanted Under the Skin by a surgeon, usually is an ENT or an neurotologist and then once the surgery is completed there is a piece a headpiece that is worn which looks very much like a hearing aid and it is able to be programmed for the person’s hearing loss so it is like a traditional hearing aid almost except it’s using a different technology to get that sound into the inner ear.”
According to Dr. Ahlberg there are now test that can be done on newborns to determine if there is hearing loss or impairment, and this surgery can be performed early on so the parents have the option at a very young age to make that decision. If the tests prove they are eligible for the cochlear implant, the technology can correct for deaf or severe and profound hearing losses.
Hearing aids obviously are not new technology, but the things they can do compared to the set my grandfather got in the 90s have come a long way. According to Dr. Ahlberg, most hearing aids now can be synced via Bluetooth to numerous devices so they technologically are not much different than the ear buds people wear. They can connect to phones, TV’s and now they have rechargeable batteries so you won’t be seeing people in line at the drugstore trying to figure out which batteries fit in which hearing aid.
As we close out our series on Nationals Speech Language Hearing Awareness month, I have a very special thank you to Ahlberg Audiology and Dr. Tiffany Ahlberg for the work that they do, and for making time to be a part of Tech Byte.
