Yes you can, but it depends largely on the type of hearing loss. Conductive hearing losses can be helped by drugs or surgery, but only a small proportion are. The majority of Sensori Neural losses unfortunately cannot be helped in this way. Most people with hearing difficulties find that a professionally prescribed hearing aid will improve their hearing.

It is important to remember that although hearing aids can make the best of your residual hearing, they cannot physically alter your natural hearing mechanism or return your hearing back to a normal state.

Individuals with a mild or high frequency hearing loss may not be fully aware of the problem. However, family members and friends often recognize that the person has trouble hearing in groups or sometimes does not understand what is being said. Individuals with a hearing loss will usually know they are having trouble since they have to strain to hear and understand in many situations. They often need the T.V. volume to be loud or are not able to hear effectively on the telephone.

There are many different causes of hearing loss, which can affect all ages. Some common causes are hereditary, trauma, disease, noise exposure and the aging process.

Conductive Hearing Loss occurs when the transmission of sound through the outer and /or middle ear is interrupted. The common causes are wax buildup in the ear canal, a perforated eardrum, fluid in the middle ear, or damaged ossicles. Sensorineural Hearing Loss occurs in the inner ear affecting the transmission of sound. Common causes are exposure to loud noise, trauma, the normal aging process, and disease. Mixed Hearing Loss occurs in the outer and/or middle ear and the inner ear.

Sound enters your ears in sound waves. These sound waves hit your eardrum and are converted to pressure changes in the inner ear. This causes special nerves to impulse, which are read by your brain as sound. When these nerves are exposed to a surplus of pressure changes, they may become damaged. You may have noticed that if you listen to loud music for several hours that your ears "ring." This is a Temporary Threshold Shift, or a temporary reduction in hearing.

long as you have some hearing, they will work. And, you do not need to have equal hearing in each ear. Any hearing in one ear will be enough. People have even reported results when the hearing was entirely by bone conduction.

All infants should be screened for hearing loss before 1 month of age, preferably before leaving the birth hospital. The age of a child when a hearing loss is diagnosed is important to the development of the child’s speech, language, cognitive, and psychosocial abilities. Without universal screening by 1 month, the average age at which hearing loss is identified in children is 2 to 3 years old. Newborn hearing screening costs about $30 per child and takes about 9 minutes to do.

If you think you have a hearing loss, please contact your physician soon. In some cases, hearing loss can be prevented from worsening. back to top

Hearing loss is a very prominent condition in our society. It affects 28 million Americans (10% of the population), including 35-40% of people over the age of 65 and 50% over the age of 74 years old. In some cases, hearing loss can be congenital, meaning that the person could be born with a lack of hearing.

Candidates for surgery are usually at least 100 pounds over their ideal body weight. Another measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI) The body mass index is your height in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters. There are several web sites that have body mass calculators. Generally a body mass of 40 or higher qualifies for surgery, or over 35 with certain health problems called co-morbidities.

Most patients lose weight rapidly for 18 to 24 months after surgery. Some patients may then regain some of their lost weight, although few will regain it all. Surgery also improves most obesity related health problems, such as diabetes.

There are several different kinds of surgical procedures to help people who are significantly overweight. By reducing the size of the stomach, these procedures restrict the amount of food you can consume. Long-term success depends in large part on permanently following a restricted diet and making major lifestyle changes.

This really depends on the type of weight loss surgery you have and the type of job you do. For lap band surgery the procedures are usually done laparoscopically and don't require stapling or rearranging of your stomach anatomy, thus your hospitalization is usually less than 24 hours. And your recovery can be as little as a few days. For gastric bypass surgery, most patients can proceed with a regular activities after 6 weeks.

The lap band procedure is reversible and does not modify your internal anatomy. Stomach stapling is designed to be permanent, but in general gastric bypass procedures are reversible. But ask your doctor about your specific procedure.

There are two distinct types of hearing loss, conductive and sensorineural. A conductive loss is the disruption or mechanical blockage of the movement of sound waves from outside the ear to the inner ear. This occurs in the outer and/or the middle ear. Many conductive hearing losses can be treated and eliminated with medication or surgery. There are also occasions when a problem in the middle ear cannot be corrected.

If you answer "yes" to any of the above questions you may want to consult with an addictions professional listed below. The New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services have licensed the following programs to provide treatment within Rensselaer County:

Results from hearing screening programs in other states indicate that around one child in every thousand (1/1000) has a significant bilateral (in both ears) hearing loss at birth. 

Medical and surgical treatment options for hearing loss are expanding. It is generally accepted that early intervention with some types of hearing loss, especially sudden hearing loss, is associated with favorable outcome. Like eye glasses for poor eyesight, hearing aids are essential in treating hearing loss.

You will be invited to be assessed by one of our Audiologists. This test will enable our Audiologist to determine the exact nature of your hearing loss, consider further medical referral or discuss other options to improve you hearing, communication and quality of life.

Some hearing losses that are conductive involve sound transmission problems within the middle or outer ear. These types of hearing loss can often be improved through medical intervention. For those hearing losses that cannot be improved through medication or surgery, appropriately selected and fitted hearing aids can provide very satisfactory outcomes in easing communicative difficulties.