The hearing-impaired population is frustrated enough trying to clarify conversations under normal listening conditions. However, the frustration intensifies when everyone around you is wearing a mask and not only is their voice “muffled” but you can’t even take advantage of visual cues to assist in lip reading. There are “face shields” that can help as well as masks with a clear covering around the mouth area. However, the majority of you typically wear a rewashable “cloth” mask or KN 95 mask. 2021 will still be the year of the “mask” and the best advice that I can give to you is…
Encourage your friends and family to speak slowly and clearly and make every attempt to have a face-to-face conversation.
Most of my patients are mainly staying home unless they need to visit a doctor or go to a grocery store. Thus, watching Television has increased dramatically amongst all of us. For at least 75% of my patients, even with the assistance of hearing aids, understanding the dialogue on the T.V. can be frustrating and many of you “need” closed-caption. For 99% of my patients, I always suggest that they consider “streaming the TV” which will provide them with the clearest sound quality.
What is TV streaming and how does it work? Basically, we provide you with a small TV box that you plug into the audio out of either your TV or cable box. This creates a Bluetooth signal from your hearing aids directly to the TV. It’s comparable to streaming music from your smart phone into I pods wirelessly. You can initiate streaming three ways: 1) turn it on via an APP that we install of your phone, 2) use a remote that we provide to you or 3) manually push a button on one of your hearing instruments. TV streaming may eliminate the use of close caption for many of you.
At Garden State Hearing, we provide the TV streaming box and remote (if necessary) at no charge for most of our patients. That’s at least a $450 savings. We even go the extra mile to come to your home and install the TV box at no cost to you if your technical skills preclude you from setting it up.
Going the extra mile for your patients is what we do at Garden State Hearing. Many hearing care practices don’t even discuss this option even though most hearing aids are “Bluetooth” enabled. Moreover, many practices expect you to “pay upfront” when purchasing hearing aids instead of offering them no interest payment plans. We offer 0% interest payment plans of up to 36 months. We, as a practice, pay the interest up front so you don’t have to incur this expense! In my professional opinion, all practices should offer no interest payment plans and discuss better ways to clarify the TV.
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Izzy at ikirsh@gardenstatehearing.com or make an appointment at one of our convenient offices (Toms River & Whiting: 732-818-3610 or Manahawkin 609-978-8926).
