Hearing Loss

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Envoy Esteem implant research vs stem cell research

May 30, 2008 in Health, Hearing Loss, Technology | 5 comments

I like convenient technology, but I am not sure how extreme I would go to be able to hear normally without my hearing aids. The Envoy Esteem implant feels like another crutch rather than a cure. Do I really want the machinery I wear behind my ears put in my skull? It just creeps me out. It’s unfortunate because I qualify perfectly for their trials with my hearing loss. However, as much as I like science, I don’t feel like offering myself up for it, especially when I think it is not solving the problem itself.

While it may be years before anything could be done for hearing losses with stem cells, I’d rather deal with an equally invasive procedure that would leave me “healed” instead of going through one that just prolongs actual advancement. Given how functional stem cells are, further research would be beneficial to everyone on the planet.

T-Mobile cell phones & hearing aid-compatibility

December 2, 2007 in Hearing Loss | No comments

In the most basic understanding, “hearing aid-compatibility” is the ability to wear hearing aids and use a cell phone without receiving radio frequency emissions and electromagnetic interference while the aids are set to the telecoil (T-coil/inductive coupling) function.

T-Mobile currently offers 9 hearing aid-compatible cell phones, only 4 of which are still available for purchase on the website. Customer Care told me it could be possible to still get ahold of the other ones in-store, if they haven’t sold out of their stock.

I’m not sure how they are going to be able to comply with the FCC’s ruling that 50% of their phones have to be hearing aid-compatible by February 18th, 2008. My guess? Yet another lengthened “phase-in” period will be granted.

Until then, the only viable options are either ripping out your hearing aid (if you have a moderate hearing loss like mine) and using the phone as normal, or using such devices as TecEar’s T-Link into the phone, or having a phone compatible with BlueTooth to use something like TecEar’s MaxIT.