Sound loss help

HEARING specialist Don Hudson, of A1 Discreet Hearing Aids, says most customers’ primary reason for their first hearing test is they notice some difficulty hearing in noisy environments.

“A social context, such as a club or restaurant where there is significant background noise, often presents as a challenging listening environment for someone with any level of hearing loss,” he said.

“Many of my customers with mild hearing loss will report little to no difficulty hearing in quieter listening environments such as one-onone conversations at home, on the phone, or television listening. However, a mild high-frequency hearing loss causes difficulty with hearing consonant sounds such as s, h, p, f, essentially the softer parts of each word.

“As all sentences contain consonants, this means that the listener will be struggling for most of the conversation.”

Mr Hudson said a hearing aid could enormously assist someone with a mild highfrequency hearing loss.

A1 Discreet is located at Q Super Centre in Mermaid Waters, Coolangatta and Hope Island.

All clients get a free hearing assessment and consultation, and eligible pensioners and veterans can get subsidised or free devices through the government system.

Private health clients with extras cover may also get rebates on hearing aids from the clinic.