Hearing Loss Resources

Screenshot of Starkey's hearing loss simulation

Fred Flintstone Video Hearing Loss Simulation (1 min). Clarity is lost with hearing loss.

Find out what people with hearing loss is  experiencing with Starkey’s Hearing Loss Simulator.

  • Choose a situation
  • Select the hearing loss level you want to hear
  • Click Play
  • Set your computer volume to 50% for the best experience

The Journey of Sound to the Brain (2+ min)

Introduction to Real Ear Measurements and why they are important when you purchase new hearing aids. Approximately 30% of hearing professions provide this service. (9:45)

Hearing Loss

Hearing Loss Statistics (this website)

Hearing more clearly

Hearing tests

Hearing loss research on comorbidities (risk factors. Correlations, not causations)

Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants

Be an informed hearing aid user

  • Article, Hearing Health for Older Adults: What Older Adults Need to Know About Hearing Loss. National Council on Aging (NCOA). 5/13/22. Whyman and Sterkens (webpage)
  • Open Letter (webpage) to Hard of Hearing Consumers and Patients. K. Cavitt, AuD. July 23, 2023
  • NIDCD free publications on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants, with both English and Spanish versions. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducts and supports research in the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language.

Hearing Aid Challenges

  • Hearing Aid Programming: Pearls and Pitfalls. Dr. Douglas Beck Hearing Matters Podcast. 3/19/24. Imagine discovering that the key to optimal hearing isn’t just in choosing a hearing aid, but in the precise individual calibration. This episode features a conversation with Dr. Ron Leavitt, a renowned audiologist who shines a light on the critical gaps in “best fit” settings provided by hearing aid manufacturers, compared to the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) targets. (webpage)
  • Are you a Paramecium Racer? An acronym points the way forward in hearing care. Sara Bloom, The Hearing Journal. September 2010 (5 pages, pdf). “Of all those interviewed for this article, Sergei Kochkin, PhD, executive director of the Better Hearing Institute, is the most critical of the incompetence he sees as insidious throughout the industry. He believes that many hearing aids are not fitted properly; that based on letters he receives, discomfort and dissatisfaction among patients are rampant; and that the benefit of amplification when not properly fitted is often minimal. “Upgrade your skills,” Kochkin urges, calling on the professional organizations to police their members and audit their practices.”
  • Used Alone, Hearing Aids Fail to Deliver. Audiology Practices. September 2013. Linda Remensnyder, AuD.  “All hearing aids and all CIs use microphones. The microphone is the first component followed by sound processors that are fully dependent upon microphone input. And all microphones have three annoying characteristics: they pick up what is loudest, they pick up what is closest and they have absolutely no idea which sound is important to the listener.” (pdf)
  • Why restaurants are so loud, and what science says we can do about it 6/2/24 Washington Post (webpage)

Hearing aids