We are delighted to share with you the news that Jayne has received commendation from the Audiologist of the Year 2019!

Jayne was nominated by Louise Walker who came to see Jayne after she began experiencing symptoms of Sudden Hearing Loss this is the submission that Louise sent to the Audiologist of the Year 2019 competition:

“I am delighted to nominate Jayne Bryce for this award, she is a brilliant audiologist and I couldn’t have coped with my sudden hearing loss over the past year without her. In a matter of days I went from being a 38 year old with no hearing problems, to losing all of the hearing in my right ear. Jayne tested my hearing and found I had suffered from sudden sensorineural hearing loss. She gently broke the bad news to me that my deafness was almost certainly permanent, and explained my test results. Although it had been almost 4 weeks since I lost my hearing, Jayne had read research papers where steroid injections into the eardrum had recovered some hearing, even after several weeks, and she had just attended a conference where there was a case of steroid injections restoring hearing after 8 weeks. Jayne advised me to contact my GP immediately, explain her diagnosis, and ask for an urgent referral to ENT for steroid injections, as the window of opportunity for success was very small.

To my horror I struggled to get the steroid treatment that Jayne had recommended because my GP practice and local A&E were unaware of sudden hearing loss as a medical emergency and of the steroid treatment I urgently needed. During this struggle Jayne constantly supported me with phone calls and passed on advice from an ENT consultant colleague. Eventually I was treated with both steroid tablets and injections in the hope of saving my hearing. After the treatments Jayne tested my hearing again, which sadly confirmed that my hearing had not improved. Jayne advised my best option would be CROS hearing aids, explained how they worked, and showed me examples to reassure me of how discreet they were, because I was shocked that I was in my 30’s and suddenly needed hearing aids. Jayne suggested that I get fitted with NHS hearing aids first, as that would inevitably mean some waiting, she suggested ways to position myself in meetings at work and when I was socialising with my friends in noisy environments, so that I could hear better. My hearing aids from the NHS improved my hearing but I was struggling to hear conversations in noisier environments, especially at work conferences and socialising with my friends. To help me with this Jayne fitted me with the latest CROS hearing aids with StereoZoom technology which she thought would allow me to hear better in background noise. I trialed these new hearing aids and was delighted with the clearer sound and that I could hear much better in noisy environments.

Jayne is passionate about raising awareness of hearing loss which is evident through her charity work with events such as Tea for Tinnitus for the British Tinnitus Association and through organising a Listen.Live event and our cities first ever hearing show. During my experience of hearing loss Jayne told me she felt strongly that people are generally not aware that sudden hearing loss can be a medical emergency and that many GPs are often unaware of this condition, and the need for urgent steroid treatment. Sadly that was my experience at my GP practice, as a result myself and Jayne attended a meeting with doctors at my practice to discuss my case and sudden hearing loss. To prepare for the meeting Jayne spoke to an ENT consultant and the Head of Audiology at NHS Grampian to discuss the most important points to get across. As a result of the meeting an ENT consultant visited my GP practice to give a training session on sudden hearing loss. The aim of this training session is for it to also be extended to other GP practices in our area. After the meeting Jayne also wrote a blog on social media about the experience, to raise awareness of sudden hearing loss.

This year has been one of the most challenging of my life, I genuinely couldn’t have managed without Jayne’s constant support. Having lost the hearing in one ear so suddenly I was very afraid of anything happening to my good ear, but Jayne was always there to listen and to reassure me. Jayne is so friendly and appointments are never rushed and that has been invaluable to me, to allow me to ask any questions whilst adapting to my hearing loss. As well as fitting me with the latest technology in hearing aids, Jayne has given me hope for the future. When I was first diagnosed with sudden hearing loss, I was withdrawing from doing many of the things I loved because it was so difficult and exhausting struggling to hear. Thanks to Jayne’s determination to give her clients the best technology, my hearing aids have completely improved my life, and given me hope that I can return back to doing everything I was doing before my hearing loss. Although this past year has involved some huge changes for me, every cloud has a silver lining, and for me that has been meeting Jayne, I couldn’t ask for a better, more caring audiologist.”

We’d like to sincerely thank Louise for her submission and we will continue to do our very best for all our customers here at Bryce Hearing Services!

The foods you eat impact your entire health profile. As for your hearing, certain nutritional properties have a positive effect on your hearing and can help to prevent hearing loss. Here are the minerals, vitamins and oils you should be adding to your diet to strengthen your hearing – and the best food sources to get them!

This is a great article written by Amie Hynes Fitzpatrick for the Irish Times that we’d like to share with you, click here to view the article on the Irish Times website.

For many of us, our first interaction with hearing loss is through our grandparents. But it’s not just something that affects only the elderly. More than 80,000 Irish people of working age are currently dealing with a significant level of hearing loss. By the time we reach 60, one in three of us will have experienced significant hearing loss.

But, while many workplaces already employ health plans that promote caring for our eyes and teeth, hearing health appears to be largely overlooked.

Dealing with hearing loss in the workplace can be extremely stressful. Many people who experience it try initially to ignore the problem, hoping that it’s only a temporary issue or that it will rectify itself.

But letting something like hearing loss to go untreated will only result in further deterioration. For managers, an unexplained decline in productivity, a lack of confidence and depression can all be indicators that someone in your team is suffering from hearing issues.

Employees often are afraid to raise their concerns at work for fear it will affect their employability or have an impact on their career progression. For others, admitting that they are dealing with hearing loss can be embarrassing. In some cases, it can come on suddenly and without warning, leaving them feeling frustrated and unsure of what action to take.

That’s where an appropriate hearing healthcare policy can really help. Without one, we’re putting the onus on the employee to self advocate and it’s very possible that they don’t know where to start.

As one of the last health taboos to be addressed in the workplace, it’s time to bring the conversation around hearing health and hearing loss into the mainstream.

Telltale signs

There are signs you can look out for. Some can be seen as early as the interview stage. For example, is the candidate struggling to hear the questions? Other things to look out for include:

• People regularly saying “what?” and “pardon?”;

• Work done incorrectly by normally reliable staff who may have been misheard instructions;

• People who need a lot of the conversation repeated several times;

• Misunderstanding what is being said;

• Complaining that you are not speaking clearly or loudly enough;

• Failing to hear someone address them or to hear the telephone ringing;

• A dislike of going to events, pubs or other noisy environments;

• Turning up the sound on their computer too loud for your comfort;

• Noticeably straining to hear what is being said.

As a manager, there are steps you can take to tackle hearing loss and the challenges it can create for employees within an organisation. Normalising the conversation around the condition is one. That’s where an effective and highly visible hearing health programme can really be of benefit.

Chime, the national charity for deafness and hearing loss, offers a corporate health and wellness programme called the Chime Charter. It includes on-site audiology screening, support services, and information on financial supports for talent with a disability. It can help to identify issues that your employees may be experiencing, helping organisations to create a more equal and effective work environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Alongside an effective hearing health programme, there are other steps you can take to make your work environment more comfortable, and fair, for employees with hearing loss.

• Promote and advocate: establishing a hearing health programme is great but people need to know about it. Place posters around the office (the back of the bathroom cubicle door is a great spot to catch passive readers) and promote on-site assessments using email, internal comms channels, and incentives.

• Normalise the testing process by encouraging senior members of the team to sign up.

• Don’t drop the mic: introduce an “always on” microphone policy for meetings and events. Speakers often decline the use of a mic because they deem it unnecessary or don’t want to hear their own voices amplified. However, it can benefit anyone who may be hard of hearing. According to the Health Service Executive, 8 per cent of Irish adults need audiological support. By refusing a mic, even at an event with as few as 20 attendees, you are pretty much guaranteed to be alienating someone in the room.

• Be an ally: don’t assume that a person with hearing loss will always self identify. If you’re attending a large meeting or town hall, ask the person presenting to use a microphone. If someone in the crowd asks a question, request that it is repeated by the person with the microphone so everyone can hear what is being said. If you’re hosting a video conference, turn on your screen so people can see you when you’re talking and always speak in the direction of the microphone. Small changes can make a big difference.

• Educate yourself: as a employer, learn about the various grants available to make your workplace more accessible. The workplace equipment/adaption grant from the Department of Employer Affairs and Social Protection offers up to €6,350 towards the cost of adaptations to premises or equipment.

• Create a constructive environment: While improvements in hearing aids have come a long way, they are still not perfect. Some devices can pick up on background noise and intensify it. If an employee has identified that they are experiencing hearing issues, make sure to sit them away from any windows beside thoroughfares with highs volumes of traffic or areas that contain noisemakers such as printers, coffee machines and dishwashers.

Amie Hynes Fitzpatrick is the fundraising manager at Chime, the national charity for deafness and hearing loss. chime.ie

All credit for this article goes to Amie Hynes Fitzpatrick and the Irish Times

A couple of weeks ago I attended a meeting with a customer, who is in her 30s, at her GP practice, she had made a complaint to them regarding her misdiagnosis and subsequent treatment of sudden hearing loss. As a consequence of the misdiagnosis and lack of knowledge by all GPs at her practice she wasn’t referred urgently to ENT and given the intratympanic steroids that could have saved her hearing. The meeting was very open and honest and the 3 senior GPs in attendance apologised profusely and admitted that they had never heard of the intratympanic steroid being used as a treatment for sudden hearing loss?

This is the time line of her symptoms and experience with her GP practice as she tried to get the referral and treatment she needed from ENT:

8th August- 1st doctor’s visit:

Symptoms: Started on 1^st August with hearing loss in right ear, followed by dizziness and then nausea – all occurring for a couple of hours each day.

Diagnosis: Blocked Eustachian tube. Doctor saw a couple of small bubbles behind the eardrum, which could indicate possible congestion (although no history of head cold/allergies). No obvious sign of any external problems (no pain, no discharge, no swelling or blockage). Advised to try popping ears to clear any congestion.

23rd August – 2nd doctor’s visit:

Symptoms: Since last appointment symptoms of hearing loss, followed by dizziness, nausea and loud ringing in ear had gotten worse, and were lasting for 24 hrs, before going away. These symptoms had then worsened further and by the time of this visit I had had constant hearing loss for 4 days, as well as worsening dizziness and vomiting.

Diagnosis: Blocked Eustachian tube. Ear examined again where doctor’s observations were same as on previous visit. Doctor recommended to start taking decongestant tablets and try popping ears to clear any congestion.

3rd September – 3rd doctor’s visit:

Symptoms: Nausea and dizziness had gone but hearing loss in right ear remained constant (constant hearing loss for 2 weeks now) and constant ringing noise had been replaced with a constant static noise. Told doctor that I had noticed I couldn’t hear anything in my right ear when I had headphones on.

Diagnosis: Ear examined again; no sign of small bubbles seen by previous two doctors and no sign of any cause of the hearing loss. Doctor tested hearing by whispering in each ear, which confirmed hearing loss in right ear. Prescribed Beconase Nasal Decongestant Spray instead of the decongestant tablets, to clear any congestion. Follow up appointment made for 1 month and routine referral made to ENT (doctor said wait time would be ~3 months).

13th September – Hearing test at Bryce Hearing Services:

Audiogram results revealed profound hearing loss in right ear. After 3.5 weeks since hearing loss, the damage was probably permanent but there could still be a slight chance of some improvement with steroid injections into the ear drum, which needed to be done urgently.

13th September – 4th doctor visit (phone call):

After hearing test I phoned and explained the results to the on-call doctor at my GP practice who said that she had no knowledge of steroid treatment for hearing loss and all she could do was make a record of my audiogram results in my notes. I told her that a professional audiologist had advised that steroid treatment was the only possible chance of salvaging any of my hearing and should be treated as an emergency, but I made no progress with this doctor.

14th September – Visit to A&E at ARI:

As I had made no progress with steroid treatment from my doctor’s, I went to A&E to ask for steroid injections and showed them my audiogram results. A&E turned me away because my hearing loss hadn’t just happened that day. They told me to go back to my GPs again and ask for the steroid treatment.

14th September – 5th doctor visit (phone call):

Phoned my doctors again and asked to speak to a senior doctor. This doctor also told me that she was unaware of steroid treatment for hearing loss but contacted the on-call ENT consultant who confirmed the use of steroids to treat hearing loss and I was prescribed a course of oral Prednisolone and told I would get a letter for a follow up appointment with ENT after the steroid treatment.

2^nd & 3^rd October – Visit to ENT consultant (Mr Ram) at Albyn:

After I had finished the oral steroid treatment I hadn’t received any letter from the NHS for a follow up appointment with ENT. I phoned to ask about my appointment and was told that I was still on the general ENT referral waiting list, which would have meant waiting for 2 more months. I said that I thought I should have been moved to the urgent list and was told the wait time was still 6 weeks. I still wanted to try the steroid injections and thought that 6 weeks was too long to wait so made an appointment privately at Albyn with Mr Ram, he said that he was sorry that I hadn’t been able to see him sooner and that he would give me the steroid injections the following day for free on the NHS.

15^th October – 2^nd Hearing test at Bryce Hearing Services:

Two weeks after steroid injections there was no improvement in hearing in right ear.

16^th October – Follow up visit with Mr Ram at Albyn:

Since there had been no improvement in my hearing after the steroid treatment I was referred for hearing aids on the NHS. Mr Ram fast-tracked me through audiology and I got my hearing aids from the NHS a few weeks later.

Although it is too late for this lady’s hearing some good has come from her complaint – Mr Ram (ENT Consultant at Grampian Health Service) has visited her GP practice to do some training and we believe is planning to do the same throughout the region so hopefully this doesn’t happen again. But it can’t do any harm for the public to be more informed and to not ignore symptoms such as a sudden drop in hearing, dizziness, sudden onset tinnitus or a combination of these symptoms.

This blog is not meant to discredit GPs as they do an amazing job, it is merely to raise awareness of sudden hearing loss and the treatments that are available if you act quickly.

If you have recently experienced sudden hearing loss or know someone who has, we strongly advise that you visit your GP and insist on an urgent referral to ENT as per the NICE guidelines on sudden hearing loss – https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng98/chapter/Recommendations#treating-idiopathic-sudden-sensorineural-hearing-loss 

We are very pleased to have become a certified Roger partner!

The Phonak Roger devices are brilliant for those people who need extra help in noisier situations.

The Widex Evoke is the only hearing aid in the world that uses machine learning; the Widex SoundSense Technology means that every time you use EVOKE it learns from different situations and uses the anonymous data to create a better listening experience. EVOKE knows the difference between classical and pop music, how a meeting sounds different than a party and it keeps up with you indoors and out – mapping your environment and adjusting accordingly.

When it’s noisy, you need your hearing aid to filter out anything that can distract from hearing speech but in quiet situations, you want to hear all the subtle details. EVOKE has a built-in Fluid Sound Controller that sets the optimal sound for different sound environments. This makes hearing aid adjustment is easy and EVOKE quickly adapts to the changes in your life. Because of its built-in SoundSense Adapt technology, it remembers all changes you make and intelligently applies them to similar situations – even if you’re in a totally new environment.

Check out this great video by Dr Cliff Olson in which he talks about the Widex Evoke’s machine learning capabilities:

Hearing aids with connectivity

Currently here at Bryce Hearing Services we have the following devices available that connectivity features:

• Widex Evoke
• Phonak Marvel

If you ‘d like to find out more about these devices just give us a call on 01224 647652 or send us a message.