October 2019

Page 98

DON'T MISS A BEAT

See and hear it all at the Hearing Care Center by International Optique By bazaar staff

We’re well aware of our five senses, sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. We also often neglect the much-needed checkups on all of the above, or we’re simply unaware of a problem due to its seemingly insignificant effect on us. International Optique, however, will not only check your eyesight, but they also offer advanced services to make sure your hearing functionality is at its best. You'll never miss a beat, from the sounds of your loved ones, music that touches your soul, or those endless conversations you wouldn’t want to miss out on. The skilled audiological team at International Optique will be by your side from start to end to help you enhance your experience of 'hearing'. They conduct in-depth hearing evaluation tests to ensure the most fitting and

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more importantly, comfortable, individual hearing aids. The services help create awareness, since this specific sense is as much needed as any prescribed glasses for your eyesight which the team already provides to their customers. The same way you would go for an eyesight check, your ears require the same attention. The team aims to help create awareness about the importance of hearing aids, and to also remove any stigmas and misconceptions on their use, such as, “it’s not comfortable to wear, it’s big and it will make me look old.” Of course, not wearing anything inside the ear can be more comfortable than wearing a hearing aid. However, not wearing a hearing aid when required will make even the most basic act of listening a tiresome, uncomfortable one. So why not embrace the notion of comfort, and give yourself a chance to really listen to the sounds that matter? While it can take some time for your ear to adapt to new sounds and the feeling of wearing the hearing aid, we are so lucky to live in a time where the advancement of technology has allowed for features that make irksome sounds more comfortable to listen than ever before. If the aesthetic is your concern, the latest technology also allows most hearing aids to be small, discrete and well-designed.

Hearing aids do not only enhance surrounding sounds, but they also preserve the ear’s auditory functions. The process, which was explained to us by Audiologist Mohammad Al Omiri, is fairly simple. The specialist will first examine the ear condition, checking for any problems such as a blockage in the ear canal, which can cause conductive hearing loss and can affect the efficacy of the test itself. But once everything is cleared, they proceed and start conducting the hearing test at International Optique's soundproof and soundtreated room. The hearing test is performed using an Audiometre, which is a device with a pair of headphones. As Mohammad explained to us, “We basically provide the sound through a headset, and give the customer a pushing-button, so once they hear a sound they press the button.” This particular test examines the levels of your hearing frequency, and essentially captures the customer’s hearing threshold (this is the sound level below where a person's ear is unable to detect any sound.) There are several categories when it comes to hearing loss, including mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, or profound hearing loss. For example, those with mild hearing loss can understand speech in general, but miss a few letters when


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