Our office has been very excited about the newest product from Oticon called the “Epoq”. This hearing aid is the first hearing instrument with wireless connectivity at its core. The Epoq is powered by a newly developed wireless digital chip, which essentially creates a wireless sphere around the user. This enables two Epoq hearing aids to work together and coordinate the sound at both ears. This results in more accurate, realistic, and natural listening and better hearing in noise.
 
In addition to the hearing aids communicating with one another, Epoq, when used with a small device worn around the neck called the streamer, is capable of communicating with Bluetooth devices. The streamer picks up the Bluetooth signal from your cell phone, for example, and delivers it directly to your hearing instruments wirelessly. With Epoqs, you can also opt to hear your phone calls through both hearing aids, which may improve your ability to understand the speaker, especially if you are in background noise. No more taking out your hearing aid to use your cell phone or searching for a telecoil compatible cell phone. The streamer can be paired with any Bluetooth enabled devices and can also be plugged into non-Bluetooth systems like an ipod or home stereo.
 
For our patients with severe to profound hearing loss, we are also very excited about a new product from Phonak called "Naida". The Naida uses a feature called Sound Recover  that takes speech sounds that are often inaudible to people with this degree of hearing loss (like the “s” and “sh” sounds, higher-pitched voices such as women’s and children’s, and environmental sounds such as birds and telephone rings) and transitions them to a better part of the hearing range.  The result is better audibility for those crucial sounds. The Naida is also water resistant and the sturdy slim housing offers superb operational reliability during activities such as exercise, rigorous labor, or even if you get caught in the rain. Feedback is one of the major annoyances of hearing aid users. That is why Naida features Whistle Block, a technology that instantly differentiates between true feedback and natural tones thus allowing for maximum hearing benefit without feedback interference. As an option, you may wish to control Naida with a remote control that allows for volume changes, program adjustments, directional microphone changes, and reads battery power levels.
 
If you are interested in learning more about the Oticon Epoq or Phonak Naida hearing aids, please contact our office for a no charge consultation.