Category: Media

Vogue

Vogue’s Emma Elwick-Bates feature on her personal experience with hearing loss and visiting Harley Street Hearing. Click here to see the full article

Paul Checkley on Radio 2

Clinical Director Paul Checkley from Harley Street Hearing talks to Simon Mayo about the only truly invisible hearing aid – Lyric, which can be worn for months at a time.

Harley Street Hearing are proud to have been the first UK clinic to introduce Lyric – the breakthrough hearing aid  which requires no handling and remains in your ear 24/7.

Lyric is inserted deep inside the ear canal by our specially trained hearing healthcare professionals and can stay there for up to three months even in the shower and while you sleep.

Harley Street Hearing played an integral part in the introduction of the Lyric hearing system into Europe and are the first and most experienced Lyric centre in the UK.

Listen to us on Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 Logo

Jack Stancel-Lewis on Jeremy Vine discussing the rare symptoms and diagnosis of Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence Syndrome – which is where a person’s own speech or other self-generated noises (e.g. heartbeat, eye movements, creaking joints, chewing) are heard unusually loudly in the affected ear.

Matthew Allsop from Harley Street Hearing on BBC Radio 2

Paul Checkley talks to Radio 2 about the Phonak Lyric hearing device

Harley Street Hearing are proud to be the first UK clinic to introduce Lyric – the breakthrough hearing aid  which requires no handling and remains in your ear 24/7.

Lyric is inserted deep inside the ear canal by our specially trained hearing healthcare professionals and can stay there for up to three months even in the shower and while you sleep.

Harley Street Hearing played an integral part in the introduction of the Lyric hearing system into Europe and are the first and most experienced Lyric centre in the UK.

Call us on 020 7486 1053 to book your comprehensive Lyric assessment – you too could benefit from effortless, invisible hearing 24/7.

Find out more about Lyric by visiting our dedicated pages below…

Read about us in The Sunday Times

“Pump down the jam”

That post-gig ringing is no longer a pain in the ear thanks to a new breed of plugs, says our relieved writer.

It was an unusual birthday present, having green gunk syringed into my ears in a Harley Street consulting room. But my girlfriend’s heart was in the right place. And so, now, should my hearing levels be the next time I go to a gig — the result, and my surprise gift, a bespoke set of decibel-reducing earplugs that “turn down” the volume of amplified music without impairing its fidelity.

The woman doing the gunking (my girlfriend had merely written the cheque) was Geraldine Daly, audiologist to the stars and to pop writers like me. She was taking a mould of each of my lugholes so my earplugs fitted perfectly. I need them because — like 10% of adults in Britain — I have persistent tinnitus, that ringing sound you can get after listening to loud music, and I don’t want it to worsen. Typically, the condition passes after a few hours, but in one in 10 cases, the sonic hangover never leaves you. And there is no cure.

For decades, musicians and music fans took tinnitus on the chin, or rather on the tympanic membrane. Some even regarded it as a badge of honour, their “tinnitus buzz”. Now most wellknown bands are aware of the dangers of loud music, and in-ear monitors that lessen ambient noise on stage are the industry standard. Yet, as Daly’s colleague Paul Checkley says, 90% of those tested at Musicians’ Hearing Services have some degree of hearing loss if they already have tinnitus. Dido, Coldplay, Plan B, Pete Townshend and New Young Pony Club are among the company’s clients. Despite the efforts of the British Tinnitus Association (BTA) and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People’s Don’t Lose the Music campaign, the general public is far less clued up.

While old age, stress and genetic predisposition can bring it on, the most common cause of tinnitus is prolonged exposure to amplified music above 85 decibels (dB), whether that’s at home, at a gig, in the car or on personal headphones (which can peak at 115dB). Eighty-five decibels, roughly equivalent to busy city traffic, is deemed a safe daily limit (averaged over an eight-hour working day) for unprotected ears. Decibels, however, are measured on a logarithmic scale, so every 3dB increase of intensity represents a doubling of loudness and, consequently, a halving of safe exposure time. Do the maths and a rock show, at 110dB, is safe without protection for barely two minutes. Spinal Tap might have loved to crank their amps up to 11, but here the joke is on us.

Eddy Temple-Morris, a DJ/producer and BTA advocate, is angry that the risks of loud music receive so little publicity.

“I used to think the ringing noise, tinnitus, was part and parcel of going to a gig. Nobody — not the government, not my GP, not anybody — told me that one day the noise would never go away. The government spends a gazillion quid on warning people not to burn themselves with fireworks on Bonfire Night. Fair enough, but 10% of the country don’t burn themselves with fireworks. There should at least be posters telling people they could permanently damage their ears simply by being at a venue.”

After I’d spoken to Temple-Morris, he mentioned the interview on Twitter, and the war stories tumbled forth. @DJDanCook tweeted: “Horrendous tinnitus-induced insomnia last night.” And @orangewarrior chimed in: “It actually gets a bit better after you’ve worn ER-15s [the medium strength fitted earplugs] for a while. Never goes away, but I noticed an improvement.” For some, though, it’s already too late. Temple-Morris says that his friend Erol Alkan, a DJ, has lost 40% of his hearing in one ear.

What exactly is tinnitus? Nobody knows for sure. Loud music leaves the hair cells of the cochlea all shook up. What happens next is either that we start to pick up what Checkley describes as “excess electrical activity in the auditory system” — internal static, if you will — or that the brain, as Checkley puts it, “anticipates a response from those hair cells and, not receiving it, or getting it at a lower level than expected, generates a signal to compensate for it”. What tinnitus sufferers “hear” is an individual perception: mine blares like a whistling kettle, only not as shrill; others report clicking, hissing and roaring noises. Most of us can learn to tune them out, but folk with chronic tinnitus want to run head first into walls.

As for whether tinnitus can lead to deafness, Daly says: “Tinnitus does not necessarily mean that there is impending hearing loss. Yet, if the sufferer continues to be exposed to the same levels of noise, there is every chance the tinnitus will get worse.” Noise-induced hearing loss means you lose frequencies of 4kHz and above.

As Checkley explains, that’s all the “ck-th-ssh-sss” consonant sounds vital to understanding what is being said to us. Some musicians he treats have hyperacusis, an abnormal growth of loudness in the cochlea, “which is even worse than tinnitus”.

“It’s the best £175 I’ve ever spent,” Temple-Morris says of his custom-made plugs. “You can still hear the sizzle of a high-hat, the boom of a kick drum and all the midrange frequencies.” They work by filtering the sound, taking the edge off the volume by an order of 9dB, 15dB or 25dB. I was advised to go for the ER-15s, meaning my safe listening limit has, in effect, been increased to eight hours at 100dB. But if an arena rock concert lasts two hours and hits 110dB, doing the logarithmic calculation, won’t I be “at risk” for the second half of the show, even wearing my supersnug ER- 15s?

“Remember that these safe levels are set low, and that it depends where the 110dB level is measured,” Checkley says. “If it is 110dB at the speaker, there will be a substantial drop in intensity over distance. Also, we are talking averages — while the levels may peak at 110dB, the average may be lower over the two-hour period.”

No moshing down the front at a Metallica show, then. In most situations, though, it seems I’ll be safer more often than sorry with the earplugs in. And rather that than be a tinnitus burnout any day. Time to write a certain someone a thank-you note, eh?

by Richard Clayton-published in The Sunday Times 13 February 2011

Harley Street Hearing bring expertise to the North West

Lyric Centre North West Hearing with Jessica Jane Stafford

Lyric Centre Cheadle with Jessica Jane Stafford

Jessica Jane Stafford (actress & tv star) officially opened our sister company North West Hearing;  Cheadle’s new Lyric and independent hearing centre, and had her Lyric hearing aids checked while she was there.  Jessica Jane has been wearing Lyrics – the only “fit and forget” completely invisible hearing aid “for the past three years.

“Since having my baby I feel confident at night that I will hear him crying at night when I’m asleep. People shouldn’t be embarrassed about hearing loss, it is much more common than you think.  I’d recommend anyone who isn’t sure what to do to just call for a consultation at North West Hearing, I had mine fitted at Harley Street Hearing, their sister company.  They understood my concerns and made me feel completely at ease – make the call it really could change your life.”

If you live in the North West and need any advice on any hearing issues; our hearing healthcare experts will be delighted to help at North West Hearing on 0161 491 1943 

Guests at the launch included Jessica Jane Stafford, local councillors and media.

Lyric Centre Cheadle launchNorth West Musicians Hearing Services

Lyric is the only “fit and forget” completely invisible hearing aid which is only available at Lyric Centres – it is not available in any high street stores.

North West Hearing is the new sister company of Harley Street Hearing – London’s Leading Independent Hearing Clinics 

It is now also incorporating Musicians Hearing Services North who have been serving the entertainment industries needs for hearing protection for 25 years. 

Audiologist of the Year 2 years running

Audiologists of the Year 2014 & 2015

Audiologists of the Year 2014 & 2015

The Harley Street Hearing group are so proud that we were chosen 2 years running for Audiologist of the Year; Dr Greg Nassar (2014/15)  Clinical Services Manager at North West Hearing, and Ms Jaspreet Bahra(2013/14) Senior Audiologist at Harley Street Hearing.

Now in its eighth year, the respected award encourages nominations for professionals who excel in their duties and is a chance for patients to shout about their own audiologist.  If you’d like to nominate your audiologist you don’t just give your audiologist the chance to win, you will also be in the running to pick up a prize. The winning nominee receives a £250 cash prize and electrical goods to the value of £200.

For details of How to Enter visit  http://www.audiologistoftheyear.co.uk/vote-now/

 

 

 

 

Read about us in The Telegraph

The Telegraph Hearing

“After 15 years of struggling with his hearing, Keith Davis reached the point of no return. A meeting he chaired eight years ago, as chief executive of a local authority, had taken four times as long as it should as people painstakingly repeated themselves again and again for his benefit.”

The Telegraph discusses how Keith Davis solved his hearing problems, and our clinical director Paul Checkley is mentioned in the article as follows:

Clinical director Paul Checkley at Harley Street Hearing says he is not surprised it takes on average 15 years for people to seek professional help for hearing loss. “Unfortunately there is a stigma around hearing aids as people perceive it as an outward sign you are getting older. Glasses have now become trendy but the stigma remains for hearing aids.”

To read the full article click here