It could be one incident... but primarily it is years of exposure.

Loop, a popular luxury earplug brand, offers up to 33 decibels of sound reduction. Earmuffs are designed to fit most people, but those who wear glasses or have beards may have a tough time fitting them to their heads as glasses and facial hair can create gaps in the ear muffs.

McNiven says he offers custom hearing protectors created from an ear mold that run about $175 to $200 and will last at least five years. These are easier to use than foam plugs — people are less-inclined to have to take them in and out frequently — and may even be comfortable enough to use for sleep.

What if you’d still like to hear some sounds — like people talking to you — just not the annoying or damaging ones?

Amplified hearing protection could be the answer. Rather than offering maximum ...continued on next page sound suppression, these devices filter selective sounds. They can be expensive — running about $1,500 for a set — and offer generalized or highly specific protection.

Over the years, the practice of pharmacy has changed in many ways. People have discovered the benefi ts of having customized medication available through prescription compounding.

Koru Pharmacy takes pride in meeting these changing needs of our customers and has become a leader in prescription compounding in the Spokane area. Our staff is expertly trained in the area of prescription compounding for you and your pets and are ready to serve you.

“LISTEN UP!,” CONTINUED...

“Some are for motor sports, there are different types for hunting, whether they’re a bird hunter or elk hunter,” says McNiven.

A self-proclaimed “gigantic nerd,” McNiven says, “I actually modified a set of hearing aids — they function more like hearing protection. They allow everything to come in but it’s like turning the volume down to a comfortable level.”

WHAT’S THAT YOU SAID?

The good and bad news for hearing loss is that it can be managed, but not fixed.

“Hearing aids are often lumped in with glasses,” says McNiven. “You put on a pair of glasses and you literally correct your vision. Hearing aids don’t correct hearing loss.”

Think of sound as a continuum from low to high frequency, soft to loud. Hearing loss occurs in various ranges and is the result of nerve damage.

“I can’t return hearing back to normal, but I can retrain your brain,” says McNiven. Hearing aids work by moving sound from outside of the person’s audible range back into the range that still exists.

“It doesn’t sound ‘normal,’” says McNiven. “You’re remapping your world of sound. The outcomes are very good, hearing aids do work, but it’s not an instant fix. It’s more akin to therapy than it is to a correction.”

McNiven can also use hearing aids to help manage tinnitus. Studies show as many as 90 percent of people with chronic

How to Protect Your Hearing

• Carry and use earplugs for noisy situations such as concerts, lawn mowing or leaf blowing, hunting or shooting, construction sites.

• Get your hearing checked every three years; annually if you work in a loud environment; anytime you notice a change in your hearing or if you develop tinnitus.

— THE HEARING HEALTH FOUNDATION tinnitus also have hearing loss and the ringing may be a side effect. Boosting sound in lost frequencies can often help. “We think the brain is looking for stimulation in the areas where there is hearing loss,” he says.

Hearing aids have come a long way in just the past 5 years — they can look just like ear buds or Airpods for those concerned with appearance. They now have rechargeable batteries, a feature that is not only more convenient but that also allows hearing aids to have increased processing power and to incorporate Bluetooth.

“The technology is pretty amazing. These things know more about your acoustic environment than you do,” says McNiven, as he chatted on the phone through his hearing aid’s Bluetooth.

But he adds, “As much as I get a kick out of working with hearing aids, I’d rather protect hearing on the front end.”

Additional reporting by Anne McGregor

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