• The ear is exposed to continous, very loud noise, e.g. music in a dance club, traffic noises, too loud television, jackhammmer, etc.
• The aging process usually involves some hearing loss
• Certain types of impaired hearing are hereditary
• Vascular and circulatory abnormalities

• 90% of children experience an ear infection before their 6th birthday, if it is poorly treated, it may lead to hearing loss
• Genetic factors: every third hearing problem is congenital (present at birth) due to hereditary reasons
• Infections contracted at birth

• Meningitis
• Head injury
• Medications containing ototoxic substances
• Smoking and alcohol consumption
• Infectious diseases: several bacterial and viral infections (scarlet fever, measles, meningitis, etc.) may cause amage to the ear and potentially lead to slight or more severe hearing loss
• Sound trauma (e.g. loud bangs during hunting)

What happens if I have hearing impairment but I do not do anything about it?
Hearing loss is usually a slow and gradual process. If you ignore this problem, it may lead to the loss of hearing memory: the brain will not hear and eventually forget certain frequencies and frequency sequences. When you start to use a hearing aid, you will hera all the sounds clearly and it will be unusual to hear strange, forgotten sounds. This phenomenon defines the necessity for a habituation period as the patient needs time to get accustomed to amplification, to retrain the ear and to recognize sounds amplified by the hearing instrument.    

May loud noise cause hearing loss?
It may certainly do. Everybody who works in a noisy environment (assembly shops, sawmills, spinning mills, blowing furnace shops, jackhammer operators, dance club employees, band musicians, etc.) and those who are exposed to loud sounds and noises for a prolonged time suffer from some kind of hearing loss depending on the individual susceptibility and the effectiveness of the protection used.

For this reason, these people are strongly recommended to wear an earplug that can be custom-made in our retail shops based on the individual canal impression.

How can I protect myself against noise?
The optimal solution would be to evade noise altogether. Unfortunately, this is frequently impossible but these workplaces are required by law to insure personal protection or where it is possible, group protection. This includes active and passive earplugs, noisebusters, soundproof doors and windows that reduce the overall noise level in the work environment.  

Who have hearing problems?
After a certain age, usually over 45, a physiological decline commences in hearing. As a result, everybody is prone to the loss of hearing but its first appearance and extent depend on whether we have tried to evade loud noise, smoked, have health problems or injuries, etc. All in all, our hearing at the age of 70 will not be what it was like when we were 20 and most probably the use of a hearing aid will be necessary.

If I have a hearing problem, do I have to wear a hearing aid or is there any other solution?
It depends on the type of hearing loss you suffer from. Certain types of hearing loss are curable, e.g. catarrhus in the upper air passages caused by the infection of the cavities in the upper air passages is curable by medical treatment. Other types may be cured by medical surgery: conductive hearing loss may be cured by the plastic surgery of the auditory ossicles or of the tympanic cavity or of the eardrum, depending on the type of the given problem.

However, over 80% of all hearing loss cases are caused by nerve-related problems, mostly due to damages in the cochlea (inner ear) therefore the solution for this type is the use of different kinds of hearing aids, depending on the size of hearing loss and other factors. In severe cases, medical experts may recommend the use of a cochlear implant.

Which is the optimal hearing aid for me?
A quick and definitive answer may not be given to this question. As there are many aspects to consider such as the type of hearing loss, the technical parameters of the hearing instruments, specific living conditions and typical activities of the patient, a thorough hearing examination is necessary for the experts to select the optimum solution.

Are hearing aids easy to use?
Yes, hearing aids are very easy to use. Digital models do not require any manual fitting to be performed by the wearer. What wearers of digital hearing aids have to do is to clean the instruments and change batteries on a regular basis. Other models offer the option for the use of complementary features (e.g. telephone coil, program change, etc.) but in these cases audiologists will carefully explain how to use these and the manual will also provide you with clear instructions.

How much do hearing instruments cost?
The price of hearing aids depends on the specific technical characteristics and the design. Digital instruments are naturally more expensive than the analogue or programmable ones; small-sized, discrete models are also pricier than the conventional models. However, the wide range of hearing aids available will insure that everybody can find the one that best fits his/her personal needs and taste, at a reasonable price due the social security co-funding offered.

Hearing aids will be offered free of charge to financially underprivileged patients possessing the required certificates.
For further information, please visit our audiology centres.

What are the benefits of hearing aids?
Hearing aids insure that lost sounds return and speech is perfectly understood even in a noisy environment. For optimal hearing, a bilateral, in other words stereo instrument is needed to insure good communication ability and directional hearing similar to reality.  

Naturally, hearing aids are not able to act like magic: they cannot cure your hearing but are able to help people with damaged hearing to hear well again.

Does social security refund the price of hearing aids?
Social security offers co-financing for the purchase of hearing systems. Social security co-financing is claimed by hearing instrument vendors, users are required to pay only the price reduced by the sum of the said co-financing.  
Social security now offers co-financing even for the most advanced, digital hearing aids, as a result even very expensive instruments that work as tiny computers are available at reasonable prices. Naturally, financially underprivileged patients possessing the required certificates have access to various hearing instruments free of charge.