Hi! My name is Dr. Bethaney Tessitore, and I work at Now Hear This Clinic in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Here at Now Hear This, we work with all the major hearing aid companies in the industry. Recently, one of these companies launched a new product, and I attended a training session to learn what’s new about it. The company was Oticon, a brand that has been in business for over 120 years and is known for producing high-quality hearing aids.
Previously, we were fitting patients with the Oticon More hearing aid. Now, we will be fitting the Oticon Real, which is an upgrade from the More. It retains many of the features that provided excellent listening quality, but it also introduces several improvements. While the physical appearance remains the same—and these hearing aids still come in various colors—the new feature set of the Oticon Real is what I want to highlight today.
Wind Noise & Handling Noise Reduction
One major enhancement in the Oticon Real is its ability to reduce wind noise. I have many patients who golf, walk, or run, and wind noise can be a big problem for them. Oticon developed a solution to help minimize this distraction.
Additionally, the Oticon Real reduces handling noise, which is any noise caused by something touching the hearing aid microphone. For example, if you rub your hand against the back of your hearing aid, that produces handling noise. In real-life situations, one of the biggest culprits of handling noise is hair brushing against the microphone. When I rub my hair, I can hear it, but it’s even worse when hair moves directly over the microphone.
Oticon designed the Real to significantly reduce handling noise from hair and other everyday interactions, making it much less of an issue. The way this works is through the two microphones on the hearing aid. These microphones analyze incoming sound and can distinguish whether noise is environmental or caused by wind, hair, or other movement. If the noise is only coming into one microphone, the hearing aid temporarily reduces input to that microphone, minimizing the interference.
This feature works very well, and I’m excited to see how my patients respond to it!
Reduction of Sudden Impact Noises
Another improvement in the Oticon Real is how it manages sudden, loud impact noises—also known as transient noises. These are quick, loud sounds, such as:
• A door slamming (car or house door).
• Keys being dropped on a table.
• Other unexpected loud sounds in the environment.
If a hearing aid automatically reduces all sound in response to these impact noises, it could also reduce speech clarity during conversations. That’s not ideal, because we don’t want speech clarity to be affected when a sudden noise occurs.
Oticon has developed a way to reduce transient noises without impacting speech clarity. Through extensive research, they found that this new method reduces listening effort by 22%. That’s a huge benefit, especially since many people with hearing loss and hearing aid users experience fatigue at the end of the day from excessive listening effort. By reducing the strain of hearing over time, this feature is expected to greatly improve comfort for users.
Excited to Hear Patient Feedback
We are now in the process of dispensing these new hearing aids, and I’m eager to hear feedback from my patients about their experiences with the Oticon Real.
If you have any questions, feel free to call us at Now Hear This. We would be happy to:
• Answer any questions you may have.
• Schedule an appointment to show you how the Oticon Real works.
• Provide more information about its features and benefits.
I hope you have a great day!
