The IIC also benefits from the Widex Sound – natural sound that doesn’t just help users hear speech or loud sounds, but all the sounds around them. Because the IIC sits so deeply in the ear canal the wearer can make the most of the natural pinna effect (the natural shape and sound collecting qualities of the ear shape) for better localisation of sound and to easily determine the direction of sound.

The Widex IIC is available in three technology levels, entry level, mid range and advanced, that’s IIC3+, IIC5 and IIC10. The Widex IIC covers hearing loss from minimal to moderately severe.

Widex have replaced the ageing entry level Widex Real with the new Menu 3+, in the past Widex have not troubled themselves too much to develop the entry level hearing aid market, concentrating more on the quality end of the hearing aid market instead. Of course the volume of hearing aid supply seems to congregate more towards the value end of the market and the Menu 3+ seems to be an effort to address this side of their hearing aid portfolio. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

Also Widex have added a couple of wireless accessories to their DEX range, the FM-DEX and the T-DEX.

The FM-DEX converts audio from an FM receiver, tyelecoil or audio cable line-in and then streams that to the Widex hearing aids. The rechargeable battery in the FM-DEX provides up to 10 hours of streaming. The FM-DEX has a wide bandwidth of up to 10.5kHz which can provide superb sound quality.

Also the T-DEX is now available, a hands free wireless neck loop that accepts bluetooth audio in wirelessly (that usually means a mobile phone but can just as easily be an MP3 player, a sat nav device, or anything that broadcasts bluetooth audio), and then connects to the hearing aids wirelessly via telecoil. In the case of a mobile phone user this means hands free conversations on your mobile. In fact the T-Dex can be used with any hearing aid brand that has a telecoil facility.

Leon aims to pedal around 150 miles a day over a month, with a few rest days in between. He will take in a very diverse terrain and many states, including California, Arizona, Kansas, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New Jersey before finishing in New York City.

Leon is going solo, without the help of a support vehicle, working out his own navigation himself, and combining camping and motel accommodation, and doing a lot of his own camping.

Leon started his epic journey on 30th April and you can keep track of his journey across America by following the Unitron twitter feed @unitron_hearing

Leon is hoping to raise £5000, you can sponsor him (and it would seem churlish not to!) by visiting his JustGiving webpage at http://www.justgiving.com/leoncox-lax2nyc

Noise Action Week is a campaign to raise awareness and encourage people to think about how we can engage in reducing noise pollution around us in our own communities and neighbourhoods.

We feel it’s much better to concentrate minds on how to reduce noise than have to deal with the aftermath of potential hearing loss.

Noise Action Week is an annual initiative coordinated by Environmental Protection UK, a voluntary organisation supported by pollution control professionals which has been working for a cleaner, quieter, healthier world since 1898.

NAW 2012 is supported by Defra – the government department with responsibility for noise issues.

Each year Noise Action Week encourages local authorities, housing providers, mediation services, community groups and all those involved in neighbourhood noise management to engage their local community in reducing every day noise by:

• Highlighting the problems noise disturbance can cause
• Promoting practical solutions to noise problems
• Promoting communication and consideration between neighbours
• Informing communities of noise-related services available
• Educating and informing noise makers and noise sufferers about noise reduction
• Encouraging everyone to take a quiet moment to consider the noises they make

The Unitron Quantum Micro CIC is available across three technology levels to mirror the Quantum range at 20, 12 and 6 level. Unusually for this sector, Unitron have released a mid range IIC. Other manufacturers have been slow to release at this level of technology due to the increased costs and time involved in producing such a small hearing aid, this type of hearing aid just takes longer to build.

In a few weeks Widex will be launching their own IIC hearing aid which will leave ReSound alone in UK manufacturers not having this type of product in their line up. We are sure they will have something around the corner and as soon as we hear anything we will post the information as it becomes available.

These models mean that the full and current Phonak portfolio of products is base in its entirety on the Spice chipset.

Phonak Dalia has four channels and four manual program slots, SoundRecover, UltraZoom Essential, NoiseBlock and WhistleBlock amongst its plus points, not a bad suite of features for an entry level product. It is a good product for the budget conscious client not wishing to take advantage of wireless additions or automatic functions. The Dalia in its different forms is available in various power levels too, depending on the model power levels available are M, P, SP and UP.

Phonak Naida S I is the latest addition to the Naida range of water resistant super power BTE hearing aids, with a similar feature range as the Phonak Dalia it is a real option for the client looking for a no-frills budget version of the Naida.

Deaf Awareness Week is co-ordinated by the UK Council on Deafness, the UK’s leading membership body for organisations concerned with deafness. They provide access to specialist information, conferences and collaborative working opportunities, whilst providing a collective membership voice to political and cross sector partners. You can find the website here

Here are some interesting facts taken from the Deaf Awareness Week website;

Nearly 15% of the population have some degree of deafness. For every 10,000 people:

10 will be born profoundly deaf. They probably get little or no benefit from Hearing Aids and mainly use Sign Language to communicate.

20 will have become profoundly deaf. They may use Sign Language and probably also lipread.

100 will be partially deaf. They may have difficulty following what is being said, even with hearing aids. Mostly they will lipread and some use sign language as well.

600 will be hard of hearing. They will be able to follow what is being said with a hearing aid and will be able to use a telephone if it has an adjustable volume or has been designed to be used with a hearing aid.

800 will be mildly hard of hearing. They may have difficulty following conversations particularly in large groups or in noisy situations. Some will wear hearing aids and many find lipreading helpful.

• British Sign Language (BSL) is the first or preferred language of around 70,000 people in the UK.
• About 2 million people in Britain wear hearing aids, maybe another million would benefit from doing so.
• Almost all deaf and hard of hearing people rely on lipreading to some extent.
• Many combine signs from BSL with English in order to communicate.

There are some limitations to do with the shape and dimensions of the individual ear canal, and some contra-indications that rule out such devices, but the majority of potential clients can expect a really very discreet solution if that is what is desired. (Not everyone has the smallest hearing aid possible as the top priority when looking to address their hearing loss).

With Widex entering this growing market for very small and invisible hearing aids that means that the majority of hearing aid manufacturers in the UK will now offer this type of product which tends to appeal particularly to younger clients and also people thinking of wearing hearing aids for the first time.

Our understanding is that these new IIC hearing aids will not take advantage of the groundbreaking wireless capabilities of the latest Clear range of Widex hearing aids, because of the limited amount of space in a deep fitting hearing aid there just is no room for wireless technology!

We will post more details as they become available.

The stake Sonova have in DOHC up until recently has been a sizeable 49% but it has now been reported that Sonova have aquired the remaining stake in the company up to the full 100%.

For David Ormerod Hearing Centre and Boots Hearing Care customers this is not necessarily a bad thing, as Phonak are one of the best manufacturers of hearing aids in the UK, but it does of course impact on the amount of choice a customer walking into a Boots branch for instance would have.

Phonak as a brand does seem to be pushed very heavily in these outlets which is not such a surprise, and it does not stretch the imagination to believe this will continue to happen into the future, perhaps more so based on the fact that Sonova now own 100% of the business.

To be able to access the FULL range of hearing aids available in the UK you must approach a local independent hearing aid audiologist, as a nice extra you will probably find the price you pay more reasonable too! Please ask us for details if you would like us to put you in touch with your nearest local independent hearing aid audiologist for free advice, the widest choice with low prices, and with the assurance of great aftercare.

An affiliate of Discount Hearing Aids – Digital Hearing Care have just upgraded their YouTube channel that is designed to host a number of maintainence videos helpful to hearing aid wearers.

Especially when you are new to hearing aids, the first time a wax filter blocks up you might not be sure what to do to rectify the problem. It might be the weekend, it might be late at night, or it might just not be possible for you to meet with your hearing aid audiologist for a few days to show you how to change the filters.

Maybe you need to change a speaker / receiver wire, or perhaps swap the domes on your ‘receiver in canal’ (RIC/RITE) hearing aids?

The YouTube channel has a number of useful videos hosted to help show you how to do these things and more any time of day or night, all you need is a computer and an internet connection. Please feel free to check out the helpful videos available, you can find them here

You may want to bookmark (or add to your favourites) this useful website as new videos will be added over a matter of time.

Many years ago hearing aid batteries had a high mercury content but these were phased out around 20 years ago, the majority of hearing aid batteries now being ‘zinc-air’.

Zinc Air batteries still have a small amount of mercury in them but the latest development is mercury free hearing aid batteries. At present mercury free batteries are a little more expensive that the more popular zinc air variety, but the prices are starting to converge, it seems likely that in years to come mercury free hearing aid batteries will become the norm.

In the UK four brands dominate the market when it comes to hearing aid batteries, they are Rayovac, Duracell, Power One and Zenipower. There are other brands too which tend to be supplied in small numbers mainly via the internet. Rayovac have the largest share of the market by quite a margin.

The different sizes are as follows;

Size 675 batteries (generally used with super power BTE hearing aids)

Size 13 batteries (generally used with most BTE hearing aids and most full shell ITE hearing aids)

Size 312 batteries (generally used with a lot of RIC / RITE hearing aids and most half shell / canal ITC hearing aids)

Size 10 batteries (generally used with a some RIC / RITE hearing aids and CIC / MIC / IIC hearing aids)

Our sister site Hearing Aid Batteries can supply hearing aid batteries and all other accessories at low prices with excellent customer care.