General Archives - Page 4 of 4 -

Sudden Hearing Loss – First National Guidelines Published

April 5, 2012

Sudden Hearing Loss Research

The first national treatment guideline for sudden hearing loss has been developed by a panel of 19 medical experts led by Robert J. Stachler, M.D., an otolaryngologist in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. Sudden hearing loss is a condition which sends thousands of individuals in the United States to the emergency room each year. The guideline was published this month in the Journal of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Dr. Stachler, said:

“In most cases, patients will have multiple visits with several physicians and undergo extensive testing before a diagnosis is made. There’s also been a lack of one or more uniformly accepted treatments, or a consensus on how to counsel patients who do fully recover their hearing. By focusing on opportunities for quality improvement, the guideline should improve diagnosis, reduce unnecessary tests and imaging procedures, and improve hearing for patients affected by sudden hearing loss.”

The team of experts developed the guideline after examining the literature and reaching a consensus for patient diagnosis, management and follow-up care. The panel included Christopher A. Lewandowski, M.D., a physician in emergency medicine, and Henry Ford’s Kathleen L. Yaremchuk, M.D., chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Sudden Hearing Loss

Sudden hearing loss is a rapid loss of hearing in one or both ears which can happen to an individual all at once or over a period of up to 3 days. Usually, patients report that their ear feels full or blocked. Dr. Stachler notes that as symptoms of sudden hearing loss are so prevalent and non-specific, evaluation and treatment are often delayed in several cases. Sudden hearing loss can be caused by a range of issues, such as infectious diseases, induced hearing loss, head trauma, noise induced hearing loss, Meniere’s disease, and circulatory problems.

The new guideline, which is intended for all clinicians who see patients aged 18+, includes:

> Information for patients regarding the benefits and risks of medical intervention
> Recommendations to assist clinicians in determining whether a patient with sudden hearing loss is suffering from conductive hearing loss or from sensorineural hearing loss. Although both are common causes of hearing loss, they have extremely different treatment strategies.
> Recommendations advising clinicians to not order computerized tomography (CT) of the head/brain as part of the initial patient assessment.
> A range of amplification and hearing assistive technology available to those patients with incomplete recovery of hearing.

Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL), a subset of sudden hearing loss is also covered in the guideline. Each year in the United States approximately 4,000 new cases of SSNHL are reported. Even though the majority of patients recovery completely without the need for medical intervention, roughly 15% of patients with SSNHL experience progressive hearing loss over time.

> The guideline is published as a supplement to Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and is available here.

> To learn more about the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford, click here.

2012 Indiana Safety and Health Conference & Expo: Come see us!

March 12, 2012

This years 2012 Indiana Safety and Health Conference & Expo includes diverse educational tracks, national speakers and the most current safety and health industry information will be highlighted at the Conference, March 12-14, 2012: 7:00AM – 5:00PM, being held at the Indianapolis Marriott East. Indy Car driver Davey Hamilton and Mike King, voice of the IMS Radio Network, will set the pace for a great conference!

About the 2012 Indiana Safety and Health Conference & Expo

The three-day event draws over 70 exhibitors and offers more than 50 courses with a variety of education tracks. Among them: construction safety; occupational health, industrial hygiene; worker’s compensation and ergonomic safety; safety management practices; and safety fundamentals. Course information is designed to benefit safety managers/directors, industrial hygienists, contractors, plant managers, safety engineers, human resources managers, maintenance supervisors and other related personnel.

For more information on this event click here:

Join Custom Protect Ear at the 2012 Indiana Safety and Health Conference & Expo on March 12-14, 2012 at the Indianapolis Marriott East.

Who Should Attend:
•   Safety Managers/Directors
•   Industrial Hygienists
•   Occupational Health Nurses or Practitioners
•   Contractors
•   Construction Managers
•   Safety Committee Members
•   Safety Consultants
•   Plant Managers
•   Loss Control/Risk Managers
•   Facility Building Managers
•   Safety Engineers
•   Maintenance Supervisors
•   Personnel and HR Managers

Here’s what people had to say about the Indiana Safety & Health Expo and Conference:

“I really enjoyed the conference. I can’t wait to get back to work and put some of the things I’ve learned to practice.” – Craig Koenig, Koch Development (Holiday World)

“I had a great time meeting other peers and sharing ideas! I gained beneficial knowledge I can take back to my employees. And the participating vendors were great assets regarding the latest products and technology available to improve safety for each of our industries.” – Tim Roberts, Farbest Foods, Inc.

“This conference was very good, and I would attend again. It provided a lot of information I can use in daily work functions.” – Cristine McKinley, Caterpillar

“I loved the expo. There was a huge variety of vendors. I learned a lot in the sessions.” – Dawn Query, Crown Equipment

“I’m very pleased with the top notch speakers and quality of safety information. I’m pleased with the information to take back to our company and share with our employees.” – Karmen L. Glaspy, Corporate Safety and Training Manager, Syndicate Sales, Inc.

“The seminars were among the best I had ever seen or sat through!” – Debbie Peetz, Acuity Brands Lighting
“This conference is very informative and a great opportunity to meet with other safety professionals.” – Wayne Orcutt, INDOT

Here is a preview from 2010.

Custom Protect Ear will be at the Cascade Occupational Safety & Health Conference

March 6, 2012

Custom Protect Ear will be attending two-day conference March 6-7, 2012, in Eugene that will showcase the latest workplace safety and health information.Workers and employers are also invited to attend.

About the Cascade Occupational Safety & Health Conference

The Department of Consumer and Business Services, Occupational Safety and Health Division (Oregon OSHA) is one of several partners presenting the Cascade Occupational Safety and Health Conference at Eugene’s Valley River Inn, located at 1000 Valley River Way. The event is built around the theme, “By choice, not chance – don’t gamble with safety,” and will highlight training to improve on-the-job safety performance.

On March 6, keynote speaker Todd Conklin will present, “Preventing Human Errors: What’s Stopping Us!” – a look at what’s behind human performance and why the perception of human error needs to change. Conklin is a senior adviser to the associate director at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and earned excellent reviews following a presentation at the Pendleton safety conference in 2011. Attendees remarked, “One of the best speakers I’ve ever heard” and “thought provoking.”

Conference attendees can also take advantage of a networking session and workshops focused on hazard identification, safety leadership, and risk management theory and best practices.

About the Oregon OSHA

We’re dedicated to improving workplace safety and health in Oregon and committed to working with labor, business, and other government agencies to accomplish that goal. We do that in the following ways.

We hope to see you there! ~ Custom Protect Ear

Inspiring Letter to Santa

December 20, 2011

I was recently browsing the web for Christmas gifts & promotions and came across a letter to Santa: “What I Would Like to Hear This Christmas”. The letter captured my attention, because so many of us fail to ask for health and happiness because we are consumed with the next shiny IPad or a COACH handbag, yes I am guilty of this too 🙂

Here’s a glimpse of the letter:

“Dear Santa,

How are you? I’m sure you’re busy and this is a long letter, so I’ll get to the point.
I have hearing loss, which causes a few issues at this time of year, as you can imagine. Well, maybe you can’t imagine, because you don’t have hearing loss. So, let me tell you about my challenges and why I’m asking for your help again.
Santa, at this time of year, it’s hard to hear. The holidays are noisy with all the festivity, parties, concerts, music and crowds of people. People get excited, making them louder and harder to understand. I have to work harder to hear and understand., This really stresses me out in a season that’s already emotional.

I want more from the holidays than just great turkey and looking my best sparkly-glam self. I want to ‘hear’ more; I want to get rid of those barriers that can leave people like me –– out in the cold.”
Read entire Letter

It’s stories like these that put things into perspective regarding the value of our health. We once used to chant, “ All I want for Christmas in my two front teeth”, but now we ask for much more than that. Many people with hearing loss face stress, anxiety, isolation, and most likely live in denial. This is why it is important that people educate themselves about hearing loss prevention. It has to start somewhere – the world is a noisy place.

So in a nutshell, this Holiday Season, be aware of noisy festivity, parties, concerts, music and crowds of people; be cognoscente and protect your hearing.

A message from Custom Protect Ear:

“Our wish for everyone is that 2012 is the first year that you will try to maintain ALL of your body parts in working order including your ears. When you begin your January exercise routine, exercise restraint and take precautions with your hearing.

“Let’s make it the year of hearing famously”

Happy Holidays

Connect PhoneBuddy™ to your dB Blockers.

November 18, 2011

Product Release

Surrey British Columbia, November 14th, 2011. Custom Protect Ear launches the The PhoneBuddy™, headphones that are compatible to dB Blockers and work with many Smartphones. The headphones, “The PhoneBuddy™” are available in two versions; the single and the dual.

PhoneBuddy™ I is a single version headphone for monaural use (phone calls and to just hear the phone ring in noise). The unit works with virtually any smart phone and has an inline microphone and flash button for answering the call and hanging up.

“A BIG PLUS is you can connect your PhoneBuddy™ into your dB Blocker Convertible vented protector and hear the phone ring in noise. You still have to move to quieter places to have a conversation but you won’t miss the call, says Custom Protect Ear’s President, Jeffery Goldberg.

PhoneBuddy™ II

PhoneBuddy™ II is the stereo version. With PhoneBuddy™ II you can listen to music and answer your phone calls on most Smartphones. It also has an in-line microphone with a flash switch. When a call comes in, the phone will ring in the earpiece and the user simply switches to the phone by pressing the flash switch. When the call concludes, the user presses the flash switch again and the music resumes playing.

What makes PhoneBuddy unique is the sound quality and the ability to use it with more than one Smartphone. PhoneBuddy™ II also connects to dB Blocker Convertible vented protectors for use in a noisy work environment. PhoneBuddy™ I sells for $69.00 retail with discounts for commercial users. PhoneBuddy™ II sells for $125.00 retail also with discounts for commercial users.

Please contact us for more details.

Custom Protect Ear
681-7789 134th Street
Surrey, BC V3W 9E9
Canada
Phone: 604-599-1311 x321
Toll-free: 1-800-520-0220 x321
Fax: 604-599-7377
Email: hear@protectear.com

A CPE Card for the Holidays? Bah Humbug!

December 17, 2010

Ahhh…. the holiday season is upon us. Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, or simply enjoy being part of the festivities, ‘tis truly a magical time.

Traditionally, we take this opportunity to thank all our wonderful customers and friends for their support and wish them peace, love and prosperity for the upcoming year.

However, instead of sending a card, which is typically displayed for a couple of weeks, and then tossed away, we’ve opted for something different. That’s why our over 4,500 customers will not be receiving the usual card from us this year. No, we’re not Scrooge’s, we just wanted to do something more meaningful.

We are taking the money we had budgeted for printing and mailing of the cards and we’re donating the entire amount to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. This charity is doing incredibly important work in finding cures for cancer and we’re honoured to donate this money on your behalf. So you can feel good, even if you didn’t get a card from us!

From our Custom Protect Ear family, to yours, we wish you the most joyous holiday season filled with peace, love and happiness. May the sounds of laughter be music to your ears.

Hello world! Its CPE!

September 8, 2010

Hello & Welcome to the CPE blog.

We’re blogging about ears. Why? Because some of you don’t hear all that well. Or per our significant others don’t listen all that well. To understand whether you want to follow this blog on a regular basis let me explain its purpose.

Before I do that some terminology first. We’ll refer to ourselves as CPE. That stands for Custom Protect Ear. We make “personalized hearing protection” also called custom fit earplugs. What we use to protect peoples’ hearing is called dB Blockers – the dB being the abbreviation for decibel (the measure of sound pressure – the loudness of sound).

We will try to make the blog entertaining, fun, and informative (how are we doing so far?). Your involvement can make it relevant, at least for you. This blog is directed at fulfilling CPE’s mission “to make a difference in reducing the incidence of Noise Induced Hearing Loss” (NIHL – another abbreviation). To that end we will try to de-mystify the world of hearing conservation and protection. We hope we can help you do a better job protecting hearing (either yours or someone elses).

So we can do a better job, we’d like to hear from you with comments and most certainly criticisms.

If you have questions, suggestions, or concerns voice them. Respond to the blog and we’ll do our best to post them with answers. OK, intro over. Well not completely. Maybe you’d like to know who I am and what my qualifications are to write this blog. OK I’m a businessman who bought a hearing protection manufacturer because I thought it would be a good business. There was no passion, no alterior motive, it was a way to make money.

Then I looked at what a poor job the industry was doing at creating ways to protect hearing that made a difference and I got bitten by a passion bug. I have become a crusader for saving ones hearing. The fact that I don’t hear so well anymore either doesn’t hurt. Bottom line? 8 years ago I thought little about earplugs and less about protecting hearing.

Today, it resonates with me daily. I hope you’ll enjoy the blog and get something out of it. Put something into it and you’ll get more. Help me find the tone you are looking for. Let me answer the questions you have and we can take this journey together.