We’re well aware of our five senses, sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. We also often neglect the much-needed check-ups on all of the above, or we’re simply unaware of a problem due to its seemingly insignificant effect on us. International Optique, however, will not only check your eyesight, but they also offer advanced services to make sure your hearing functionality is at its best.

You’ll never miss a beat, from the sounds of your loved ones, music that touches your soul, or those endless conversations you wouldn’t want to miss out on.   

The skilled audiological team at International Optique will be by your side from start to end to help you enhance your experience of ‘hearing’. They conduct in-depth hearing evaluation tests to ensure the most fitting and more importantly, comfortable, individual hearing aids. The services help create awareness, since this specific sense is as much needed as any prescribed glasses for your eyesight which the team already provides to their customers. The same way you would go for an eyesight check, your ears require the same attention. 

The team aims to help create awareness about the importance of hearing aids, and to also remove any stigmas and misconceptions on their use, such as, “it’s not comfortable to wear, it’s big and it will make me look old.” Of course, not wearing anything inside the ear can be more comfortable than wearing a hearing aid.

However, not wearing a hearing aid when required will make even the most basic act of listening a tiresome, uncomfortable one. So why not embrace the notion of comfort, and give yourself a chance to really listen to the sounds that matter?

While it can take some time for your ear to adapt to new sounds and the feeling of wearing the hearing aid, we are so lucky to live in a time where the advancement of technology has allowed for features that make irksome sounds more comfortable to listen than ever before. If the aesthetic is your concern, the latest technology also allows most hearing aids to be small, discrete and well-designed.

Hearing aids do not only enhance surrounding sounds, but they also preserve the ear’s auditory functions. The process, which was explained to us by Audiologist Mohammad Al Omiri, is fairly simple.

The specialist will first examine the ear condition, checking for any problems such as a blockage in the ear canal, which can cause conductive hearing loss and can affect the efficacy of the test itself. But once everything is cleared, they proceed and start conducting the hearing test at International Optique’s soundproof and sound-treated room. 

The hearing test is performed using an Audiometre, which is a device with a pair of headphones. As Mohammad explained to us, “We basically provide the sound through a headset, and give the customer a pushing-button, so once they hear a sound they press the button.”

This particular test examines the levels of your hearing frequency, and essentially captures the customer’s hearing threshold (this is the sound level below where a person’s ear is unable to detect any sound.) There are several categories when it comes to hearing loss, including mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, or profound hearing loss. 

For example, those with mild hearing loss can understand speech in general, but miss a few letters when they come up during conversation, especially in a noisy environment. That’s why it often passes by people without any realization, when in fact, there’s a slight issue there. But how does the team catch those specific thresholds? This actually occurs during the hearing test on the Audiometre itself.

As Mohammed says, “When we give them the sound [to listen to during the test], and if they respond by pushing the button, we decrease the sound to ten decibels. If there isn’t a response, we increase the sound to five decibels.” The sound is thus adjusted to capture the various auditory nuances that we sometimes miss, or don’t even notice, on a day-to-day basis.  

The results appear as figures on the Audiogram, a circular shape denotes the right ear, and an ‘x’ shape is for the left ear. This is where the team decides on which hearing category you would fall under, and which hearing aid could suit you best. International Optique will not only recommend the appropriate type of hearing aid that you would need, they will also consider your budget, as well as your lifestyle. After all, the customer’s daily lifestyle is actually an important element to the test itself, and the team takes this into consideration by allowing some time for a trial via providing a customer with the S-Demo, a hearing aid device that will contribute to deciding the customer’s final earpiece. 

The customer will be able to take the device and try it out in their everyday life for up to two weeks. The S-Demo excels in its flexibility, as it will help the team at International Optique in narrowing down and finalizing the programming and feature settings that anyone will require within their customized hearing aid. Such as increasing or decreasing the customer’s surrounding sounds, and finally, customizing the hearing aid’s technical specs to your needs. In the case of any difficulties, the team will eliminate those obstacles after the customer gives their feedback on their experience with the S-Demo.  

Each and every hearing aid has different features, from sound protection, noise cancellation, sound amplification, to size options, Bluetooth requirements (which are compatible with iOS and Android phone users), and hearing impairments, depending on your test results and feedback. Even the designs of the hearing aids can differ to provide the customer with various style options, comfort, and ultimately depend on their personal taste. We even saw that the store provides hearing aids that are almost the exact style and functionality of an AirPod, it even charges as easily. 

The team at International Optique have what you need and more, all you have to do is pay attention to your sense of hearing, and whether you can detect any problems or not, trust us, visiting them for a check-up will be worthwhile. 

For more information, follow @intoptique on Instagram, or visit their website at www.intoptic.com, or call 9723 4752 for appointments. International Optique is located in Salmiya’s Central Plaza on Salem Al Mubarak Street. Featured image courtesy of International Optique.