About

Dr. Maryam Esmaeli is a Clinical Audiologist and Hearing Aid Dispenser. She earned her Doctor of Science in Audiology (ScD.) Degree from the Seton Hall University of South Orange, New Jersey. Dr. Esmaeli served in New Jersey for over eight years, and has been continuing her services in Maryland since 2013. She provides the highest standard of hearing care and hearing health education to her patients and their families. She incorporates her love of technology into hearing healthcare management by maintaining proficiency in state-of-the-art instrumentation.

Birds nest in our dryer vent!

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I was so lucky that I decided to stay home one Saturday morning, last May. I could not believe my ears when I heard the sound of chirping from my laundry room. I was a bit intimidated for the first few minutes; I was quite in shock of what I was hearing. I also did not know what to do, as I was chickened out by the thought of a big and angry rodent finding its way out of the pipe and jumping on my lap. Yet, as I listened more closely, I could hear the gentle flutter/flapping wings of some sort. I knocked the vent gently, and heard very soft chirps followed by a few minutes of complete silence. It was then that I figured a bird may somehow be trapped in my vent pipe!

Thanks to my wonderful neighbor Ms. Charlene for helping me, we were able to rescue three little surprise guests! We opened the pipe to see the three baby birds wrapped up in a pile of dried vine, as well as a ton of lint from our dryer. Before we knew it, scared and injured mommy bird was flying all over our place before she found an open window.

Later, I realized that these birds saved my family's life from a major house fire. Had they not been trapped in the laundry vent, we never would have known that our vent pipe was clogged with so much debris; it was essentially a ticking bomb, waiting to become a major house fire! It then occurred to me—if I had an untreated hearing loss, even a mild type, I might not have ever heard the cries of these defenseless creatures! Hearing is a wonderful gift, and we should cherish every moment that it plays in our lives. If you suspect that you or your loved one has hearing loss, do not hesitate to get it checked. Getting it treated will ensure that you’ll never miss life’s big (or small and feathered) surprises.

Be well,

Dr. Maryam Esmaeli

Having a Hard Time Hearing?

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"I don’t have hearing loss, I hear what I want to hear; my wife is mumbling; the young kids don't know how to talk right any more. My students talk too softly; my co-workers have funny accents; I can’t understand some people. I just tune out my wife’s yakking."

Do you hear these comments from a loved one often? Do these comments remind you of someone you know? Well, I have heard them a lot. I actually hear them on a daily basis in my office at the Audiology Center of Maryland. If you made any of the comments above, it is very likely that you suffer from some type of hearing loss. Moreover, if you think you have hearing loss, you probably do.

A slight hearing loss is difficult to detect. Hearing loss progression is very subtle for most people. In fact, it is so gradual that it takes an average of about seven years of daily misunderstanding and aggravation for an individual and people around them to recognize the problem and seek treatment for it. Therefore, it is absolutely understandable if a person would not notice their hearing loss as soon as it emerges. Often, people around the one with hearing loss notice the problem much sooner than the sufferer will. An individual may receive numerous comments and hints from others before realizing that they have a hearing difficulty.

The most common hearing loss in older adults is high-frequency hearing loss. A person with high-frequency hearing loss has difficulties with clarity of sound as they cannot hear the high-pitched consonants as well as they used to. Consonants sounds carry the meaning of the words. A victim of high-frequency hearing loss would absolutely be right when they say that they can hear someone but cannot understand what that person is saying. They will often experience the most difficulty with understanding children and women, as their voices sound relatively monotone and mumbled due to the fact that they are generally higher pitched than the voices of grown men. The problem is even worse when attempting to make out words in a noisy environment. The same difficulty and rules apply to music and songs. When higher pitches are taken away, the sound of music and the singer are distorted, dull, and not as joyful as it used to be! In fact, it may sound terrible and poorly played.

A person with high frequency hearing loss may think that the old-time singers and musicians simply performed live shows better than new performers. So, little by little they shy away from attending to live concerts. As time passes by, going to movie theaters and crowded restaurants will also turn to a big struggle. The ongoing struggle with word understanding may start as constant frustration, but eventually can turn to losing the battle with hearing loss and ultimately a total withdrawal from social activities.

There is a trend of resistance to have the hearing impairment diagnosed and treated among older adults. One of the most common reasons presented by my patients at the Audiology Center of Maryland is the falsified idea that it is normal to lose some hearing when you are older. Following this, some patients incorrectly assume there should be no reason to do anything about it!

Well, I believe that although it is 'natural' to lose hearing at an older age, it is not normal to lose hearing at any age. Therefore, any hearing loss should be managed at all ages. For example, we lose some of our eyesight as part of a 'natural' aging process; however, we are strongly encouraged to take the proper steps to correct our vision using different types of corrective lenses. It is 'natural' to lose some or all of our teeth as we age, yet we replace them with dental implants, bridges, or dentures. Some of us may need to use a pacemaker to control our heart rhythm, and some may need to take an aspirin a day to keep us from a stroke. These are all different ways of how we attempt to live a longer and more fulfilled life.

An ignored and untreated hearing loss leads to a condition called auditory deprivation. This is where the auditory nerves and the speech processing areas of the brain are atrophied as a result of being deprived of sounds! An individual with auditory deprivation has much more difficulty in distinguishing the words and understanding speech. They also may have a harder time becoming accustomed to hearing aids. It is as the popular saying goes: if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it!

Furthermore, it is well known that dementia poses a great challenge in quality of life. Hearing loss is a risk factor for dementia. As hearing loss progresses, the risk of dementia increases; however, hearing aids will take away the struggle to hear the soft and unclear sounds. Using hearing aids and participating in proper communication will keep brains active, lessening the chance of dementia. Hearing amplification will give the listener the chance to enjoy and embrace socialization.

Hearing amplification does not come cheap. A patient’s economic status could be a major obstacle when considering hearing aids. Medicare, as well as most insurance companies, does not cover hearing aids. The Audiology Center of Maryland offers payment plans to facilitate the purchasing process for these patients. We also offer a diverse range of state-of-the-art hearing aids where nearly everyone can afford a powerful and convenient management for hearing loss.

Vanity may be a concern for some people. I believe sometime around 20 or more years ago, when hearing aids were a big chunk of noisy thing, vanity may have been a valid concern. Not today. Now, the hearing instruments are small, slick, and efficient. Some are sitting in the ear canal and are totally invisible to the outside. However big or small, the size and shape of the hearing aid does not make a person look bad or old, rather it is the disability caused by untreated hearing loss that could present a victim of hearing loss in a negative manner.

Denial is another reason for resistance to hearing amplification. People have different rationale to deny harsh realities in their lives and have different methods of coping. Some will go through the natural process of denial, anger, and eventually acceptance within a decent time frame. Others might take much longer. With the support and love of family and friends as a great positive force, a suffering individual may be strongly helped in facing the realities of life in a constructive manner.

One last piece of information is that not all types of hearing loss are treated solely with hearing aids. In fact, some types of hearing loss are medically and surgically treatable, and thus do not require hearing aids at all. Following an examination and a complete hearing test, your audiologist will make the appropriate referral if your hearing loss has any underlying medical reasons.

No one should go through the constant fatigue, frustration, anger, depression, job-related problems, failed relationships, societal withdrawal, and other hearing-related problems just because they have an untreated hearing loss. If you think you have a hearing loss, do yourself a great favor and see an audiologist. Treat your hearing loss and take back the control of your life.

Maryam Esmaeli, ScD., FAAA

What is the Best Hearing Aid?

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One of the most frequent questions asked by my patients is “What is the best hearing aid?”

To me, this question has no right answer, as it is not a complete question. I always change this question to a better and more specific one, “what is the best hearing aid for you specifically?” Then I will be more than happy to recommend “the best hearing aid” for them. To decide what hearing aid is the best hearing aid for you, we need to have a little background information on different hearing aids.

First of all, there are numerous different hearing aid manufactures around the world. As time passed, many of them did not seem to evolve as rapidly as the others—their lines appear to be more basic, questionable, and unpromising. Some brands vanished as they could not survive to keep up with rapid transformations, while others were running full steam aiming to be the new best in the block. Fortunately, there are several well-known great hearing aid manufacturers available to select from. A few examples are Oticon, Widex, Unitron, Starkey, Phonak, and Siemens. Some of these have been known for over 100 years. These manufactures are trying to perfect their product through tremendous amounts of research and clinical experiments all around the world. To better serve the population with hearing loss—and to compete with each other—these companies keep adding more and more new valuable features to their product lines. Therefore, every manufacture has been producing a wide array of styles and models throughout the years. Each make and model of hearing aid has some “included” basic features and some others to be added on as “optional” features. Just like any other electronic gadget, hearing aid technology advances so rapidly that the “cool new” features today will be the “thing of the past” feature tomorrow. As you can imagine by now, there are hundreds of great, top of the line hearing aids available. Yet, you may have heard this from different hearing professionals over and over; hearing aids are not one-size-fits-all.

So, back to our big question “what is the best hearing aid for YOU?”

To answer this question, your audiologist first needs to obtain some information about you and your lifestyle in order to include this information into the degree and parameters of your hearing loss. Then, they will select the best matched make and models of hearing aids for you. The selected hearing aid(s) should provide the maximum benefits and sound quality in all listening environments to meet with your hearing and social needs. Based on different factors, your audiologist may be able to recommend you multiple different hearing aids, allowing you to choose the pair that you desire most. Your hearing needs, lifestyle, preferences, and financial limits may lead your audiologist to favor one make and model hearing aid over another. Ultimately, you and your audiologist will select a hearing aid that is believed to perform the best in accordance with your specific personal needs.

So, you finally selected a pair of hearing aids. Is that the best hearing aid for you? We don’t know yet!

Different individuals perceive sounds differently. You may have the same amount of hearing loss in both ears (symmetrical hearing loss), but you may perceive the sound different in each ear. Thus, following the selection of your hearing aid, your audiologist needs to program and re-program your hearing aid multiple times. Each time they re-program your hearing aid, they are trying to personalize it for you at higher levels.

Why? Here comes another piece of information: we do not hear with our ears—we essentially hear with our brains! It may take a while for the brain to remember the sounds that it did not hear for a long time due to the previous presence of hearing loss. Our brain also needs to get used to the new sounds made by the hearing aids. Hearing aids, as sophisticated they may be, are computerized machines. The brain needs a chance to make sense of the new sounds made by these machines and become accustomed to them. Some individuals have an easier time to get accustomed to the new sounds produced by the hearing aids than others. Some patients are highly motivated to receive the benefits from hearing aids and audiology services, some realize their hearing problems but are not completely ready to follow the procedure, and others were dragged to the audiologist by their loved ones who have concerns about their hearing and communicative difficulties.

Different patients require different functions and features in their hearing aids. An individual may obtain the hearing aid to better communicate with their loved ones when they spend time with each other, a judge may rely on well performed hearing aids to hold a session in their court, and a student’s education may depend on their sophisticated hearing aids and hearing aid accessories (like an FM system) to communicate more efficiently at school and at home. An armed forces officer, a businessman/woman, an athlete, a college professor, a politician, a scientist—each and every person suffering from hearing loss will require different features in their personalized hearing aids. The audiologist needs to consider these factors each time they are selecting a hearing aid, program or re-programming a hearing instrument, and testing the hearing aids performances. Ultimately, your audiologist will provide you with the best hearing aid(s) that contains the physical and technological characteristics to fit your life and serve your needs the best.

I hope this is an “Aha!” moment for you regarding audiology and hearing aid services.

Need to know more about what are the best hearing aids for you? Contact an audiologist to find out what make and model hearing aid is the best correspondent to your personal needs. Meanwhile, I would encourage you to further educate yourself by browsing the Audiology Center of Maryland, Inc.’s official Facebook Page. Like us if you found our information useful to you or your family/friends. Remember, information is power.

Maryam Esmaeli, ScD., FAAA

Pets, People, and Hearing Aids

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Dr. K is known as the Southern Belle among friends of the Audiology Center of Maryland, Inc. Her lovely Daisy is an absolutely adorable dog with a very expensive taste for exotic snacks. She has revealed her very posh taste by doing the unthinkable act of chewing up Dr. K's brand new hearing aids.. and being cute enough to get away with the crime! Daisy paid a visit to our office recently, and did her best to win our trust and admiration. In fact, she had put on such a well behaved act in our office that no one would dare to believe that she had ever been a naughty pooch! Our meeting was going quite swimmingly until one of our young patients, Adamaris, walked into the office. In the matter of a second, our previously classy lady turned to quite the little devil! Daisy used every trick up her furry sleeves to try and get her paws on Adamaris’s hearing aids, hoping to make a fast nibble on it. To Daisy’s defense, in a pet’s eyes, hearing aids are incredibly sought-after snacks, as they are essentially crunchy, bite-sized bits with a savory taste. In addition, they are technically fat-free, cholesterol-free, and zero-calorie chips; not those cheap potato chips, mind you—the fancy and sophisticated digital kind. Hearing aids are even known as a way to help prevent dementia.. what pet wouldn’t want to try them out! Anyway, the moral of this story is to keep your hearing aids away from your pets when you take them off (no matter how cute and trustworthy your pets are). Remember, even the calmest pets would love to get the chance to nibble on your hearing aids!

Pets are not the only ones that can be held responsible for hearing aid damage and destruction. Nearly every Audiologist who has dispensed hearing aids has a unique story of how a patient or a loved one accidentally lost or broke the hearing aids. Usually, we’re able to guess that one of these events has occurred even before the patient says anything—the shameful walk into the office while holding a mysterious small plastic bag is usually the giveaway. One particular story that I always remember is about a man who, thinking it was a piece of chocolate, bit into and destroyed his wife’s hearing aid! Even though he ended up with a chipped tooth, his wife never quite forgave him for this mistake. Why, you ask? Well, I think even though his wife loved him very much, he simply was not as cute as little Daisy! Let’s face it, if a pet chews the life out of a pair of five-or-six-thousand dollar hearing aid, they are forgiven within the hour. If done by a human, however, the dispute may not be resolved until presented to a judge! Such a misdeed may eventually be forgiven, but never forgotten. So, some words of advice: if you are human, do not eat anyone’s hearing aid, or you will surely be the talk of the town.

I hope that these two stories have not only brought a smile to your face, but have also left you with an important lesson on hearing aid maintenance. Try not to laying your hearing aids around unattended even for a short minute; assign a special place for your hearing aids when they are not being used–preferably in their box—to decrease your chances of losing them. Do not attempt to clean, manipulate, or change your hearing aids’ batteries while you are walking around the house/doing other tasks; you could drop your hearing aids, step on them, and crush them to many tiny pieces... and you wouldn’t even be able to blame your pets or spouse for it! At the end, thanks goodness for loss and damage warranty!

Be Well,

Maryam Esmaeli, ScD., FAAA

June, the National Men's Health Month

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Did you know that June is the National Men's Health month?

Also, that the health statistics reports all over the world indicate that women live longer than men?

Did you know that women have doctors visit twice as often as men and living about 5 years longer?

Did you know that there is a direct link between hearing loss and dementia, in addition to general fatigue, depression, decline of occupational performance, and negative impacts on one's social activities?

Do you have a loved one whom may suffer from hearing loss? Would you be a hero and refer them to an audiologist?

Don't miss out on another great socializing event with your loved ones by being misunderstood/ or missing out on conversations! Let us help you hear and communicate better.

Let's make every month the National Health month. Let's make hearing loss prevention a public health priority.

Be well,

Maryam Esmaeli, ScD., FAAA

OTHER RESOURCES

While all of the links provided below are great sources of information, please check with your health care provider to make sure the information is accurate for your situation.

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Information About Various Associations and Organizations

American Academy of Audiology

AAA is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for Audiologists in the United States.

www.audiology.org

Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell)

This is a great source of information for pediatrics through Geriatrics, they offer national programs and advocacy, as well local chapters.

www.agbell.org (or call 202-337-5220)

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

ASHA is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists in the United States and internationally.

www.asha.org

American Tinnitus Association

Provides information as well as support for individuals suffering from tinnitus through online support groups and local chapters.

www.ata.org (or call 800-634-8978)

Association of Late-Deafened Adults

For those individuals who find themselves new to hearing loss later in life.

www.alda.org

Deafness Research Foundation

www.drf.org

Early Hearing Detection & Intervention/Pediatric Audiology Links to Services (EHDI-PALS)

www.ehdipals.org

Hearing Loss Association of America

The largest organization for people with hearing loss and has over 250 chapters across the country.National voice for hard of hearing people in the United States.

www.hearingloss.org (or call 301-657-2248; voice/TTY)

Listen-Up

Providing parents and teachers of hard of hearing children with information, ideas, and support.

www.listen-up.org

New Jersey Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Advisory Committee

The sections listed on the menu provide information on items of interest to consumers, applicants, and licensees.

https://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/aud/Pages/default.aspx

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Information and reports on different aspects of hearing loss.

www.nidcd.nih.gov

Say What Club

Online community/support group that communicates primarily through email for individuals with hearing difficulties.

www.saywhatclub.com

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Information About Hearing Aid Manufacturers

Oticon

www.oticonusa.com

Siemens

http://hearing.siemens.com

Starkey

www.starkey.com

Unitron

www.unitronhearing.com

Widex

www.widexusa.com