In the middle of August this year one of the Pinellas County Public School audiologists called me because a school aid found a scarred and trampled hearing aid in the sand at the edge of the surf in Madeira Beach, Florida (see picture). After some detective work through the manufacturer she linked the serial number to one of my St. Petersburg offices. When I called the owner of the lost aid she was elated that someone found it and astounded that it was still working perfectly after two weeks of exposure to salt, sand, and constant rain. Yes, this has been an unusually wet summer in Central Florida.
This Starkey Z i110 hearing aid worked perfectly after being exposed the salt air, beach sand, heavy foot and rain for over 2 weeks.
This patient has closure for a lost aid I have validation that we provide our patients with the very best brand of hearing aid for Florida living. About 3 years ago, because of its patented water tight design, we started fitting Starkey’s Wi Series RICs (receiver in the canal). This lost hearing aid was the next generation after The Wi models named the Z Series. With both of these models we have tracked a significant reduction in patient visits for repair and maintenance due to perspiration and moisture.
Even better than the resilience of these Starkey models is our patients’ satisfaction with their improved ability to hear better even in noisy environments. We document and track this on pre and post fitting questionnaires.
I recommend Starkey Hearing Aids to anyone who spends time in Florida. You cannot buy this best brand of hearing aid via mail order or big box retail stores. Starkey only distributes their hearing aids through properly trained hearing health professionals in your home town.
This patient can attest to my above recommendation because she just picked up a hearing aid that she lost several weeks ago in the sand at Madeira Beach. She missed her hearing aid so much that she decided to wear the aid in its present physical condition instead of using the damage replacement insurance that comes with all Starkey aids.
Dan Gardner M.S. is an audiologist with 40 years of hearing industry experience. He is CEO of Gardner Audiology, a hearing health company in the Tampa Bay area. He can be contacted at www.GardnerAudiology.com
