‘Bubble’ Means Rarely Saying ‘Hey, What Say?’

On a recent “Tonight Show” rerun, Jimmy Stewart voiced a complaint familiar to a lot of people who use electronic hearing aids. In his patented nice-guy drawl, Stewart explained that many hearing aids pick up so much background noise at parties and other gatherings that it’s sometimes easier to just shut the things off, then nod and smile politely, oblivious to what’s being said.

Stewart went on to point out that in the old days, when folks who were hard of hearing used ear trumpets, background noise wasn’t a problem. “Maybe those things weren’t such a bad idea after all,” he concluded, drawing chuckles from Carson and his audience.

In fact, the old ear trumpets--funnel-shaped objects that were held up to the ear to collect and focus sound waves--were fairly effective in their way, hearing experts say. As evidence of that, several audiologists in Southern California have begun selling a new, non-electronic hearing aid, which is essentially a modern version of the ear trumpet, they say. The difference is that while the old hearing contraptions were cumbersome and conspicuous, this device, called the Innovaid 600 or, more commonly, “the bubble,” is about the size of a person’s thumb.

Designed by Dr. Richard L. Goode, a Stanford University ear, nose and throat surgeon, the clear acrylic “resonating chamber,” which received Food and Drug Administration approval in 1983, fits directly into the ear, changing the way sound waves enter the ear canal.

“Because of its shape, the normal ear canal enhances certain very high pitches,” explained Allen Shade, an audiologist who has offices in Irvine and San Clemente. “What the bubble does is it takes the ear’s natural enhancement of amplification and shifts it down to the usable range of speech.”

Shade is one of two audiologists in Orange County authorized by Innovative Hearing of San Jose, the manufacturer, to distribute Goode’s device. (The other audiologist is David Magit, who has clinics in Seal Beach and Orange.)

Shade and other audiologists stress that people with normal hearing will notice no difference wearing the device, and people with extreme hearing loss will not find a significant improvement in their hearing should they stick a bubble in their ear.

Useful in Middle Range

Shade added, however, that by some estimates, there may be as many as 5 million to 8 million people in America with the sort of mild-to-moderate hearing losses that are more inconvenient than debilitating. These are people who find themselves cupping a hand over an ear when watching television, or repeatedly muttering “Pardon?” during conversations in crowded rooms. Many of these folks are likely candidates to be fitted with a bubble in one or both ears, Shade said.

“Traditionally, we’ve corrected these types of hearing loss with conventional hearing aids, which will increase selected pitches electronically. But electronic hearing aids sometimes overamplify background noises, and people find that offensive,” Shade continued.

The bubble, he said, does not have that problem.

To demonstrate, Shade switches on an Audio Spectrum Analyzer he has hooked up to a computer at his office in Irvine. As he talks, red, green, yellow and purple bars, representing the range of audible pitches, shoot up and then recede on the video monitor.

Some consonants, such as S sounds, are very high frequency, Shade explained. Vowels create sound waves that resonate at a low frequency. And vowels, by virtue of the way they are spoken, are generally louder than consonants, Shade said, voicing an O that sent the analyzer’s low-frequency bars rocketing up the decibel scale.

“In a cocktail party atmosphere, there’s a lot of low-frequency noise,” Shade said. “Because low-frequency noise is generally louder, it masks over high-frequency sounds.”

Consonant Problems

Therefore, people who have little problem hearing in most settings may be unable to distinguish consonants at parties or in crowded restaurants. They might, for instance, mistake “chew” for “shoe,” Shade said.

“What the bubble does is very similar to what happens when you cup your hand behind your ear,” Shade said, explaining that a person making that common hand-to-ear gesture can actually increase hearing by 12 to 14 decibels without picking up background noise.

Likewise the bubble, which is custom-fitted and “tuned” to each person’s ear, makes pitches in the “usable” frequencies of human speech--roughly 1,500 to 2,500 cycles--louder by about 10 decibels.

Another advantage of the bubble is its price, Shade said. Electronic hearing aids sell for $500 to $750. A bubble costs $240 (which includes loss and damage insurance and, at some facilities, testing).

Each bubble sold comes with a guarantee of a 75% refund if the client is not satisfied, and Shade concedes that of the 50 to 60 clients he’s fitted with the aids since he started distributing them in August, a few have returned the bubbles.

“The figures (for returned bubbles) coincide almost exactly with what the manufacturer said to expect. They said that when you have a ‘good candidate’--someone who has a mild to moderate high-frequency hearing loss--you’ll have a 75% to 80% success rate. Our figures have fallen exactly within that range.”

Satisfied Customer

One customer who is satisfied is Duncan McPheeters, 84, of Irvine. At the Regents Point Retirement Home, where McPheeters lives, dinner is served at tables for four and tables for six. In the past couple of years, McPheeters had been having a hard time following the conversation when he sat at the bigger tables. He was also having trouble hearing at parties and meetings.

Soon after the bubble became available in Orange County, McPheeters had Shade make casts of his ears. Following standard procedure, Shade sent the impressions to Innovaid, which molded two custom bubbles.

McPheeters says he wears them from the time he gets up till he goes to bed.

“Now, with the aids, I can follow the conversation at the bigger table,” McPheeters said. “And my wife has noticed that when I’m in the back seat of a car now, I can hear the conversation of the people in the front seat.

“It does what I’d hoped it would do,” McPheeters said of the bubble. “It’s lightweight, and there is no problem with turning it up or buying batteries or what have you. It seems to be a neat little idea. Sort of a neat little ear trumpet.”