California Hearing Center

09/06/2026

Foam plugs work. The reason people stop wearing them is that everything ends up sounding like it is happening in the next room.

That is a real limitation rather than fussiness. Foam cuts the high frequencies hardest, so the crowd flattens out and the commentary blurs. The plugs come out at kickoff and stay out for the rest of the afternoon, which protects nobody.

Filtered plugs are built to solve exactly that: they bring the level down fairly evenly across pitches, so the game still sounds like the game. Custom-moulded ones stay comfortable for three hours, and comfort is what decides whether protection is actually worn.

Sitting away from the speaker stacks and stepping out at halftime both help more than people expect.

Read more: https://calhearing.com/services/hearing-protection/

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California Hearing Center
San Mateo · 88 N San Mateo Dr · (650) 342-9449
San Carlos · 1008 Laurel St · (650) 342-9449

09/02/2026

If hearing drops away in one ear overnight, the most common mistake is waiting a week to see whether it clears on its own.

The reasoning is sensible enough. It feels blocked, blocked usually means wax, and wax is not urgent. But wax rarely arrives overnight, and it almost never arrives in one ear only. Sudden, one-sided, and not painful is the combination worth acting on.

What helps: ask to be seen this week rather than next. Use the words sudden hearing loss when you call, because it changes how the appointment gets booked. Write down the day it started — treatment decisions hinge on that date.

If it does turn out to be wax, that is a good outcome and a short visit. The opposite mistake is the expensive one.

Read more: https://calhearing.com/sudden-hearing-loss-when-its-an-emergency-and-what-to-do/

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California Hearing Center
San Mateo · 88 N San Mateo Dr · (650) 342-9449
San Carlos · 1008 Laurel St · (650) 342-9449

08/29/2026

Hearing aids rarely stop working in summer because something broke. They stop because of what summer does to them.

Three culprits, roughly in order. Sweat, which finds the microphone ports and does its damage quietly over weeks. Sunscreen, which is worse than sweat — it goes on hands, hands go to ears, and it clogs everything it touches. And humidity, which never quite dries out on its own.

So: wipe them down at the end of the day with a dry cloth, never a wet wipe. Sunscreen goes on before the aids go in, not after. Leave them open overnight, out of the case, somewhere dry.

And if the sound has gone thin or vanished altogether, check the wax guard before assuming the worst. That is the answer far more often than a repair is.

Read more: https://calhearing.com/how-often-hearing-aids-cleaned-serviced/

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California Hearing Center
San Mateo · 88 N San Mateo Dr · (650) 342-9449
San Carlos · 1008 Laurel St · (650) 342-9449

08/25/2026

The car is one of the hardest listening environments there is, and almost nobody thinks of it as one.

Everything is stacked against you. Road and wind noise sit right on top of the frequencies that carry consonants. The driver is facing forward, so there is no mouth to read. Anyone in the back is speaking away from you. And the one direction you cannot safely look is at whoever is talking.

So conversation thins out on a long drive, and the passenger quietly decides you have gone uncommunicative.

Some things do help. Ask back-seat passengers to hold the thought until a stop. Close the windows before starting a conversation rather than halfway through. If your hearing aids have a noise programme, the freeway is what it was built for.

If the car is where you notice it most, say so at your next appointment.

Read more: https://calhearing.com/drive-safely-even-with-hearing-loss/

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California Hearing Center
San Mateo · 88 N San Mateo Dr · (650) 342-9449
San Carlos · 1008 Laurel St · (650) 342-9449

08/21/2026

Water that will not clear after a swim is not just irritating. It is the setup for an infection of the outer ear.

Swimmer's ear begins when the canal stays damp long enough for the skin to soften and bacteria to take hold. It usually announces itself a day or two later: an ache that sharpens when you tug the ear, a blocked feeling, sometimes discharge.

What helps is unglamorous. Tip your head and let gravity do the work. Dry the outer ear with a towel, or a hair dryer on its lowest setting held well back. Leave the cotton buds alone entirely — they scratch the very skin that is protecting you.

What does not help is waiting. Once it hurts, it needs looking at.

Anyone in the water regularly is a candidate for custom swim plugs.

Read more: https://calhearing.com/try-these-tips-to-avoid-swimmers-ear/

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California Hearing Center
San Mateo · 88 N San Mateo Dr · (650) 342-9449
San Carlos · 1008 Laurel St · (650) 342-9449

08/17/2026

If you have had earwax removed and it was back within the year, nothing went wrong the first time.

The canal is self-cleaning by design — wax works its way outward on its own. What interrupts that is anything sitting in the way. Hearing aids block the path every day. So do earbuds worn for hours, and the plugs worn on a work site. Narrow or sharply bent canals hold on to it regardless. So it recurs, and it is not a hygiene failure on your part.

What does make it worse is solving it at home. A cotton bud takes out a little and packs the rest deeper, against the eardrum, where it is harder to reach and more uncomfortable to remove.

If your ears block up predictably, the sensible move is having them checked on a schedule rather than waiting until you cannot hear.

Read more: https://calhearing.com/services/earwax-removal/

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California Hearing Center
San Mateo · 88 N San Mateo Dr · (650) 342-9449
San Carlos · 1008 Laurel St · (650) 342-9449

06/27/2026

30 years of helping the Bay Area hear what matters most — laughter, music, grandchildren’s voices, and every important conversation.

05/28/2026

https://calhearing.com/

05/26/2026