ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Miracle Ear Hearing Aids has a new location at the Ohio Valley Plaza and is continuing to offer quality service with expanded capabilities.

Dan Romeo, owner, said the business had been located at the Sears store at the Ohio Valley Mall and moved to the new location in March. An open house event was held last month.

“We were growing, and we wanted to get out of the Sears name and get our own brand name,” he said, citing financial struggles of the Sears brand and its parent company. “It was the right move at the right time, with Sears the way they’re going.”

He said Miracle Ear is a trusted brand that lives up to its name.

“Miracle Ear has been around over 68 years, and by making this move we can offer our clients a more comfortable atmosphere and we can handle a lot more patients this way,” he said. “All our clients have followed us over.”

Aaron Gabrielsen, factory representative with Miracle Ear, added that the business had numerous patients, both steady and new, during the week’s open house and was able to help about 75 percent of them on their initial visit.

“We offer free hearing tests and examinations. We offer a variety of hearing aids to fill all different types of losses — the latest technology going,” Romeo said.

“We’ve finally developed a hearing aid that not only helps you hear in a quiet environment but also helps you hear in a noisy environment as well, which was the No. 1 complaint of hearing aids a few years ago, was background noise. We have a hearing aid now that can turn down the background noise and turn up the speech from your loved ones’ voices,” Gabrielsen said. “We call it speech isolation software. We can isolate the speech they want and tone down the sounds they don’t want to hear.”

“We have hearing aids now that can direct sound from the TV directly into the hearing aids,” Romeo said. “Cell phones can go right into the hearing aids.”

There are other transmitters available for individuals deaf in one ear. These devices pick up the sound on the deaf side and transmit into the other hearing aid to regain the effects of full hearing.

“We have certain computer chips and algorithms set on our hearing aids that other companies don’t have,” Gabrielsen said. “Any specialist can get you to hear in a quiet room. It’s a different thing when you’re in a restaurant or you’re at your grandson’s T-ball game, or you’re at your grandson’s birthday party or your own birthday party. … Those hearing aids have a computer chip that can separate background noise from the speech.”

Romeo said the demand for hearing services is increasing.

“Hearing loss is growing. There’s more and more people every year. More and more people are experiencing hearing loss, a lot of younger people. In the old days, 65, 70 and older, now we’re getting 50- and 55-year-old people coming in that are already experiencing hearing loss. The demand is growing,” Romeo said, pointing out such issues as job-related exposure to noise and the tendency of people to turn the volume on their ear buds too high. “It’s amazing how much younger our patient base is getting.”

Linda Bragg, hearing specialist, will be on site at the new location. She said the most common issue she sees are cases where individuals can hear others but not understand specific people.

“We have folks here who worked in the coal mines and the mills, work around heavy machinery,” she said.

“Miracle Ear, the brand name is out there. People trust us and they know that we’re not going anywhere,” Romeo said. “I guarantee great service. We’re here to help people hear better, not to sell hearing aids.”

The new location is at 508-41 Valley Plaza Drive. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and Saturday and Sunday by appointment only. The phone number is 740-695-8374.