Conjecture & Suppositionby Isa Stralian
There was a time early in my career as a designer specialising in new materials and processes, one of them being sound absorption and attenuation.
I was asked to investigate a situation where a woman was complaining of a high pitched noise in her home which she believed was coming from an adjacent industrial area, and was causing her untold grief particularly when attempting to nap during the day or sleep in the evening.
The University researched the problem with their sophisticated noise detection equipment, the EPA investigated, and they found nothing. The woman presumed that she may benefit by sound proofing her room in an appropriate manner and called me to that end.
After a couple of interviews with the woman where she was obviously distraught and beginning to believe that she was being fobbed off by all and any involved….the city council, the EPA, the University.
I assured her that there was no doubt in my mind that she was hearing as per her claims and asked if would she indulge me by visiting her dentist and asking him to check the alignment of her teeth.
Because she had a molar removed some six months prior her her jaw began to misalign and her teeth were starting to grind causing uneven pressure on the nerves connecting to the aural canal.
The teeth were corrected, the jaw realigned and the distressing sound gone.
I make mention of this experience so as to amplify the fact that all things may not be as they initially seem and very often the answer may be elsewhere.
An accurate assessment of any problem is essential to determining the correct solution.
