Types of Hearing Aids

Hearing aid is one of the greatest inventions that help people with hearing loss. It’s estimated that in the US alone there are over 28 million people with hearing loss. Can you imagine what lives would be like for these people if hearing aids were not invented?

Nevertheless, there are a variety of brands and models of hearing aids flooding the market. Selecting the one that fits your needs and style would be difficult if you haven’t had an idea of the types of hearing aids.

The following paragraphs will talk about the types of hearing aids in terms of features, sound processing, sizes and other considerations.

Hearing Aids Sizes

The fitting style for hearing aids can basically be divided into two main categories. One is all in the ear and the other one is behind the ear.

The in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aids usually incorporate electronics into the custom made shell. Their sizes vary from the tiny completely-in-the-canal (CIC) to full-shell. The CIC is the smallest in this category and they can fit seamlessly into your ear canal. On the other hand, the full-shell takes up the entire bowl of your ear.

It takes about a week or two to customize the in-the-ear hearing aids as they require the impressions of your ears. Beige, pink and brown are the common colors available for in-the-ear hearing aids.

The behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids are other types of hearing devices that incorporate electronics into small cases. As the name implies, the BTE hearing aids sit behind your ear and utilize a wire to deliver sound to your ear canal. BTE hearing aids are available in both mini or micro-BTE and standard BTE. The micro-BTE is the smallest in this category and its size is about the same as a regular paper clip while the standard BTE is slightly larger.

Most people prefer to wear the mini or micro-BTE hearing aids as they are the least visible of all hearing aids. Besides, they can be fully customized with different colors to match the color of your skin and hair. Another advantage of micro-BTE hearing aids is that you can purchase them on the same day as they don’t need to be custom made.

Analog and Digital Processing

Analog hearing aids have been the dominant type of hearing aids from the first commercially available hearing aid in 1900 to mid 90s. After that, digital technology becomes commercially viable for hearing aids and computer chips have been incorporated into hearing aids.

Even though digital hearing aids seem to be the favorite type today, analog hearing aids are still dominating the majority of the hearing device market. The reason is due to the cost of digital hearing aids which are slightly more expensive.

There are of course pros and cons to both analog and digital hearing aids. Most analog hearing aids use simple processing units such as only an analog amplifier, a microphone, a speaker and a volume control are incorporated. For this reason, most analog hearing aids don’t have a very fine sound processing mechanism. The analog amplifiers boosted all sounds by the same amount and this make the person with hearing loss difficult to hear clearly especially in a noisy situation.

Besides, the users of analog hearing aids frequently need to adjust the volume manually in order to maintain a comfortable level of volume. Moreover, analog hearing aids can easily be susceptible to interference which causes squealing or whistling.

On the other hand, digital hearing aids have a computer chip that digitizes and analyzes sound. The sound processing mechanism of digital hearing aids consists of a tiny computer chip that is not only capable to detect speech but also able to differentiate between vowels and consonants precisely and boost the appropriate volume into a comfortable level automatically.

Moreover, most digital hearing aids incorporate sophisticated noise canceling mechanism that utilizes additional microphone. As a result, digital hearing aids are able to produce an exceptionally good voice with minimal noise and the volume remains audible.

Tips to Consider when Buying Hearing Aids

In general, a lot of people prefer to look for the smallest hearing aids so that they could hide the devices. But before doing that, you need to be aware that even the tiniest hearing devices will still be visible if your ear canal is small. Therefore, if that is the case, you probably don’t need to spend that extra thousand of dollars just to get the smallest devices. Remember the smaller the devices, the higher the cost.

In addition, the price of hearing aids can range from as low as $500 to as high as $5000 dollars. They are expensive devices especially the digital types which can cost in the average of $1000. If you can’t afford one, check with your health insurance whether the policy could cover a portion of the cost.

Another tip to consider when buying hearing aids is that you don’t need the most advance or the most expensive devices. Check with your audiologist on the types that meet all your needs. Usually the one that meets all your needs is not the most expensive device.

Hearing Aids Features

If you have the budget, consider buying the digital hearing aids as they usually have the most sophisticated features. One of the most noticeable improvements of digital hearing aids over their analog counterpart is the noise canceling algorithms employed in digital hearing aids. As a result, digital hearing aids are able to precisely produce clearer and better voice quality which has benefited the whole new populations of the hearing-impaired.

Other sophisticated features in digital hearing aids are the incorporation of several tiny computer chips into the devices. These microprocessors are capable of classifying sound and processing it for different types of listening environments such as in a restaurant, at a concert, in public areas or in a quiet situation.

Some models even utilize advance wireless technology to communicate between right and left devices for better localization of sound and volume. Some leading manufacturers such as Siemens also incorporate smart features into hearing aids in which the device is able to recognize the user’s preferences for volume and tone.

Some latest advance features in digital hearing aids are Bluetooth wireless connection to other devices such as GPS system, iPod, IPad and cell phones.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Hearing Aids Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.