Hearing Aids

1. What is a hearing aid?
A collection of electronics held within or behind your ear including: a microphone to pick up sound, an amplifier to enhance the sound, and a receiver to send the altered sound to your ear. Hearing aids are powered by tiny batteries that are replaced, on average, weekly.

2. If someone has not used hearing protection and has a confirmed hearing loss, will a hearing aid help?
In most cases, yes. An interesting statistic……it takes 3-7 years for the average person once identified as hearing impaired to actually do anything about it. There is a saying in our industry…..”use it or lose it”. Remember, I said earlier that the brain does the listening to what the ears are hearing. If the ears don’t hear it correctly, the message to the brain becomes distorted and the ability to rehabilitate the listener becomes much more difficult. The earlier we fit a hearing loss, the better.

3. Do you recommend one or two?
The sound should come in to the ears at the same time, pitch and volume so the brain gets the correct message, so that not as much volume is needed, so that understanding in a group is better and so that the user can determine the direction a sound comes from. I do not recommend 2 for a person with one dead ear, a draining ear, an ear that has limited understanding ability…usually below 40%.

4. What is really new about the new digital instruments, why are they better?
Faster processors. Dual microphones that enhance the wearer’s ability to understand in background noise. The digital circuit will reduce the amplification to the rear-facing microphone when in the presence of a noise stimulus. There are different levels of digital instruments….from manual push-buttons with single channel processors to multiple channel processors, automatic noise reduction and multiple memories.

5. What if the doctor has said that I have a nerve loss and that a hearing aid won’t help?
Unfortunately, doctors don’t deal with hearing aids on a day to day basis and may not be up on the latest technologies. Having been in the medical and rehab parts of the industry since the 70’s I have seen such changes over that time. I can easily fit people today who I never ever would have thought I could fit previously.

6. How do you decide what size hearing aid to get?
It totally depends on the size, shape and direction of your ear and the degree of your hearing loss. The more severe hearing losses cannot be fit with the tiny hearing aids because of the potential for feedback and a very poor fit.

7. What is the difference between analog and digital hearing aids?
Analog hearing aids are adjusted manually using a fine screwdriver and are only adjustable within a limited range.

Digital isn’t different, it’s better. Digital hearing aids constantly adjust based on the incoming sound. The incoming sounds are converted to a series of numbers that can be quickly and more accurately processed by computer to that your Audiologist may tailor the sound for your personal needs. Digital hearing aid circuits manipulate incoming sounds very fast and analyze them in order to identify what is and what isn’t a speech sound. Digital chips analyze the incoming sound by frequency groups so that speech sounds may be clarified according to your hearing loss needs and allows for faster noise management in noisy surroundings. There are many variations on digital technology which makes them affordable, useful and beneficial. In fact, there is a reported user satisfaction rating of over 75%.

The digital technology offers more features such as:

• automatic telephone switching (no annoying whistling when on the phone) directional microphones (reducing noise from behind you)
• variable processing speeds (more tailored to your listening environment)

8. What is an Audiologist? Is it better to see a hearing aid dealer or an Audiologist?
An Audiologist either holds a Master’s or Doctoral degree and is the professional who specializes in evaluating and treating people with hearing loss. Audiologist have extensive training and skills to evaluate hearing of adults, infants and children of all ages. Audiologists conduct a wide variety of tests to determine the exact nature of a hearing problem and present a variety of treatment options to patients with hearing impairment. Audiologists dispense and fit hearing aids, administer tests of balance to evaluate dizziness and provide hearing rehabilitative training. Audiologists refer patients to physicians when the hearing problem needs medical or surgical evaluation.