Hearing Aids & Hearing Aid Technology

Hearing Loss is the nation's #1 chronic physical problem. Statistics show that over 28 million people are hearing impaired. Unfortunately, many people don't confront the challenge head-on. It's not a shame to wear hearing aids. It is a shame not to stay in touch with people around you. Luckily, there are many hearing impaired individuals that do choose to do something about their hearing loss by investing in amplification.

Today, hearing aid technology is changing, reflecting changes in the electronics industry combined with a better understanding of hearing loss and its effects. Hearing instruments do not restore one's natural hearing. Rather, hearing aids are a personal tool, requiring some practice and adjustment before its effectiveness is maximized. But for most people experiencing hearing loss - hearing loss that reflects passing years - hearing devices restore the strength of one of our most important senses, reconnecting us with the world around us.

WHAT TYPE OF HEARING AID STYLES ARE AVAILABLE?

Advanced Hearing Care, Inc. has a wide variety of hearing styles available. They include Behind-The-Ear, In-The-Ear, Canal and the miniaturized Completely-In-The-Canal styles.

Technology Pyramid

 

WHAT TYPE OF HEARING AID TECHNOLOGY IS AVAILABLE?

We also have a wide variety of hearing aid circuit designs available for managing your hearing needs. To summarize, the basic types are:

THE TECHNOLOGY PYRAMID

I. Basic Technology

These hearing aids offer amplification systems at a very affordable cost.  However, flexibility in making adjustments is limited, and these hearing aids may not perform as well in noisy situations.  They are the least expensive choice when cost is the main concern.

II. Advanced Digital Technology

These hearing aids offer digital sound processing at an affordable cost.  They can be programmed through a computer to more closely match your hearing loss.  Advanced programmable digital hearing aids have more flexibility than a basic digital hearing aid.  In the advanced digital hearing aid category, increased cost reflect more features and flexibility.  These hearing aids perform well in quiet environments and some may be available with directional microphones or limited noise reduction algorithms to assist in noise.

Advantages:

**Greater flexibility than basic technology

**Can be programmed to amplify certain frequencies more than others

**Better sound quality than basic technology

**Listening "comfort" in loud environments

III. Premium Digital Technology

Premium digital hearing aid systems at the top of the technology pyramid represent hearing instruments with the greatest flexibility and most fine tuning capability. These sophisticated hearing systems can be programmed and adjusted to fit the user’s specific hearing needs. Multiple programs may be available in some systems for different listening situations. Furthermore, advanced digital systems are designed to optimize speech intelligibility--the internal computer chip analyzes the sound entering the hearing aid to determine whether it "looks" more like speech or noise. If the sound is modulated and continually changing (like speech) it is enhanced, whereas if it is more continuous (like noise) it is reduced, or "de-enhanced". In addition, an advanced digital hearing aid is able to automatically adjust the sound signal based on intensity. Soft sounds are given more amplification than sounds that are comfortable. Loud sounds are given very little amplification or may even be "compressed" to make them more comfortable. Since volume adjustments are automatic, a volume control is not needed. These digital systems are the newest, most advanced hearing enhancement systems and represent the future of hearing instrument technology.

Advantages:

**Greatest amount of fine-tuning flexibility

**Contains a computer chip capable of performing millions of calculations per second to modify and enhance sounds

**Detailed temporal analysis: Speech is enhanced, noise is "de-enhanced"

**Intensity analysis: Soft sounds are amplified more than sounds that are comfortable; loud sounds are suppressed

**Newest systems (2-3 years old); Represents the future of hearing instrument technology