Electronic hearing aids are those devices that were designed to help people with hearing loss or partial deafness.
All the hearing aid devices have in common the essential things: a microphone, a receiver, a.k.a. speaker, signal conditioning, and a battery.
Now, how do these devices work?
At first, the microphone converts the sound into an electrical signal; this signal then goes through conditioning, where all the sounds that are received get equally amplified.
The receiver then converts all the electrical signals into sound again. And the battery is there to provide powers to the electronics.
Moreover, various types of hearing devices are only manufactured to better the user’s betterment.
So, in this article, I’ll provide all the ins and outs of what sort of styles and designs are essential when making a hearing aid.
Read till the end to take in all the information necessary.
Hearing Aids Style
In the market, you’ll get four main types and styles of hearing aids:
1) BTE (Behind-The-Ear)
The BTE hearing aids style is one of the first types that came into the hearing aid market. These hearing aids sit behind your ear with a clear tube that goes into an earmold right in the ear so that this tube can deliver the sound for you.
Behind-The-Ear also has got a variation in style, called an open-fit-behind-the-ear. In this type of hearing aid, the earmold is replaced with a tiny tip. The reason for this is, it’ll give the user a more open feeling.
2) ITE (In-The-Ear)
One of the variations of hearing aid is ITE. In this sort of device, the hearing aids are placed and fixed right into the outer of the ear.
But in many cases, users don’t entirely prefer this type of hearing aid as it makes the entire device visible. Moreover, this style of the hearing device completely fits into the ear, appearing more like a Bluetooth earphone.
3) ITC (In-The-Canal)
This type of style is also quite visible. In this case, the hearing aid is fitted in the ear rather than outside of the ear. Therefore, it reduces quite a lot of space!
But yet, many of the users hesitate to use such styles as it’s still quite visible, and this makes many users uncomfortable as they think that people will easily find out they are suffering from hearing loss.
4) CIC (Completely-In-the Canal)
Although, the procedure of fitting this type of hearing aid might seem difficult and painful. But in reality, it’s completely otherwise.
Many patients prefer CIC rather than any other style as these devices are nearly invisible because it’s entirely fit into the ear canal.
Therefore, users feel quite comfortable wearing them as they don’t have to worry about people noticing their hearing aids.
Features of Hearing Aid Devices
In this modern era of technology, you’ll find a lot of hearing aids with advanced features and mechanisms.
Volume control, telecoil, remote control, FM reception, Bluetooth connectivity, compression, frequency shifting, microphone, self-learning, wind-noise management, moisture resistance, and also earmold venting.
But one of the problems that manufacturers face is as the number of features is added to these devices, the more the size of these devices decreases. And this can indeed prove to be a problem as it becomes difficult to handle these devices.
Features In Details
Volume Control:
You can control the volume of your hearing aids with your preference, just by manually controlling the buttons or using the rotary dial.
Remote Control:
The best part of having a remote control is that you don’t need to worry about controlling or adjusting any of the features with the buttons. Instead, you have the remote control to do that for you.
Telecoil:
A telecoil is the alternative method of a microphone. Here, the telecoil will pick up the magnetic signals generated by telephones. Then, with the help of the magnetic coils, the listeners can hear more clearly when they’re talking over the phone.
Audio Input and FM Reception:
FM receptors or audio input are ways through which input of sound or speech takes place.
One of the advanced features that have been included in many hearing devices is Bluetooth connectivity. It can be integral to the hearing aid or be an add-on device through the telecoil or FM input.
Frequency Shifting:
In frequency shifting, the digital signals are processed to shift the speech or sound to a significantly lower frequency to help those who are suffering from high-frequency hearing loss.
Wind-Noise Management:
Wind noise can indeed be a problem for many users. It seems to the users that there is some sort of “ringing” sound due to the wind, which can be very irritating to many hearing aid users.
Therefore, wind-noise management has been installed in almost all modern hearing aids. The wind-noise control detects wind around you and eliminates the sound frequency. So, users won’t hear those irritating ringing sounds.
Directional Microphones:
Many recent hearing aids have directional microphones. The benefit of this directional microphone is that it uses two or more microphones to receive the sound from different directions.
The benefit of this is it adjusts the sound of the surrounding by itself. For instance, if you are in a busy and noisy environment, it’ll detect unnecessary noises and cancel them out.
Therefore, it’ll be easier for the user to listen and communicate better.
Final Verdict
Hearing loss can indeed be suffering to many people, and not only that, but it can also be the main reason for depression.
It takes time for the patients to get adjusted to this new life. In such times, family members and friends play a vital role in boosting their confidence.
Therefore, your family must be cooperative and supportive as they will be the main pillars of your confidence.
Moreover, you don’t need to feel uncomfortable or depressed as these hearing aid devices will be your friend in need.
We hope this article will help you know all the ins and outs regarding hearing aids.
