Hearing Aids – The Different Types
9 May 2010There are four main types of hearing aids available for you to choose from. They are all effective, in that they improve your hearing, but one type may be better for you personally than the other types. Your budget and your personal preferences will determine which type of hearing aid is best for you. Lets now look at each of the main types of hearing aids…
A hearing aid that fits directly into the canal of your ear is one option. It is the smallest type available, but it is not easily customizable and the battery life tends to be much shorter than that of other hearing aids. The second type of hearing aid fits partially inside the ear canal and partially outside of it. It is more visible when you wear it, but it offers more features than a hearing aid that fits directly in the ear canal. It has a relatively long battery life, but is still not that easy to make adjustments to.
A hearing aid that sits in front of the canal in the outer ear is the third type available. It is especially convenient for those with severe hearing loss because it has lots of features and can have additional microphones attached to it. A word of caution though, unwanted background noises can be a problem if the hearing aid is not regularly re-adjusted.
The final type of hearing aid is one which is attached behind your ear. They fit behind the ear but also have a component that rests inside it to maximize their effectiveness. These are the easiest to use and to make adjustments to yourself. They are a good choice, so long as you do not mind it being obvious that you are wearing a hearing aid.
In each of these types of hearing aids, the technology used varies as well as the size and shape of them. The least-expensive technology has been used for several decades, and is called analog. They tend to work fine to start with but they lose their effectiveness over time unless their amplification is regularly re-adjusted. The problem is that you need an audiologist to do this for you as you cannot do it yourself.
Digital technology is now commonplace in hearing aids. They have an inbuilt computer chip that automatically adjusts the sounds that it picks up to suit your level of hearing. Digital hearing aids are much more expensive than analog ones but are more popular because they are so effective.
