Most hearing impaired people can benefit from hearing aids. Just as there are different types and degrees of hearing loss, there are different hearing instruments with a wide range of functions and features to address a variety of individual needs. The degree and type of the hearing loss, manual dexterity abilities, cost factors, and cosmetic concerns are some of the factors that will determine the style of the hearing aid the individual will use.
The most popular types and styles of hearing aids available today are
listed below:
-
Completely-In-the-Canal (CIC)
- In-The-Canal
(ITC)
- In-The-Ear
(ITE)
- Behind-The-Ear (BTE)
These are the smallest hearing aids available today and are designed to fit entirely in the ear making them virtually invisible. They are the most cosmetically appealing instruments.
The small size offers superior directionality and sound quality as they
take advantage of the ear's own anatomical design and natural ability
to collect sound. These hearing aids are well-suited for most hearing
losses from mild to moderate and offer the best solutions for the active
people; however, they are restricted to people with ear canals large enough
to accommodate the insertion depth of the instrument into the ear. They
also require good manual dexterity, as they use very small batteries.
In-the-Canal hearing aids (ITCs)
These hearing aids fit in the canal but they are slightly bigger than the CICs and they are slightly visible in the ear. These hearing instrument are well suited for most hearing losses up to moderate.
ITC hearing aids are easier to use than the CIC aids and use a slightly
larger battery.
These are the largest custom-made hearing aids and visible in the ear as they fit within the concha bowl of the ear. But, they are also easier to manage for people with dexterity problems.
Due to their larger size, ITEs can accommodate larger sound amplifiers
they can therefore be fitted to a wider range of hearing losses, up to
severe.
ITE hearing aids offer the right combination of appearance, ease-of-use
and affordability to meet the different types of hearing losses.
Behind-the-Ear hearing aids (BTEs)
BTEs can provide more amplification than smaller instruments and are designed to fit a full range of hearing impairments from mild to profound. They are available in several colours to match people's hair and skin tone.
Digital technology is the most sophisticated hearing aid technology. Digital technology gives the Audiologist maximum control over sound quality and sound processing characteristics.
It is shown that digital hearing aids do out-perform digitally programmable
and analog hearing aids. With digital sound processing, the sound is registered
mathematically, It is encoded as a series of numbers, and processed bit
by bit. Being more robust than an analogue signal, a digital signal can
be repeated accurately and endlessly without affecting the overall quality.
It's like making digital copies of a scanned image: each copy is a perfect
duplicate of the original. Digital instruments are highly flexible and
much more precise than analog instruments. This results in giving patients
the clearest speech signal possible.
Most digital hearing aids have at least two channels. Each channel controls
a certain range of frequencies (low & high pitch) coming into the
hearing instrument. Not only the gain (volume) but also the compression
of the loud sounds can be adjusted in each channel independently of the
others. This makes it possible to compress the unwanted loud sounds in
one frequency band without unfairly penalising the sounds (speech) in
the other frequency band. This allows the Audiologist very fine tuning
ability to match the patient's hearing loss and to better filter out sounds
such as background noise to give the patient a clearer speech signal.
Another advantage of these hearing aids is that they analyse the loudness
of the incoming sounds and adjust the overall volume accordingly. In other
words, a digital aid can raise the loudness for the softer sounds such
as speech and decreases the Loud sounds such as traffic or unwanted noise
automatically.
Digital and digitally programmable aids can be fitted with two or more
programs , enabling the user to have different volumes and types of amplification
for different listening situations.