Visually, all hearing aids are similar to each other, so for a person who first encountered this issue, choosing a hearing aid is a difficult task. Hearing aids are divided into two types by the type of sound signal processing: analog and digital.
Analog hearing aids
Analog hearing aids work as follows: a microphone picks up sound and converts it into an electrical signal, an amplifier picks up the signal from the microphone and sends it to a receiver (telephone).
It turns out that such a hearing aid (hereinafter referred to as HA) amplifies all sounds that it can pick up. As a result, a person hears everything loudly but does not understand the speech of the interlocutor, and if there is a noisy environment around, then wearing such a device causes great discomfort.
Today this kind of signal processing is used in “audio amplifiers”. Therefore, a lot of people who see the price of a hearing aid in a store, which on average is from 10,000 rubles, buy a “cheap analog” sound amplifier are very disappointed. In the future, it is difficult to dissuade them from
Digital hearing aids
With the advent of digital technologies in our life, a “revolution” has occurred in the hearing aid (HA) market.
Over the past 10 years, HA has evolved in them a lot: from the type of hearing aids (they have become smaller, very miniature behind-the-ear models and the ability to wear HA in the ear (in-ear), to the ability to automatically adapt to any acoustic situation, while highlighting the speech of others without distorting the surrounding sounds, so quickly that the user does not notice it.
Therefore, today, hearing aids with digital signal processing are favorites for use in people with persistent hearing loss as a means of rehabilitation. We are recommended to use hearing aids Staten Island, because these hearing aids have been thoroughly tested and recognized worldwide as the best in the market.
Possible wearing styles for hearing aids
Today, the dominant wearing type is the behind-the-ear (HA) form of the hearing aid. The body of such a device is attached behind the ear, and a tube ending with an earmold is directed into the ear canal.
The advantages of this form of HA are that it is the most durable, the variety of shapes is quite miniature and colors, easy to handle, suitable for people even with profound hearing impairment.
The hearing aid, if the relief of the audiogram allows, is selected with a “margin” so that it is possible to reprogram the hearing aid when the hearing thresholds change.
The body of such a hearing aid is immediately ready for use with a standard earmold, however, for more comfortable wearing of the hearing aid (to limit the possibility of the appearance of feedback – “whistle”), it is recommended to make an individual earmold (IEM) based on an impression of the ear canal.
The production time for the IWM is from 10 days to 3 weeks. Of the shortcomings, one can single out less cosmetic of a behind-the-ear hearing aid compared to an intra-ear hearing aid.
In-the-ear hearing aids are located in the ear canal and partially in the auricle. Such a device is possibly more cosmetic, but it has limited power and functionality – the body of the device is very small to accommodate many elements, it can be used most often with minimal to moderate hearing loss.
The body of an in-the-ear hearing aid is made from an individual impression of your ear using 3D-printing technology. This takes an average of 10 days to 3 weeks. Therefore, the first try on the BTE shape, which is similar in the selected functions.
Disadvantages of this form of CA: cannot be used with a narrow ear canal (since all the elements of the device must be placed in the housing), with chronic otitis media or increased secretion of earwax, the microphone filter becomes clogged.