Modern Hearing Aids: Smaller, Convenient And More Effective
Modern hearing aids are radically different than those that were used in the early days at which time people with hearing difficulties had to use conical shaped devices that were placed in the affected ears. Those early hearing aids were not convenient though they did help to exaggerate sounds so that a person could hear well. Modern day technologies have made these hearing aids a lot smaller, convenient and reliable and they all can increase even tiny sounds by using small microphones that are part of these modern aids.
Different Settings
It is also possible to set the microphones differently to suit different environments in terms of noise level as well as the person's hearing disability. It follows then that a person holding a quiet conversation will set their hearing aids differently as compared to those that are in noisy places where sounds are of higher pitches as well as greater frequencies.
There are also three main types of hearing aids that help in making inaudible sounds become more audible. The analog adjustable aid is probably the most primitive as well as cheapest type and its volume is generally adjusted by an audiologist. The analog programmable aid is another type and as its name implies it can be adjusted by the wearer though the programming is done by an audiologist.
Digital sound processing hearing aids or DSPs have circuits that analyze sounds prior to the sound reaching the ears and they can then correctly set the volume thanks to billions of digitally stored number codes within the device. Another advantage to using DSPs is that they eliminate feedback as these aids can identify frequencies and then set the sound levels that are best suited for the wearer.
Today, modern technology has advanced a great deal and has made modern hearing aids even more sophisticated and appealing and for a person with hearing disabilities there are now more options available in regard to type and sophistication of modern hearing aids. This is indeed good news as it is believed that as many as a tenth of the population of the US has hearing impairment problems.
Digital hearing aids are a better option as compared with analog aids as digital aids are more convenient to use and they also provide better quality of sound. However, they do cost a little more but they are still cheap enough for everyone to afford. In fact, today hardly anyone is using analog aids because the convenience and better quality of sound of digital aids has made everyone turn to them for solving their hearing problems.
