Hearing Aid Technology: What You Need to Know
Whether you are interested specifically in old or new hearing aid technology, if you have a hearing problem and have to get a hearing aid for yourself, you are going to want to make sure that you know as much about hearing aid technology as possible. There are a few things in particular that are going to be important for you to learn here.
Analog Vs Digital
Almost always in the event of a person getting a hearing aid, one of the first issues that they are going to need to figure out is whether they want to get an analog or digital hearing aid. There are some major differences between the two which you need to be aware of, to ensure that you and your audiologist are going to make the right choice.
The hearing aid technology in analog is much different than the hearing aid technology that is used in the digital hearing aids. The analog instruments are those that amplify the continuous sound wave by simply making it larger, and the digital hearing aid technology works by taking the continuous sound wave and breaking it up into very small, discrete bits of information.
Conventional Vs Programmable
Another major decision that you are going to have to make when choosing a hearing aid is whether you want to get one that is conventional or one that is programmable. This is very important because again there are some significant differences.
They basically differ mainly in the amount of adjustments that are able to be made on the device. With conventional hearing aids you are able to make very few changes if any, whereas with the programmable hearing aids the whole point is that you are able to program them or adjust them to the way that you want, when you want.
With the conventional hearing aids you typically will have to bring it into your audiologist for adjustments if at any time you want any, otherwise you will just have to deal with what you have which can definitely be a downfall. For instance if your hearing starts to worsen and you need the volume on your hearing aid increased, with a conventional hearing aid you will need to have it done by your audiologist when you can get in to see them whereas with the programmable hearing aid technology you can do it on your own with just a few simple steps.
Behind The Ear Hearing Aids
Over the years, hearing aid technology has improved considerably. Things have changed a lot since the time Harvey Fletcher invented the body worn hearing aid technology while working at Bells Laboratories. During the time of Fletcher, the body worn hearing aids were the size of a pack of playing cards. This bulky hearing aid technology contains an ear mold, a cord and an amplification pact. To use it, you need to put on the ear mold with a cable attached to it on your ear. The amplification system which happens to be the size of a pack of cards is worm on a belt or stuffed in the pocket. Yes, this hearing aid technology is not only bulky, it is also unsightly. Fortunately, things have improved a lot over the years. Very few people around the world now use the body worn hearing aid developed by Harvey Fletcher. In fact, this type of contraption is no longer being produced by manufactures. Taking its place is the new behind the ear (BTE) instruments which are small enough to be almost imperceptible to the less observant people.
