New Year, New Ears!

New hearing aid technology translates to more features to help you communicate in difficult listening environments, providing greater benefits. Let's discuss these new advanced features available in hearing aids. Note these are unique to hearing aids, and are not found in personal hearing amplifiers. 

Improved Sound Processing

All hearing aids process sound, which means when sound arrives at the microphones of hearing aids, it has to be divided into sections or "channels" and digitized before the sound can be "amplified". The better the hearing aid, the better the sounds in your environment will be amplified for your unique hearing loss prescription. For example, if you have high-frequency hearing loss, the better hearing aid will only amplify sounds in the frequency region where you have a deficit whereas low-end hearing aids might amplify in the mid-frequency or low-frequency regions. Meaning, better hearing aids have improved sound quality, yielding higher patient satisfaction. 

Bluetooth Compatible

Bluetooth compatibility means patients can now connect their hearing aids to their mobile smart phones and other devices that use bluetooth using an intermediary device. Bluetooth technology improves the signal-to-noise ratio and allows patients to enjoy streaming phone calls, music, podcasts, audiobooks, etc. to their hearing aids. 

Apps

Most advanced hearing aids today come with smartphone apps which allow them to adjust hearing aid volume, programs, monitor battery life all from the app in their phone. Some can route phone calls directly to the user's hearing aids. 

Rechargeable Batteries

Rechargeable hearing aids are now widely available among the top hearing aid manufacturers and are quickly becoming the more popular choice when selecting new hearing aids. Historically, hearing aids were powered by small disposable batteries that would last anywhere from 4 to 7 days depending on the battery size. Now, hearing aids only need to charge for about 3 hours to hold over 20 hours of charge. 

Tinnitus Masking Features

If amplification alone is not enough to help reduce the prominence of your tinnitus, audiologists can program an additional background sound to help mask your tinnitus. Hearing aids can have multiple options for masking sounds to choose from and the volume level of the masker can be adjusted. Now with phone connectivity, there is more flexibility for patients to choose the sound and volume level that best minimizes their tinnitus.

Wireless Hearing Aid technology

Rather than acting as 2 independent units, hearing aids programmed together operate as a collaborative system that work together to combine sound input in a way that mimics how our brain processes the information from both ears. This is known as binaural processing. The better hearing aids will reduce the need for manual volume adjustments, meaning less "fiddling" with the hearing aids especially in adverse listening environments. When sound processing is synchronized between two hearing aids, sound quality is improved for the user, making it easier to connect to the world around you.

Noise Reduction

Digital noise reduction in hearing aids enables them to analyze the signal from the environment and determine whether it is "unwanted noise". Noise reduction features make background noise or environmental noise more comfortable for users. Better hearing aids will have more noise reduction features which has been shown to be preferred by hearing aid wearers. Along the same line of digital noise reduction is impulse noise reduction which is designed to detect loud transient noises and soften them, thereby providing the hearing aid wearer more comfort. Imagine you are sitting at a restaurant with a friend wearing your new hearing aids. Noise comes at you from all directions- clanking silverware on dishes, laughter from the table behind you, televisions and music playing in the background, waiters rushing about. Your friend tells a joke and your hearing aids are simultaneously working to reduce the impulse noise from the clanking dishes, reducing the simple state sound of the ventilation system above using digital noise reduction, and amplifying and shaping the speech signal from your friend. With the help of your hearing aids, you are free to relax and enjoy the punchline. This is one example of hearing aid technology in action. This year, choose better hearing! 

Dr Rachael Carroll, AuD, CCC-A