Hearing Loss Solutions

Resounding Digital Hearing aids

Hearing aids are modern technological wonders, whose creation is to help us to restore our ability to hear without sacrificing our cosmetic appeal. They provide sound amplification from mild to intense deafness, provided that the inner ear has a residual function.

Hearing aides types include:

  • Ear (inside, canal, level)
  • Body aids
  • Headband bone conducting aids

In case of the elderly and in children, where handiness is a problem, a body aid is the best option to use. Ear level aides have small controls and batteries and need skill to tune the aid and manipulate it into place. Bone conductors are specially made for people with severe local ear infection. They are usually clumsy, uncomfortable, poor sound quality when compared to the air conductors.

Digital Hearing aides and their Prices

Hearing aid prices may change greatly depending on the manufacturer's level of technology. As the industry slogan goes "The smaller the hearing aid, the higher the price". All the same, what is necessary from a hearing aid depends on the quality and measure of the amount of hearing a person has left after a hearing loss. Depending on an person's need, amplification maybe over a wide or narrow selected frequency range.

Hearing aids maybe fitted to one or both ears. Fitting binaural hearing aids (this means, on two ears) helps an individual hear more naturally, termed as stereophonic. Somebody with profound one-sided hearing loss may find cross hearing from the deaf ear to the normal ear valuable. This is especially in boardroom situation. Others with minimal to moderate hearing loss maybe in a grey area for using a hearing aid and may only need one on special occasions such as at the cinema, during a church gathering or a conference table. Fitting people with such hearing devices maybe very difficult but HearPod's high-end hearing aid are among the best, usually fraction the price of the more popular well-known brands.

Children need to fitted with hearing aids as soon as the hearing loss is detected, no matter how young. In these times, hearing is accurately assessed at a very young age with conventional or conditioning testing or even with audiological evoked brain stem responses. To assess the hearing of a child, it does not necessarily need youngster's co-operation; it maybe done while the child is asleep.

Once the correct hearing aid has been fitted the child may attend a school for the deaf or nay mainstream school, depending on the degree of hearing loss.

To achieve optimal hearing from a these gadgets, moulds fitted in an expert way can increase the hearing aid's performance as well as minimise the disturbing occurrence of feedback. Their   performance has to be accurately matched to the hearing loss. It's important to note that, external parts of the hearing aid are user controlled while internal settings are the responsibility of the audiologist.

Failure of Hearing aid to work properly should be detected early, especially with children. This is because the wearer may not be aware that the hearing aid is malfunctioning, it should be checked regularly (that is, quarterly). Basic breakdowns such as the hearing aid needing a new battery should be excluded first.

Note: Over years, wax may become impacted deep in the ear canal by do-it-yourself attempts to remove it with cotton bud. Wax may easily be removed by using wax curette. Homemade efforts such as ear buds, is discouraged because it pushes the wax deeper into the ear canal. Hearing aid use also interferes with the movement of wax out of the ear and may lead to wax impaction. This in turn, interferes with the effectiveness of these gadgets.

It is highly recommended that hearing aid users routinely have their ear canals checked for wax impaction which may lead to dangerous hearing loss.