Hearing Connection

Hearing Aids

Everyone notices I’m hearing better, but no one notices my hearing aid.

Hearing aids are small electronic devices that you select with the help of your hearing professional. They are worn in or behind your ear. They amplify sound so that a person with hearing loss can listen, communicate, and participate more fully in daily activities. Hearing aids can help people hear better in both quiet and noisy situations. However, only about one out of five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually use one.

A hearing aid has three basic parts: the microphone, amplifier and receiver (speaker). The hearing aid receives sound through the microphone, which converts the sound waves to electrical signals and sends them to the amplifier. The amplifier increases the power of the signals and then sends them to the ear through the receiver.

How Hearing Aids Can Help You

Hearing aids are primarily useful for improving the hearing and speech comprehension of people who have hearing loss that results from damage to the small sensory cells in the inner ear, called hair cells. This type of hearing loss is called sensorineural hearing loss. The damage can occur as a result of disease, aging, injury from noise, or certain medicines.

Hearing aids magnify sound vibrations entering the ear. Surviving hair cells detect the larger vibrations and convert them into neural signals that are passed along to the brain. The greater the damage to a person’s hair cells, the more severe the hearing loss, and the greater the hearing aid amplification needed to make up the difference. However, there are practical limits to the amount of amplification a hearing aid can provide. In addition, if the inner ear is too damaged, even large vibrations will not be converted into neural signals. In this situation, a hearing aid would be ineffective.

CIC Completely-In-Canal

Completely-in-Canal hearing aids (CIC) are custom-made to fit completely in the ear canal. Only the tip of a small plastic “handle” shows outside the canal, which is used to insert and remove the instrument.

ITC In-The-Canal

Like invisible hearing aids, In-the-Canals (ITC) are custom-fit to your unique ear, but the faceplate shows in the outer portion of the first bend.

RIC Receiver-In-Canal

Connect directly to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch via the TruLink Hearing Control app.

ITE In-The-Ear

Connect directly to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch via the TruLink Hearing Control app.

BTE Behind-The-Ear

Behind-the-Ear hearing aids (BTE) are the world’s most common style, with the hearing technology housed in a casing that rests behind the ear. A clear plastic acoustical tube directs amplified sound into an earbud or a customized earmold that is fitted inside the ear canal.

AMP Hearing Amplifiers

Typically used as a starter device for people who aren’t sure they’re ready for hearing aids, these ready-to-wear hearing amplifiers work well with many levels of hearing loss, but don’t have the advanced features of hearing aids.

What to Do Now

Stop living your life in a silent movie!

Hearing aids and better hearing accessories continue to evolve and improve. They are more powerful and more discrete, providing embarrassment-free audio enhancement in a variety of styles and types.

If you think you might have hearing loss and could benefit from hearing aids, call us directly 208.853.2650 and schedule a no-obligation appointment with one of our hearing professionals.