Archive for the ‘Aids’ Category
What Type Of Hearing Aid Is Best For You?
February 15th, 2011 | 
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Introduction
There are many hearing aid types, features, prices and styles to consider. When determining which hearing aids are best for you, you need to consider various factors to ensure you make the right choice. The following is a guide on the most important considerations you need to take into account when you are considering your hearing aid choices.
Hearing loss
Not all hearing aids are suited to all hearing losses. You need to consider the type of hearing loss you have, the extent of loss (how bad your hearing is), and the configuration of your hearing loss (what your test results look like).
All that you wanted to know and understand about Hearing Aids
What is a hearing aid?
A hearing aid is a small electronic device that you wear in or behind your ear. It makes some sounds louder so that a person with hearing loss can listen, communicate, and participate more fully in daily activities. A hearing aid can help people hear more in both quiet and noisy situations. However, only about one out of five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually uses one.
A hearing aid has three basic parts: a microphone, amplifier, and speaker. The hearing aid receives sound through a microphone, which converts the sound waves to electrical signals and sends them to an amplifier. The amplifier increases the power of the signals and then sends them to the ear through a speaker.
How can hearing aids help?
Hearing aids are primarily useful in 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, or injury from noise or certain medicines.A hearing aid magnifies 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.