Life cannot be imagined without our hearing abilities; similarly, it also cannot be imagined without technology these days. The past few decades have witnessed so many evolution of innovative inventions that this generation and the next generations that are yet to come, cannot be imagined without technology.
Listening devices today have become so advanced, that now people can actually dream of rising to great heights, which he did not even imagine to do earlier with those huge hearing machines. Hearing aids are considered as the best treatments for irreversible hearing loss, as they show very good results in a majority of the cases. Also, these devices are absolutely user-friendly, with no side effects at all.
There is a wide variety of hearing aids types to choose from - some having aesthetic values, while some serving your specific purposes and your lifestyle choices. Hearing aids can be primarily categorised into two groups - Analog and Digital. While the previous analog hearing aids are microchip programmed and amplified each and every sound all the same, and did not have the capability to distinguish between different sounds; digital hearing aids on the other hand are so advanced that they can convert the sounds into digital signals and can easily identify between speech and noise, and amplifies the sound accordingly, making the hearing impaired person listen to the important sounds (in this case, speech), by reducing or cancelling out the background noises. These hearing aids types, thus, have the ability to amplify sounds in a very natural way. Natural human ear too, do not catch the unimportant sounds - your brain makes you focus only the sounds you actually want to hear.
Hearing aids can be classified based on the design of the product, the technology used in them, the features they provide and the lifestyle of the hearing impaired person. Based on the design of the device, it is divided into many types, namely - Behind-the-ear (BTE), Mini-BTE, In-the-ear (ITE), In-the-canal (ITC), Completely-in-the-canal (CIC), Receiver-in-canal (RIC) and Invisible-in-canal (IIC).
Advantages and Disadvantages of Each Type
Hearing Aids Types |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Behind-the-ear (BTE) |
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Mini-BTE |
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In-the-ear (ITE) |
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In-the-canal (ITC) |
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Completely-in-the-canal (CIC) |
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Receiver-in-canal (RIC) |
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Invisible-in-canal (IIC) |
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In a nutshell, there are a vast range of hearing aids types to choose from. You just need to consider each of their advantages and disadvantages, and above all, you need to consult an experienced Audiologist. The benefits of hearing aids have improved a lot over the last couple of years. Researchers are continuously trying to introduce more and more innovations in hearing aids types and are gradually developing them with improved hearing abilities, increased longevity, advancement of designs and many more. Hence, hearing loss is no more a problem, and it is absolutely possible for you to fight against it. However, not all people would be benefited from hearing aids, and there are other solutions for them, which will be best understood by a highly qualified Audiologist. So kindly discuss such a serious matter as your hearing health with him/her before arriving at a final conclusion, as he/she will help you in making a smart decision. It is always better to be late than taking a wrong decision for which you will have to regret forever.