Digital Advancements for Today’s Hearing Aids
Approximately one out of every three people over the age of 65 also suffers from hearing loss due to age or accumulative injury to the ears. This means every year more and more people are required to wear hearing aids. Unlike the basic hearing aids of the mid-1980s, today’s hearing aids are becoming far more advanced. They aren’t simple amplifiers that make sounds louder for a person with hearing loss.
In one basic sense of the word, these hearing aids enhance the auditory sense.
Enhanced Digital Gain Processing
This is a new digital system allows a user to focus on a particular sound of interest without having to suffer from discomfort or loud feedback. For example: a child could drown out the sounds of background chatter in a classroom and focus entirely on the sound of their teacher speaking.
This type of digital enhancement allows people with hearing loss to focus entirely on a sound that they need or want to rely on. Since most people with hearing loss cannot instinctively do this on their own, digital hearing aids can do it for them.
Reduction of Digital Feedback and Background Noise
Along with these advancements is the reduction of digital feedback. You know what this sounds like even if you’ve never worn hearing aids in your life – it is like the dull ringing sound made when a microphone receives its own feedback off a speaker.
Back in the day, people wearing hearing aids would also receive loud, painful feedback when they adjusted their hearing aids for volume and focus. It would cause a sharp, sudden pain that might even cause further damage to the inner canal and ear drum.
With digital enhancements, today’s hearing aids no longer have this issue.
Of course with the reduction of digital feedback is the reduction of background noise. Who wants to listen to a steady, dull crackling sound whenever they have to adjust their hearing aids to listen to someone talking across the room? Digital enhancements ensure these background noises are eliminated.
Phone and Tablet Synchronization
Ever wanted to simply focus on what you hear in one ear instead of the other? Ever wanted an app that “auto-focuses” your hearing aids whenever you step into a new environment with different background noises and sounds? The latest hearing aids and apps are designed exactly for these purposes.
With a single swipe or tap on an iPhone people can now completely adjust how their hearing aids prescription work. Of course these very advanced types of hearing aids can be quite expensive but they also give a level of convenience never seen before.
For more details of our hearing test & assessment, and hearing aid services, please contact HK Hearing & Speech Centre.
Source:
HK Hearing & Speech Centre
Specialist of Hearing test & assessment,
and Hearing Aid Prescription
https://www.hkhearingspeech.com