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Which Circuit is Right for You?
All of the circuits listed above are a vast improvement over the
circuits available just three years ago. They all are striving to help
people understand speech in noisy situations and to eliminate the
distortion of common hearing circuits. The only way you can determine
which is right for you is to visit your local hearing specialist, obtain
a current hearing test, and ask to listen to the different circuits.
Do you want a totally automatic hearing aid or would you like to be
able to make some adjustments yourself?
Are you bothered by noise? Directional Microphones as very helpful in
noise.
Do you listen to music and want to hear a wide range of sounds more
normally? You would want more memories?
Does you work require that you understand speech clearly in noise?
You and your local hearing specialist can work together to determine
which circuit will best fill your hearing needs and financial situation.
Tell the hearing specialist about the different listening situations you
encounter and any sounds which "drive you up the wall". The
more information the hearing specialist has about your listening
situations will help in the selection of the correct circuit for you.
If you mainly stay at home, have conversations with two or less
persons at a time, you do not need the highest technology in hearing aid
circuits and can save some money. If you are a lawyer, judge or doctor,
we all hope you will invest in the best circuit on the market because
what you hear can have dire consequences. If you are in extreme
listening situations throughout the day, from quiet phone conversations
to noisy machine shops you probably need a hearing aid with more than
one memory and/or dual microphones.
Hearing specialists use many different "fitting formulas" to get us
close to "target." But each individual has a different perception of
what sounds good. That's why some people love listening to Jazz and the
next person hates it. It usually take two to four adjustments to set the
hearing aid to the sound quality that you prefer. You need to form a
"partnership" with your hearing specialist, who will help you re-learn
how to listen and understand in this noisy world we live in. You will
not get back to perfect hearing, but we can help you understand much
better and we can now help much more in noisy situations.
Definitions
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Bands |
Determines how many times the frequency range is broken into
different segments. For example, you can have a two band
instrument. This could mean that all the low frequencies through
1k are in one "band" and all the high frequencies from 1k up are
in a different "band." This would enable the hearing aid
specialist to set the gain in the lower band different than the
gain in the high frequency band. Most people need more power in
the higher frequencies to help maintain speech clues over the
noise in the background. Of course, the more "bands" usually
will mean that the hearing aid can be set closer to your
individual needs. |
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BTE |
Behind-the-ear hearing aid. The hearing sets behind and over
the ear. An earmold is placed into the ear canal with tubing
connecting the two pieces. |
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Channels |
Hearing aids can have programmable compression settings.
Hearing aids use compression to help keep sounds from becoming
uncomfortable for the user. Your hearing aid specialist can set
when the hearing aid will begin compressing sound and how much
the sound will be compressed. For example, when a sound reaches
65 dB of loudness, the hearing aid can be set to begin
compressing the loudness. The degree of compression can also be
set. For example, the hearing aid can be set to a ratio of 2 to
1. This would mean that when a sound reaches 65 db of loudness,
the user will only notice a 1 dB increases in the loudness, even
through the loudness actually increases by 2 dBs. |
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Half Shell |
An in-the-ear custom hearing aid which only fills half the
bowl of the outer ear. |
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ITC |
In-the-canal custom hearing aid which only fills about the
lower 1/4 of the outer ear. |
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ITE |
In-the-ear custom hearing aid, also called a Full Shell size
which fills the entire bowl of the outer ear. |
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Listening Programs |
These are independent memories which are programmed for
different listening situations. For example, you may have a
memory set for quiet situations. Then a second memory for when
you go to restaurants, for when you are around machinery. The
hearing aid will be more aggressive in getting noise out of the
background when you are in your noise program. When you are in
the quiet program, you would be able to hear more of the normal
environmental background sounds. |
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Noise Reduction |
Noise reduction is a program within the hearing aid
processor unit that will sense noise in the environment and then
reduce the gain in the frequency where the noise is present. The
digital circuit is able to do this since most noise is at a
steady state in pitch, tone and volume. Most speech is changing
in pitch, tone and volume constantly. This program within the
hearing instrument helps to maintain the loudness of speech over
the noise in the background. |
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For more information:
http://www.hearingcenter.com/info_files/digitha.html
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