What Is a Hearing Aid?
Loss of hearing is often referred to as a hidden condition, meaning that it is often not visible to other people that the person has any type of impediment. This often has the effect of minimising the seriousness of hearing loss, and how it affects people of all ages and increases their sense of isolation and loneliness.
Hearing Loss
Loss of hearing can occur to anyone at any age. Sometimes children have problems early in life and their hearing does not develop the way that it should. This can sometimes take time to spot before appropriate remedial action can be taken.
Adults can lose their hearing at any age, either as a result of an accident or trauma or simply listening to loud music too long too often. In elderly people, loss of hearing is normally more attributable simply to the human body losing some of its functions as people age.
What Is a Hearing Aid?
A hearing aid is a small electrical device that can be placed either in or behind the ear. It consists of a microphone, amplifier and speaker and essentially works by picking up electrical signals and converting them into soundwaves that can be picked up by the remaining cells in the ear that are active, thereby increasing the hearing of the individual.
Whilst hearing aids can certainly make a real difference to people with poor or little hearing, their value is somewhat limited by what they can do, and it is therefore important that anyone who needs a hearing aid makes sure they get one that is best suited to their needs.
Types of Hearing Aids
There are several different types of hearing aids, some that work in an analogue system and others that work with digital electronic circuitry.
The most appropriate hearing aid for someone will depend on the extent of their hearing loss and what environment or situation matters most to them in terms of them being able to hear better.
Most hearing aids can be adjusted or programmed to work in certain ways and in certain situations. This means that someone whose main priority is to be able to use the telephone will have their hearing aid programmed in a slightly different way from someone else.
Other people will want their hearing to be improved in larger environments or environments where the acoustics are not good. This could be the case if people put a lot of value on going to church or for people who like to eat out and find noisy restaurants and cafes particularly difficult.
Other people will want a hearing aid that helps them function and perform more normally in the workplace
Hearing Aid Adjustments
Learning to live with a hearing aid can be a real challenge for many people. Getting used to the physical use of one can be difficult, and continually having to adjust it to make sure it is working at its optimum coverage can also take time.
Hearing aids can be programmed by a computer both at the time they are first used, as well as at any time the user feels that the sound quality could be improved.
It is important that when someone is first diagnosed with any type of hearing loss that professional clinical advice is sought both on how best to adjust to the loss of hearing, as well as to get help with the best type of hearing aid that can be fitted and how it can be used with maximum benefit.
Contact a local doctor to learn more about hearing devices.