A hearing aid is a battery-powered electronic device designed to improve your hearing. Small enough to wear in or behind your ear, they make some sounds louder. They may help you hear better when it's quiet and when it's noisy. Here’s how they work:
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.
BTE aids are used by people of all ages for mild to profound hearing loss. A new kind of BTE aid is an open-fit hearing aid. Small, open-fit aids fit behind the ear completely, with only a narrow tube inserted into the ear canal, enabling the canal to remain open.
For this reason, open-fit hearing aids may be a good choice for people who experience a buildup of earwax, since this type of aid is less likely to be damaged by such substances. In addition, some people may prefer the open-fit hearing aid because their perception of their voice does not sound “plugged up.”
Hearing aids take time and patience to use successfully. Wearing your aids regularly will help you adjust to them.
Become familiar with your hearing aid’s features. With your audiologist present, practice putting in and taking out the aid, cleaning it, identifying right and left aids, and replacing the batteries. Ask how to test it in listening environments where you have problems with hearing. Learn to adjust the aid’s volume and to program it for sounds that are too loud or too soft. Work with your audiologist until you are comfortable and satisfied.
You may experience some of the following problems as you adjust to wearing your new aid.
Proper maintenance and care will extend the life of your hearing aid. Make it a habit to:
First, you need to figure out if hearing loss is affecting your daily life. Your family may have noticed you are not hearing as well as you did in the past. If you are having trouble communicating and keeping up with your regular lifestyle, this can have an impact on your decision. Your audiologist can test your hearing to help determine if you have hearing loss and, if necessary, work with you on options that may help you. .
No, hearing aids are designed to make things easier to hear, but cannot restore the natural functioning of your ear. Hearing aids also do not prevent the progression of hearing loss over time.
The life of a hearing aid is about five to six years. Many hearing aids are still functioning well after six years, while others may need a tuneup or repairs.
The majority of hearing aids today use zinc-air batteries. This kind of battery is made specifically for hearing aids and comes in a variety of sizes to work with different devices. You can find hearing aid batteries at almost any store that sells regular batteries, including most pharmacies and grocery stores.
Other disorders in the spectrum include pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS) and two rarer disorders—childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) and Rett’s syndrome. Children with PDDNOS demonstrate symptoms similar to autistic disorder, but do not meet all criteria for the disorder. Children with CDD, which affects more boys than girls, develop normally until approximately the first two years of life (average onset of symptoms is between 3 and 4 years) but they then regress in most areas and continue worsening. Specifically, they experience a pronounced loss in motor, language, social and intellectual skills. They also lose bowel and bladder control. Seizures may even occur.
This depends on the type of battery and how many hours per day you wear your hearing aid. Smaller hearing aid batteries need replacing within one week, while larger batteries may last two to three weeks.
