Hearing loss can have a big impact on your life, from your work to
your relationships and emotional well-being. Hearing aids can make
a big difference, especially if you pick the right ones and get
help adjusting to them.
How Hearing Aids Help
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:
A microphone picks up sound around you.
An amplifier makes the sound louder.
A receiver sends these amplified sounds into your ear.
Most of the time, they’re for people who have damage to their inner
ear or the nerve that links the ear with the brain. The damage can
come from:
Disease
Aging
Loud noises
Medications
Hearing loss that’s due to problems with the ear canal, eardrum, or
middle ear is called conductive hearing loss.
This style is typically known as either as "receiver in the ear"
(RITE) or "receiver in canal" (RIC), depending on the manufacturer.
But they essentially mean the same thing—an open-fit hearing aid
style that has the speaker built into an insertable ear dome,
instead of the main body of the hearing aid. In other words, the
speaker of the hearing aid rests in the ear canal, but the
microphone and processor sit in a tiny case behind the ear. They
are connected by a thin wire. This style of hearing aid tends to
have above-average sound quality and is made by all major hearing
aid manufacturers.
Advantages:
generally the only style that comes with a rechargeable battery
option
most likely to come with wireless connectivity to devices like
phones
most likely to have advanced technology such as artificial
intelligence
the speaker can be replaced separately
telecoil options are common
