Hearing Aids

If you suspect that you have a hearing problem or if speech is difficult to understand, you need to see your doctor. Your doctor will perform a preliminary test to see if you might need hearing aids. If this is the case, you will most likely be sent to an audiologist for further testing. An audiologist specializes in hearing aids. The audiologist will perform a more thorough hearing test to pinpoint which frequencies that you experience hearing loss. It is then that you can be fitted for hearing aids. Hearing aids are able to help almost any type of hearing problem and depending on the severity of your hearing loss, you may not even be affected by wearing a hearing aid. Some people get most of their hearing back with hearing aids. However, the type of hearing aids that you should get will depend on the specific type of hearing problem that you have.

Different Hearing Problems Require Different Hearing Aids

Hearing loss is the most common type of hearing problem, and there are a few different types of hearing loss that you can experience, the most major being: conductive, sensory, mixed and neural. Conductive hearing loss happens when there is a problem with the part of the outer or middle ear, and most people who suffer from this type of hearing loss tend to have only a mild hearing loss and it is usually only temporary.

Sensory hearing loss happens when the cochlea is not working properly, and this is typically because the tiny hair cells in the ear are damaged or even destroyed. However, depending on the amount of loss in this case, a person may be able to hear most sounds, and may be able to hear in quiet but not in noise, or only certain sounds.

Then there is the neural type of hearing loss, which happens when there is a problem with the connection from the cochlea to the brain, and neural means that the nerve that actually carries the messages from the cochlea to the brain is damaged.

Choosing the Right Hearing Aids

Once your specific hearing problem is assessed, then you will be able to go on and choose the proper hearing aids. Although there are many different types of hearing aids that are available, for the most part they all have the same basic qualities to them. This includes a microphone, which picks up the sound outside of the ear.

Then there is the amplifier, which increases the volume of the sound so that you can hear it properly, the speaker, which works by sending the sound into your ear so that you can hear it, and the battery which is what provides power to the electronic parts of the hearing aid device.

You will need to consult with your doctor and a specialist (audiologist) in order to have your hearing problem properly diagnosed and assessed, so that you will be able to find the right hearing aid device for you and your particular case. The audiologist can determine, through extensive testing, which type of hearing loss you are experiencing and which frequencies are affected. Armed with this data, they can suggest the correct type of hearing aids for your particular situation.

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