Miniaturisation and new technology provides more and more hearing impaired people with the ability to hear close to normal.  Currently, behind the ear hearing are the most popular type of hearing aids by people with hearing impairments.  The challenge for these hearing aids is to help the hard-of-hearing people hear sounds better or almost as good as those with full hearing.  You should expect to hear things more clearly with your new aid hearing device.

When choosing a hearing aid, the audiologist will consider your hearing ability, work and home activities, physical limitations, medical conditions, and cosmetic preferences.  For many people, cost is also an important factor.  You and your audiologist must decide whether one or two hearing aids will be best for you.  Wearing two hearing aids may help balance sounds, improve your understanding of words in noisy situations, and make it easier to locate the source of sounds.  There are four basic styles of hearing aids :

·         ITE: In-the-Ear hearing aids fitting completely in the outer ear.  The ITE hearing aid fits in the bowl of the ear, this is the larger and most apparent device.  The ITE work well for mild to severe hearing loss and last longer than the smaller aids due to its bigger battery.

·         BTE: Behind-the-Ear hearing aids are worn behind the ear and are connected to a plastic earmold that fits inside the outer ear. Sound travels through the earmold into the ear.  This device is made to help people from all levels of hear loss.  The electronics are placed behind the hear connected to the earmold sitting in the ear.  There are newer versions of BTE models that solve the visibility problem but these only work for people with mild hearing loss. 

·         CIC: Completely in the canal hearing aids fit entirely into the ear canal. These hearing aid are customized to fit the size and shape of the ear canal.  These aids can barely be seen and are appropriate for people from mild to moderate hearing loss but those features makes them more expensive than the larger hearing aids. 

·         Body Aids: They are mainly used by people with profound hearing loss. The aid is attached to a belt or a pocket and connected to the ear by a wire. Because of its large size, it is able to incorporate many signal processing options, but it is usually used only when other types of aids cannot be used. 

How hearing aids work