Every hearing aid should be electronically tailored to suit the person’s particular hearing loss. Recent improvements in hearing aid technology allow a very wide range of hearing losses to be successfully fitted. Hearing aids should only be provided after a careful selection process which must include a full hearing test, and an assessment of the person’s ability to discriminate speech. The audiologist prescribes the hearing aid to ensure that it provides the wearer with an even balance of all the sounds of everyday life. A properly fitted hearing aid will be evaluated and adjusted over a period of time to meet the individual’s needs.
Ideally the hearing aids should be worn all through waking hours except when having a bath. If you want to get the most benefit from the aids you will wear them as much as you can within the limits of comfort and convenience.
In order to get optimum benefits the wearer must be exposed to all types of environmental sounds. Your safety may depend upon your ability to hear twenty-four hours a day. If hearing aids help, use them as much as you see fit.
Full-time hearing aid use should not be considered a bad sign.
Audiometry is the testing of hearing ability. Audiometry determines a person’s hearing levels with the help of an Audiometer at different sound intensities and pitch, typically from 0 to 120dB and from 250Hz to 8000Hz.
The most commonly used assessment of hearing is the determination of the threshold of audibility, i.e. the level of sound that is just audible at different frequencies. The audiometric test can be carried out using automatic or manual audiometers in a sound-proof room to eliminate external sounds from influencing the test. The results for both ears are often plotted graphically on an Audiogram.
This quantitative assessment of a person’s hearing ability helps the audiologists to diagnose severity and type of hearing loss.
An earmold is a customized device worn into the ear for sound conduction. Earmolds are anatomically shaped and can be produced in different styles. As a coupler, it improves sound transmission to ear canals. This is an essential feature to diminish feedback paths in hearing aids and assure better intelligibility in communication. The main goal in wearing earmolds is to attain better user comfort and efficiency.Since every ear is unique, earmolds need to customized to one's ear.
A hearing aid battery life depends on following factors
Some of the new digital hearing aids consume very less battery power and hence give longer battery life. Therefore, some batteries may last for weeks while others can last only days.