If you are suffering from hearing loss, except for extreme deafness, there is only one practical way to restore your hearing and that is to wear a Hearing Aid.
All Hearing Aids do is collect the sounds you wish to hear, amplify them and then transfer the amplified sound to your eardrum. This allows the hearing impaired to hear sounds that have been very hard to hear such as voices etc.
Sufferers of hearing loss should investigate what kind of frequencies etc they are finding it difficult to hear. It can be for sounds like voices or higher sounds such as music. By visiting an audiologist, who will test your hearing, you will know exactly which band of sounds need the most attention. Digital Hearing Aids can be programmed using a computer which will take the results from the audiologist and set up the circuits within the Aid to compensate exactly for where loss of hearing is occurring..
The disadvantages of this procedure are that you have to spend time and money visiting an audiologist to have him set up your Hearing Aid. Also over time your hearing loss may change which will mean further visits to the audiologist for him to readjust your Hearing Aid to the changing nature of your loss of hearing. Self Programming Hearing Aids are practically the same as any other Hearing Aid with the same specification except that they remove the necessity of visiting an audiologist to be set up. There are two main types of Self Programming Hearing Aid; the simplest will have a small number of controls that can be physically altered either by a very small screw driver or by a small variable control. These types have a very limited range of variation such as volume/feedback, low frequencies on high frequencies volume.
These simple manual adjustments mean that your ear adjusts to the level of hearing depending on what you want to listen to. This can be a great advantage in for example, when watching television you can increase the response of your Aid and not have to turn the TV volume up thereby possibly annoying other’s in the room. Also conversely you can turn down the volume if the noise becomes too loud. The second type of Self Programming Hearing Aid is by using computer software and programmer .These are supplied by the Hearing Aid supplier and allows you to programme your own Hearing Aid through your computer in the same way as an audiologist would do. You will be able to perform incremental adjustments on your Hearing Aid therefore giving you a very detailed set up over the full range of frequencies.
The Main benefits of Self Programming Digital Hearing Aids are that they allow you to change the level of amplification yourself without having to return to an audiologist to have it re-calibrated.. As this can be carried out by yourself almost immediately you will have the full use of your Aid for the maximum amount of time. Not having to visit the audiologist you save a great deal of time, money and frustration.
For further details and information visit Self Programming Hearing Aids
Monday 7 December 2009
Wednesday 2 December 2009
DO I NEED A HEARING TEST
Many people suffer from some form of hearing loss without realising it. As people get older the receptors inside the ear become less receptive causing hearing loss. There are a number of pointers to indicate if you are suffering hearing loss, many of which you may not recognise yourself, but will be noticeable to your friends or relations.
If you are finding it difficult to hear individual voices in a crowd because of background noise.
You continually ask people to repeat what they are saying.
You need the television or radio sound to be turned up and therefore making it too loud for others in the room.
You find it difficult to hear the high notes in music.
If you recognise any of these symptoms or you are told about them it is most likely that you suffer some degree of hearing loss. The first step would be to visit your GP. To see if your ears are not blocked by wax or infection, which can be cured simply and effectively giving you back your hearing. If this is not the case he will most likely recommend that you visit an audiologist for a Hearing Test . He will test your hearing using an audiometer.
An audiometer is a piece of equipment that produces various levels of sound over the full audio range of frequencies. The audiologist will sit you down in a very quite room and place a pair of headphones over your ears which are connected to an audiometer. He will then set the audiometer to a set frequency before reducing the sound levels. He will ask you to tell him when you can no longer hear the sound. This result is then plotted onto a graph called an audiogram. The frequency is then adjusted throughout the complete audio range in various steps, adjusting the sound at each step recording each result. The resulting audiogram will give a clear picture of where, across the full audio range, there is some hearing loss.
A hearing test can give a very good guide as to where you might be suffering some hearing loss but it is not an exact science as it relies entirely on your responses to the sounds being relayed to you. The audiologist relies on you to tell him when you can no longer hear the sound being relayed to you through the headphones and this could vary slightly depending on the environment and the equipment being used. However it is a very good indication and if it is decided you need a hearing aid to overcome the hearing losses indicated, it will most likely be a Digital Hearing Aid which can be set up to compensate for this loss. In some instances the Digital Hearing Aid may have to be adjusted a number of times before it meets your requirements in every day use.
However good a hearing aid is and how perfect it is set up it can never give you back your original hearing.
To find out more about hearing aids click Digital Hearing Aids
If you are finding it difficult to hear individual voices in a crowd because of background noise.
You continually ask people to repeat what they are saying.
You need the television or radio sound to be turned up and therefore making it too loud for others in the room.
You find it difficult to hear the high notes in music.
If you recognise any of these symptoms or you are told about them it is most likely that you suffer some degree of hearing loss. The first step would be to visit your GP. To see if your ears are not blocked by wax or infection, which can be cured simply and effectively giving you back your hearing. If this is not the case he will most likely recommend that you visit an audiologist for a Hearing Test . He will test your hearing using an audiometer.
An audiometer is a piece of equipment that produces various levels of sound over the full audio range of frequencies. The audiologist will sit you down in a very quite room and place a pair of headphones over your ears which are connected to an audiometer. He will then set the audiometer to a set frequency before reducing the sound levels. He will ask you to tell him when you can no longer hear the sound. This result is then plotted onto a graph called an audiogram. The frequency is then adjusted throughout the complete audio range in various steps, adjusting the sound at each step recording each result. The resulting audiogram will give a clear picture of where, across the full audio range, there is some hearing loss.
A hearing test can give a very good guide as to where you might be suffering some hearing loss but it is not an exact science as it relies entirely on your responses to the sounds being relayed to you. The audiologist relies on you to tell him when you can no longer hear the sound being relayed to you through the headphones and this could vary slightly depending on the environment and the equipment being used. However it is a very good indication and if it is decided you need a hearing aid to overcome the hearing losses indicated, it will most likely be a Digital Hearing Aid which can be set up to compensate for this loss. In some instances the Digital Hearing Aid may have to be adjusted a number of times before it meets your requirements in every day use.
However good a hearing aid is and how perfect it is set up it can never give you back your original hearing.
To find out more about hearing aids click Digital Hearing Aids
Monday 30 November 2009
OPEN FIT HEARING AIDS-The Answer to that blocked ear feeling.
The biggest complaint from the hearing impaired is that the normal Hearing Aid gives a sensation of the ear being plugged up – occlusions.
What happens is that because the whole ear channel is closed the lower frequency sounds do not escape from the ear. Sounds like chewing your food can be amplified causing problems for users with good low frequency response.
Open Fit Hearing Aids have been around for some considerable time. The older types are `Behind the Ear` with a reasonably thick tube transferring the sound to the outer ear but not directly into the ear channel. Therefore there is some loss of sound reaching the eardrum.
The modern Open Fit Hearing Aid solves this problem by allowing the tube carrying the sound to be placed in the ear channel without completely blocking it. They are able to do this by not having an ear mould that completely fills the ear channel but having holes cut into it allowing the free passage of air. This overcomes the plugged up effect of other Hearing Aids.
Response to high frequencies is much improved therefore allowing speech recognition to be greater. Cosmetically they are much better as they are smaller and the connecting transparent tube is almost invisible.
The cost of fitting is reduced as individual ear moulds do not have to be made and fitted. The Open Fit Hearing Aid is usually more expensive but if they can be afforded it is well worth the expense as they can give greatly improved hearing.
Another benefit of the Hearing Open Fit Hearing Aids is that they can be fitted almost immediately. They do not require the time consuming process of making custom ear moulds. There are no impressions to be made, thereby cutting downs the waiting time before you receive your Aids. Open Fit Hearing Aids have also been made possible by overcoming the problem of feedback. Feedback is produced when sounds within the ear are fed back to the microphone in the Hearing Aid causing a very loud whistle. By building in circuits which cancel feedback allows the Hearing Aid mould to be designed as open fit
The main beneficiaries of Open Fit Hearing Aids are those people who have good hearing in the low frequency tones and poor hearing in higher frequencies tones, which is the most common hearing loss.
The latest Open Fit Behind the Ear Hearing Aids are very much smaller and fit very neatly behind the ear with a very thin transparent tube connecting it to an Open Fit ear mould within the ear channel. This makes the wearing of a Hearing Aid much more acceptable as it is hardly visible.
To find out more about open fit hearing aids click Open Fit Hearing Aids
What happens is that because the whole ear channel is closed the lower frequency sounds do not escape from the ear. Sounds like chewing your food can be amplified causing problems for users with good low frequency response.
Open Fit Hearing Aids have been around for some considerable time. The older types are `Behind the Ear` with a reasonably thick tube transferring the sound to the outer ear but not directly into the ear channel. Therefore there is some loss of sound reaching the eardrum.
The modern Open Fit Hearing Aid solves this problem by allowing the tube carrying the sound to be placed in the ear channel without completely blocking it. They are able to do this by not having an ear mould that completely fills the ear channel but having holes cut into it allowing the free passage of air. This overcomes the plugged up effect of other Hearing Aids.
Response to high frequencies is much improved therefore allowing speech recognition to be greater. Cosmetically they are much better as they are smaller and the connecting transparent tube is almost invisible.
The cost of fitting is reduced as individual ear moulds do not have to be made and fitted. The Open Fit Hearing Aid is usually more expensive but if they can be afforded it is well worth the expense as they can give greatly improved hearing.
Another benefit of the Hearing Open Fit Hearing Aids is that they can be fitted almost immediately. They do not require the time consuming process of making custom ear moulds. There are no impressions to be made, thereby cutting downs the waiting time before you receive your Aids. Open Fit Hearing Aids have also been made possible by overcoming the problem of feedback. Feedback is produced when sounds within the ear are fed back to the microphone in the Hearing Aid causing a very loud whistle. By building in circuits which cancel feedback allows the Hearing Aid mould to be designed as open fit
The main beneficiaries of Open Fit Hearing Aids are those people who have good hearing in the low frequency tones and poor hearing in higher frequencies tones, which is the most common hearing loss.
The latest Open Fit Behind the Ear Hearing Aids are very much smaller and fit very neatly behind the ear with a very thin transparent tube connecting it to an Open Fit ear mould within the ear channel. This makes the wearing of a Hearing Aid much more acceptable as it is hardly visible.
To find out more about open fit hearing aids click Open Fit Hearing Aids
Digital Hearing Aids - Will they give you back your hearing?
All Hearing Aids are designed to help the person with some hearing loss to have greatly improved hearing. There are two types of Hearing Aids, Analogue or Digital, depending on how the sound is amplified. Digital Hearing Aids are similar to Analogue in that they both have a microphone which collects the sound waves in the air and coverts them into electrical energy. This electrical energy is amplified and fed into a small speaker which converts the amplified electrical energy back into sound waves to feed into the ear channel to energise the ear drum.
Digital Aids differ from Analogue in that the amplifying part of the process is carried out digitally, which converts it into `bits` of data by a tiny computer type chip in the Hearing Aid. These `bits` which represent the sound are then analysed and manipulated by a process called Digital signal processing. Software is then used to carry out precise changes to the `bits` of information such as reducing the amplification of background noise. These electrical `bits` of information are then fed to a minute microphone and converted back into sound, which is fed into the ear channel to act on the eardrum.
As hearing loss can be very different in sufferers, it is most important that the Digital Hearing Aid is configured to exactly compensate for the individuals needs. The first step in providing the correct Aid is to find out what particular hearing loss the sufferer has. A hearing test should be carried out by an audiologist who will determine the level of hearing over a wide range of frequencies producing an audiogram – a chart of your hearing responses. With these results the Digital Hearing Aid can be set up to compensate for the loss of hearing in particular areas. It is also possible the Hearing Aid may be set up to just allow the sufferer to hear voices and restrict any other sounds etc.
Some Digital Aids have also a built in circuit that will protect the ear from very loud sounds which could cause damage. Others also have facilities for suppressing Tinnitus in the ear. It can be seen that a Digital Hearing Aid will help with hearing loss giving greater control of what can be heard and what is not wanted. However, it is most important to understand that no Hearing Aids will give you back normal hearing and also it will also take a little while get used to the new sounds reaching the ear.
To learn more about Digital hearing aids Visit Digital Hearing Aids
Digital Aids differ from Analogue in that the amplifying part of the process is carried out digitally, which converts it into `bits` of data by a tiny computer type chip in the Hearing Aid. These `bits` which represent the sound are then analysed and manipulated by a process called Digital signal processing. Software is then used to carry out precise changes to the `bits` of information such as reducing the amplification of background noise. These electrical `bits` of information are then fed to a minute microphone and converted back into sound, which is fed into the ear channel to act on the eardrum.
As hearing loss can be very different in sufferers, it is most important that the Digital Hearing Aid is configured to exactly compensate for the individuals needs. The first step in providing the correct Aid is to find out what particular hearing loss the sufferer has. A hearing test should be carried out by an audiologist who will determine the level of hearing over a wide range of frequencies producing an audiogram – a chart of your hearing responses. With these results the Digital Hearing Aid can be set up to compensate for the loss of hearing in particular areas. It is also possible the Hearing Aid may be set up to just allow the sufferer to hear voices and restrict any other sounds etc.
Some Digital Aids have also a built in circuit that will protect the ear from very loud sounds which could cause damage. Others also have facilities for suppressing Tinnitus in the ear. It can be seen that a Digital Hearing Aid will help with hearing loss giving greater control of what can be heard and what is not wanted. However, it is most important to understand that no Hearing Aids will give you back normal hearing and also it will also take a little while get used to the new sounds reaching the ear.
To learn more about Digital hearing aids Visit Digital Hearing Aids
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