A hearing aid has three basic components. A microphone, an amplifier and a speaker. The hearing aid receives sound through the microphone, which converts the sound waves to electrical signals and sends them to the amplifier and increases the power of the signals before sending it to the ear through the speaker. Sounds simple right? But there is more to hearing aids than just the basics.

Let us take a closer look. We know that all hearing aids come in many styles as well as THREE different levels of technology (Basic, advanced and premium).

But did you know hearing aids today have more impressive features?

Such features include the following:

Rechargeable batteries – no longer need to deal with those small hearing aid batteries. Just recharge the hearing aids overnight and you are good to go!

Bluetooth technology– connect directly to your smartphone for phone calls and streaming music.

Hearing aid apps – instead of carrying a remote with you or having to play with the controls on the hearing aids themselves, these apps now allow you to make adjustments whether it be volume, speech clarity or noise reduction right from your phone. Also, the app has a great feature that can locate your hearing aids if they were ever to get lost.

Fitness trackers and fall detection– some premium level hearing aids can now be set up to track your health statistics.  They can also be set up to detect a fall and immediately notify and alert a family member for your safety.

Feedback management– you may be familiar with that high pitched screeching noise coming out of hearing aids. Today the feedback manager in hearing aids is so much more effective. Now you can hug your loved ones without having the annoying screeching sounds.

Tinnitus management– do you suffer from ringing/ buzzing in your ears? Today hearing aids have tinnitus masking features that help disguise or mask the tinnitus sound providing the hearing aid user a bit of relief. To be clear, this is not a cure for tinnitus, but this feature is used to alleviate the annoying ringing/buzzing sounds temporarily while wearing the hearing aids.

Background noise processing – the most common problem hearing aid users have is when they are in environments where background noise is present, such as restaurants or cafes. Advanced and premium technology level hearing aids are now able to help hearing aid users understand more speech when background noise is present. To help reduce background noise, hearing aids today use directional microphones (two microphones, one in the front and one in the back to help suppress the noises coming from the back of the hearing aid user and amplify the speech coming from in front of the hearing aid user), digital noise reduction (helps the amplifier differentiate between what is noise and what is speech), impulse noise reduction (detects and suppresses loud uncomfortable sounds quick enough so the hearing aid user does not experience pain or discomfort) and wind noise reduction (suppresses the sound of wind – great for hearing aid users who love the outdoors).

Brain hearing technology –We know that our ears collect the sound, but it is our brain that understands it. Some hearing aids today have Brain Hearing Technology which helps give the brain access to the full sound scene in order to support the brain more effectively. It helps ensure the brain receives the quality of sound information it requires to remain healthy.

Sound localization– the hearing aids today have the ability to help the brain identify what direction the sound is coming from. Not only will this assist the hearing aid user in group conversations, but this feature is important for safety purposes as well.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)– This can be found in premium hearing aid technology. Programmers train AI with millions of different sound samples so that the hearing aid can learn the different sounds. This helps it learn what you want to hear and what you want to ignore. The hearing aid can then separate them, and send them to your brain in a clear signal.

Waterproof and sweat-proof– hearing aids were always water resistant but never waterproof. This meant that hearing aids could get wet but never be submerged in water. Many hearing aid users expressed that they would like to wear their hearing aids while swimming in a pool, ocean or lake. Others expressed they would like to be able to wear their hearing aids at the gym without the fear of sweat and moisture damaging their hearing aids. Well now you can!

Call to visit our clinic to learn more! We offer FREE Demo trials for 2 weeks so that you can experience the world of hearing aids today!