Hearing aids are lovely little digital machines which help those who need them to understand basic conversation, which would usually come naturally to those who don’t have a hearing loss. It is important to understand that not every hearing loss requires hearing aids. Different types of losses require different types of treatment. However, if you, your friend, or your family member has been diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss, they will have been told that the best course of action is hearing aids.
“The beauty of modern hearing aids lies in their ability to adapt to individual needs, providing customised solutions for each wearer.” – Dr. Emily Jones, Hearing Specialist
Sensorineural loss (often linked to the more senior population of this beautiful planet) is the type of loss where the first few “pardons” or head nods into oblivion indicate that they can hear you speaking, but they are struggling to understand you. This is because their high frequencies are affected, meaning clarity of speech becomes difficult. No matter how loud you are, they will most likely have a lost feeling on their timeworn faces.
This is where hearing aids come to help save the day. And every day thereafter.
What are the parts of a digital hearing aid?
Now that we know that clarity of speech (which falls under high frequencies) is the culprit, that’s exactly what we need to tell the hearing aids to bring back. It equally applies to the opposite – if the wearer has a low frequency loss, those are the frequencies the hearing aids will be focusing on. However, low-frequency loss is far less common and will require some investigation before settling for hearing aids.
There are five main components of hearing aids. Every single hearing aid will have all five of these, but, of course, different models and styles of hearing aids will have them integrated into the body of the aid a little differently. This is why some models of hearing aids won’t support certain severities of hearing losses.
- Microphone – In order for a hearing aid to gather the sounds around the wearer, the microphone is the first on the list of most important components. It captures the noise and conversations of the environment and converts them into electrical signals. You could say that the microphone is the “ear” of the hearing aid
- Amplifier – Once the microphone has captured and converted the sound into electrical signal, the amplifier simply increases the volume of said signal in order to make it audible for the wearer
- Digital Signal Processor (DSP) – If we say the microphone is the “ear” of the hearing aid, then DSP is the “brain”. It captures the amplified electrical signal sent by the previous two components and applies different algorithms. This is done by either decreasing the background noise and increasing speech, but it all depends on the environment they are in. The DSP is the main reason why hearing aids these days are so advanced compared to its older version of analog aids, as it can be manipulated and programmed to meet the very individual needs of the wearer.
- Receiver – Aka the speaker, it processes that electrical signal back into sound waves and into the wearer’s ear. This is the end bit sat directly at the entrance of the ear canal and is responsible for the nice, clear speech sounds of your loved ones telling you exactly how loud the telly is.
- Battery – Without it, there would be no power to the hearing aid. Nowadays, there are rechargeable options of batteries, where you pop your hearing aids on charge overnight and they last you a whole day, and night if you forgot to charge them. If your choice is battery-operated ones, as a rule of thumb, the bigger the battery – the more days they last.
Is there different styles of hearing aids?
Yes! Over the years, there have been many new inventions when it comes to hearing aids. At first, they were behind-the-ear ones with a tube sending sound down the lovely big acrylic mould that is sat on your ear, then a wire and a dome, and then tiny little “invisible” ones.
The reason why all these styles of aids are still on the market is because when it comes to hearing aids, “one size does not fit all”.
*Photo by Mark Paton on Unsplash
With the above in mind, if the wearer is brand new to the hearing aid universe, it will take some time to get used to. This is because you have to re-teach your brain to hear certain sounds you haven’t heard in a very long time. With sensorineural type of hearing loss, it usually comes over the years, very gradually and very sneakily. At first, you think that your washing machine is too old as it doesn’t produce that little tune at the end of the wash cycle, or your neighbourhood has become too busy because there are no more bird songs waking you up in the morning. Your television volume is up in the 40s and everyone has started mumbling. It’s a comforting thought, however, knowing that all that can be restored with a brilliant invention of a hearing aid.
“Hearing aids offer not just a solution for hearing loss, but a pathway to rediscovering life’s rich sounds and experiences.” – American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
*Photo by Jeremy Alford on Unsplash
The audiologist or hearing professional will cover all this with you, but the main thing you need to know of how the hearing aid works is it collects the sound, processes it, and sends it back out for you to hear. The hearing aid doesn’t make everything loud; it’s not a simple amplifier, because some of the sounds you can still hear very clearly, and those do not need amplifying. Digital hearing aids only amplify frequencies that your inner ear is no longer able to collect and send to your brain.
“Understanding how hearing aids work is essential for effective communication and improved quality of life for individuals with hearing loss.” – Hearing Loss Association of America
There are many different choices of hearing aids, and one thing to remember – two people could have the same hearing loss and purchase the same hearing aid, but the programming and adaptation time will be completely different. How you hear is partly your ear and partly your brain; a positive mindset and willingness to accept the fact you need hearing aids go a long way toward your recovery.