| |
| The Basics |
| |
Hearing Answers: Hearing Aids: Basics |
|
| What is a hearing aid? |
|
| A hearing aid is a small electronic device that you wear in or behind your ear. It makes some sounds louder so that a person with hearing loss can listen, communicate, and participate more fully in daily activities. A hearing aid can help people hear more in both quiet and noisy situations. However, only about one out of five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually uses one. |
|
| A hearing aid has three basic parts: a microphone, amplifier, and speaker. The hearing aid receives sound through a microphone, which converts the sound waves to electrical signals and sends them to an amplifier. The amplifier increases the power of the signals and then sends them to the ear through a speaker. |
|
| How can hearing aids help? |
|
| Hearing aids are primarily useful in improving the hearing and speech comprehension of people who have hearing loss that results from damage to the small sensory cells in the inner ear, called hair cells. This type of hearing loss is called sensorineural hearing loss. The damage can occur as a result of disease, aging, or injury from noise or certain medicines.
A hearing aid magnifies sound vibrations entering the ear. Surviving hair cells detect the larger vibrations and convert them into neural signals that are passed along to the brain. The greater the damage to a person's hair cells, the more severe the hearing loss, and the greater the hearing aid amplification needed to make up the difference. However, there are practical limits to the amount of amplification a hearing aid can provide. In addition, if the inner ear is too damaged, even large vibrations will not be converted into neural signals. In this situation, a hearing aid would be ineffective. |
| |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
How can I identify I have hearing loss
Most people lose hearing as they age but there are other causes, too. Hearing loss can be due to aging, but also from exposure to loud noise, medications, infections, head or ear trauma, congenital or hereditary factors, disease processes and other causes. |
| Read more... |
|
Suggest the best hearing aid for me
After you've determined that you can benefit from having a hearing aid, you will need to select the aid that you feel will work best for you. First you should consider the types of hearing aids available and your particular hearing needs, your lifestyle and your budget. |
| Read more... |
|
Ringing In The Ear
Do you hear a ringing, roaring, clicking, or hissing sound in your ears? Do you hear this sound often or all the time? Does the sound bother you a lot? If you answer yes to these questions, you may have tinnitus (tin-NY-tus).
Tinnitus is a symptom associated with many forms of hearing loss. |
| Read more... |
| |
| |
|
|
|
