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We work with the world’s leading hearing aid manufacturers to provide you with the best and most up to date technology available. We see it as our duty to provide you with best advice for your needs at all times.
Years of counselling experience has taught us that when considering investment in a hearing aid system there are a two of key factors which potential users need to address, namely the style and technology level of the system.
Recent developments have meant that most hearing losses can be fitted with most styles. In making the final recommendation of style we will be considering and discussing with you the key selection factors:
Handling issues
You need to be able to insert and remove the devices with relative ease and to handle batteries (although many systems are now rechargeable) and daily maintenance. In some case this may influence the choice of size of the device. There may also be controls, although most systems are now either automatically self-controlled or managed by remote control which these days is often a smart phone app.
Having decided on the preferred style we would then move to a consideration of technology level. All hearing aid systems are now digital and very flexibly programmable to accurately match overall hearing loss. But there are significant differences in the onboard technological features.
Whilst there are differences in implementation from manufacturer to manufacturer the technological features can be broadly classified as follows:
Directional microphones
This allows you as the user to focus on what you want to hear, usually speech, rather that simply hearing all noise in the environment.
Noise suppression
The aim here is on allowing the speech signal to dominate where there is competing background noise.
Speech enhancement
The speech signal is further enhanced to optimise your ability to understand speech in the presence of babble and background noise.
In most systems the above features are combined and work together in a powerful way for your benefit. This increases as you advance up the technology level and in advising you about this choice we will consider certain factors.
Hearing loss degree and type
Certain losses are more challenging than others and here we would be looking closely at your ability to process speech in quiet surroundings and in the presence of background noise.
Your lifestyle
The needs of an active business executive are very different from those of a retiree. They are different but equally important to the individual user so lifestyle is carefully considered.
Ability with technology
Here we would be looking at the choice between automatic function needing no intervention from the user and a higher level of user control. We would also be considering the use of smart phone apps, blue tooth streaming and other accessories. More about thus following on from this section.