BUYING A HEARING AID
We offer a no obligation hearing aid trial
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.
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Hearing loss degree and type
The degree and type of hearing loss is perhaps the main factor to consider in a selection of style. Also important is the relative shape of the hearing loss, with many losses predominating in the high frequency (treble) pitches.
Cosmetic Preference
Here we try to allow you to have the style of your choice provided it fits with the audiological needs of your hearing loss. Where compromise needs to be made, we explain and justify this with reference to all other relevant factors.
Physical comfort
This is an important consideration because you are likely to be wearing the devices for up to sixteen hours per day. Occlusion (the blocking of the ear canal) is a major consideration here and we always aim to limit this.
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.
Your budget
In most cases the choice of style will have no impact on the budget in that cost is more to do with technology level which is the subject of the next section.
Hearing loss degree and type
The degree and type of hearing loss is perhaps the main factor to consider in a selection of style. Also important is the relative shape of the hearing loss, with many losses predominating in the high frequency (treble) pitches.
Cosmetic Preference
Here we try to allow you to have the style of your choice provided it fits with the audiological needs of your hearing loss. Where compromise needs to be made, we explain and justify this with reference to all other relevant factors.
Physical Comfort
This is an important consideration because you are likely to be wearing the devices for up to sixteen hours per day. Occlusion (the blocking of the ear canal) is a major consideration here and we always aim to limit this.
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.
Your budget
In most cases the choice of style will have no impact on the budget in that cost is more to do with technology level which is the subject of the next section.
Choose Your Style
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.
We are here for you every step of the way
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.
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.
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.
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.
The technology level is the main factor in determining the price. Generally, the higher up the scale you travel the better will be the hearing aid system at coping with difficult listening situations, and the higher will be its price.
