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August 2, 2024How Can You Select the Best Hearing Aids?
Hearing loss, either complete or partial, can affect so many people, especially of a certain age. If you find yourself experiencing any sort of hearing loss, the best thing you can do is to choose the right hearing aids to help improve your hearing once again. A hearing aid is so important for helping to make your life more comfortable, and this is something you need to work toward.
Knowing how to select the best hearing aids is so crucial for improving your hearing. You’ll need to do some research and make sure you focus on choosing the right hearing aid. And there are a lot of things you need to consider when you are trying to make the right choice. Check out these tips for finding the best hearing aid for you right now.
What to do before you buy
You need to make sure you think about what needs to be done before you buy your hearing aids. That means preparing yourself so that you know what you need to get the perfect hearing aid to suit your circumstances. First things first, make sure you get a checkup with an audiologist so that you can test your hearing and figure out if you truly need a hearing aid. It is also a good idea to make sure you ask about getting a trial period for your hearing aid, as well as checking about what you may need in the future.
Understand what hearing aids are
This entire process can be a bit daunting because people often don’t know what to expect when they experience hearing loss. A hearing aid is wrongly seen by many as an indicator that you are getting old and falling apart. In reality, a hearing aid is a vital tool when it comes to ear health. Hearing aids help to amplify ambient sounds to make them audible to those with hearing loss or difficulties. Hearing aids can be essential for helping to improve quality of life and make your hearing loss less of a problem in your life.
Choosing the right style
Choosing the ideal style of hearing aid is so important because it will depend upon the type of hearing loss you are experiencing, as well as what works best for you. Now, there are three principal styles of hearing aid that you will look to choose from; ITE, BTE and ITC, and we’re going to look more closely at them right now.
In the ear (ITE)
ITE devices are one of the most common forms of hearing aid on the market. ITE hearing aids are appealing because they are custom made to fit inside your specific ear and help to improve your hearing. They are generally available in an array of different colors, so you can camouflage them with your outer ear should you wish to.
Behind the ear (BTE)
BTE hearing aids are models that sit behind or on top of the outer ear. It has tubing and wiring that routes sounds into the ear to help enhance your hearing. BTE hearing aids generally have extensive features, such as volume control, batteries and varying degrees of power. They are also available in a range of unique and offbeat patterns and designs, so you can really let your personality shine through with a BTE-style hearing aid.
In the canal (ITC)
ITC hearing aids are the most discreet of all devices and are worn in the canal, with options like completely in the canal (CIC) and invisible in canal (IIC), offering the most privacy. They provide a natural listening experience because of their location in the canal but can be difficult to handle if you have dexterity issues due to their small size.
Getting used to your new hearing aid
Once you have a new hearing aid fitted, you need some time to get used to it. This is an important period because you’re going from regular hearing to the use of a hearing aid, and this can take some time to acclimate to. While a hearing aid won’t return your hearing, you will notice that your ability to hear will improve over time with gradual use. So, one of the biggest things you need to do to get used to your hearing aid is to allow yourself time to get used to it. You should also test it out in other environments as well, to pick up different sound effects.
As you can see, there are a lot of things to take into account when you are trying to select the best hearing aids for you. And it is a case of thinking hard about what it takes to make this choice, understanding what hearing aids are and researching the different styles available. You need to make the choice that is right for you, as this is going to go a long way to enhance and improve your hearing.
To learn more about what your hearing aid options are, contact Hadassah Kupfer, Au.D, or call now at 917-791-1510.