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Open Fit Hearing Aids: Just In Time For The Boomers

from:

David Faulkner

If you are one of the millions of Baby Boomers working on their
sixth decade on planet Earth, you may have noticed that the
sounds of birdsong and children shrieking in glee are not as
clear as they once were. If so, you are experiencing high
frequency hearing loss, which is a normal accompaniment of the
aging process.

But if your hearing has deteriorated to the point where you
cannot hear the doorbell and the telephone ringing, or the
teapot in the kitchen whistling, you should consult an
audiologist to determine whether or not you are a candidate for
a hearing aid.

If you are ready for a hearing aid, don't despair. Hearing aids
are no longer the bulky, uncomfortable and very obvious devices
you might remember having seen in your youth; the 2005
introduction of open fit hearing aids changed that forever.

Open fit hearing aids are tiny devices which rest outside and
behind the ear, with no ear canal-occluding earmold. Open fit
hearing aids instead have extremely thin, nearly invisible
"sound tubes" and are so lightweight that their users often
forget they are wearing them.

Open fit hearing aids are available in two designs; the
speaker-in-ear, or SIE models, and the acoustic tube models. The
tube model open fit hearing aids have all their electronics
housed in the small plastic shell which lodges behind the user's
ear. Sound first gets processed in the behind-the-ear casing,
and then moves along the acoustic tube and enters the ear canal.

The SIE open fit hearing aid, however, takes its
speaker out of the plastic shell and moves it to the end of the
thin tube, where there is a sound tip. SIE open fit hearing
aids, therefore, do not need as much gain directly at ear level
to provide the same amount of sound output within the ear canal.
This makes them more suitable for a broader range of hearing
impairment than the acoustic tube models, which work best with
high frequency hearing loss.

Open ear hearing aids are available with directional
microphones, which allow those wearers in nosy environments to
point them directly at a speaker for better sound clarity. Their
biggest drawback is that they are automatic, and do not have any
adjustable volume control.

If you are at the age where you think you high frequency
hearings not quite what it once was, make an appointment with an
audiologist to determine the degree and cause of your hearing
loss. And if you are in need of hearing aids, open fit hearing
aids may be a very pleasant surprise!

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