Digital hearing aids

Digital hearing aids boast today's most advanced technology. Digital hearing aids are programmable hearing instruments with digital circuits. These digital circuits are more flexible than analog circuits. They can be precisely programmed to match the patient's individual hearing loss, sometimes at each specific frequency/pitch. Digital circuits offer improved clarity of sound, less circuit noise, faster processing of sound, and improved listening in noise when compared to analog circuits. Digital hearing aids are easy to use because they adjust volume automatically.

	Digital hearing aids - introduction
	How they differ from conventional hearing aids
	How digital hearing aids work
	Selecting a digital hearing aid
	Costs of digital hearing aids

Digital hearing aids - introduction

Digital hearing aids have been the cause of excitement and many questions. Basically, digital hearing aids process sound digitally. This means that ehe sound that you hear will be clear and free from distortion. Digital hearing aids represent the most advanced technology available today allowing the most precise prescriptive fitting available. Where older analog hearing aids turned everything up, digital hearing aidS focus on bringing understanding through sophisticated control of the sound signal inside the hearing aid. If you think about the sounds that you can hear and sounds that you cannot hear, these sounds differ in pitch (ex. keys on a pianoj) and they differ in volume/loudness. Digital processing can shape your amplification (volume and clarity of signal which you hear through the aid) across changing pitches and changing volumes.

Hearing loss is usually not the same degree across changing frequencies/pitches. Due to changing hearing levels at different frequencies, each specific frequency needs a different amount of amplification. Digital hearing aids separate the frequency response into bands and channels, which can be manipulated independently, customizing the hearing aid response to your specific hearing loss. They can examine the sound environment and adapt the amplification accordingly without adding noise or distortion.

How they differ from conventional hearing aids

Conventional hearing aids increase the volume of all incoming soundS, sometimes making loud sounds too loud and soft sounds too soft, many times adding distortion and noise. To some extent, comparing a digital hearing aid to a conventional hearing aid is like comparing a compact disc to a record player.

How digital hearing aids work

In a very rough sense, the digital hearing aid has five major components: the microphone, the analog to digital converter, the core, the digital to analog converter, and the receiver. Sound waves hit the hearing instrument microphone where they are converted to an electrical signal (analog). The signal then passes through an Analog to Digital converter (A/D converter) where itis changed to a sequence of 1s and 0s. This sequence is sent to the "core" where it is filtered into bands and channels, then manipulated according to the programmed settings for the specific hearing loss. The manipulated signal is then channeled through a Digital to Analog converter (D/A) where the end result is an analog signal that has been manipulated according to the hearing loss. This signal then travels to the receiver where it is converted back to an acoustic signal that the user then hears. In other words, the digital hearing aid has a tiny computer chip in it that can manipulate the sound according to specific frequency (pitch) and specific volume level to deliver a clear sound set precisely to the user's hearing loss.

Selecting a digital hearing aid

There are several factors to think about when selecting a digital hearing aid:

Learn more about selecting digital hearing aids.

Costs of digital hearing aids

If you have been thinking about digital hearing aids you will know that they are expensive. The cost of one digital hearing aid can range from $1700 to $4,750 at the retail level. one reason for the high price is the time and money manufacturers put into their research and development. A great deal of research is necessary before a hearing instrument is released to the public. With miniaturization and computer chips, it is understandable why digital hearing aids are more expensive than other types.