Selecting a Digital Hearing Aid
There
are several factors to think about when selecting a digital hearing
aid. Understanding your choices will help you make a better decision
when presented with your options by a hearing health care professional.
HearingAidHelp.com has identified 4 factors to consider when
selecting a digital hearing aid.
Factor 1: Number of channels and bands
To understand
the function of separating a hearing aid's response into channels
and bands according to frequency, let me first explain the speech
spectrum.
Speech covers a variety of frequencies (pitches) with
the low-pitched vowels (A, E, I, O, and U) carrying loudness
and high-pitched consonants (S, T, P, F, D, M, N etc) carrying
understanding. Hearing loss is usually not consistent across
all frequencies (pitches). 
For example, many people have a high-frequency
hearing loss where it is difficult to hear high-pitched sounds
(examples: female voices, consonant sounds, birds). This presents a problem
to the person because they hear some loudness from the low pitches
but do not have clarity from the missing high pitches. When fitting this
hearing loss with a hearing aid, the professional wants to match the
exact amount of amplification for that exact hearing loss at
that precise frequency. Digital hearing aids divide the frequency/pitch
range into channels and bands. This division allows frequency-specific
adjustments to be made independently in that area. Some hearing aids have
more channels/bands than others.
If your hearing loss changes across the
frequency spectrum, then you may need more channels/bands. If
your hearing loss is relatively flat across the frequency spectrum, then
you may only need 2 channels. More channels are not always better. The
number of channels you need may depend upon your hearing loss.
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Factor 2: Professionals' expertise
This concept cannot be understated
because the ability of your hearing health care professional
to properly fit and program a digital hearing aid is critical to the success
of the hearing aid fitting. Digital hearing aids are truly remarkable;
however, programming by an experienced professional is a required component
for your satisfaction. This is why it is important to ask your hearing
healthcare professional WHICH brand of digital hearing aids they have
the most experience fitting and not just what they would recommend.
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Factor 3: Directional microphone
This
term means that the hearing aid will have two microphones or
two microphone ports to allow a decrease in the volume of the
sounds coming in the back microphone. When activated, this technique
boosts the sounds in front of you by decreasing those behind you. Directional
microphones are useful in crowd situations where you need to
hear the person in front of you and not the surrounding noise.
It is usually recommended for active people who find themselves in restaurants,
crowds, meetings, and parties. This technology does require you to position
yourself with your back to the majority of the noise and your face to
the speaker. At this time, directional microphones are only available
on full shell-in-the-ear, half shell in-the-ear, and behind-the-ear hearing
instrument sizes. The hearing aids should have a switch to allow you to
change from picking up all sounds around you equally to directionality.
Keep in mind that in some quiet situations you will want to hear from
all directions equally (example: at home when your spouse is not directly
in front of you or at you side).
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Factor 4:
Multiple memories
This term means that the hearing aid will have
a push-button or switch, which allows you to change your listening
program (or what is programmed into your hearing aid for you
to hear). If you think about your regular day, you change environments
from quiet to loud. If you change listening environments frequently you
may consider a hearing aid with multiple memories. By the push of a button,
or flick of a switch, you can change between pre-set listening programs (programmed
by you audiologist or hearing instrument specialist) for noisy situations,
quiet situations, music situations, and even work environment situations.
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| Siemens
Music Digital |
2 |
2 |
Not available |
| Siemens
Prisma |
4 |
2 |
Available in
BTE & ITE |
| Siemens
Signia 8 |
8 |
2 |
Available in
BTE, ITE half-shell & ITE |
| Widex
Senso Plus |
3 |
1 |
Available in BTE |
| Sonic
Innovations Natura 2 |
9 |
2 |
Not available |
| Oticon
Digilife |
2 |
1 |
Not available |
| Oticon
DigiFocus II |
2
channels with 7 bands |
1 |
Available in
ITE |
| Starkey
Cetera |
1
channel with 15 points |
1 |
Not available |
| Starkey
Aries 9 |
9 |
2 |
Available in ITE |
| Starkey
Gemini |
2
channels with 7 bands |
2 |
Available in
ITE |
| Rexton
2D |
2 |
2 |
Available in BTE
& ITE |
| Rexton
3D |
6 |
2 |
Available in ITE |
| Bernafon/Maico
Smile |
2
channels with 5 bands |
2 |
Available in ITE |
| Qualitone
Sapphire |
2
channels with 7 bands |
2 |
Not available |
| Lori/Unitron
Digital Sound F/X |
2 |
2 |
Available in BTE |
| AHS
QuickLink D |
2 |
3 |
Not available |
| AHS
DigiLink |
3
channels with 7 bands |
3 |
Not available |
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