How Hearing Aids Work
A common misconception is that hearing aids just make sounds louder. While they definitely amplify sounds, that is not all they do. Hearing aids are very sophisticated, technical devices that can help you hear again.
Hearing and Hearing Aids
We actually hear with our brains, not our ears, but our ears’ function is to send the brain auditory signals that are then processed into speech and sounds. When we lose our hearing, it is usually due to damage of the tiny hair cells within the ear. Hearing aids magnify the sound vibrations as they enter the ear so that the hair cells that aren’t damaged can transport the signals to the brain. Hearing aids can help restore hearing for almost all types of hearing loss. The most common type of hearing loss is sensorineural hearing loss, which is caused by disease, aging, injury, noise, or medication side effects. Hearing aids help most people who have sensorineural hearing loss hear again.
Here is how a hearing aid works step-by-step:
- Microphones pick up sounds
- Sounds are analysed by the processing chip
- Processed sounds are sent to the amplifier
- Amplified sounds are sent to the loudspeaker
- Sounds are transmitted by the loudspeaker into the inner ear, via tubing in an ear mould in the ear canal, or via a thin wire to a receiver in the ear
- In the inner ear the sounds are transformed into electrical impulses
- Impulses are picked up by the brain where they are processed