Hearing loss is a large problem, not just in the United States, but in the entire world. It is reported that approximately 15 percent of American adults, nearly 37.5 million individuals, suffer from hearing trouble. The problems grows even more severe as individuals age. Around 2 percent of adults between the ages of 45 to 54 have disabling hearing loss. This rate rises to the 50 percent mark after the age of 75. For sufferers of hearing loss, the best solution is usually hearing aids.
How Hearing Aids Work
Hearings aids have been around in some form or another for hundreds of years. Ancient hearing aids were little more than massive funnels one would place in their ear to amplify sound. Modern hearing aids are much more complex. They gather sound through small microphones. They then turn that sound into a digital signal using a computer chips. The computer chip than amplifies the signal, converts it back into soundwaves, and delivers it, now stronger, back to the ear through a small speaker. Hearing aids come in many shapes and styles, a few of which we will go over today.
Styles of Heating Aids
Of course, there is a wide variety of hearing aids to fit a wide variety of hearing loss conditions. CIC, or completely-in-the-canal hearing aids are molded, and as their name suggests, they are place entirely inside the ear canal. They help to improve mild to moderate hearing loss. ITC, in-the-canal, hearing aids are also custom molded to fit partially inside the canal. These styles are less visible than in-the-ear styles which fill the bowl-shaped area of the outer ear. There are also behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids which hook over the ear. A portion of the hearing aid is then hidden behind the ear. A tube stretches into the ear canal to provide sound amplification.