Hearing aids you can wear day in, day out

More people are finding relief as devices become more sophisticated and significantly smaller.

“I’ve found that the biggest issue discouraging people from wearing hearing aids is the stigma attached to the size and appearance,” says Dr Moh Dadafarin, director and principal audiologist of Ear & Hearing Australia.

(But) today’s models are sophisticated digital devices, many of which are ‘invisible’ to the naked eye.

“Some hearing aids are now comparable to contact lenses,” Dr Dadafarin says. “We insert them deep in the ear canal next to the ear drum and they can stay there 24/7. Clients can wear the hearing aids while showering, sleeping and exercising, as they stay in the ear canal for months at a time.

“People think that using a hearing aid makes them look older. One thing I tell my clients is that their hearing loss might be more visible than an actual hearing aid. People can see that you’re not hearing them.”

…Hearing aids can now identify particular environments and automatically adjust amplification levels to improve speech clarity. The use of two aids – binaural systems – means they connect to each other wirelessly and make adjustments to allow for better speech processing. Increased audio channels boost signal resolution, producing a more natural sound quality.

Bluetooth integration with smart phones has been a major breakthrough in this field. Working similarly to Bluetooth headphones, wearers can listen to music, watch movies, make video calls and listen to text messages.

Read more