What is a hearing aid?
A: A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making
sound
audible to a person with hearing loss.
Early devices, such as ear trumpets or ear horns, were
passive amplification cones designed to do what?
A: To gather sound energy and direct it into the ear canal.
Modern devices are computerized electroacoustic systems
that transform environmental sound to do what?
A: Make it audible, according to audiometric and cognitive rules.
Modern devices also utilize sophisticated digital
signal processing to do what?
A: To try and improve speech intelligibility and comfort for the user.
Such signal processing includes feedback management,
wide dynamic range compression, directionality, frequency lowering, and
what?
A: Noise reduction.
Modern hearing aids require configuration to match
what?
A: The hearing loss, physical features, and lifestyle of the wearer.
The hearing aid is fitted to the most recent what?
A: Audiogram and is programmed by frequency.
This process is called "fitting" and is performed by
whom?
A: A Doctor of Audiology, also called an audiologist (AuD), or by a Hearing
Instrument Specialist (HIS).
The amount of benefit a hearing aid delivers depends in
large part on what?
A: The quality of its fitting.
Almost all hearing aids in use in the US are what?
A: Digital hearing aids.
Hearing aids are used for a variety of pathologies
including sensorineural hearing loss, conductive hearing loss, and what?
A: Single-sided deafness.
Hearing aid candidacy is typically determined by a
Doctor of Audiology, or a certified hearing specialist, who will also fit
the device based on what?
A: The nature and degree of the hearing loss being treated.
The amount of benefit experienced by the user of the
hearing aid is multi-factorial, depending on the type, severity, and
etiology of the hearing loss, the technology and fitting of the device, and
on what?
A: The motivation, personality, lifestyle, and overall
health of the user.
Hearing aids are incapable of what?
A: Truly correcting a hearing loss; they are an aid to make sounds more
audible.
The most common form of hearing loss for which hearing
aids are sought is sensorineural, resulting from damage to what?
A: The hair cells and synapses of the cochlea and auditory nerve.
Sensorineural hearing loss reduces the sensitivity to
sound, which a hearing aid can partially accommodate by doing what?
A: Making sound louder.
Conductive hearing losses, which do not involve damage
to the cochlea, tend to be better treated by what?
A: Hearing aids; the hearing aid is able to sufficiently amplify sound to
account for the attenuation caused by the conductive component.
Common issues with hearing aid fitting and use are the
occlusion effect, loudness recruitment, and what?
A: Understanding speech in noise.
Once a common problem, feedback is generally now what?
A: Well-controlled through the use of feedback management algorithms.
Body worn aids were the first portable electronic
hearing aids and were invented by whom?
A: Harvey Fletcher while working at Bell Laboratories.
Body aids consist of a case and an earmold, attached by
what?
A: A wire.
The case contains the electronic amplifier components,
controls and battery, while the earmold typically contains what?
A: A miniature loudspeaker.
The case is typically about the size of what?
A: A pack of playing cards and is carried in a pocket or on a belt.[13]
Without the size constraints of smaller hearing
devices, body worn aid designs can provide what?
A: Large amplification and long battery life at a lower cost.
Body aids are still used in emerging markets because of
their what?
A: Relatively low cost.
What are the two major classes of hearing aids?
A: Behind the ear (BTE) and in the ear (ITE).
These two classes are distinguished by where the
hearing aid is what?
A: Worn.