Hearing Aid Styles

Question 1

6 styles of HA

Answer 1

• Body aid
• Eyeglass aid
• Behind the ear
• Receiver in the canal
• In the ear/In the canal
• Completely in the canal

Question 2

Body aids

Answer 2

Disadvantages: big and bulky If hair or clothing brushes over it it causes noise.
Advantages: bigger controls for those with vision problems. People with severe to profound HL can use this since there is a lot of power behind it.

Question 3

Eyeglass aid

Answer 3

Disadvantages: People might lose or break them. If the glasses or HA needs to be repaired, then the person loses both.
Advantages: an improvement and step forward in technology from the body aid back in the 70’s. Same contained space.

Question 4

Behind the ear

Answer 4

Disadvantage: Easy to lose. Hard to wear glasses and masks with them.
Advantage: Fit many different types of people. More cosmetically appealing and hold a lot of power. Kids can wear them.

Question 5

Slim tube

Answer 5

smaller but do not have a custom fitted ear mold like the BTE ones.

Question 6

Receiver in the canal

Answer 6

Microphone and amplifier on top of the pinna and the receiver is inside the custom fitted ear mold.
Advantage: more high frequency amplification. Cosmetically appealing. Good sound quality.
Disadvantage: the connection is delicate and if the wire is bent then the HA is broken. Wax can get stuck in the HA. More costly.

Question 7

In the ear

Answer 7

Advantages: uses smaller battery than BTE. Can match the color of the persons skin. Cosmetically appealing. Only one piece in the ears. Sound quality is good.
Disadvantages: Wax can go into HA receiver opening. Occlusion effect is evident. Not rechargeable.
Battery is small (got for some, bad for others).

Question 8

In the canal

Answer 8

Advantages: smaller, cosmetically appealing.
Disadvantages: Due to its size it can not provide the same amount of gain as the BTE or ITE. Ton of feedback. If HL is moderately severe or worse these won’t work. Occlusion effect. Ear wax causes problems. Cost is higher and once warranty ends they are even more expensive.
(Battery is very small).

Question 9

Completely in the canal

Answer 9

Advantage: Easy to insert if person has good vision and dexterity. Goes far into the canal, eliminating occlusion effect. Cosmetically appealing.
Disadvantage: Not good for curvy ear canal. Very small. Has no volume control and loses program button and control. Someone with moderately severe or worse could not wear this.
(Really tiny, one piece)

Question 10

HA controls

Answer 10

• can be controlled through the HA itself or through a smartphone app or a remote.