Types Of Hearing Problems - Hearing aids Doctor

Usually it is noticed that when a person feels problem in his ear then at the first he feels pain in inner part of his ear. It depends upon the type of hearing problem, which a user face, so in this situation one should consult audiologist for curing of hearing pain. Because a patient cannot diagnose his problem fully as compared to a specialist one otherwise ignoring such problem may cause serious position of the patient. Moreover if there is a hearing difficulties there is likelihood of recommendation of hearing aid devices by the doctor.

Types Of Hearing Problems

There are different types of hearing difficulties depending upon the different situation, these problems are mentioned one by one:

Conductive Hearing

It is characterized by time being hearing loss and pain in outer or middle of the year. Person also undergoes mild hearing loss and he might be having some loss of sight.

Sensory Hearing Loss
Sensory hearing loss is occurred due to malfunctioning of cochlea in the ear. In this case special tiny hear cells become damaged and it effects on hearing capability of person very badly as compared to conductive hearing difficulties. The person with this problem cannot distinguish among the sounds around himself.

Neural Type Of Hearing Problem:

Neural type of hearing difficulties is occurred because of problem in connection of cochlea to brain. Since it is also regarded as nerve problem as it is only the nerve which takes important sensory information from cochlea to brain so in neural type of hearing difficulties nerve is mostly effected. Sometimes this problem also occurs due to hereditary traits, which comes into light along the growth of a person.

There are also other hearing loses due to different reasons but these are very temporarily. For example when a person is habitual of listening high-pitched voices then after sometime it is observed that it becomes very difficult for him to listen comparatively lower voices.

Working Of Hearing Aid:

To get rid from different hearing loss problem one can use different hearing aids, which depend upon type of hearing loss. Different hearing devices can be different in structure but they perform same function.

Structure Of Hearing Aid

Mostly hearing devices are composed of microphone amplifier speaker and battery. Each part performs its own role for getting best quality performance. These devices are very much sensitive and only ones careless attitude can lead to loss.

Hearing Aids Doctor Advice - Basic Components and Functions of Hearing Aids

The basic components of a contemporary hearing aid include a microphone, an amplifier, a receiver, and a power supply.

A microphone is a transducer that converts the sound signal into electrical energy. The amplifier is a transformer that increases the amplitude of the electrical signal that is sent to the receiver. The receiver then changes the modified electrical signal back into sound energy that is directed into the ear.

A variety of microphones, amplifiers, and receivers are used, depending on the type and degree of hearing loss. The American National Standard Specification of Hearing Aid Characteristics specifies the electroacoustic tests that a manufacturer must perform and publish for each hearing aid before the instrument is shipped.1 The standard states the tolerance allowed so that the audiologist can perform the same tests to verify the performance of an instrument against specifications.

Currently used hearing aid microphones are primarily electrical devices that have good linear behavior over a frequency range of 50-6000 Hz. This range can be modified to be more appropriate for specific hearing losses.

Directional microphones have been developed that can vary with both the amplitude and the direction of the sound source relative to the microphone. They can reduce the sounds coming from the back of a hearing aid wearer compared with the sounds coming from the front by as much as 15 dB. This change can greatly improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the listener and thus the understanding of speech in the presence of noise.

Hearing aid amplifiers are transformers primarily composed of transistors that are built into an integrated circuit. These transistors provide a current source and serve a variety of functions. In these transistors, the primary function of the amplifier is to increase the power of the electrical signal received from the microphone.

Typically, hearing aids have 2 or more stages of amplification. The first stage is the preamplifier, which is at the level of the microphone. The preamplifier helps to amplify the initial input signal. At this level, the gain is relatively low.

Most amplification is supplied by the power amplifier. These amplifiers are typed in a particular class. The most common are referred to as class A, class B, and class D. They are distinguished by their power consumption, gain, and output abilities.

Each amplifier can be modified to limit the maximum output of the hearing aid. For linear amplification, the amplifier may be limited by peak clipping. This occurs when the electrical signal exceeds the maximum output of some component of the hearing aid circuit. This type of limiting causes various forms of distortion that have been found to reduce the intelligibility and the subjective quality of speech.

A hearing aid that has some type of level-dependent signal processing is termed a nonlinear hearing aid. Most nonlinear hearing aids reduce gain as input or output levels increase.

Nonlinear hearing aids are designed to amplify a wide range of sounds so that they are audible to the hearing-impaired listener without becoming uncomfortably loud. These aids usually use some form of compression circuit that reduces the gain of the instrument when either the input to the device or the output of the device exceeds a predetermined level. This process results in a comfortable amplification for the wearer and prevents the hearing aid from saturating.

Compression hearing aids can provide amplification of the speech components that are essential for intelligibility and can reduce impulsive or high-level sounds that normally cause discomfort.

The hearing aid receiver is an output transducer and handles more power than a microphone. Receivers in hearing aids are very small because of cosmetic considerations.

In general, larger receivers can supply larger output signals. Therefore, the small receivers on hearing aids may be taxed to their output capabilities.

The receiver must also be chosen to match its amplifier. A mismatch in design produces limited output and increases distortion.

Because of the receiver's open position in the external ear canal, it is vulnerable to damage from debris in the ear canal and from the aid being dropped. Manufacturers state that approximately 40% of hearing aids returned for service have damage or blockage to the receiver.

Hearing aids doctor - Which Hearing Aid Batteries Are Right For You

Which battery do I need?

Hearing aid batteries have been standardised across the board now, and as such are fairly easy to identify. There are four sizes available, size 10, size 312, size 13 and size 675.

They are colour coded for ease of recognition. Size 10 batteries are coded with yellow labels and packaging, size 312 are coded brown, size 13 are orange and size 675 are blue.

Most of the smaller hearing devices from Phonak, Resound or Oticon will use a size 312 (brown) or a size 10 (yellow) battery. Some of the larger digital hearing instruments will use the size 13, and a few power aids such as the Oticon Sumo or the Phonak Naida will use the size 675.

As a rule, the larger the battery, the more life you will get from it and the longer you will be able to listen to your hearing instruments without needing to change the battery. Newer hearing devices, do generally tend to be smaller which is clearly desireable from a cosmetics perspective. These smaller hearing instruments tend to use 10 or 312 batteries. Try to find a quality battery brand such as Rayovac, whihc are specifically designed and manufactured for hearing aid wearers. These will most likely provide better performance with your hearing devices than other brands. You may find that some brands of hearing aid batteries will provide a recycling facility where you can send them back and these can be reused.

Hearing Aids doctor Advice - Didn't Hear You, Can You Repeat That

It doesn’t matter how you say it, they all mean the same thing: you didn’t hear what was just said.

I’ve been thinking recently about how often I don’t hear what someone has said and how often I ask them to repeat themselves. In some situations I will ask repeatedly, no matter how many time it takes, until I hear. In others, I will only ask once or twice. And, in others, I will not ask at all.

With family and close friends I am happy to ask repeatedly; most, if not all, of them know I am partially deaf and they are usually happy to repeat themselves until the cows come home. Sometimes, and I guess it depends on their mood, they don’t want to repeat themselves - this annoys me quite a bit, if what they just said is not worth repeating why was it worth saying in the first place?

The people I really struggle with are the quietly and soft spoken ones. Some people just refuse to speak up and it will not matter how many times I ask them to repeat it, I will never hear them properly! I find myself avoiding speaking to people who I know speak really quietly, just to avoid the hassle - I wish I didn’t do this because I’m sure it looks rude to them and I’m no doubt missing out on some good conversation. The obvious answer here is to tell them that I have trouble hearing what they say; I really don’t feel comfortable doing that and I can’t remember a time when I ever have done. I really should make the effort to start in future.

In the opening paragraph I said that in some cases I will never ask the person to repeat themselves. I used to do this a lot - I used to be too embarrassed about my hearing loss, I tried to hide it as much as possible - I would either try and guess what they said based on the odd word I’d heard or the context of the conversation or simply nod, laugh or give a short answer like “yes” or “no”. I realised some years ago that this was a stupid thing to do, I cringe at the amount of times I must have given stupid and meaningless answers. I’m sure a lot of people do this exact thing all the time, it’s an easy way out.

It’s rarely uncomfortable to ask someone to repeat themselves in a one-to-one conversation; a group conversation can, on the other hand, be very difficult. It is a good idea to position yourself somewhere where you will have the best chance of hearing; this is something you can do when you know that one person in the group is going to be doing most of the talking: the teacher at school/college, someone giving a presentation to a group, and so on. It’s not so easy when you don’t have a single person to concentrate on: when you are chatting with friends or in an office meeting, it is particularly difficult if there is also background noise such as background chatter or office air-conditioning. It is too easy to loose the conversation when you are having to listen for voices coming from all directions.