In today’s world, a hearing aid has become a lot more than just a sound amplifier. Hearing aids are sophisticated communication devices, helping you to hear the best you can and make life a lot easier. This article explores how a modern hearing aid works. You might find that your preconceptions of hearing aids are now very much a thing of the past, as today’s hearing aids are discrete, innovative and offer a wide range of functions. From smartphone connections, noise-cancelling properties and speech amplification – you may be surprised just how many features today’s hearing aids offer!

How a modern hearing aid works

Modern hearing aids make the most of all current technology and its latest innovations to offer a customisable experience that can be tailored to your individual hearing needs. Today’s devices are all small, compact and lightweight, helping them to ease seamlessly into your everyday life. Furthermore, the large range of styles, fits and colours means that you can choose a device that suits your tastes and lifestyle – usually for an affordable price too!

Hearing aids are usually made up of three key components, the microphone, the processor and the loudspeaker. The microphone picks up the sounds in your surroundings before transmitting them to the hearing aid’s processor. The processor consequently works to analyse the sounds and convert them into an electrical signal that will then be received by the receiver. The loudspeaker, also known as the receiver, transmits the signal to your ear where it can then be released as a sound. You are then able to hear the sound and understand it.

Hearing aids don’t just work to make sounds louder, they amplify sounds, reduce disruptors and overall help you in your communications.

Other functions and features

Those with hearing loss not only struggle with sounds seeming far quieter, but it is also more difficult to understand sounds. These days, hearing aids come with advanced features that help make things much easier. One misconception is that hearing aids just make everything sound louder; if this was the case, it would lead to constant noise in your ear. Instead, hearing aids are adjustable to sound levels that you feel comfortable with, enabling you to hear things happily.

One area that today’s hearing aids help with is background noise. Background noise can be one of the biggest challenges for those with hearing loss and noisy environments can be a place of much frustration as you try and single out specific voices from the crowd. For this reason, it has been a priority for hearing aid manufacturers to tackle background noise problems and improve your ability to hear in loud, bustling areas. The technology that is currently available is very precise and targeted, effectively amplifying specific frequencies while customising to your own hearing loss issues. Hearing aids often feature a variety of programs that offer varying settings that are tailored to specific situations, such as suppressing background noise and unpleasant feedback. You’ll be pleased to hear that the whistling noise that was once associated with hearing aids is now a thing of the past!

Another hearing aid feature is a T-loop, also known as an induction loop. This feature is especially helpful for phone calls as it transfers the speed signals from your phone right into your ear. Often you can spot hearing loop signs at theatres, shops and more, with a system in place that sends speech directly to your hearing aids.

Some hearing aids now come with Bluetooth technology in place that connects your hearing aid to phones, televisions and more, and some even enable you to use apps for a whole host of advanced features. This sends the sounds conveniently straight to your ear. You can also find additional Bluetooth-enabled connectors.