July 1, 2008

Behind the Ear (BTE) – The Most Popular Hearing Aid

For a hearing impaired person, there are many decisions and choices that have to be made. The first decision is whether or not to use a hearing aid. This decision needs to be made based on the advice of an audiologist, and you really need to heed his advice. No one looks forward to wearing an aid, but the fact is that as we age, many of us do need assistance. Once we admit that and get help, life becomes much easier. Not only for the person using a hearing aid but also for everyone around them.

The selection of a hearing aid to use can be confusing. There are many different hearing aids but break down into three basic types.

In The Ear
In the ear hearing aids are molded in one piece that fit partially into the ear canal with a large portion of the aid (the shell) resting in the outer ear.

Completely In The Ear
These are much smaller fitting totally in the ear canal making them virtually unnoticed by the casual observer. While cosmetically attractive, the batteries are necessarily small and low powered so need to be changed more often. These aids also do not provide as power as other aids.

Behind The Ear
The behind the ear hearing aids are made of an ear mold which contains the speaker and fits into the ear. This is connected by a small tube to the electronics that are in a case behind the ear. The tubing used to connect the two sections of the aid is referred to as the tone hook.

Most hearing aids have an off and on control, a battery compartment and a control switch for the volume. There is also a microphone located at the top of the hearing aid on most of them and the sounds are basically sent to the ear via the tubing when the ear mold is fitted into the ear.

Children are most often fitted with behind the ear hearing aids. The main reason for this is because they are not as delicate as other types of hearing aids. They are also preferred because the children will not have to have yet developed fine motor skills needed properly utilize in the ear aids.

One complication that children used to have with hearing aids is that the ear canal changes in the size and shape over time as a child grows. Because of that, the child often needed to be fitted twice a year. The open fit behind the ear hearing aid has significantly diminished this need.

Hearing aids of all types are small enough so that children may have a hard time trying to keep track of them when they are not wearing them. One of the benefits of behind the ear aids is that they are a little larger than the in the ear aids and are easier to keep track of. The behind the ear hearing aids also require larger batteries which provide more power for amplification.