Hear It All with New Hearing Aids

Your doctors can fix almost everything nowadays, whether it is your patchy skin, or small nose, or improper vision or be it faulty hearing capability; you name it and it gets corrected as long as you are ready to pay a price for it. So why remain two steps behind when you can move ahead of the crowd and why lose self respect at all?

Earlier hearing problems were a stigma in the society but since long the problem has been dealt with using a small machine commonly known as a hearing aid. These are small devices, hardly noticeable which allows one to hear things normally. In fact, hearing aids are one of those technical advancements that are easily available and relatively cheap and affordable for everyone. These are available at any ENT specialist centre or at other retail outlets and also are easily available over the internet. You just order it and it gets delivered to you within next two days. Prices generally vary from $15 from basic models and can go as high as $450 for the portable wireless ones.

Hearing aids were originally designed to be fitted on the body with the earpiece being connected to it via a thin wire that could be fitted into the ear. But due to their heaviness and problem of carrying it separately, a new model called BTE or behind the ear model was developed. These are small and fit behind the ears easily while the plug is inside the ears. Then there can be ITE or in the ear hearing aids where the so-called plug is inside the ear canal. There are many other models which are based on ITE mechanism itself in which some aids are completely fitted inside the canal. These come out to be a bit on the expensive side but work very well since these are as if inside your ears itself. These are usually not very visible since these are fitted deep inside the ear canal itself.

The mechanism and technology behind them however remain more or less the same. These all consists of mostly the following parts- microphone, amplifier, receiver, on off switch. The microphone is the plug that is talked about. Amplifier is the main part that magnifies the sound signals and thus helps in hearing. These operate with batteries which go on easily till six to seven months. When not in use, it can even be switched off. Some higher end models also offer volume control switch as well. These help when you are receiving loud noise for example in parties or watching movies. During low voice situations, volume can be increased too.

These small aids today have erased the word “handicapped” from our dictionary. Today’s hearing aids are like a second ear and can be used at any point of time to rectify hearing problems.