DIY Hearing Aids

Open Fit Hearing Aids

Open-Fit Hearing Aid Technology has changed the hearing aid industry. We believe that if you are a candidate for this type aid and you give them a chance, they will change your life, too. They're amazingly easy to use and wear. They're comfortable, and they are so small they're nearly invisible.

Although most people would never wear hearing aids by choice, for those of us with hearing loss it is getting to be less of a chore. Two big changes have brought that about, open fit hearing aid fitting and digital technology.

• Open-Fit = Comfort - Open-Fit hearing aids are so much more comfortable to wear than the traditional BTE with an ear mold because your ear canal is not plugged by the mold or a custom aid. In the same way that taking a pair of ear plugs out of your ears brings a relief, so does taking out in-the-ear hearing aids or an ear mold. Open-Fit hearing aids leave your ear canal open so that you hardly notice you are wearing an aid.
• Digital Technology = Fitting Accuracy - Today's hearing aid technology is smarter and more automatic than ever before. By monitoring your sound environment as it changes during day -to-day activities, new hearing aids can automatically change volume levels where and when required, regulate the amount of noise reduction, and cancel feedback if it occurs.

Channels

Noise Reduction

When road noise or other non-modulated sound is detected, the Channel where the noise is occurring reduces power and amplification of the noise. The more Channels a hearing aid has, the more surgically a noise can be removed. It is pretty easy to tell improved Noise Reduction as you move up in the number of Channels a hearing aid has - until you reach 12 Channels. When comparing a 12-channel hearing aid to one with more than 12 channels, detecting big improvements in performance is much harder, however, it is very easy to detect the huge advancement in price.

Feedback Reduction

The Feedback Reduction circuit is capable of canceling feedback by sending out a canceling sound or reducing amplification in the channel where the feedback is occurring.

What Feedback Reduction can do today is greatly improved over what it was capable of doing just a few short years ago. Feedback is the limiting factor to how much of a hearing aid's total power can be used to correct a hearing loss. Once feedback occurs by overpowering the Feedback Reduction circuit's ability to cancel it, the limit of amplification has been reached. At the point where increasing amplification results in feedback, amplification must be decreased to stop the squealing.

Directional Microphones

Physical Fit

Open-Fit hearing aids are small units that fit behind the ear. A small tube about 1 mm in diameter goes from the hearing aid into the ear canal. These tubes, which come in various lengths, are measured in two dimensions. The first dimension is the length from the top of the ear to the bend where it enters the ear canal. The second dimension is the length of the tube that extends into the ear canal from the bend in the tube. As the size of the tube increases (i.e., from a 1 to 4), both dimensions get longer.

Tips (also called domes, tulips, baskets, etc.) slide tightly over the end of the tube and help to center the tube in the ear canal. Tips are available in sizes ranging from 4 mm to 10 mm in diameter. Some tips are also made with a longer center portion that slides over the tube. Making the center portion longer makes the tube extend deeper into the ear canal.The tip and the tube assembly is inserted into the ear canal.

Tubes and tips can be changed by the wearer.

Open Fit And All Other Hearing Aid Types

There is a common discipline followed by all men and women who successfully make the transition to hearing aids. It is called practice. Wearing hearing aids requires time and patience. They are an investment that usually begins to pay dividends within 45 days. Once you have logged a sufficient number of hours for your brain to readjust to ambient sounds, you will be able to go on with your life without thinking so much about your hearing.

To help understand the adjustment process, download the Five Steps for Better Hearing booklet below. This booklet breaks down success into five simple principles. Five Steps for Better Hearing has helped thousands of hearing aid wearers get the highest value from hearing instruments.