Digital Hearing Aids For A Digital World
Technology is advancing at an astonishing rate in cell phones, TVs, cars, computers and just about anything else you can imagine. Hearing aids aren’t getting left behind! Hearing aid technology changes and advances all the time. A few decades ago, analog technology was the norm for hearing aids. By the 1990s, digital hearing aids were becoming more and more common. These days almost all hearing aids are digital and analog technology is becoming obsolete.
Analog vs. Digital Hearing Aids
Analog hearing aids work by making sound waves louder in a continuous manner. This means that the sounds you want to hear better will be amplified, but so will everything else. If you needed to turn the volume up while in a conversation to hear the other person better, you would turn the volume louder. It would then amplify the person’s voice AND the background noise. This can be very uncomfortable for the wearer. Some analog hearing aids do come with a microchip that allows your hearing professional to program different listening environments into your hearing aids.
Digital hearing aids are much more intuitive than traditional analog hearing aids. Digital devices convert sound waves into digital signals, which are then processed through computer chips inside the device and then produce an exact duplication of the sound(s). These hearing aids can be programmed to specific patterns of hearing loss. Because of the sophisticated system of sound processing, they’re also able to adapt to different environments and situations more effectively. Digital hearing aids are even capable of connecting to other media devices like cell phones and TVs, which improves the all-around experience.
Benefits of Digital Hearing Aids
If you’re getting ready to buy a set of hearing aids, you’re probably going with digital ones. Here’s a few reasons why you’re going to love them:
- Feedback cancelation: have you ever been turned off of hearing aids because you’ve heard they “whistle”? That’s called feedback, and it used to be an issue with older hearing aid technology. Now, most digital hearing aids come with very advanced systems of feedback cancelation. You might never hear your hearing aids give off feedback with today’s technology.
- Connectivity: one of the greatest features of digital hearing aids is their capability to connect you to other important things. Either by direct connect via bluetooth or by a streaming device, digital hearing aids are able to connect to your cell phone, TV or any other bluetooth media device. You can stream your favorite music, videos, movies and even phone calls, straight to your hearing aids.
- Directional microphones: allow you to hear more of what you want to hear and less of what you don’t. With directional microphones, noisy environments become so much easier. They amplify the sound in front of you (i.e. the person speaking to you) and decrease the sounds behind you that would otherwise be distracting.
- Sound customization: digital hearing aids are almost completely customizable as far as your listening experience. You and your hearing professional can set different programs for different environments and get incredibly specific to help you get the most of your hearing aids.
- Style: today’s digital hearing aids are discreet, sleek pieces of technology. Most manufacturers offer a variety of colors to match skin tones, hair colors and preferences. They pack a lot of technology into a small package, and a lot of times these hearing aids aren’t even noticeable.
Where To Buy Digital Hearing Aids
We can tell you about how great digital hearing aids are all day long, but you really need to try them out for yourself. If you’re in Oklahoma or Kansas, come in to a Hearing Group office and try out a pair! We offer a free, no obligation hearing aid test drive that we know you’ll love.