Choosing a hearing aid can be a difficult decision to make. You’re going to want to make sure that you choose the right hearing aid the first time around. This will ensure that you don’t have to make returns, exchanges or replace your hearing aid at your own expense before you’ve got good use out of it. As you can imagine, it’s important that you know what you’re looking for before browsing the market and making any purchases.
Now, there are certain elements that every hearing aid will have – a microphone, amplifier, receiver and battery. But there are so many other elements to choose from that can determine whether a hearing aid is ideal for you or whether it will fall short of your wants and expectations.
There’s no given hearing aid that’s better than the rest on the market. Instead, you’re going to have to conduct your own research and find the one that ticks as many of your boxes as possible. Here are three modern hearing aid features that you might want to look out for while shopping.
Top-End Sound Processing
Let’s start with some of the most important features to look out for. All hearing aids process sound, so no matter what hearing aid you choose, it will have sound processing. However, you’re going to want to get the best sound processing power for your money. This will ensure that when sound travels into your hearing aid, it will be sectioned into bands of sound and digitized, allowing it to then be amplified.
Less advanced hearing aids may have limited capacity when it comes to banding sounds, while higher end aids will have top-end sound processing and will have a lot more flexibility in regards to banding sounds. This is useful for meeting the needs of your specific type and degree of hearing loss. If you have high-frequency hearing loss, a better-quality hearing aid can allow you to only amplify high-frequency sounds.
On the other hand, a lower end model may amplify both mid-and high-frequency sounds, which will prove unnecessary and potentially inconvenient to you.
Artificial intelligence
We’re living in a technological age, and artificial intelligence is being implemented into more areas of life each and every day. Hearing aids haven’t been left behind in this development. Artificial intelligence involves software learning that allows your hearing aid to access a deep neural network to process sound, learning from your preferences and behavior to automatically provide a better hearing experience.
A hearing aid with artificial intelligence can effectively log volume control settings and program preferences for certain sound environments, then make these changes automatically when it detects it is in this environment.
Bluetooth Compatibility
Most hearing aids nowadays are wireless, and Bluetooth compatibility is a wireless feature that can help your hearing to connect to mobile phones and other Bluetooth compatible devices. This can also improve the signal-to-noise ratio and eliminate feedback from the microphone because the signal bypasses the microphone and directly enters the hearing aid’s processor, rather than having to use an intermediary device.
Of course, there are countless other features available with hearing aids that you might want to seek out. But the three outlined above are some of the most modern additions that could help your hearing aid to work better for you!
Need some professional advice on how to choose the right hearing aid? Call Galco Hearing Aid Service today, and our hearing instrument specialist will be happy to walk you through the process.
- Galveston: (409) 539-3647
- Seabrook: (281) 245-0520
