Hearing aids are tools, equipment, devices and instruments that help people with hearing disabilities improve their hearing impairment and thus their ability to converse and communicate with others. It consists of three main parts: microphone (microphone), amplifier and receiver (headset). The microphone is an acousto-electric transducer that converts the external sound signal into an electrical signal, which is fed into the amplifier to amplify the sound pressure to 10,000 or even tens of thousands of times, and then the amplified sound signal is output by the receiver. Nowadays, there are three kinds of hearing aids available on the market for the elderly.
1. Box-type hearing aids. This is the earliest type of hearing aid, which is worn on the body and looks like a small radio. The advantage is that it is cheap, convenient and easy to get; the disadvantage is that it is large in size, weight and interference. With the improvement of material living standards, such hearing aids will gradually be eliminated.
2. Behind-the-ear hearing aid. It relies on a hard plastic ear hook bent into a semicircle and hung behind the ear. Most patients with different degrees of hearing loss can use behind-the-ear hearing aids.
3. Customized hearing aids. It is also called invisible hearing aid, but its output power is not very high, and it is suitable for patients with mild, moderate and moderately severe deafness.
Principles of hearing aid fitting for the elderly
When choosing hearing aids for the elderly, some people focus on the cheap price, some focus on the convenience of operation, and some want to be beautiful and hidden. It is not known that the choice of hearing aid style is not only the difference of appearance, but it is related to many factors. So, what kind of style can the elderly choose when choosing hearing aids to achieve the ideal wearing effect?
1, the elderly should choose according to their own physical factors.
If the shape of the ear canal is too narrow or too curved, it may be difficult to put in or easy to fall out of the ear canal hearing aids; if the ear contour is too shallow, you may not be able to use in-the-ear hearing aids; the elderly will become more and more inflexible with age, and the life of hearing aids is usually 6 to 10 years, so the elderly should consider the convenience of operation when choosing hearing aids, too small hearing aids will have a small battery. The battery of a hearing aid that is too small will also be small, and whether or not there is automatic volume adjustment is also a factor that should be considered. Some seniors may have a lot of earwax build-up in the ear canal, or the ear canal may be wet, so a custom hearing aid that fits inside the ear canal may not be practical. Similarly, elderly people with middle ear infections that cause pus in the ear canal are not suitable for custom hearing aids, and need ear molds with ventilation holes or open ear fitting.
2, the elderly in the choice of hearing aids, according to their hearing loss to choose.
If the old man is steeply descending hearing loss, he needs to choose hearing aids with less blockage to the ear canal, otherwise it will cause the feeling of listening to his own speech too loud and too stuffy. If the hearing loss is moderate, it is recommended to choose a behind-the-ear hearing aid, which is not only loud but also avoids whistling. If you want to choose a covert hearing aid, the newly developed ear canal receiver is not only more powerful than the traditional ear canal type, but also avoids whistling.
When choosing a hearing aid style, seniors should also consider assemblies such as telephone inductive coils and directional microphones according to their needs.
Proper understanding of hearing aid fitting for the elderly
The role of hearing aids is to maximize the use of the residual hearing of the elderly to help them return to the world of sound. Wearing hearing aids helps to improve the quality of life of elderly deaf patients in their later years. As audiologists, we have the obligation to help the elderly to understand hearing aid fitting correctly and get out of the misunderstanding: 1.
1. Wearing hearing aids is an important means to improve the hearing of deaf elderly people. Wearing hearing aids is like wearing glasses, only hearing aids that are suitable for your hearing will help you to hear. Unsuitable hearing aids can only be harmful. Hearing aids that are too loud are not only hard to hear, but can also damage residual hearing and worsen the degree of hearing loss. As long as hearing aids are properly fitted, they will not cause further hearing loss. Unless the hearing loss is caused by the degenerative changes of natural aging and diseases.
2.Many people think their hearing is fine and are not willing to accept the help of hearing aids. Hearing aids can help to delay the decline of hearing and maintain the original speech recognition ability. It is scientifically proven that deafness is extremely detrimental to the physical and mental health of the elderly and can lead to isolation, eccentricity and early onset of senile dementia. For patients with extreme deafness, wearing hearing aids can strengthen the sense of sound and help to understand the meaning of other people’s language, although it cannot make them hear clearly, and to a certain extent, it can also protect the hearing function.
3. Hearing aids are not a simple commodity that can be purchased and used at will, but must undergo strict fitting before they can be worn. Before fitting a hearing aid, a professional doctor must conduct a comprehensive examination and choose a suitable hearing aid according to the degree of hearing loss of the person. Hearing aid fitting is not a one-time thing, but requires frequent adjustment according to the patient’s hearing condition. Help the elderly to understand the hearing aid related knowledge, but also help the elderly to choose the hearing aid, and will not cause blind purchase or placed without using.
4. 70% of the patients who wear hearing aids in one ear are not satisfied with the later effect, especially in noisy environment or noisy environment with many people. Many experts and experiments have proven that wearing hearing aids in both ears has many benefits, such as enhancing auditory balance and localization, improving gain and signal-to-noise ratio, and improving speech recognition rate. Binaural hearing aids are also more directional than monaural hearing aids, which can increase the stereo sense of sound and make the sound clear and full.
5, digital hearing aids sound not only clear, but also can well protect the patient’s residual hearing. Digital hearing aids basically use a wide dynamic compression amplification line, which can improve the dynamic range of patients with sensorineural deafness and ensure that the hearing aid can be suitable for various acoustic environments. Its amplification principle is: large amplification for small sounds and small amplification for large sounds, compressing the useful signal to the hearing impaired patient’s narrowed dynamic range. Due to the diversity of hearing loss curves, it is difficult for single-channel compression hearing aids to accurately match the patient’s hearing loss at each frequency point, and multi-channel compression is more targeted than single-channel compression.
6. As the name implies, a hearing aid is a hearing aid, a machine, and no matter how good it is, it cannot replace a good pair of human ears. Therefore, it is important to have a reasonable expectation of hearing aids. When you first put on a hearing aid, especially if you have never had one before, there is a period of adaptation. After you go through the adaptation period with a normal mind, the benefits of hearing aids will become more and more obvious.
As society develops and the economy continues to improve, it has become a trend to help older people improve their pursuit of quality of life in old age. For patients suffering from senile deafness, wearing hearing aids is an important means to improve the hearing of deaf elderly people. Therefore, it is important to help the elderly to have a proper understanding of senile deafness and to learn about hearing aid fitting so that they can make the most of their residual hearing and return to the world of sound.
Care for the elderly hearing, deafness early hearing aids!