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Introducing the Hearing Aid

A hearing aid is a device that people who have hearing problems use to hear more easily. Early designs of the hearing aid can be described as "ear horns," funnel shaped amplification devices that people put up to their ears whenever they needed to listen to something.

Fortunately technology has saved us from such contraptions. Now, hearing aids are commonly electronic devices that are worn on the ear like any other ear phone. The first design of these had a rectangular battery pack that connected to the ear piece with a lengthy wire. The battery pack was usually placed in the user's pocket. This wasn't the best design it turns out as the microphone used to amplify sounds wasn't placed very strategically, often suffering disturbances from the user's clothing. Later in the century, they came up with hearing aids that included a small battery inside the ear piece.

Interestingly there are several types of hearing aids that differ in size and power. There are those that are worn on the body as mentioned earlier and then there are behind the ear (BTE) hearing aids, which are put into place with a specially made ear mold. This comes in several colors and allows the user to use their natural healing.

The in the ear (ITE) hearing aids on the other hand are seen custom made to fit the user's ear. Modern models of the ITEs have the ability to regulate and cancel feedback. Like a loud, screeching sound caused by sound leaking out and being amplified again.

There are those advised for mild to moderately severe hearing problems only. These are the in the canal (ITC), mid canal (MIC) and completely in the canal (CIC) types of hearing aids. ITC aids only fill the bottom half of the external ear. MIC and CIC are smaller and usually not immediately visible.

Bone anchored hearing aids (BAHA) are aids that are surgically implanted devices that use bones as pathways of sound.

In the 50s, there were devices that were catered for those who had problems with both hearing and seeing. They were called eyeglass aids, devices that combined both hearing aids and spectacles. The hearing aids were put in the temple part of the glasses. The problem with the design was that there wasn't a wide range of choices for frames, and one had to wear both the glasses and the hearing aids at the same time, or not at all.

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Get to know what hearing aids are and save your hearing. I got my old life back by using hearing aids.

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