How Hearing Aids Are Programmed

Hearing Loss BlogAny person who has ever put on another person’s glasses for fun, or accidentally, can understand that some medical improvement devices are specific to the needs of a single person. Much along the same line of thought are hearing aids, which require specific programming to help an individual. Any person that is considering buying a modern digital hearing aid needs to go to an audiologist to have it programmed. That is why we are going to look at how hearing aids are programmed and advantages that come with doing so.

What Factors Can Be Adjusted?

There are many different ways that the person suffering from hearing loss can change their hearing aid to meet their needs. With the help of an audiologist, there are several different things that you can change in your hearing aid to elicit the best hearing abilities. Since there are some things that cannot be changed on every hearing aid, we will focus on some of the options that can be adjusted on just about every hearing aid device. Among these options is volume, maximum power output, frequency, noise reduction, and the chance to change the amount of environmental sounds allowed into the device. All of these different customization options are integral to creating proper hearing for the individual.

Processing Time

Any person that suffers from hearing loss in the present day needs to realize that the ability to customize hearing aid devices has been an ongoing process over the last few decades. In the older days, the only way that you could adjust your hearing aid settings was with some careful hands and a screwdriver. Now, you all you need to do is to go to a hearing specialist like an audiologist and ask them to personalize your digital hearing aid. This requires some time and effort on your part, as you will be asked to go through many different tests that are meant to outline your hearing needs so that they can be programmed into your hearing aid. Once this process is finished you may still need to go back and have minor adjustments made to help your overall hearing experience, but it is all for your benefit.

Programming Hearing Aids

While it is technically true that you can go to a store, purchase the computer programs and devices necessary to update a hearing aid, and then perform the programming yourself, there is a single question: why go through all of that trouble? A hearing specialist is a dedicated worker that can give you the ability to test many different aspects of your hearing prior to the actual input process. For example, they use a sophisticated technique called visual speech mapping to discover how certain sounds impact your brain before even punching in a single code into the aid. Also, they can put you in a surround sound system to test how the device reacts to stimuli to customize it to work differently under certain conditions. Only when every aspect of your hearing has been checked and entered into the hearing aid system will you understand the keen impact that a hearing specialist can have on your hearing abilities.

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.