Not Your Grandparent's Hearing Aids Anymore

By Rachel Stout, AuD

Hearing Professionals Inc.

. http://www.hearing-professionals.com/

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Not Your Grandparent's Hearing Aids Anymore

I guess you could call me a technology lover. I use an iPhone to listen to audiobooks, to keep a calendar, even as an alarm clock to wake me up in the morning. And every workday, I spend my time trying to fit, adjust, and sometimes repair technology so that my patients with hearing loss can continue to communicate in a hearing world.

Growing up in Rockville, I was fortunate to attend a school system with a large Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. About 10% of the students in my classes had hearing loss and they used amplification. Back in the 1980s and 90s, hearing aids were basic really, that's an understatement; the hearing aids the kids used were pretty lousy.

Some of my friends wore amplification that strapped into harnesses they wore around their chests and others, if they were lucky, wore behind-the-ear hearing aids that were heavy and uncomfortable. The hearing aids back in those days whistled easily and amplified every sound equally, whether it was speech or background noise.

Having grown up around hearing loss, both in my school as well as in my home (my grandfather had a severe hearing loss and often stayed with our family), it isn't surprising that I decided to become an audiologist. When I first entered the field in the late '90s, I clearly remember how it seemed that my patients were never entirely satisfied with their hearing aids.

I also remember, at the time, how little there was that I could do to actually help them. Back then, hearing aids weren't much more sophisticated than a basic stereo all we were able to adjust was the volume, bass, and treble. Background noise was amplified equally with speech and it was often impossible for people to use their phones without their hearing aids squealing.

Every few years since that time, hearing aid technology has reinvented itself. Devices have become far more adjustable, smaller and better able at reducing background noise. Newer technology enables hearing aids to analyze an environment and decide which sounds are more important to amplify (such as a loved-one's voice), and which sounds should be suppressed.

Today's technology also allows people to connect their hearing aids wirelessly to their cell phones and televisions. But it takes more than all the technology capabilities to make a good hearing aid fitting. It requires an audiologist to take the necessary time to learn about you, your preferences, your lifestyle and your hearing abilities.

I look back at my friends in school and how their lives were impacted by technology; and to my grandfather who, without his hearing aids, would never have been able to hear my voice. It makes me wonder how much better their lives might have been if they'd had access to the technology we have today.