What is a Digital Hearing Aid?
Because of recent advancements in technology, new and improved digital hearing aids are being developed to help individuals regain their hearing. Scientists, doctors, and technicians have all worked together to understand just how the ear works and what types of technology would be most comfortable and beneficial for hearing-impaired patients.
A digital hearing aid in essence is a compact electronic apparatus which has been engineered to improve auditory capabilities among those who are afflicted by hearing impairments or hearing loss. In contrast to a conventional hearing aid, these newer digital hearing aids undergo a process whereby sound waves are converted into digital signals, subsequently subjected to sophisticated algorithms for processing, and ultimately reconverted into audible sound waves.
How Do Digital Hearing Aids Work?
Digital hearing aids are essentially amplifiers for your ear. Like the amplifier a singer uses, they take in sound through a microphone. Being digital, they contain a few extra steps after this point. First, the analog sounds are converted to digital with an analog-to-digital converter.
Digital sounds are now processed with a tiny computer chip called a digital signal processor (DSP). This chip analyzes and manipulates the sound based on your hearing loss profile and listening preferences. It passes the output to a digital-to-analog converter.
Back in analog form, the audio signal is ready to be received by your ears. To accomplish this, it is sent to a speaker. Thanks to the digital middleman, more precise and customizable sound comes from the speaker than would otherwise be possible.
Components of a Digital Hearing Aid
A digital hearing aid typically consists of:
- Microphone(s) to capture sound
- Analog-to-digital converter
- Digital signal processor (DSP)
- Digital-to-analog converter
- Amplifier
- Speaker (receiver)
- Battery
- User controls (e.g., volume adjustment, program selection)
Optional wireless antenna for connectivity features
An ear mold to hold it all (or possibly a behind-the-ear case plus ear mold)
Digital vs. Analog Hearing Aids
Analog hearing aids don’t offer much in the way of signal shaping beyond making the sound louder. They simply take in the audio through a microphone and pass it through an amplifier. Without the DSP, analog hearing aids are limited in the ways that can customize what you hear or the conditions under which you hear it. In the next section, we’ll go deeper into the implications of this.
Benefits of Digital Hearing Aids
The adoption of digital technology in hearing aids offers numerous advantages over analog alternatives, including:
Customization:
The digital signal processing in digital hearing aids allows audiologists to match the settings precisely to your auditory needs by adjusting which frequencies get boosted and more.
Advanced Signal Processing:
Beyond personalization, digital technology allows for some sophisticated signal processing capabilities. It can reduce noise, cancel feedback, and enhance speech.
Enhanced Sound Fidelity:
Analog technologies introduce artifacts into the sound. While the artifacts are often desired in music equipment, they reduce the clarity needed in a hearing aid. Digital technology eliminates this.
Automatic Adaptations:
Different listening environments require different settings for optimal results. With digital technology, some hearing aids can adjust to these changes. Some of them can even do so automatically.
Connectivity:
Modern digital hearing aids often include wireless connectivity options, enabling direct audio streaming from smartphones, televisions, and other compatible devices.
Directional Microphones:
While analog hearing aids can make use of directional microphones to improve the amount of sound captured, some digital devices offer more control over which directions receive focus.
Tinnitus Management:
Many digital hearing aids include built-in tinnitus management features, such as sound therapy programs to help alleviate tinnitus symptoms.
Data Logging:
Digital hearing aids can store wearing time, program preferences, sound environment stats, and other data. This helps your audiologist make more informed decisions about your best settings.
Remote Adjustments:
Many modern digital devices allow your audiologists to adjust them remotely, reducing the need for in-person visits.
How Much Does A Digital Hearing Aid Typically Cost?
The digital nature of digital hearing aids allows for an even greater variety of functionality than traditional analogy hearing aids have. This makes for even greater variability in the cost. Depending on the features, you can expect a digital hearing aid to cost around $1,000 to $4,000 per device.
Typical factors that impact all hearing aid prices, such as brand, style, and basic features, still play a role in the cost of digital hearing aids. Those in the lower range will offer few advanced features in a tradeoff for cost. More expensive ones will offer features such as more advanced audio processing, greater customization, more plentiful user controls, and other features that increase the cost.
How Do People Hear?
The ear can be divided into three main sections. The first is the outer ear, which is the part that is seen. This fleshy appendage catches sound vibrations and directs them in through the ear canal towards the middle ear, where the eardrum is located.
As sound vibrations pass by the eardrum, it vibrates back and forth, moving the sound through it to the inner ear. Often, the vibrating bones attached to the eardrum that spread the sound also help increase the volume so that people can hear better. The vibrations move to the cochlea, which is a spiral shaped tube filled with fluid. The vibrations hit the fluid and create waves that stimulate hair cells. These tiny cells change the wave into an electrical impulse that is sent to the brain which processes the sound and interprets what the sound means.
How Does a Digital Hearing Aid Help?
If any one of these muscles, bones, or cells fails to work properly, hearing is impaired. Digital hearing aids help assist the many parts of the ear with a microphone, an amplifier, and a speaker which magnifies the vibrations and sends the sound impulses to the brain. This assists the ear to process the vibrations into sound, and helps restore hearing so patients can better communicate with the ones they love. Call (602) 639-4064 today or contact us online to learn more about hearing aid technology or for information about the digital hearing aids available at Metro Hearing in Phoenix.
Image credit: fire-n, shutterstock
