The brave new world of tech has been sweeping through the hearing aid realm for the past several years. If you have an older model or are facing making hearing aids part of your life for the first time, now’s a good time to realize what’s possible.
Connectivity is one of the biggest and most profound enhancements. With the ability to wirelessly integrate your hearing aid with an app to a smartphone, tablet, or computer it’s now possible to take control of a hearing aid’s functions via a screen. This is so much easier than the old days, when small knobs or buttons had to be manipulated to make alterations on how a unit operated.
And not only does the user enjoy the power of this expanded capability. Data can now be collected by hearing aids in the “real world” environments in which they’re used and then uploaded to hearing health professionals. With this information, they can troubleshoot and fine-tune a hearing aid based on the needs of the specific person using it.
Along with these kinds of operating upgrades, hearing aids can now be linked directly with entertainment and communication devices. Instead of using a hearing aid to hear what is coming out of speakers — which the hearing aids’ speaker transfers into the inner ear —the sound is piped directly into the hearing aid itself. This means much higher audio quality and bypassing a number of issues, including feedback problems.
Finally, inductive charging is being adapted by hearing aid manufacturers. This means not only rechargeable batteries, but also a process that doesn’t depend on having to remove them from the hearing aid. Just take out your hearing aids at the end of the day, lay them down on their charging pad for the night and, voila, in the morning they’re ready to go again.
Things can actually get easier.
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