3 FAQs About Hearing Aid Features

Finding the right hearing aid means selecting not only the best hearing aid style for your needs, but also the features that will be most compatible for your lifestyle. Your audiologist will help you find the best technology for your hearing needs, but you can better understand your options by asking the following three frequently asked questions. 

1. Can I connect my hearing aids to my smartphone?

Many hearing aids on the market today have Bluetooth capability, meaning that they can be connected to your smartphone and other Bluetooth-compatible devices. 

While Bluetooth may not be a feature that everyone needs, it offers many advantages, such as:

• Listening to music without feedback
• Enjoying entertainment without disturbing others in the home
• Easily speak to others over the phone

Whether you’re planning to purchase in-the-ear (ITE), behind-the-ear (BTE), in-the-canal (ITC) invisible-in-canal (IIC) or completely-in-canal (CIC) hearing aids, you should be able to find a model that has Bluetooth features. Ask your audiologist for Bluetooth hearing aid recommendations. 

2. Are there hearing aids that can help with tinnitus?

In addition to helping individuals with hearing loss, some hearing aids offer tinnitus-masking features. 

Tinnitus is a common condition for individuals with hearing loss. Hearing loss caused by aging and repeated exposure to loud noises is caused by damage to the hairs within the inner ear. If enough of these hairs are damaged, they can no longer effectively convert sound waves to electric signals to be processed by your brain. These altered signals result in a ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus. 

Though there is no cure for tinnitus, it can be managed to improve quality of life. Oftentimes, a basic hearing aid will reduce symptoms of tinnitus by amplifying sound waves enough for the hairs to send normal signals to the brain. However, if this doesn’t reduce your tinnitus symptoms enough, some hearing aids can be programmed by your audiologist to produce sounds to cancel out your tinnitus regularly. 

3. Which hearing aid features are right for my lifestyle? 

One of the most important factors in deciding which features you’d like your hearing aids to have is your lifestyle. 

If you are frequently in busy places with lots of background noise, hearing aids with directional microphone systems may be right for you. In addition to amplifying the sounds you want to hear, it will identify environmental noise and reduce it. Similar features include digital noise reduction, wind noise reduction, and impulse noise reduction.

For those who spend a lot of time indoors, watching television, listening to music, and talking on the phone, hearing aids with Bluetooth and smartphone apps are worth considering. These features make hearing aids not just sound amplifiers but assisted living devices as well. 

Individuals with limited dexterity may wish to opt for hearing aids with rechargeable batteries. This eliminates the need to fiddle with tiny batteries every time they die, allowing them to instead plug in the entire device.