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Digital Hearing Aids

True digital hearing aids became available in the late 1980's but these early instruments were housed in body-worn shells with high power consumption. The battery drain obstacles were overcome and in the mid-90's and 100% digital hearing aids became available not only in behind-the-ear styles, but also for custom in the ear models. Digital hearing aids can be quickly programmed and reprogrammed with a wide variety of settings.

Digital hearing aids sample environment sounds faster than analog aids which results in a more nature sound quality. While digital hearing aids do not currently eliminate feedback completely, several of the current instruments are more effective in reducing feedback problems than the more common filter systems found in conventional aids. There is no question that digital hearing aids have increased flexibility and precision of hearing aids.

All digital hearing aids contain one or more useful characteristics such as multiple bands for fine tuning, adaptive compression to keep constantly varying speech signals within the audible range, directional microphones to reduce background noise levels while maintaining the speech level, and noise reductions algorithms which increase the amount of volume given to speech sounds, such as consonants, to produce more clarity in background noise.

The popularity of digital hearing aids, suggest that many patients prefer the sound quality and overall performance of these aids relative to previously worn conventional aids. Competition is also increasing as more and more manufacturers are making digital hearing aids available. These digital hearing aids are not all the same, manufacturers have developed different processing schemes which differ from other manufacturers. The audiologist will recommend the best model hearing aid for your individual hearing loss.

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