Hearing empowers us and helps us lead our • Use the phone
everyday lives without limitations. It enables • Listen to and even play music us to socialize, work and communicate. It also helps us to stay connected to the outside • Achieve employment and pursue a career world and it keeps us safe by warning us of in more efficient way potential danger. • Engage fully with the hearing world In this report we will discuss the types of hearing losses, Importance of hearing aids How does a Hearing Aid Work and their basic function, hearing aids The microphone in the hearing aid picks up available in current world, digital hearing sound and sends it to the amplifier where it aids and implant hearing aids for extreme makes it louder. These impulses are sent to hearing loss. the brain where they are perceived as sound. Motion transferred to the cochlea fluids is Types of Hearing Losses converted into electrical impulses by tiny There are 4 types of hearing losses hair cells inside the cochlea. The receiver of the hearing aid sends the amplified sound • Conductive- Sound is not transmitted down the ear canal, causing the eardrum and efficiently from the outer ear to the the middle ear bones to vibrate. cochlea. • Sensorineural: Hearing loss due to damage to the cochlea or nerve endings in the inner ear. • Mixed: Combination of Conductive and Sensorineural hearing loss. • Unilateral hearing: Hearing in one ear, Hearing loss in the other.
Why Hearing Aids are
important Fig 1. Important Components of a Microphone
Hearing is the most essential part of our life.
To enjoy life to full extent a good hearing is necessary and the following are some of the Digital Hearing Aids important and essential functional things of There are multiple types on digital hearing a hearing aid. aids available in market. They can be • Converse confidently with family, friends classified as below. Wearable Aids: aid available in the current market and it is developed by company called Phonak, Depending on the types of hearing loss, which is headquartered in Switzerland. doctor advice their patients, the type of These smart hearing aids come with a hearing aid which best suits them. The technology called Auto Sense OS following are some of the hearing aids technology and Binaural Voice Stream available in the current market. Technology. Behind the ear (BTE) : BTE instruments Auto Sense OS have a plastic casing that rests behind the ear and houses the device's technology. A clear Autosense OS is the automatic OS plastic tube then directs amplified sound into (Operating system) that provides improved an ear mold inside the ear canal. sound recognition in listening situations by analyzing the sounds in real time and Receiver In Canal (RIC): The receiver-in- automatically activating an appropriate the-canal device is small, discreet, and blend of optimized gain settings, programs incredibly quick to fit; perfect for many and features specific to various listening first-time wearers. environments. Autosense identifies listening In The Ear (ITE): Smaller, in-the-ear situations with accuracy and adapts with instruments house their technology precision. Also this OS comes with 200 components in a custom-formed ear mold different programs inbuilt and whenever a that fits within the outer portion of the ear. person wearing this smart hearing aid enters a restaurant, movie theater or even in car, Completely In Canal (CIC): These devices the hearing aid automatically sense the fit completely in the canal. Only the head of environment and analyze the sound and a tiny plastic line with which you insert or adjust accordingly. With this technology, the remove the instrument shows above the wearers can enjoy a seamless life experience canal. and these smart aids can be controlled by an In The Canal (ITC): In-the-canal app (phonak balance app) which can be instruments are smaller still, featuring an ear downloaded from app stores. mold that fits down into the ear canal and a smaller portion that faces out into the outer ear and uses REED Sensors. Every hearing aids have different pros and cons and depending upon the wearers comfort, type of hearing loss and intensity of the hearing problem (i.e., mild/moderate/severe), the wearers can choose the style of the hearing aid which works best for them. All these above hearing aids don’t require a surgery and people can simply wear from outside.
Latest technology available in
the hearing aids The following is one of the smart hearing ear.
Fig 2. Products using Autosense OS
Implantable Hearing Aids
Implantable hearing aids are recommended by the doctors to the people who are profoundly deaf. These hearing aids require Fig 3: Parts of Cochlear Implant surgery. Internal parts of the hearing aid are placed inside the body (near to ear) and How does cochlear implant work? external parts are outside the ear which help The external sound processor captures sound to catch the sound. and converts them into digital signals. These Mostly commonly available implants are signals are sent to the internal implant, via Cochlear Implant and Bone-Anchored the coil. The implant converts the signals to Hearing Aid (BAHA). electrical impulses and sends them along an electrode array in the cochlea. The hearing nerve delivers the signal to the brain, sound is heard.
Cochlear Implant Bone-Anchored Hearing
Aid(BAHA): What is a cochlear implant? What is BAHA? A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device that replaces the function of damaged BAHA is a surgically implanted medical inner ear. These type of implants are device to the people who have damaged recommended to people who have a middle ear and has significant hearing loss. Sensorineural type of hearing loss This is recommended for the patients whose cochlear is in working condition but having Why are cochlear implants different? problem with middle and outer ear (i.e., Unlike hearing aids, cochlear implants don’t Conductive and Unilateral type of hearing just amplify sounds. They mimic the natural loss). hearing function of the inner ear through Due to this the sound from the environment electronic stimulation. The system has two is not efficiently transferred to cochlea and parts – an external sound processor and the thus causing hearing loss. actual cochlear implant. Incoming sounds are processed into electrical signals and then transmitted directly to the hearing nerve, How does BAHA implant work? bypassing the damaged parts of the inner The BAHA is a bone conduction type individuals who are hard of hearing hearing aid and unlike conventional hearing and helps to enjoy a seamless life aids which depend on acoustic coupling experience. through air, this system is based on bone conduction technology where the sound is conducted through bone rather than the middle ear. References This system consists of a sound processor ● with small titanium fixture implanted in the http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/con nect/f4054f12-fd1b-4757-9274- mastoid bone behind the ear. After minor 5cdb07b1b072/CI+N34846+Answers+t surgery, the Fixture protrudes through skin o+Your+Questions+_candidates+LR.pd so that the external processor can attached to f?MOD=AJPERES&CONVERT_TO=u it. rl&CACHEID=f4054f12-fd1b-4757- The sound vibrations from the environment 9274-5cdb07b1b072 ● http://www.horizonscanning.gov.au/inte are picked by the sound processer and these rnet/horizon/publishing.nsf/Content/878 vibrations (sound) are transferred to implant 61CF6758FF75ACA2575AD0080F348/ inserted in the bone. Once these vibrations $File/BAHA%20v8_3.pdf received, those are transferred to inner ear ● https://www.phonakpro.com/us/en/a cochlea through bone conduction (where bout-phonak/technologies/autosense- they are converted into electrical impulses os.html by hair cells inside cochlea). These impulses ● https://www.phonakpro.com/us/en/a travel to the brain allowing the patient to bout-phonak/technologies/binaural- hear normally. voicestream.html ● https://usa.bestsoundtechnology.com /siemens-hearing-products/ ● http://www.earassociates.com/servic es-bone-anchored-hearing-aids-san- jose-ca.html ● http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/c onnect/us/home/treatment-options- for-hearing-loss ● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_i Fig 4. Bone Anchored Hearing Aid mplant
Fig 5 . BAHA after surgery.
Conclusion Current hearing aid technology with its innovations better meet needs of ○