The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports, “About 28.8 million U.S. adults could benefit from using hearing aids.” If you’re among this population and you’re considering making the investment, you may be wondering how hearing aids can be programmed to suit your hearing needs. We review what to know about hearing aid programming below.
What Does It Mean to Program a Hearing Aid?
Although different hearing aids can vary greatly from one another in terms of appearance and features, they all have the same basic parts:
- The microphone picks up sounds in your environment.
- The processor amplifies sound to a level you can easily hear.
- The receiver delivers the amplified sound to your ears.
The amplifiers are what gets programmed to ensure your devices are compensating for your hearing loss.
How Are Hearing Aids Programmed?
Following a comprehensive hearing test, which determines how loud sounds have to be across various frequencies in order for you to hear them, the hearing aids will be programmed to provide the amount of amplification you need using a computer.
Your audiologist can provide additional calibrations to:
- Minimize unwanted noise.
- Adjust the volume and sound intensity levels.
- Create a maximum power output.
- Add sound compression ratios.
What Programs Can Be Added?
Your audiologist can also create programs for different activities you enjoy. This means, with a touch of a button, you can change many settings at once to suit your environment. For example, your audiologist can provide programs for:
- Dining out at Oyster Bar Columbia on Park Street.
- Attending a conference meeting at work.
- Hiking in the woods.
- Driving in a car.
- Watching TV at home.
What About the Hearing Aid Adjustment Period?
Your hearing test was conducted in a soundproof booth, not in a real-world situation. As such, you may find that after going out in the world, you need to have your hearing aids adjusted to better suit the situations you find yourself in. This is completely normal and expected. Plan to return to your audiologist’s office several times in the first few weeks and months after getting your devices.
For more information about hearing aid programming or to schedule an appointment with an expert audiologist, call Charleston ENT & Allergy today.