How To Solve The Stuff And Distortion Of Wearing Hearing Aids?

Hearing is an important sensory channel and plays an irreplaceable role in daily life. However, hearing loss caused by physiological degeneration of hair cells and auditory nerves, diabetes, long-term noise exposure, and ototoxic drugs is not uncommon. One in three people over the age of 65 has hearing loss.

In the common people's cognition, it is normal for the elderly to be "deaf" and "back of the ear". Hearing impairment is very harmful to the physical and mental health of the elderly, which not only directly affects their daily life and family harmony, but also hinders their normal communication with society. Ear specialists recommend hearing aids when the hearing in both ears exceeds 40 decibels.

How to solve the "stuff" and "distortion" of wearing hearing aids?

Because the hair cells that are stimulated by sound waves cannot be regenerated, medicine and surgery cannot cure hearing loss. At this time, the only option is to wear hearing aids. According to Mr. Duan Jirong, chief audiologist of Siemens Hearing (China), hearing aids currently on the market can be divided into: box type, behind-the-ear (BTE) and customized type, with prices ranging from five or six million to fifty thousand yuan. Patients should choose appropriate hearing aids according to factors such as the degree of hearing loss, the type of hearing loss, and the size of the ear canal.

However, in reality, there is such a situation, even if it is a carefully selected hearing aid, it is uncomfortable after wearing, and the ears are "stuffy", which is professionally called "ear plugging effect". This is because the originally open ear canal plugs the hearing aid, which hinders the release of low-frequency energy in the ear canal, especially when the wearer speaks by himself.

“This situation can be solved by adjusting the low frequency gain of the hearing aid, making air vents, replacing the BHE earplugs or choosing an open BHE, open ear canal receiver, built-in hearing aids. In addition, it can also allow the wearer to adapt for a period of time. , the 'stuffy' feeling may gradually disappear." Duan Jirong said.

In addition to "stuffy", new users may also encounter the problem of sound distortion. If the quality problem of hearing aids is ruled out, most of the "distortion" is caused by excessive sound compression or improper frequency response tuning. Fine-tuned according to the wearer's audiogram and wearing needs.

For wearers whose daily environment is changeable, it is very necessary to choose hearing aids with noise reduction function, because hearing aids without noise reduction function do not only amplify "useful" sounds, but amplify all the sounds in the environment. enlarge.

At the same time, Mr. Duan Jirong introduced that there are many factors that affect the wearing effect of hearing aids. There are two main factors:

First, patient factors. The nature, degree, age, education level, living environment, expectations of hearing aids, and opinions of people around hearing aids;

Second, the factors of hearing aids. The line, performance, appearance, power of the hearing aid, whether it is worn in both ears, the adjustment level of the hearing aid, etc.

Four common misunderstandings in hearing aid wearing:

You can buy a hearing aid yourself. Some patients have not undergone a professional hearing examination and just bought a hearing aid to wear, which will have many adverse effects. Hearing aids require fitting just like glasses, but they are very different from glasses. First of all, the patient's audiogram must be obtained. The fitter will debug according to the patient's audiogram, wearing experience and needs, and make fine adjustments according to the frequency spectrum and intensity of the sound. If the patient has any discomfort, adjust immediately, and finally fit to a suitable state. If it is not adjusted directly, it will not only make it difficult to hear, but may even further damage the patient's residual hearing.

It is also useful to wear a hearing aid for binaural hearing loss. If there is a problem with both ears but only one ear wears a hearing aid, it will have many adverse effects. The wearer may feel unbalanced sound, lack of sound localization, and low speech resolution. Long-term wearing of one ear will cause hearing fatigue in the wearing ear and not wearing it. Ear discrimination is getting worse and worse, i.e. auditory deprivation.

The more you wear the hearing aids, the more deaf you become. If the hearing aid is adjusted properly, it will not cause the problem of deafness as you wear it. As the elderly grow older, the functions of various organs will gradually decline, and the same will be true of the ears. Some systemic diseases such as high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and diabetes can also cause further hearing loss. In fact, this has nothing to do with wearing hearing aids, and it will also decline without wearing them. After wearing a hearing aid, the auditory nerve is continuously stimulated, which helps to delay the speed of hearing loss.

With a hearing aid, you can hear everything clearly. Some patients have high expectations for hearing aids, and feel that after spending so much money, they should hear everything as soon as they wear them, but they don’t know that it will take some time to get used to hearing aids. For prelingually deaf children and older adults, fitting into hearing aids is particularly difficult, requiring joint efforts by the wearer and the dispenser, and regular adjustment.