One of the most common problems associated with wearing hearing aids is the sensation of ‘occlusion’ often referred to by hearing aid wearers as sounding like their head is ‘in a barrel’. Try this for yourself by simply placing your fingers in your ears and counting to 10. Can you hear it? In the past with less advanced hearing aid amplifier technology, it was necessary to close the ear canal to contain the amplified sound in order to reduce ‘feedback’ or ‘whistling’.
Digital Hearing Aid Amplifliers
With advances in digital hearing aid amplifiers came the ability to provide more gain without closing the ear canal. Digital frequency filters allowed the amplified response to be tailored to a person’s hearing loss while maintaining their open ear – the result, no ‘head in a barrel’, more comfort, overall a more transparent sensation. The beauty of this is that a person hears a blend of unamplified sound with amplified sound. This successful solution has completely changed the way hearing care professional fit hearing aids. In addition to the improved hearing success, these devices are much smaller and less conspicuous creating fewer issues of vanity.