Five Ways Hearing Aids Have Changed in the Past 10 Years

Technology is amazing. It has rapidly changed the way we live, think and even eat. Technological advances in medicine have led to an increased life expectancy and have made the lives of people with disabilities significantly better.

Among those rapidly improving medical advances are hearing products and digital hearing aids. For people who are hearing impaired, the recent evolution of hearing aids has been a double-edged sword.

On one hand, it’s difficult to continuously adapt to a changing product. On the other hand, better hearing aids mean that people can hear better and participate in their lives more easily.

This article will cover five ways hearing aids have changed in the past decade.

They’ve gotten smaller

A key portion of technological advancement is the ability to decrease the size of an electronic device without removing any of its power or functions.

This happened with computers, and it has happened with hearing aids. Both in-the-ear and over-the-ear hearing aids are smaller than they once were, while still retaining the full scope of their capabilities. This is ideal for people who were self-conscious about wearing large hearing aids before.

They fit better

Both new designs and increased customization mean that hearing aids today are fitting listeners’ ears better now than they ever have before. This is because audiologists can use scans or molds created by 3D printers to get a detailed model of the listeners’ ears.

They can then custom-fit their new hearing aid to that mold, and listeners can hear their own voice better, in addition to feeling more comfortable.

Their sound quality is better

This is probably the biggest technological advancement made in the hearing aid field. Better sound quality doesn’t just mean that everything’s louder.

It means that a hearing aid can be programmed via a tiny computer to sense when someone is in a louder environment, when they’re in a quieter setting or even when they’re in a car or listening to music. In this way, it can amplify the sounds the listener wants to hear and nullify those that they don’t.

They’re smarter

In the past, if you wanted to connect your hearing aid to your smartphone, you needed some extra equipment for it to function. Not anymore. If you have an iPhone, most hearing aids can connect to it directly now, allowing you to listen to phone calls and music through your hearing aid, directly in your ear.

You can also download a companion app that can control your hearing aid from your smartphone and help you find it if you misplace it too.

They’re more water resistant

Moisture is the enemy of most hearing aids; unfortunately, this is sometimes unavoidable. Whether through heavy rain or excessive perspiration, sometimes moisture will get on, in or around your ears and your hearing aids.

New technological advances have allowed some hearing aids to be able to withstand 3 feet of water for 30 minutes and still function. While the listener will hopefully never have to test their hearing aids’ water resistance, knowing it will still work if there’s some moisture present can be comforting.

Call for your hearing aids today

If you need digital hearing aids or other hearing products, call us at McGuire’s Hearing Centers, where we’ve been helping people hear better for more than 50 years.