We all know hearing aids can be expensive, there is no doubt about that. Companies spend a lot of money researching and developing them. As hearing aids are sold in relatively low quantities (around 1.7 million hearing aids for about 30 million hearing impaired in the US) these costs must be recuperated, and regrettably like most things in this other than perfect world, the consumer picks up the tab.

Styles Of Hearing Aids

Hearing aids come in three main styles- behind the ear, the most powerful, used by people with mild to profound hearing loss. In the ear hearing aids, for mild to severe mild to moderate hearing loss. Some 10 per cent of the US population has severe to profound hearing loss, meaning they can’t even hear a big truck driving on the road.

Hearing Aid Types

In 1996, the first totally digital hearing aid came on the market. Instead of simply turning sound waves into electric currents, they were instead converted into binary numbers, processed by a speaker and transformed into sound. The difference in sound quality between analog and digital is similar to the difference between an audio cassette and a compact disc. Disc player.

Right now, there are many different hearing aids brands and around 11,100 audiology clinics in North America. Just four companies — Sonus Corp. of Portland, Ore.; Helix; Hearx Ltd. of West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Newport Audiology Centers of Laguna Niguel, Calif. — currently own more than 50 clinics each.

Two Hearing Aids Are Better Than One

Considering the hefty cost of a single hearing aid (which usually cost from $700 – $3000) why on earth would you invest in two? Studies show that having two hearing aids are better than one. There are many benefits to having binaural amplification (two hearing aids), including — better hearing in noisy situations, conditions, better sound quality, increased ability to detect the source of a sound (this is called localization.)

To understand why we need two hearing aids, it is first important to realize that we hear in our brains, not in our ears. Your brain merely processes the information received from both ears to paint an auditory picture of what you are hearing. If your brain receives a signal from just one ear it will have less [spin] much less information with which to paint this picture. Don’t follow? [spin] Think of how much better can you see with two eyes than just one. You can also see much better with two eyes than one can’t you?

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