The advancement of digital technology has been a boon for many industries, not the least of which, is the hearing aid industry. Improvements have been implemented in hearing aid technology to address many of the most common complaints that people with hearing loss and hearing aid users report. Let's briefly discuss one of the most common issues and new technological solutions.

The advancement of digital technology has been a boon for many industries, not the least of which, is the hearing aid industry. Improvements have been implemented in hearing aid technology to address many of the most common complaints that people with hearing loss and hearing aid users report. Let's briefly discuss one of the most common issues and new technological solutions.

Telephone use:

I have heard it hundreds of times. "I just can't use my hearing aids on the telephone. Sometimes they whistle and sometimes I just can't hear what the person on the other end of the line is saying." There are a number of solutions that can help hearing aid users perform better on the telephone. The most important idea to understand is that hearing aids should work with your telephone!

How do we accomplish this? We must select hearing aids appropriate for the listener's needs. Different devices have different capabilities, especially on the telephone. Some individuals just use a standard land-line phone system. For these patients, the easiest solution is probably a telecoil setting, which is available in most hearing aids. Many of our patients consistently use different types of phones: a standard land-line phone, a cordless home phone and a cell phone. For these users, a more exact approach to coupling the hearing aids with the phone is required. Many hearing aids can be programmed with a telephone setting that can be used easily with lots of different types of phones.

The latest in hearing aid technology allows us to use bluetooth technology to send a signal directly from the phone to the patient's hearing aids for hands-free communication. Although bluetooth technology is more and more common in our lives today, some may not know what it does. So what is bluetooth? Your first thought might be that bluetooth is what you see when my 5 year old eats too much grape candy. The real answer is that bluetooth allows wireless devices (like cellphones) to communicate with other wireless devices (like bluetooth earpieces). If you've had the uncomfortable experience of standing next to someone in the grocery store who seemed to be carrying on an in-depth conversation with a cereal box, you've probably seen a bluetooth earpiece. They usually hang on top of the user's ear and have a microphone facing the user's mouth. This allows them to talk to and hear a person on their cell phone, without holding the cell phone up to their head. Bluetooth technology in hearing aids works similarly. Bluetooth enabled hearing aids use a bluetooth interface to pick up the person's voice on the other end of the cell phone conversation and send it to the wearer's hearing aids. The hearing aid wearer can then just talk back in a normal voice and the bluetooth interface sends the signal back through the cell phone to the person on the other end.

Bluetooth technology in hearing aids offers several advantages that have, up until now, been unavailable. First, there is no need to worry about holding the phone just right to make it work with your hearing aids. Second, you can hear the phone conversation in both ears at the same time. This is a huge advantage for people with hearing loss. Third, we can turn down outside sounds automatically so that you hear the phone conversation clearly, not the wind noise in the car. And fourth, you can talk on a cell phone hands free.

Thus far, our patients who have tried this technology have done extremely well. Some wonder how they ever lived without it! Give us a call at 615-758-7999. We'll let you try this technology free for a month. You'll be amazed at how well and easily you can communicate on the phone.