You have just come back from your first visit to your audiologist and she has immediately thrown a lot of jargon at you about hearing aids, uhm… filters? You have no idea! In this blog we will show you the different parts of the hearing aids and what they mean exactly.
Let us first divide the hearing aids into 3 categories, namely RITE (in ear hearing aid also called RIC hearing aid), BTE (behind the ear hearing aid) and ITE (in the ear hearing aid). Below I will show you the different hearing aids and what the parts of these hearing aids are called.
The RITE hearing aid
1. Wire of the loudspeaker; sound goes through here into your ear canal. Please note that if a wire breaks, the hearing aid will stop working immediately; fortunately, your hearing care professional can fix this for you. But be aware that this piece is fragile.
2. Dome and speaker; the dome holds the hearing aid in place in your ear, there are different kinds of domes in all shapes and sizes, it depends on your hearing loss what kind of dome you get from your hearing care professional. Underneath the dome you will find a cerumen filter, the cerumen filter prevents wax from entering the speaker and causing it to fail. This filter needs to be replaced regularly as soon as it is clogged, no sound can come out of the hearing aid.
3. Concha support; this ensures that the dome does not come out of your ear.
4. Microphone; the sound comes in through the microphones, below which there is also a microphone filter that protects the microphones from dirt and other contaminants. You have to be careful not to get too enthusiastic with your hairspray, because then the microphones can get clogged up and no sound can enter your hearing aid.
5. Push button; this allows you to control the volume of your hearing aids or has various programs such as telecoil. It is also possible that the hearing care professional has turned this button off because today’s hearing aids do a lot of things for you automatically.
6. Battery drawer; here you put the battery so that your hearing aid will work, as soon as you close the drawer the hearing aid turns on, if you are not using your hearing aid then open the battery drawer so that the battery does not run out unnecessarily.
The BTE hearing aid
1. Tone bend; this is the connection between the hearing aid and your ear mould.
2. Tube, this is attached to the earpiece and the earhook and guides the sound to your ear canal. Be sure to replace the tube regularly because it can become hard and cause the sound to shrink.
3. Ear mould; this is custom-made for your ear and guides the sound to your ear canal and ensures that the hearing aid stays in place.
4. Microphone; the sound comes in through the microphones, below which there is also a microphone filter that protects the microphones from dirt and other contaminants. You have to be careful not to get too enthusiastic with your hairspray, because then the microphones can get clogged up and no sound can enter your hearing aid.
5. Push button; this allows you to control the volume of your hearing aids or has various programs such as telecoil. It is also possible that the hearing care professional has turned this button off because today’s hearing aids do a lot of things for you automatically.
6. Battery drawer; here you put the battery so that your hearing aid will work, as soon as you close the drawer the hearing aid turns on, if you are not using your hearing aid then open the battery drawer so that the battery does not run out unnecessarily.
As we can see, the RITE and BTE do not differ much from each other, the big difference is in the inside namely the speaker of the RITE goes directly into your ear and in the BTE hearing aids the speaker is inside the hearing aid itself which makes the hearing aid in general a bit bigger than the RITE hearing aid. BTE hearing aids are usually used for people with more severe hearing loss.
The ITE hearing aid
1. Cerumen filter; which ensures that wax does not get into the hearing aid itself and protects the speaker, through which sound also enters the ear.
2. Venting; this ensures that certain tones that do not need to be amplified can leak out.
3. Volume control, to turn your hearing aid up or down.
4. Program button; this allows you to set your hearing aid into different programs if you wish.
5. Pull cord; because this hearing aid goes into your ear, this is a handy tool so that you can also take your hearing aid out again.
6. Battery drawer; here you put the battery so that your hearing aid will work, as soon as you close the drawer the hearing aid turns on, if you are not using your hearing aid then open the battery drawer so that the battery does not run out unnecessarily.
7. Microphone; the sound comes in through the microphones, below which there is also a microphone filter that protects the microphones from dirt and other contaminants. You have to be careful not to get too enthusiastic with your hairspray, because then the microphones can get clogged up and no sound can enter your hearing aid.
The custom ITE hearing aid is often made to fit your ear canal, the parts are basically the same as the RITE and BTE.
Hoping to have taught you a bit more about the different hearing aids and their components so that the next time you sit in your audiologist’s chair you will know exactly what he or she is talking about.
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