Karnaadhar
Hearing and Speech Therapy Centre
Prashant M. Kamble
Farah P. Kamble
(Audiologists & Speech Therapists)
Seawoods ( Navi Mumbai)/ Khar / Chembur
HEARING AIDS
Hearing is essential to fully enjoying and participating in life. Hearing loss begins gradually and most people ignore the symptoms. Most people wait too long to acknowledge that they have a hearing loss and need hearing aids because hearing loss is associated with many myths. For. eg: It is a myth that hearing loss is a sign of old age. Whereas, the fact is, that Pretending you don't have a hearing loss is more noticeable.
Hence waiting too long can prove detrimental. Hearing loss not only affects the ability to communicate with people, it also has psychological repercussions like isolation, depression and fatigue as one has to put in more effort in concentrating on listening.
Hearing loss can be Conductive, Sensori-neural or Mixed. Hearing aids help patients having sensori-neural losses and mixed losses. These losses cannot be treated medically or surgically. The more common conductive hearing loss is generally reversible with medicines or surgery. Some rare conductive losses may need a hearing aid.
At Karnaadhar, you will get an unbiased guidance about a wide range of hearing aids and we shall help you select the most appropriate hearing instrument as per your requirement (based on audiometric results), age, lifestyle etc..
HEARING AID STYLES AND TECHNOLOGY
Hearing aid "technology" refers to the circuitry inside a hearing aid. "Style" refers to the size and shape.
Technology : Today we are in a digital world thus hearing aids too are digital . The advantage of this technology is excellent speech clarity and noise reduction. Bluetooth a technology allowing you hands free use of mobile phones and clear reception of TV, AI in hearing aids allow for enhanced adjustments and app based programming. Remote programming enables patients to be in the comforts of theirs homes while having their hearing aids programmed by their audiologists.
Styles : A hearing aid can be a Behind-The-Ear (BTE) style, In-The-Canal (ITC) style, Completely-In-Canal (CIC) style, or the more recenlty launched Receiver-In-Canal / Canal Receiver Technology (RIC/CRT) and Invisible-In-Canal (IIC) style.
BEHIND THE
EAR
(BTE)
BTE : This style addresses most types of hearing losses. It is small and comes in a variety of colours. It suits even those with severe to profound losses. It is used in conjunction with an ear mould that holds the hearing aid in place and delivers the amplified sounds to the ear.
IN THE CANAL
(ITC)
ITC : This style fits inside a custom shell worn in the ear canal opening. It takes advantage of the ear canal's sound gathering with a virtually discrete appearance.
RECEIVER IN THE
CANAL
(RIC/ CRT)
RIC/CRT : This style is the most popular nowadays. It is a mini BTE ( housing just the microphone and amplifier/ digital chip) with a very slim tube and receiver attached that extends over the outer ear and in the ear canal.
COMPLETELY
IN THE CANAL ( CIC)
CIC : This style fits entirely in the ear canal and takes full advantage of the ear's structural properties. It is virtually invisible.
INVISIBLE IN THE CANAL
(IIC)
IIC : This is one of the latest styles and it fits deeper than the CIC. An IIC starts where a CIC ends. It is most cosmetically appealing. However it fits does not fit severe degrees of hearing loss.