What are the different styles of hearing aids?

No matter what style of hearing aid the person chooses, the audiologist will need to take an impression of the person’s ear in order to create a mold or shell that fits properly.  This is a painless procedure which involves putting a soft compound in the ear for a few minutes.  After it is removed, it is sent to the manufacturer along with the audiogram.  This results in a hearing aid or a plastic mold of the exact shape of the person’s ear.

1.   In-the-ear hearing aid
This is the largest of the hearing aids that go directly in the ear.  It can accommodate a larger battery than the other products and may have a larger volume wheel.  This model is most appropriate for people with dexterity or vision problems.  In-the-ear hearing aids are appropriate for people with mild to severe hearing loss.

2.  In-the-canal hearing aid
This product is smaller than the in-the-ear version and fills about half of the concha area.  In-the-canal hearing aids typically have a smaller battery and volume wheel than the In-the-ear hearing aids.  This model will be more difficult for a person with vision/dexterity problems.  Canal aids are appropriate for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.

Completely-in-the-canal hearing aid
This is the smallest of the products and is often advertised as “invisible”.  This hearing aid is appropriate for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.  Because it is so tiny the batteries are very small and it is definitely not appropriate for people with vision or dexterity problems.  Because of its size, it does not offer all of the technological complexities of the larger aids.  In addition, because of the small size a volume control is usually not included.  Completely-in-the canal hearing aids are usually digital aids, so the volume control is automatic.

3.  Behind-the-ear hearing aid
Behind-the-ear hearing aids consist of 2 pieces.  A plastic earmold that is relatively inexpensive and is custom made to fit into the ear.  The ear mold is connected via a piece of tubing to the hearing aid, which hangs behind the ear.  Most behind the hearing aids have a volume control, a battery compartment and an MTO (on, telecoil, off) switch.  A telecoil is a magnetic coil built into the hearing aid, which picks up the energy of the telephone and amplifies it.  The telecoil can be used with assistive listening devices such as the neck or induction loop.  A behind-the-ear hearing aid is appropriate for a person with mild to profound hearing loss.  An advantage to the behind-the-ear hearing aids is that they are less prone to damage by earwax since the mold that goes into the ear is just plastic and the actual hearing aid hangs behind the ear.  In addition, a behind-the-ear hearing aid is the only style appropriate for people with a profound hearing loss and for children.