Treatments and drugs (1)
- Hearing aids: How to choose the right one
Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Hearing aids: How to choose the right one
Many types of hearing aids exist. So which is best for you? Find out what to consider when choosing a hearing aid.
By Mayo Clinic staffPerhaps you've thought about getting a hearing aid, but you're worried about how it will look and wonder whether it will really help. Knowing more about the hearing aid options available to you, what to look for when buying a hearing aid and how to break it in may help alleviate some of your concerns.
Hearing aid styles
All hearing aids contain the same parts to carry sound from the environment into your ear. However, hearing aids do come in a number of styles, which differ in size and the way they're placed in your ear. Some are small enough to fit inside your ear canal, making them almost invisible. Others fit partially in your ear canal. Generally, the smaller a hearing aid is, the less powerful it is, the shorter its battery life and the more it'll cost.
The following are common hearing aid styles.
Completely in the canal
Completely-in-the-canal hearing aids are molded to fit inside your ear canal and can improve mild to moderate hearing loss in adults.
A completely-in-the-canal hearing aid:
- Is the least noticeable in the ear
- Is less likely to pick up wind noise because the ear protects the instrument
- Is easy to use with the telephone
- Uses smaller batteries, which typically don't last as long as larger batteries
- Doesn't contain extra features, such as volume control or directional microphones
In the canal
An in-the-canal hearing aid is custom molded and fits partly in the ear canal, but not as deeply as the completely-in-the-canal aid. This hearing aid can improve mild to moderate hearing loss in adults.
An in-the-canal hearing aid:
- Is less visible in the ear
- Is easy to use with the telephone
- Includes features that won't fit on completely-in-the-canal aids, but the small size can make the features difficult to adjust
- May not fit well in smaller ears
Half-shell
A smaller version of the in-the-canal hearing aid, the half-shell is custom molded and fills the lower portion of the bowl-shaped area of your outer ear. This style is appropriate for mild to moderately severe hearing loss.
A half-shell hearing aid:
- Is bigger than an in-the-canal hearing aid
- Is a little easier to handle than are the smaller hearing aids
- Includes additional features, such as directional microphones and volume control
- Fits most ears
In the ear (full shell)
An in-the-ear (full-shell) hearing aid is custom made and fills most of the bowl-shaped area of your outer ear. This style is helpful for people with mild to severe hearing loss.
An in-the-ear hearing aid:
- Is more visible to others
- May pick up wind noise
- Contains helpful features, such as volume control, that are easier to adjust
- Is generally easier to insert into the ear
- Uses larger batteries, which typically last longer and are easier to handle
Behind the ear
Behind-the-ear hearing aids hook over the top of your ear and rest behind the ear. The hearing aid picks up sound, amplifies it and carries the amplified sound to an ear mold that fits inside your ear canal. This type of aid is appropriate for almost all types of hearing loss and for people of all ages.
A behind-the-ear aid:
- Is the largest, most visible type of hearing aid, though some new versions are smaller, streamlined and barely visible
- Is capable of more amplification than are other hearing aid styles
Open fit
These are very small behind-the-ear-style devices. Sound travels from the instrument through a small tube or wire to a tiny dome or speaker in the ear canal. These aids leave the ear canal open, so they are best for mild to moderate high-frequency losses where low-frequency hearing is still normal or near normal.
An open-fit hearing aid:
- Is less visible
- Doesn't plug the ear like the small in-the-canal hearing aids do
- Uses very small batteries
- Lacks manual adjustments due to the small size
Hearing aid electronics
Hearing aid electronics control how sound is transferred from the environment to your inner ear. All hearing aids amplify sounds, making them louder so that you can hear them better. Most hearing aid manufacturers now only produce digital hearing aids — analog hearing aids are being phased out.
With digital technology, a computer chip converts the incoming sound into digital code, then analyzes and adjusts the sound based on your hearing loss, listening needs and the level of the sounds around you. The signals are then converted back into sound waves and delivered to your ears. The result is sound that's more finely tuned to your hearing loss. Digital hearing aids are available in all styles and price ranges.
Next page(1 of 2)
- Cook JA, et al. Hearing loss and hearing aid treatment options. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2006;81:234.
- Medwetsky L. Hearing loss. In: Dulthie EH, et al. Practice of Geriatrics. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/117437514-3/0/1532/189.html?tocnode=53845996&fromURL=189.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2261-9..50026-4_447. Accessed Jan. 21, 2009.
- Weber PC. Hearing amplification in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 21, 2009.
- Hearing aids. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/treatment/hearing_aids.htm. Accessed Jan. 22, 2009.
- Hogan CA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Feb. 5, 2009.
- Fact sheet: Buying a hearing aid. American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery. http://www.entnet.org/HealthInformation/buyingHearingAid.cfm. Accessed Feb. 24, 2009.
- Kerckhoff J, et al. Advances in hearing aid technology. Contemporary Issues in Communication Science and Disorders. 2008;35:102.
