Find the Best Hearing Aid for Your Unique Type of Hearing Loss
Hearing aid technology has improved dramatically over the years and today’s devices fit seamlessly into modern life. From small and discreet to high-powered and packed with features, our clinic has a solution that meets your hearing loss needs, lifestyle and budget.
What to Consider When Choosing a Hearing Aid
No two cases of hearing loss are exactly alike. Everyone experiences sound differently and choosing the best hearing aid depends on your unique type of hearing loss, lifestyle, budget and preferences.
Premium Hearing Aids
Yost Hearing believes that premium hearing aids offer patients the greatest opportunity for hearing success. While your Yost Hearing team can provide all levels of technology based on each individual’s circumstances, premium technology is strongly preferred.
Premium hearing aids offer the most advanced combination of sound quality, speech understanding, adaptability, customization and convenience. They are designed to automatically respond to changes in your surroundings, helping make it easier to hear and understand speech in environments where listening can be more difficult—such as restaurants, gatherings, meetings and other social situations. Premium hearing aids reduce the effort required by the user by doing more of the work for you. This results in a more natural and comfortable listening experience.
Based on experiences with hearing aids and our patients, premium hearing aids tend to provide better long-term value. Premium hearing aids tend to maintain their sound quality and performance longer, while also having a longer extended warranty from the manufacturer. Most importantly, patients who choose premium technology seem to be more satisfied with their investment and overall hearing experience.
Our goal is not simply to fit you with a hearing aid—it is to find the technology that gives you the greatest opportunity to hear well and be successful in your everyday life. Your Yost Hearing team realizes that budget and insurance benefits are also important parts of that decision. If premium technology is not the right financial fit, our team will work with you to review the available options and help determine the best level of technology for your needs and budget. Our job is to help you make the most-informed decision that is right for you.
The best way to find the right level of technology for your needs is to schedule a hearing evaluation. This allows our hearing care professionals to get to the root of your hearing loss symptoms and recommend the best hearing aid for you personally.
Types of Hearing Aid Technology
Rechargeable Hearing Aids
Traditionally, hearing aids had disposable batteries that needed to be changed regularly. Rechargeable hearing aids offer the convenience of overnight charging, just as you would recharge your smartphone or tablet device. They’re great for people who live active, on-the-go lives that don’t want to deal with the hassle of disposable batteries or the never ending purchasing costs. Many manufacturers also offer cases that charge your devices so you can power up anywhere. Rechargeable hearing aids keep you updated to the status of the internal batteries. Therefore, you never have to worry about running out of batteries or not having any at an inopportune time.
Rechargeable hearing aids have grown in popularity, and as a result, there are many varieties available on the market. Most models generally take about three hours to recharge and can last a full day.
Bluetooth
If you frequently use a cellphone, television or other electronics, you may find Bluetooth hearing aids incredibly useful. Hearing aids with Bluetooth technology can wirelessly connect to a variety of devices, allowing you to enjoy enhanced sound quality directly from the source.
Bluetooth is available in most styles of hearing aids and each manufacturer provides a different array of products and accessories that are Bluetooth-enabled. Wireless connectivity makes it easier for hearing aid users to utilize the various technologies in their everyday lives, whether you’re making phone calls, taking a virtual meeting or watching TV.
Smartphone Connectivity and Apps
Hearing aids that offer Bluetooth typically come with smartphone compatibility. This feature allows you to stream calls and audio from your smartphone directly to your hearing aids. Smartphone compatible technology transforms your hearing aids into headphones, making them a great choice for hands-free phone calls.
Many hearing aid manufacturers offer smartphone apps that sync with your hearing devices. If you’re constantly moving from one environment to the next, apps can make adjusting your settings a breeze. Typically, they allow you to discreetly adjust the volume, save sound settings for specific situations and some even offer sound therapy for tinnitus.
Water-Resistant Hearing Aids
Hearing aids work best when they are clean and dry, as moisture can damage the sensitive electronic components of a device. Sweat, humidity and rainy weather can impact your hearing aids’ performance, but luckily, technology has evolved to help make them more resilient against water damage.
Most hearing aids that offer protection from moisture are water-resistant, but not 100% waterproof. Despite not being truly waterproof, water-resistant devices can still dramatically lower the chance of damage when exposed to small amounts of moisture. They are excellent choices for people who enjoy water-related hobbies like fishing, live in humid climates or who tend to sweat more heavily.
Additional Hearing Technology Features and Benefits
Sleek, Discreet Design
People often assume hearing aids are cumbersome and clunky, but thanks to technological advancements, even many high-powered, outside-the-ear devices are sleek and hard to notice.
Enhanced Speech Comprehension and Sound Quality
Today’s hearing aids don’t just amplify sound, they provide an immersive listening experience as close to natural hearing as possible. As technology has evolved, hearing devices have gotten better at differentiating speech from background noise, ensuring those with hearing loss don’t miss out on moments of connection with others. Many hearing aids offer various settings that can adjust depending on the wearer’s surroundings.
Tinnitus Masking Features
If you struggle with tinnitus symptoms, a number of hearing aids offer features that can help mask ringing, buzzing and clicking sounds in the ears. These masking features are known as tinnitus sound generators (TSG) and they work by emitting a soft, white noise that can partially or completely mask tinnitus symptoms. As we mentioned above, many manufacturers also offer apps that provide sound therapy for tinnitus.