Education seminars
The Center offers educational hearing aid seminars on a regular basis to help consumers understand the effects of hearing loss and the benefits of new hearing aid technology. Learn more about how digital hearing aids can make a difference in your life. Latest Tech Days will be held at Columbus Speech & Hearing Center, 510 E. North Broadway.
Visit our
Events Calendar to see upcoming dates! Call 614.261.5451 to register for the next Latest Technology in Hearing Aids seminar.
- Free seminar provides education about the effects of hearing loss and the benefits of new hearing aid technology.
- Licensed, certified audiologists available to answer questions.
Understanding the technology
The electronic circuitry inside a hearing aid amplifies sounds to assist you in hearing. Hearing aids make sounds louder to improve your ability to hear and understand speech. Hearing loss can occur in different pitch ranges. Pitch, also known as frequency, is the quality of sound that enables you to classify it as high or low. A whistle blowing is an example of a high-pitched sound, while a car engine is an example of a low-pitched sound. Hearing aids can amplify different sound frequencies, depending upon where in the pitch range your hearing loss falls.
The primary goal of hearing aids is to make soft sounds soft but audible, to keep average sounds comfortable, and to make loud sounds loud but not too loud. There are some advanced-technology hearing aids that are designed to not only amplify sounds but also to reduce background noise so speech is more easily understood.
Latest Hearing Aid Technology
Hearing aids that can be programmed and adjusted with a computer in your audiologist’s office are the newest hearing aids on the market. These hearing aids can be analog or digital, and they use advanced signal processing to help the person listen with greater comfort and clarity. Some of these hearing aids have special components to help reduce background noise for easier listening in noisy environments.
Conventional Technology (Analog)
Conventional hearing aids have a simple amplifier that makes all sounds louder. Some of these hearing aids can be purchased with special circuits that can reduce background noise to a certain extent. Although these hearing aids can be set appropriately for each person’s hearing loss, they are not as flexible and cannot be as easily fine-tuned as some of the more advanced hearing aids. This is the least costly technology available.
Advanced technology (Digital)
These hearing aids process sounds digitally, which provides a higher fidelity and clearer sound quality. They can be programmed and adjusted more specifically for each individual’s needs and typically have a broader frequency (pitch) response. All digital hearing aids have some form of background noise management, making them very effective for people who have difficulty hearing in a noisy environment. Because the digital chip inside the hearing aid can process incoming sounds so quickly, it can determine what is steady-state background noise versus a varying speech signal. The hearing aid can reduce the steady-state noise while still amplifying the speech signal.