Hearing Aid Styles and Features

Hearing aids come in all shapes and sizes. The style of the hearing aid depends on 1) the audiological results of your hearing test and 2) your lifestyle needs. At our clinic, we work with every style, level, and manufacturer of hearing aids. This allows us to determine the perfect device for your listening and lifestyle needs!

Custom hearing aids have become increasingly popular in recent years due to the difficulties some patients have found with wearing traditional hearing aids and face masks.

Custom hearing aids have a very comfortable fit but are not always a good choice for those who hear well in the low pitches.

Depending on the size, custom hearing aids have a variety of features, and some are even rechargeable!

This is the most popular style of hearing aid. RIC hearing aids sit behind the ear and have a tiny wire and rubber tip that enters the ear canal. These aids have the widest array of options and customization compared to other styles. A downfall for this style is that they are not always ideal for those who have dexterity issues as they may be more challenging to get in the ear.

Traditionally, BTE hearing aids are reserved for patients who have a more severe hearing loss. They have a bigger piece behind the ear, and tubing that leads to a custom earmold in the ear. This allows for more sound to reach into the ear without any sound leaking out. Sometimes this aid is also used for very active patients who are outdoors in the humidity, as the tubing can be easily changed with wear and tear. As they are a larger style, patients who do not need BTE hearing aids are typically not as interested in them.

Some hearing aids are rechargeable and are placed in their charger each night instead of manually turning them off. The charge lasts the full next day and is often preferred over disposable batteries that need to be changed every few days.

Bluetooth hearing aids are now more accessible than ever before! These devices act like ear buds, delivering phone calls, music or other audio from your phone directly to your ears! If this is an important feature for you, be sure to communicate this in your appointment, as certain hearing aids work better with different types of phones.

Certain hearing aids work better for processing background noise than others. For example, some focus on the sound directly in front of you. Others will focus more on speech vs environmental sounds. Understanding what types of background noise you are in will allow us to determine the best hearing aid company for your hearing in noise needs.

Some hearing aids are especially designed for patients who have bothersome tinnitus. These are highly customizable so that a tinnitus masking program can be created to distract the brain from the bothersome tinnitus.

Hearing aids are primarily designed to hear speech. If musical sound quality is important to you, several companies specialize in music processing so that the sound quality is not distorted. This is often in a separate program that you would select when playing or listening to live music.

Our team simply can’t thank you enough for your nomination, votes, and support!

It’s been motivating and rewarding to be voted as #1 Hearing Aid Clinic 2022 by our patients and community! Because of your support, we can enhance our mission in serving the greater Raleigh area with the best hearing aid solutions and patient care!