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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    How do hearing aids work?

    Related Topics
    Ear, Nose & Throat Disorders Hearing Loss & Deafness
    My 92 year old grandfather wears a hearing aid however still struggles to hear us. How do the hearing aids work and why are some effective on some people and not on others?
    • 2 answers
    • Soundfair
    • Raji Parangad
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  • Soundfair

    Soundfair is a non-profit organisation committed to hearing equality and to transforming the experience and wellbeing of all people with hearing conditions. We do this … View Profile

    Hearing aids are programmed to compliment an individual's hearing loss (amplifying device).  If a wearer has hearing loss in the high frequency the hearing aid is programmed to amplify those sounds so that the wearer hears a  complete range of sounds, and vice versa.  An accurate hearing test must be completed so that a hearing aid can be programmed appropriate for the hearing loss of the individual.   

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    Raji Parangad

    Audiologist

    No referrals required. Cosmetic hearing aid specialist ( we have the latest, most discreet hearing aids in the market), Custom ear plugs, Assertive listening devices. … View Profile

    Hearing is not a passive process. The hearng mechanism picks up the sounds and teh auditory centre interprests / makes sense of these sounds. It is like  hearing a  familiar sound from a distance . Butour brain recognises the sound even though we havent seen the source ... The reason being our brain keeping auditory images of these sounds and it's ability to utilise this. No assume a scenario where you have been getting very limited auditory input may be for many years.... Some of these memories will be wiped out for ever. Now consider the scenario where you have   significant hearing loss and did nothing about if for many years...You have lost a  lot of these skills...permanantly. Now even if you get amplification the auditory centre can not make sense or interpret the stimulation. .. more like unable to make the connection... This is generally true with long standing unadressed hearing loss... also leading to cognitive decline....Even a well fitted hearing aids in such case will be of limited benefit. However, something is better than nothing. You could also talk to the audiolgist about getting acessories like  a Roger pen ......

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