INTRODUCING CANAL RECEIVER TECHNOLOGY:

Canal Receiver Technology is a new style of miniature behind the ear hearing aid in which the receiver (speaker) is placed directly into the ear canal while the technology (microphone and digital amplification) and battery is behind the ear. The receiver is at the end of a transmitter wire rather than a tube. Thus, sound is being transmitted to the ear rather than being transferred through a tube. This process eliminates impedance of the auditory signal, resulting in more natural sound. The tip inserted into the ear is a small open flexible tip, the same tip used in the Open Ear BTE. Thus, the canal is unoccluded, preserving natural canal resonance and eliminating the occlusion affect.

The Open Ear BTE using slim tube is restricted for people with mild to moderate high frequency hearing loss. However, the "transmitter wire and canal receiver design" of Canal Receiver Behind the Ear hearing instruments allows for successful fitting of more moderate and severe hearing losses since less effort is required to produce the necessary amplification. The ear tip can be more occluding for those with severe and profound hearing losses, making Canal Receiver Technology extremely flexible in fitting all degrees of hearing loss. Furthermore, Canal Receiver Behind the Ear Instruments (like Open Fit BTE with slim tube) do not require earmold impressions, allowing the fitting of these instruments to take place during your first visit.

DIGITAL CIRCUITRY:

What features are available?

Sounds, especially speech signals, simply cannot be made louder. Sound must be “preprocessed” to enhance frequency patterns of each hearing loss as well as taking loudness recruitment, or abnormal loudness growth, into account. Digital processing enables the hearing aid to adjust automatically according to the different frequency bands where hearing is deficient. Softer sounds are made audible while louder sounds are attenuated, thus keeping the amplification in comfort levels for each individual. Digital processing allows for flexibility within the hearing instrument, resulting in a more efficient adjustment to each individual’s hearing loss.

Digital processing occurs across several frequency ranges. Instantaneous compression of signals are set at various frequency ranges, so that specific pitches can be compressed or “softened” while other pitches can simultaneously be enhanced (like an equalizer). Digital signal processing varies from 2 frequency bands (or ranges) to as many as 20 frequency bands. More frequency bands does not always mean more clarity in the speech signal, but multiple frequency bands will enhance the flexibility of the instrument allowing it to fit many configurations of hearing losses.

Throughout the years, many features have been developed to enhance performance of digital sound processing. The biggest emphasis has been targeted towards improving listening in background noise. Features have been developed to increase the clarity of the speech signal in noise while diminishing interfering background noises. Further developments help make loud background noises more natural and tolerable. Realistically, these advanced features of hearing aids enhance the ease of listening in areas of background noise. Furthermore, digital technology has allowed hearing aids to automatically detect and switch into a “background noise reducing mode”, and even enable the hearing aid to actually “learn” the tendancies of the hearing aid wearer.

Here are some digital circuitry options available in hearing aids today:

• Fixed Directional Microphone: This technology focuses on the speech signal while reducing background noise, thus improving “signal to noise ratio”. Signals from the rear and sides are diminished while the signals in front of the listener are enhanced. The null, or greatest area of sound reduction, occurs in the rear. The hearing aid wearer accesses directional microphone by pressing a button on the hearing aid.
  
  
• Adaptive Directional Microphone: This system actually follows the sound and reduces the background noise from rear to sides, even when the sound is moving (i.e., car traveling behind the user from left to right). Thus, the null is moved to where the background noise is the greatest. The hearing aid wearer accesses adaptive directional microphone by pressing a button on the hearing aid.
  
  
• Automatic Directional Microphone (AutoPro): This system allows the hearing aid to automatically switch from surround sound to fixed or adaptive directional microphone mode, without the need to press a button. The instrument automatically detects when the background noise reaches the noise level requiring activation of the directional microphone. When the background noise in the room diminishes, the instrument automatically switches back to the omnidirectional (or surround sound) destination. Thus, AutoPro integrates multiple “sound destinations” into one automatic function for a better listening experience.
  
  
• AntiShock: This technology eliminates the discomfort of sudden, unsettling noises, like dishes clattering, by identifying and minimizing impulse sounds without affecting speech.
  
  
• Speech Enhancement: Level dependent technology permits the application of greater gain for speech cues while maintaining signal stability and comfort.
  
  
• LearnNow (exclusively with Unitron Hearing Systems): Using a special remote control, LearnNow allows you to teach your hearing aids your preferred setting for each situation. Thus, you actually “teach” your hearing aid to make an automatic adjustment for each specific listening situation you encounter.
  
  
• Comfort-Clarity Balance (exclusively with Unitron Hearing Systems): Unlike a volume control, which only raises or lowers all sounds, this control allows you to raise or lower the level of speech in background noise.

HEARING AID SIZES: WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?

(These are photos of Unitron Hearing Aids)

• BTE
• Full Shell
• ITC
• CIC
• Open Ear BTE with Slim Tube

		Behind the ear (BTE) Fits over the top of your ear. Tube connects to a custom fit earmold which fills the bowl of the ear.

			In The Ear (FULL SHELL) Fills the bowl of the outer ear. Easy to handle, especially for people with arthritis and dexterity problems.

			In The Canal (ITC) Fills the entrance of the ear canal.

			Completely In The Canal (CIC) Smallest hearing aid available. Hidden within the ear canal. Removal wire helps to insert and remove aid.

		Open Ear BTE with Slim Tube Miniature behind the ear hearing aid that hides behind the ear and uses a slim tube to connect to a small canal tip. Keeps canal open, eliminating occlusion (feeling like your ear is plugged and your voice sounding like it’s in a barrel).

BAHA IMPLANTABLE SYSTEM:

A select group of patients in our office are unable to wear hearing aids in the ear canal, including the Open Fit BTE with slim tube and the Canal Receiver BTE Technology.
This group includes:

• Patients with chronically draining ears, where the use of an hearing aid aggravates the infection, causes feedback, discomfort, and poor sound quality.
  
• Patients with congenital malformations and embryopathies where the cochlear function is adequate, but where there are no ear canals (atresia or stenosis of the outer ear canal).
  
• Patients with a conductive hearing loss due to chronic mastoidits or ossicular disease that cannot be surgically corrected.
  
• Patients with total hearing loss in one ear and a conductive hearing loss in the other ear.
  
• Patients with complete unilateral hearing loss due to acoustic neuroma, sudden deafness, or genetic unilateral hearing loss who are unable to successfully use CROS or BCROS amplification.

Now there is a hearing system available for this select category of patients. Introducing the BAHA DIVINO and BAHA INTENSO, a surgically implanted system that uses bone conduction, in which skull bone vibrations act as a pathway for sound to travel to the inner ear without involving the ear canal or the inner ear. This is accomplished by surgically implanting a small titanium implant on the bone behing the ear. The bone (mastoid process) actually ossifies around the implant, thus stabilizing the implant so a sound processor can be connected and disconnected by the user. This surgical procedure is performed under local anaesthesia and is considered minor surgery from both the physician’s and patient’s point of view.

Prior to this surgery, a demonstration of the Baha system is performed using the Baha Testband, so that the patient can experience the results of this system prior to surgery. The testband with the hearing device is placed around the wearer’s head, with the sound processor against the bone behind the ear. This gives the patient the information and listening experience needed for his/her decision to procede with the surgery. The Baha system, being considered a surgical procedure, is also covered by insurance and medicare.