Open Fit Hearing Aids
Open fit hearing aids have become all the rage since they hit the market
in 2005. Their advantages include greater comfort, a more natural for the
wearer's own voice, and being less noticeable than traditional behind the
ear (BTE) hearing aids. They're effective for people with mild to moderate
high frequency hearing loss, which matches many of the boomers!
February
2006 - New Hearing Aid Treats High Frequency
Hearing Loss
March
2006 - Hearing aids for healthy ears
March
2006 - Thin-Tube Open Fittings: Preferred Patient
Populations and Study Results
September 2006 - The Hearing Aid as Fashion
Statement
October 2006 - Here's Mark Ross with a great
article on Feedback Cancellation Systems and Open-Ear Hearing Aid
Fitting.
February 2007 - A Look at Open Fit Hearing Aids vs.
Standard Hearing Aids: Which Are Best for You?
April 2007 - Speaker-in-the-Ear Mini-BTE Hearing Aids
November 2007 - New Open Ear Hearing Aids Gain
Acceptance
March 2008 - New Open Ear Digital Hearing Aids
Announced by Internet Hearing Aid Retailer
February 2009 - Internet Hearing Aid Retailer
Offers Line of Affordable Melody Open Fit Hearing Aids
April 2009 -
A candid round table discussion on open-canal
hearing aid fittings
November 2010 - How to Compare
Feedback Suppression Algorithms in Open-Canal Fittings
May 2011 - Dos and Don'ts of Open Fittings
More on this and related
topics
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February
2006
It's
tiny, it's sleek, and consumers are raving about its great sound. The
latest iPod model? No, it's a new type of hearing aid. Made with the
latest in
digital technology and nearly invisible when worn, the device
is intended for people with high-frequency hearing loss. It has been on
the market for less than a year, but one leading company says sales of
the new hearing aid have been four times higher than expected. The new
devices can best help people with only mild to moderate high-frequency
hearing loss, which accounts for about 20% of hearing impairment cases,
Dr. Servedio said. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2006
Many people
who hear normally but can't decipher background noise from the real
message, such as in a loud restaurant, are benefiting from open-ear
hearing devices. Originally developed for those with high-pitch hearing
loss, these digital devices also may help adults and children with
processing disorders that keep them from filtering out the static in
their environments. . . . . Fisher has found that open-ear hearing
devices are beneficial even if one does not have a high-pitch loss but
has difficulty understanding against background noise. Full
Story
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March 2006
Within only
a few years, the occlusion effect has been reduced from a major reason
for “in the drawer hearing aids,” to today, a time in which we now
have effective and easy solutions to the problem. In fact it was only a
few years ago that there were only two methods to solve the problem of
occlusion. The first was to build a very long earmold that was
contiguous with the cartilaginous portion of the external auditory
meatus, a solution
that is often impractical and can lead to physical discomfort. The
second was to counsel the patient about the issue and hope the patient
learned to accept it. Generally speaking, other possible
solutions—such as fine-tuning tools—provided only marginal
improvements. Full
Story
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April 2009
There is a wide variety of open-canal (OC) products,
with many different types of styles and features available. One
distinguishing feature of these instruments is whether the receiver is in
the hearing aid (RITA) or in the ear canal (RIC). Clearly, removing the
receiver from the hearing aid frees up some space, and allows for more
creative style choices. Everyone agrees with this. What everyone does not
agree on, however, is whether or not there is any acoustic advantage of RIC
versus RITA.We thought it might be interesting to see what the average
dispenser believes, so we included some RIC versus RITA questions in our
2009 annual Hearing Journal/Audiology Online survey.
Full Story
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May 2011
"Since the sixties, everything has been said and
demonstrated regarding the question of open fittings..."
This brash assertion opens an article from the late
1980s that reviews methods of coupling hearing instruments to ears with
minimal occlusion of the ear canal. In fairness, it was indeed the case that
much had been investigated on the topic of open fittings in the previous two
decades. Although primarily dealing with the acoustics of open fittings,
issues such as candidacy and benefit were also studied. A common thread in
this early literature was that acoustic feedback constituted the main
limitation of open fittings and was a key reason that they were relegated to
special cases.
Full Story
