by Martin Jurek, Campbell River Hearing Clinic
“How
do I choose the best hearing aid?” It’s a question I get asked
frequently. Plenty of factors come into play when making this decision,
and your hearing care practitioner will have to help you with all of
them. A good starting point is looking at your degree and type of
hearing loss, which will help determine the level of technology you
need.
Next, you’ll need to determine the style of hearing
instrument you need or want. Depending on your lifestyle and ear canal
shape and size, there are numerous options available, such as
in-the-canal (ITC), completely-in-the-canal (CIC), in-the-ear (ITE),
behind-the-ear (BTE) and others.
Finally, you
have to decide which manufacturer will best suit your needs. This is
where you really have to trust your hearing care provider. As with
virtually any product on the market today, there are some good companies
and some that, shall we say, leave a bit to be desired. This could be
due to things like lower quality materials, poor workmanship or design.
One
of the benefits of being an independent hearing clinic is that there is
nobody telling me which instruments to use. I choose the companies that
give me the most free pens. Just kidding, I use the ones that I feel
serve my clients best. They need to provide the best technology to
benefit the wearer, offer great physical quality and reliability and
show a willingness to go the extra mile when necessary.
Having
said all this, no matter how fantastic the quality of the aids, these
tiny electronic components sit in a moist and waxy environment and
sometimes do get damaged. Your hearing care provider – providing you
have a good one – will be there to keep things clean and in top shape,
keeping downtime to an absolute minimum.
If you wold like to know
more about the various hearing aid manufacturers, hearing aid styles and
features, feel free to stop by our office or you can call me at
250-914-3200 or email me at martin@tohear.ca I am always happy to
answer questions.
