Can hearing aids help in background noise?

 
One of the most common situations where individuals with hearing impairment notice their hearing loss is in social situations where there is a lot of competing background noise.  By employing a number of sophisticated technologies to reduce noise and improve speech clarity, hearing aids can help in background noise enabling the wearer to comfortably converse in social situations.

Directional microphones: In the presence of background noise, the hearing aid will automatically switch from a setting that picks up sound from all directions (front, back, sides) to one that picks up sound primarily from the front.  In recent years this technology has improved dramatically to the point that in challenging “cocktail party”-like situations, hearing aid wearers’ speech understanding actually outperforms individuals with normal hearing.

Digital noise reduction (DNR): DNR attempts to distinguish between speech and noise in each of the hearing aids’ processing bands (channels), lowering the volume of each band when noise is identified.

Two hearing aids instead of one: In a previous post we discussed the advantages of two hearing aids over one: http://soundsoflife.com.au/two-ears/.  Using two hearing aids will improve speech understanding in noise for most people.

About Sounds of Life

Sounds of Life Audiology is a leading, independent hearing aid specialist.  We offer affordable hearing aid pricing on quality hearing aids (including virtually invisible hearing aid technology) from the world’s leading brands including Siemens, Signia, Phonak, Starkey, Unitron, Resound, Bernafon, Oticon and Sonic Innovations.

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