What is a Hearing instrument?

At the most basic level, a hearing instrument is a miniature sound amplifier. It receives sounds through a microphone, converts them to electrical impulses, amplifies the impulses, and converts them back into sound.

Different kinds of hearing losses

But if a hearing instrument were to do only that, it would be of very limited use. It would simply amplify all incoming sounds equally. This would be ineffective, because all hearing losses are different. Some people lose hearing in the high frequencies, some in the middle or low frequencies – hearing loss patterns are as unique as thumbprints. People with hearing loss also have widely varying comfort levels when it comes to the loudness of various sounds.

That is why a hearing instrument must be highly selective in how it amplifies sound for its user.

Digital quality

The advent of digital hearing instruments made highly personalized fitting possible. Hearing care professionals feed hearing test results into a computer, which is used to adjust hearing instruments for a user’s particular needs. The hearing instruments then converts sounds into digital code, manipulates the code according to the user’s programmed needs, and re-convert it into “CD” quality sound.

The evolution of the hearing instrument

Over the last 15 years, hearing instruments have been transformed from very large, very visible sound amplifiers to miniature high performances. So today, it is often impossible to see that someone is wearing a hearing instrument.