Hearing loss and need hearing aids? What solutions exist and how to choose the most suitable one for your needs and lifestyle? Find our tips for a successful fitting!
Once your ENT doctor has diagnosed you with a hearing loss that is significant enough to require hearing aids, the audioprosthetist healthcare professional takes over to support you. Getting equipped with hearing aids also requires time for reflection and acceptance. Also, do not hesitate to talk to your doctor and the various hearing care professionals to let them know about our lifestyles. What are good practices for actively participating in the process?
Presbycusis, loss of hearing ability with advancing age equivalent to presbyopia is a natural phenomenon that occurs in a large majority of the world's population. So you are not alone in this case! Also, you have to dare to talk about it, if only in the first place to your attending physician. Hearing is always possible, but hearing well is another matter. The difference lies in the ability to understand speech, especially in a noisy situation. It is important to explain to your doctor and all hearing professionals how this difficulty in understanding speech affects the quality of your social life. This will help refine the medical examinations and help in the decision to refer you to hearing solutions.
Once the prescription from the ENT doctor, or your attending physician by way of derogation due to the health crisis, it is the state-certified audioprosthetist who will accompany you in the choice of hearing aids, their adjustment and their regular maintenance. . Each hearing loss is personal. Several criteria will be taken into account. Your lifestyle and the volume of social interactions, the shape of your ear canals, the nature of your hearing loss, the amount of earwax production, your dexterity, your desires for comfort. The goal remains that hearing aids are worn for the health of your brain. Depending on these criteria, the audioprosthetist will offer you intra-auricular devices – small devices introduced into the auditory canal or behind the ears. Technologically, these two types of solutions are equal in terms of hearing aid gains for light to moderate losses, but the greater the hearing loss, the more you will be oriented towards more powerful BTEs. Hearing solutions have embedded computer technologies. They are "multi-core" to differentiate between speech and music sound processing, noise reduction, different channels and anti-feedback programs, to cover tinnitus, Bluetooth... More a channels and more it is possible to fine tune the settings by frequency. Your ability to understand speech in the majority of your life situations remains the ultimate goal. The latest generations also integrate fall and biorhythm sensors and make them Healthable. But all these technologies are to be selected according to your personal needs.
The more programs your hearing aids have, the more power they need. There are different battery sizes and rechargeable solutions. Social Security covers one year's worth of batteries.
Since 1 st January 2021, the 100% health hearing aids is effective. This means that, depending on your complementary health insurance, you will no longer have a charge on the hearing solutions selected in class 1.
These solutions must, among other things, have:
Three options are mandatory, among 12 possible:anti-tinnitus system, remote adjustment by remote control or Bluetooth, wind noise reduction, synchronization between the two devices, etc.
You can renew your equipment every 4 years. Class 1 devices meet most of the needs of people with presbycusis.
Support also includes hearing aid follow-up with at least two appointments per year. However, it is possible for you to make an appointment as soon as you feel less comfortable in order to carry out a cleaning and/or an adjustment.
Class 2 devices offer many other features such as direct smartphone connection, rechargeable, more tuning channels and different technologies with artificial intelligence and biorhythm sensors.
But the most important thing is you, for the fitting to be a success. Each hearing loss is different because each person lives differently from another. Also, to be able to meet your needs, it is important to express your expectations and the situations in which it is important that the hearing solutions help you and contribute to your daily dynamism. The goal remains that your solutions accompany your life and help you stimulate the brain to avoid social withdrawal, falling and premature cognitive aging.
