Navigating Different Hearing Aid Styles: Fitting Considerations

Hearing aids are a great advancement in technology. They enable you to improve your hearing ability, as well as your overall health and quality of life. Everyone is different, with different needs and requirements. Fortunately, there are also a variety of hearing aid styles that are available.

Each hearing aid style will come with a different comfort level, discreteness, size and features. You may also have your own preferences on what kind of support you would like, and what style of hearing aid you prefer. Some people don’t mind what it looks like – as long as it is comfortable and are able to control the volume, whereas other people may prefer a more invisible and discreet hearing aid that works to suit their needs. Hearing aids will impact your quality of life, so you must consider the different types, how they fit and which one would be best suited to you.

To help you navigate the decision-making process, here are some of the best hearing aid styles and their specific features.

In-the-Ear (ITE) Hearing Aids

ITE hearing aids fit in the outer bowl of your ear. They can come in different styles: one being a half shell, that fits into the lower part of your ear, and a full shell, that fits in the majority of the inner ear. As these are slightly bigger the in-the-canal hearing aids, they often come with more features, such as to control the volume and bigger batteries. It is a discreet style but larger than an in-the-canal model.

Behind-the-Ear (BTE) Hearing Aids

A BTE hearing aid is one that fits behind your ear while being connected through a tube that hooks across the top of your ear. This is a custom hearing aid that is molded to fit the shape of your ear canal. These are quite large in size, however, there are newer developments that make them more discreet. They have several different features that are available for use with a rechargeable battery.

In-the-Canal (ITC) Hearing Aids

ITC hearing aids are much less visible than ITE and BTE styles of hearing aids. ITC hearing aids are suitable for mild-to-moderate hearing loss. Due to their size they aren’t as easily adjustable, so if you have dexterity issues these might not be the right fit for you.

Invisible-in-Canal (IIC) Hearing Aids

IIC hearing aids are small and invisible and fit inside the ear. They fit deeper in the ear canal than other hearing aids, making them virtually undetectable. They offer a variety of features, including great sound quality.

Completely-in-Canal Hearing Aids (CIC)

CIC hearing aids fit inside the ear canal and work as a funnel, with the natural shape of your ear to help sound travel as it is supposed to. These hearing aids are custom fit to the shape of your ear and lightweight. They include a small tab for ease of removal.

There are many different hearing aid styles available. When you know what options there are, it can help you to navigate your hearing health and choose the right hearing aids to suit your needs. Talk with your audiologist about the different styles and which will be suited for your specific hearing needs.