HEARING AID STYLES

All hearing aids contain the same parts to carry sound from the environment into your ear. However, hearing aids do come in a number of styles, which differ in size and the way they're placed in your ear. Some are small enough to fit inside your ear canal, making them almost invisible. Others fit partially in your ear canal. Generally, the smaller a hearing aid is, the less powerful it is, the shorter battery life it has, and the higher cost it has. The following are common hearing aid styles:

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Behind-The-Ear (BTE)

BTE hearing aids are the largest hearing aids. BTEs have the most circuit options and they can typically have much more power than any of the custom made in the ear units. BTEs are the units that sit on the back of your ear. They are connected to the ear canal via custom-made earmold with plastic tubing. This carries the sound from the hearing aid into your ear. The earmold is custom made from an ear impression to perfectly replicate the size and shape of your ear.

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In-The-Ear (ITE)

An in-the-ear aid does not have the piece behind the ear. All of the mechanical parts of the aid are housed inside a shell that is in the ear canal. In-the-ear aids come in a variety of sizes including larger ones that fill up the outer part of your ear or smaller ones that fits in part of the outer ear.

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In-The-Canal (ITC)

ITC hearing aids are inserted into the canal portion of the ear and do not fill up as much of the outer ear. They are very small and require good dexterity to control the volume wheels and other controls on the faceplate and they are smaller than ITEs.

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Completely-In-The-Canal (CIC)

Completely-In-the-Canal units are very small, inserted deeper into the ear canal, and are less visible than the other styles of hearing aids. Although the CICs require good dexterity, they are simple to use and do not usually have manual controls due to their small size.

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OPEN Fit Mini-BTE

This sits behind your ear but is small enough that it usually cannot be seen from the front or side – even when worn by people with short hair styles. The miniature open ear bud sits deep in your ear canal and cannot be seen. Even the slim tube that connects the OPEN instrument and the ear bud is tiny and clear, thus this is also difficult to see. The earpiece may be a "few sizes fits most" dome arrangement or a custom-made earmold. These aids come in a variety of colors and are appropriate for mild to moderate high frequency (high pitch) hearing losses.

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Receiver-In-The-Ear (RITE)

RITE hearing aids are a new style of the Open Fit mini-BTE. RITE hearing aids take the receiver (or speaker) out of the behind the ear portion of the aid and place the receiver directly into the ear canal. The two pieces are connected by a very thin wire encased in plastic tubing. The placement of the receiver in the ear canal tends to enhance natural sound quality. These types of aids may have a custom or standard ear piece. These aids also come in a wide variety of colors and shapes.

SUPPLIES & BATTERIES

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Hearing Aid Supplies

Hearing aid supplies such as battery, wax guard, Dome, Dri-Aid, ear mold air blower, Hearing Aid Battery Tester, Ear-mold and ITE Hearing Aid Spray, etc., as well as DOC Plugs and may be obtained from our office by calling. You may stop in to the office during normal working hours to pick up what you have requested for.

Batteries

The tab color on the battery denotes the battery size. All battery manufacturers use the same colors for the various sizes. So if you use Rayovac, Duracell, or Energizer, the tab colors will all be the same. In addition, the battery numbers are frequently followed by letters; these may be ignored in most instances.

Orange Tab.............. #13

Yellow Tab............... #10

Brown Tab............... #312

Blue Tab................. #675