How Do Hearing Aids Work?

Today’s hearing aids are small but incredibly powerful computers.

At Colorado Ear Care, with clinics in Arvada, Castle Rock, Greeley, Lakewood, and Louisville, our team of experts uses their knowledge and experience to fit hearing aids precisely and comfortably, improving your unique type of hearing loss. We’re committed to making sure your hearing devices are as effective and personalized as possible.
Schedule now

How do hearing aids work?

Most hearing technology will consist of three basic components:

Microphone

A microphone’s job in a hearing aid is to capture sounds. Some hearing aids have only a single microphone while others have multiple microphones. This not only improves speech clarity and understanding, but in more advanced hearing aids allows the hearing aid to dampen background noise and help conversational speech come through more clearly.

Amplifier

Amplifiers take the sound that is captured by the microphone and make it louder. Today’s hearing aids house mini computers that are programmed and adjusted to the hearing needs of the individual user by their provider during the fitting process. Not only do the amplifiers make sounds louder, the chips inside the hearing aids tell that amplifier to treat signals like speech or noise differently. How advanced those functions get depends upon the technology level of the hearing aid.

Receiver

The receiver processes that incoming sound so that you can hear it. The receiver is either housed inside the hearing aid shell, in the case of custom, in-the-ear hearing aids, or in a piece that connects to the hearing aid that’s behind the ear in the case of behind-the-ear or receiver-in-canal hearing aids. Your hearing care provider should give you detailed instructions on how to protect the receiver and keep it clean so you can hear your best. Wax and debris can block the receiver making it difficult to hear or blocking the aid from working at all.