Excessive amplification means that the amplification degree of the hearing aid does not match the degree of hearing loss during the fitting process, which affects the sound quality of the hearing aid and reduces the satisfaction of the hearing aid fitting.
What causes over-magnification?
1. Inaccurate hearing test results
The hearing test result is an important indicator for the fitting of hearing aids. Among them, pure tone audiometry is often used to judge the hearing threshold of the hearing impaired.
The standard pure tone hearing test includes air conduction hearing test (AC), bone conduction hearing test (BC), comfort threshold (MCL) and uncomfort threshold (UCL) tests. Determine whether a masking test is required.
This subjective testing process requires mutual cooperation between the hearing aid technician and the hearing impaired. If the test does not meet the standard, the test results will be inaccurate, resulting in inaccurate results and affecting the fitting of hearing aids.
2. Improper fitting process
During the fitting process, the fitting technician needs to fine-tune the hearing aid according to the subjective reaction of the patient.This process aims to further improve and strengthen the patient’s listening experience through communication.
Therefore, the optician should fully understand the hearing condition of the hearing impaired before making appropriate adjustments.
3. Misunderstanding of hearing aids
Some hearing loss patients always hope that the louder the better when they choose hearing aids for the first time.Therefore, during the debugging process, the patient will ask the optician to continuously increase the gain until he feels that the sound is sufficiently “loud” before he is satisfied.
In fact, this misconception is also one of the reasons leading to over-magnification.Faced with this situation, the optician needs to persuade patients through the popularization of correct hearing aid knowledge and correct their misunderstanding of hearing aids.
What are the consequences of over-magnification?
1. Damage to residual hearing
The survey results of researchers such as Neitzel show that about 20% of sounds in life exceed 70 dB. These loud sounds usually come from traffic noise and noise in daily entertainment venues.
If the hearing aid is over-amplified, it will cause the originally noisy sound to be at a higher intensity level, which will stimulate the hair cells in the long run and further damage the residual hearing.
2. Affect the sound quality of hearing aids
Hearing aids will cause certain signal distortion in the process of sound-electric-acoustic conversion, which makes the sound processed by the hearing aid slightly different from the sound heard by natural ears.
If the hearing aid is over-amplified, it will further increase the distortion of the hearing aid, thereby greatly reducing the sound quality of the hearing aid and affecting the patient’s listening effect. www.jhhearingaids.com
In order to prevent the deterioration of wearing satisfaction caused by over-magnification, the optician can use the digital functions and debugging techniques of hearing aids to avoid over-magnification.Tip XNUMX: Use the fitting function wide dynamic range compression (WDRC); maximum sound output control (MPO); noise reduction (Noise Reduction); directional microphone (Directional Microphone);
Tip XNUMX: Use the matching strategy skillfully. The hearing loss range must be within the range of the selected hearing aid; the binaural matching; if the patient is not prone to ear plugging, try to choose a non-porous ear mold or standard earplug; turn on the hearing aid drop Noise function, and adjust to the intensity that the patient feels comfortable;
Hearing aid selection is a delicate process. In addition to adjusting the gain for the main complaint of the user, the optician should consciously avoid over-amplification, and provide the most professional selection service for hearing aid users through the adjustment of various parameters and the application of accessories.
