Since there are several types of hearing aids available, and many types of hearing losses and hearing needs, a hearing aid evaluation will be done. During this evaluation, the audiologist will help you decide what style and what features would be most beneficial to you.

The Audiologist will help to select an appropriate type of hearing aid based on the severity of the hearing loss, type of hearing loss, similarity of hearing loss in each ear, and degree of hearing loss at each frequency. For instance, a person with normal hearing in the low frequencies and a moderate hearing loss in the high frequencies, would typically do best with a digital, programmable, open mold type hearing aid.

Some of the things to consider include your physical activity level, any physical limitations or medical conditions you may have, your ability to insert or adjust a tiny device, the type of circumstances that you will use the hearing aids (e.g. watching TV, using the telephone, social situations, work environment, level of surrounding noise level), your preferences in style and appearance, and how much you are able to spend on the hearing aids.

The audiologist will also help you decide if you need a hearing aid in only one ear or both. Most people with a hearing loss in both ears do better with hearing aids for both ears in order to give symmetry to their hearing and to be able to better localize sound. Your ears like your eyes were meant to work together. Just as most people have vision loss in both eyes, most people have hearing loss in both ears. If you correct one ear only, sound quality will be poorer, you won’t be able to tell which direction sound is coming from and you won’t hear as well in noisy places. In addition, you’ll have to turn your hearing aid up louder.