What Hearing Aids are Best for Active Lifestyles?

Over 30 million Americans experience hearing loss, and while sometimes it is temporary because of infection or wax buildup, it might be non-restorable that requires the use of a hearing aid. Hearing aids are small devices that can be worn either outside the ear, inside the ear, or in the ear canal to receive and amplify sounds.

Suppose you maintain an active lifestyle either for your career or recreationally. In that case, you might be wondering how a hearing aid will fit into your activities, but there are many types available that are suited to the more active person.

Some considerations may include:

• Shapes and sizes
• Moisture and dirt protection

Technology improvements made to modern hearing aids have allowed smaller styles to be created, with some offering dampening solutions that can lower the effects of rain or wind and others come with moisture protection from perspiration when exercising or running.

Many shapes and sizes

A key consideration when choosing a hearing aid that is suitable for an active lifestyle is usually the size of the device. Sports and activities mean that constant movement could dislodge a device from its position or even make it fall out altogether. However, for safety reasons, it isn't a good idea to just remove the aid when exercising as exercise equipment can be dangerous; you may not hear a car coming when jogging or even a fire alarm at your local gym.

The smallest available device is the in-the-canal (ITC) aid which fits directly inside the ear canal rather than being worn outside as with standard devices. Because it fits inside the ear canal, there is also much less chance of it coming loose or falling out; however, the small size means that there is limited processing power for the speaker, which means that an ITC device is suitable for those with low to mild hearing loss.

Protection from the elements

Obviously, perspiration occurs when exercising and activities such as playing an outdoor contact sport can become muddy. A behind-the-ear (BTE) device might be too large for a physical sport and will come into contact with a lot of perspiration from your head, and an ITC device might not be strong enough for hearing distant sounds, so a good compromise would be to opt for an in-the-ear (ITE) device instead.

ITE hearing aids are worn inside the ear much like a standard pair of in-ear headphones, and because of this, they are much less prone to coming into contact with the elements and dirt. Additionally, they can provide many improved features over an ITC device while being much smaller than a traditional BTC device, making them suitable for situations that require discretion, capability and robustness while being suitably protected from external factors.

By consulting an audiologist, you can get help in determining which one would be suitable for your particular lifestyle since no one person's is the same as another and while you might engage in a sportier life, it may not be as intense as someone else's, so actually considering multiple options becomes a necessary part of choosing a hearing aid.