What Is an Air-Conduction Hearing Aid?

In general, there are two broad categories of hearing aids: those that work by pumping sound to patients through the air, and those that vibrate the skull.

The vast majority of people use air-conduction hearing aids, but in some cases, they may not be suitable. 

What are air-conduction hearing aids?

When you think of a hearing aid, you usually think of a device that takes incoming sounds, amplifies them, and then pumps them back out through a speaker. In essence, this is what all air-conduction hearing aids do, no matter their shape. Sound waves from the environment reach the microphone; it then funnels their information through the processor to the speaker in the ear canal. The speaker then fires, issuing the enhanced sound waves through the air to the eardrum. 

Note that putting a hearing aid in the air-conduction category tells you very little about it, other than how it transmits sound to the patient. You can put practically any device in this category, so long as it uses a speaker to transmit sound to the wearer. 

What is a bone-anchored hearing aid? 

Bone-anchored hearing aids don’t just look different from their air-conduction counterparts – they also work on different principles. 

As before, these assistive hearing devices use a microphone and a processor. But instead of using a speaker to transmit sound waves through the eardrum, a vibrating component delivers sound-like waves through the skull. 

Bone-anchored hearing aids require surgical installation and usually sit just behind the ear. Unlike the conventional variety, you cannot remove them. 

Who can’t wear air-conduction hearing aids? 

In general, there are two groups of people who can’t wear air-conduction hearing aids. The first are those who have chronic ear infections. 

For a very small number of people, wearing standard hearing aids is not possible because of bacterial growth in the ear. Implanting a bone-anchored device is often the only solution to prevent repeated infection. 

The second group of people is those with malformed ear canals. Sometimes wearing a regular hearing aid is just biomechanically impossible because the shape of the ear won’t allow it. 

Air-conduction hearing aids come in a variety of styles

Because air-conduction hearing aids comprise the vast majority of the market, they come in the largest number of styles. 

Hearing instrument specialists (HIS) typically stock a wide range of form factors, all with slightly different purposes and applications. 

Behind the ear (BTE) is the most common form of an air-conduction device on the market today. These come in two sections – a battery-containing compartment that sits behind the ear and a speaker that slots in the canal. A small tube facilitates communication between the two parts. 

Although BTEs are large and visible, they come with a host of advantages. First, they provide users with functions that you can’t usually get on smaller devices, such as longer battery life. Second, they offer greater amplification for those with profound hearing loss,

Receiver-in-the-ear (RITE) devices look similar to BTE, except they don’t have a speaker section that slots in the canal. Instead, they rely on a long tube to pipe sound from the behind-the-ear part to the eardrum. 

In-the-ear (ITE) devices do the reverse. They remove the section that loops around the back of the ear and combine the necessary components into a single part that slots in the ear. 

Should you choose an air-conduction hearing aid? 

If you have hearing loss, then you will most likely want to choose an air-conduction hearing aid. Besides being more comfortable to select and fit, this type of assistive device offers more features. 

Features on modern air-conduction hearing aids include things like: 

• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing you to connect them to your devices
• Telecoils that pipe sounds from the telephone directly to your ear
• Automatic setting changes as you switch from one sound environment to another
• Directional microphones that allow you to focus on the person sitting in front of you
• Multiple channels for amplifying specific frequencies
• Software updates and patches to improve sound fidelity and patient experience
• The ability to save your settings and switch between profiles quickly

Unless there is some critical reason why you can’t use air-conduction hearing aids, they will be your default choice. They offer the best combination of performance, value, and convenience. 

Would you like to learn more about hearing aids and how to find the right fit for you? If so, please get in touch with Hearing Well Matters at (647) 247-2704. We would love to speak with you.