With some experts estimating that over 70% of older Americans have a need to use a hearing aid, chances are that at some point deciding upon which style of aid to wear is going to come up in one's life.
There are currently four or five major types of hearing aids to choose from.
This article will attempt to give an overview of each with the hopes that one can make an informed choice as to which to go with, if and when the time comes.
Starting with the most miniature, tiny model, known as the "completely-in-the-canal" style of aid is just that, nearly invisible to the casual glance.
The reason for this is two-fold.
First, the entire device actually does reside in the inner ear canal with nothing protruding away from the ear.
The second reason, many of these tiny aids are also tinted to be a very close shade of color which corresponds to the skin tone of the wearer.
Combine their tiny size with near skin color, and the user of this type of hearing aid may just fool most people into thinking they have perfect, natural hearing.
Next up is the style known as the "in-the-canal" type.
Very similar to the aforementioned aid, this one is not completely inserted into one's ear canal, instead having a small bit protruding from the ear's opening.
The benefits of this style of aid relates to the additional features which can be placed internal to the device.
The challenges to this type, however, tend to make them harder for persons with smaller ears.
Using some of the features on these extremely small hearing aids can also be difficult for some older people with arthritis.
The full shell "in-the-ear" style of hearing device extends even further out of one's ear canal to take up the outer bowl of one's ear.
While these are definitely easier to spot, they have the advantage of featuring even more options due to their larger size.
Another benefit of going with this style is the easier access to actually using those features.
Anyone who has witnessed some of the over-the-ear style of Bluetooth earpieces will be familiar with the style of hearing aid known as "behind-the-ear".
Essentially this type of device combines the completely-in-the-canal style with a small bit that rests on the back side of the wearer's ears.
Connection is made from the external bit to the internal with a small, often clear plastic bit of tubing.
These devices which reside behind the wearers ears have both advantages and disadvantages.
Usually much larger than all the other styles, they are easy to spot.
These sizes, like so much of modern technology, are decreasing as time progresses, however.
The biggest advantages to this style relates to their ability to provide maximum amplification--much more so than any of the other styles of aids.
Many users of the over-the-ear also find reaching and manipulating their features like on/off switches or volume controls much easier than in the ear type models.
With analog style hearing aids being phased out of the marketplace, most are now all digital and have the ability to help those with hearing loss much better than the older styles.
Computer chip technology provides these tiny hearing devices with the ability to be programmed specifically for the challenges of the wearer.
Once set up, the digital hearing aid analyzes and adjusts the incoming sound to boost volume and frequencies which are most needed for the user to hear better.
The older analog models tended to simply be sound amplifiers.
Louder is not always better to one suffering from hearing loss.