Which hearing aid?

The staff at the hospital or clinic want to find the best hearing aid for each person. 

First they find out about the hearing loss.  The audiogram can show a mild, moderate, severe or profound hearing loss.

Hearing aids make sounds like speech louder to help a 'deaf' person 'hear' them.  The increase in loudness is called 'gain'.  A person with a severe loss needs more 'gain' than a person with a moderate loss to 'hear' the full range of speech sounds.

Different hearing aids give different 'gain'.  To find the best hearing aid they do another hearing test with hearing aids.  The results of this test are called an 'aided threshold'.  

The hearing aid prescribed will give the 'gain' needed for the person to 'hear' the widest range of speech sounds. 

Speech tests (like The Manchester Junior word list (MJ) or The Manchester Picture Test) may be used to compare different hearing aids or contexts.

Find out about 'Gain'

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