Your Telephone + Hearing Aids Can HAC It Together


When you realize you have hearing loss, it can be frightening to use the phone. Sometimes you wonder if its worth keeping the darn telephone. Hearing aids arent always the answer, as they can sometimes whine and hiss when you are on some kinds of phone. But you neednt toss out the telephone. Hearing aids can help you use the phone as you always did.

And, federal law requires that all telephones made after 1989 are Hearing Aid Compatible (HAC). If you dont believe me, its called the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988. Sometimes phones and hearing aids dont match, one giving noises that cancels out the effects of another. Federal law is trying to get all kinds of wireless phones and headsets to HAC it, as well.

Should I Get A New Phone?

You dont have to worry about using a public, hospital or social service office telephone. Hearing aids will not bother them as they all had to be replaced by HAC compatible phones back in 1989. Even business were supposed to have all HAC compatible phones by late 1989.

If your land line phone was made before 1989, you need a new land line telephone. Hearing aids will not work well with them. The price of land line phones have gone down since the surge of the cell phone, so you will find land line phones on sale sooner or later. All telephones sold now have to have prominent HAC compatible labels on them.

If your cell phone was made before 2005, you need a new cell phone. They also have to have HAC compatible labels prominently displayed on them. All digital wireless handsets will need to be HAC compatible by 2008 or the FCC is not going to be happy.

Also according to the HAC act of 1988, all stores are affected that sell mobile telephones. Hearing aids will be sure to work with your new phone before you buy it because the stores are required to let you test the phone in the shop. This law covers only mobile telephones and not land line phones, but many department and electronic stores will plug your phone in for you to see if it works well enough for you.

Any new phone you buy should have an easy to operate volume control button or switch. Sometimes they will also have a mute button, which is increasingly becoming handy these days.

Hearing Aids Types

Do you have the diagnosis in writing?

In the ear hearing aids are those which fit completely inside the outer ear and are used for mild to severe hearing loss. You worry if these hearing aids are going to work. Are mail order hearing aids allowed to be sold in your state? But you can worry less about your hearing aids if you choose GN ReSound hearing aids.

Many users of BTE aids seem to prefer the open fit aids due to increased sound quality.
Lions Clubs, for instance, have a very long history of providing financial assistance for hearing aids, either through hearing aid banks or through direct assistance. Check with your health insurance or social security plan. You may have to go for some specific hearing tests and even get fitted in order to find the best hearing aids for you. This means checking out the brands of hearing aids that they offer and the prices that they are asking for them, so that you can see which companies offer the best quality and value. This can be a common problem as a person ages, and while about 70 percent of hearing aid users are over the age of 60, but younger people also suffer this sound separation ability. Never allow your hearing aid to be stuck against a hard surface, or dropped.

Disposable hearing aids are built like other hearing aid devices, with a small, mushroom-like cap that fits inside of the ear canal.
The second of the types of hearing aids is the ITE aid. Can you hear mechanical or repetitive noises and only have trouble hearing speech? Telecoils are only designed to work with the BTE (behind the ear) and ITE (in the ear) types of hearing aids, as ITC (in the canal) aids are not large enough to accommodate the coils. Completely in the ear units can provide great sound amplification without visibility, but at a higher cost.