Hearing In Noise

By Melanie King, AuD

Hearing Professionals Inc.

. http://www.hearing-professionals.com/

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Hearing In Noise

Hearing in the presence of background noise and in the presence of multiple speakers is one of the greatest challenges that person's with hearing loss face. Patients will state that as long as they are communicating one-on-one, they are just fine. But, as soon as competing sounds or speech are present, the ability to understand is lost.

Hearing aid technology is constantly advancing. One of the greatest strides over the last decade is in the area of assisting hearing aid wearers in the presence of background noise. One of the primary ways that hearing aids are manipulated to reduce the negative effects of noise is through the use of directional microphones. Today, directional microphones will “scan” the environment around the hearing aid wearer in search of speech signals. Through digital signal processing, algorithms can detect and identify speech versus non-speech components of sound.

Advanced technologies have the ability to process speech and noise differently by sending each through different signal processing (i.e. filters) to enhance the speech level over that of the noise. Once noise components are identified, the hearing aid will automatically adjust the processing to de-emphasize characteristics of the signal dominated by noise, thus reducing loudness and annoyance from background noise. At the same time, the speech components are increased to aid in better understanding. The ratio of speech to noise is called the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The higher the SNR, the better understanding a patient will receive.

One of the biggest adjustments that new hearing aid wearers have is getting use to the presence of “normal background noise.” Because hearing loss progresses so slowly, patients tend to forget how loud the world really is. It is important during the initial periods of hearing aid use to have your audiologist carefully and slowly increase the amount of amplification in order for your brain to adjust to the sounds around you. It is critical to work with someone that takes the time to get you acclimated to new technology at your own pace.

Finally, it should be stated that not all hearing aid technologies are the same. The processing rate, sound quality and effectiveness of hearing aids will vary greatly depending on the sophistication of the hearing aid technology. It is extremely important to discuss the differences in technology with your hearing health care provider, taking into consideration your specific hearing loss, lifestyle demands and budget.