Hearing Aids
Hearing aids come in all different brands, styles and technology levels. We are here to recommend and help guide you on what would best suit your hearing loss and needs.
Hearing Aids With Solo Audiology and Hearing
Hearing aids and/or assistive listening technologies are often recommended as part of hearing rehabilitation.
Although not every single person will need or benefit from amplification, it does play a large role in audiology and it is often a curiosity that many people have.
Solo Audiology and Hearing is an independent audiology clinic, which means that we are not owned or operated by a hearing aid manufacturer or corporate retail chain.
Because of this, we are not tied to a small selection of hearing aid brands or 'white-labelled' hearing aids.
We can provide all of the latest technology from all hearing aid brands and manufacturers. With access to all hearing aids, we are in the best position to recommend whichever technology or devices would be best suited to your individual needs.
When hearing aids are needed, we take the time to perform gold-standard Real Ear Measurements (REM) every. single. time. This ensures the hearing aids are completely personalised to your unique listening and ear anatomy.
At Solo Audiology and Hearing, not only can you rest assured that you have choice and access to the latest technology from genuine brands, but they will also be professionally fitted using best practice protocols every time.
Hearing Aid Styles
Receiver-in-Canal
Receiver-in-Canal hearing aids (or 'RIC') are highly discrete devices that sit on/behind your ear with a thin speaker wire that feeds inside your ear canal.
They are the most common style of hearing aids, widely popular due to their discretion and their ability to fit most types of hearing loss.
As for the piece that goes into your ear, either a generic dome is used (with different venting options) or a custom-made acrylic or silicone tip can be made.
They are generally full of sound-processing features and can offer rechargeability and Bluetooth connectivity.
Behind-the-Ear
Behind-the-Ear hearing aids (or 'BTE') also sit on/behind your ear. Rather than a thin speaker wire feeding into your ear like with the 'RIC', there is instead a tube. The sound comes from the hearing aid speaker which is located on the hearing aid itself, and feeds down the tube into your ear.
These are typically recommended for more severe hearing losses, dexterity or manual handling difficulties, or other chronic ear health-related issues.
They come in a range of different sizes and still tend to be full of sound-processing features. They can also offer Bluetooth connectivity and in some cases, rechargeability (depending on the severity of the hearing loss).
In-the-Ear
In-the-Ear hearing aids (or 'ITE') are custom made hearing aids that are fitted perfectly to your ear. These are made using an impression.
These are normally recommended for people whose low-frequency hearing isn't too good, as this can otherwise lead to something called the 'occlusion effect'.
Some people prefer to look of this style hearing aid over the RIC or BTE styles.
They come in a variety of sizes, with the most common being the ITC (In-the-Canal). ITE and ITC hearing aids can still be full of sound processing features, rechargeability, and Bluetooth connectivity as they are still large enough to fit all of these components inside.
Completely-in-the-Canal
Completely-in-the-canal hearing aids (or 'CIC') are custom made hearing aids that are fitted perfectly to your ear - but much tinier than an ITE or ITC. These are also made using an impression.
They can also be made even deeper and smaller where the ear canal anatomy permits, known as an Invisible-in-the-Canal ('IIC') hearing aid.
These are essentially a much smaller and more discrete version than the ITE and ITC custom hearing aids.
A successful fitting requires a very good impression, but also an ear canal that will allow for it.
A key consideration of these devices, is that they can typically only use a small disposable battery (so dexterity is very important) and they tend to lack Bluetooth/wireless features and often many of the signal processing features found in the other styles. However, given that they are intended to sit deep into your ear canal, many of those features may no longer actually serve a significant benefit as we can use the natural pinna effect from the ear (i.e. how we naturally collect sound).
Instant Fit Hearing Aids
Instant fit hearing aids are a newer category of hearing aids. The aim is to create a style that either; looks like a earphone that you might normally use for music streaming, or invisible, like an IIC/CIC.
The attractive part of these tends to be that an impression is not necessarily needed and that they can still support features such as rechargeability and Bluetooth connectivity, despite their small size.
At this time, this style is mainly dominated by the brands Signia and Oticon.
Hearing Aids & Assistive Technologies
Memberships and Accreditations
Bookings and Enquiries
Click the 'Book an Appointment' button to book in with us online. If you have a query, you can click the 'Send an Enquiry' button to submit a form to us and our team will respond to you shortly.
Or if you prefer, feel free to give us a call on 0415 614 727, or send us an email to office@soloaudiology.com.au