Abstract:
Technological advancements in small sized electronic circuitry has led to the development of programmable hearing aids. In some systems, a patient's hearing thresholds are entered into a computer and the computer calculates the gain of the hearing aid for each of the test frequencies. The computer then programs the patient's hearing aid to produce the desired gain at the respective frequencies.It is currently possible to use a probe tube placed in a patient's ear canal to measure the amount of gain a patient receives from a hearing aid. Such measures have been found valid and reliable (Mueller and Bryant, 1991) and have generally become the preferred method of evaluating hearing aid performance (Grahl, 1993). The term real-ear is the label usually used to refer to such measurements.As hearing aid technology changes, clinicians are faced with the task of determining how that new technology can be used to better serve the needs of their hearing-impaired client. Programmable hearing aids may make it possible to provide amplification better matched to patients' hearing losses and ear characteristics. It is important, however, to evaluate whether the results achieved with such hearing aids do in fact provide the anticipated results.It was the purpose of the present investigation to evaluate the gain achieved by a programmable hearing aid system (Ensoniq Sound Selector) with real-ear methods. Specifically, real-ear measures obtained with the Rastronics CCI-10/3 were compared to those of the Ensoniq Sound Selector System. Insertion gain and real-ear aided responses were the specific measures compared.