CAN AN IN-THE-EAR FITTING BE TRULY OPEN?

Jespersen CT,  Moeller KN.

GN ReSound AS, Lautrupbjerg 9, 2750 Ballerup, Denmark.

As on- and in-the-ear telecommunication devices continue to rise in popularity, translating the futuristic designs to hearing aid technology seems plausible. A new hearing aid intended to combine the benefits of open fitting with design elements of modern telecommunication devices has been developed. When designing this device, three main goals were held paramount: to achieve comparable performance to current open hearing devices in terms of occlusion relief and usable gain; to be comfortable for extended wear; and to be cosmetically appealing and innovative to the hearing aid user.

Individuals with mild to moderate high-frequency hearing loss participated in a series of clinical trials with these devices. The participants included individuals with no prior amplification experience and people that were experienced with open mini-BTE instruments and completely-in-the-canal (CIC) instruments. Extensive data was collected to demonstrate the degree to which the primary objectives for the device were met. Objective testing included speech recognition testing, gain before feedback with and without feedback suppression activated, occlusion measurement utilizing a probe microphone system and real-ear verification of insertion gain. Subjective measures included subject surveys of hearing aid benefit and satisfaction, subjective reports of occlusion, and reports of comfort, cosmetics and hearing aid performance. Results show that the hearing aid succeeded in meeting the three hearing aid goals.

In this presentation the advantages of non-occluding fittings will be reviewed, along with the demands these fittings place on the hearing aid. The results of the clinical trials will be shared, and will include data illustrating the benefit afforded by these particular hearing aids.

E-mail: cjespersen@gnresound.dk