Old style hearing aids are now known as body worn aids. They were relatively large devices about the size of a deck of cards. Body worn aids are seldom used anymore, except occasionally in the case of very severe hearing loss. The most common hearing aid type today is the behind the ear aid, or BTE. A behind the ear hearing aid consists of a case that clips behind the ear and is connected directly by plastic sound tubes to a custom molded earpiece. BTE’s are generally more suitable for children, as they are more durable and easier to adapt as the child grows. The next type of hearing aid is the in the ear or ITE hearing aid. These aids fit in the outer ear bowl and can be visible. They are the most comfortable, least expensive, and easiest to use of the custom fitted hearing aids. Smaller that the in the ear hearing aid is the in the canal, or ITC hearing aid. These aids are usually more expensive than ITE’s, and are also harder to adjust owing to the small size of the volume wheel. Even smaller than the ITC’s are the mini canal, or MC, hearing aid. These are the smallest hearing aid you can get that still have a volume adjustment wheel. The tiniest hearing aids made are the completely in the canal, or CIC hearing aids. They fit so deeply into the ear that they require a removal string. CIC’s do not usually have manual controls simply because of their size.
A feature available on many hearing aids is the telecoil. Telecoils allow the hearing aid to pick up magnetic signals and process them as audio signal. Telecoils were originally developed to help those with hearing aids use the telephone. Older telephone produced fairly strong magnetic fields in their earpieces, which could be picked up by the telecoil. Modern phones do not normally produce strong enough magnetic fields, but many phones and other devices are equipped to transmit to a telecoil anyway. Most users find that the telecoil provides better sound quality and allow the user to more easily concentrate on the desired sound, despite any background noise.