How Technology Has Improved Hearing Tests
Miracle-Ear, the leading provider of hearing aids in America as well as Banning, California and surrounding cities, has been in business for over sixty years. Miracle-Ear was started by Ken Dahlberg, Jr. a World War 2 aviator turned electronic inventor, who invented a “pillow radio” to help wounded soldiers in the hospital hear privately. Dahlberg brought the idea to his employer at the time, who wasn’t interested in pursuing it, which inspired Dahlberg to launch his own company, Dahlberg, Inc. which became the foundation for what Miracle-Ear is today.
Jerry Hagans owns hearing centers in Banning, CA, and provides residents with many different types of hearing aids. One style of hearing aid that is offered from Miracle-Ear at all of their hearing centers, including Hagans’ center in Banning, CA, is the in-the-ear hearing aid. Miracle-Ear was actually the first company to offer this type of hearing aid, thus setting the precedent for being at the forefront of innovative hearing aid technology.
Technology with hearing aids has rapidly advanced over the past decade. According to Miracle-Ear, miniaturization of hearing aids has quickly developed. The size and the circuits of hearing aids have become much smaller, allowing hearing aids to be virtually invisible in the patient’s ear. However, these small hearing aids are just as strong and powerful, if not more so, than older, larger versions. One major area of technological improvement in hearing aids is the Open Canal hearing aid. Open Canal technology allows the modern components of the hearing aid to be hidden both over the ear and inside the ear canal, helping the device to be almost unseen. These Open Canal devices also have many acoustic advantages, including the elimination of the plugged feeling many patients report experiencing with hearing aids, as well as eliminating any squealing or feedback patients report hearing.
There’s also technology that can take a silicone impression of the inside of the patient’s ear canal. The hardened silicone is put in a scanning device and an electronic scan (or three dimensional image) is created. This image and scan is sent via email to the hearing aid’s manufacturer, which cuts down on wait times, helping patients receive their new hearing aids a lot sooner so they can start their new life hearing the world again.
All of these technological improvements have not only helped with improving patients’ quality of life, but improving their satisfaction as well.