Hearing aids today offer great bandwidth. What are the benefits of this, and how can we build in robust fitting procedures to ensure that the low frequency response and the high frequency response are set accurately? What are the impacts of providing a broad bandwidth of audible sound for hearing aid users? How does this relate to what hearing aid users prefer in the lab and in the real world? In this session, we’ll review several types of hearing aids that offer broadband sound, and the main factors that lead to verification errors in both the low and the high frequency ranges. We’ll follow up with some recently-developed clinical strategies that are available now, and that offer improved accuracy. This will include newly-developed strategies for building venting corrections into coupler-based fine tuning, fitting bone conduction hearing aids, and a tutorial on fine tuning with phonemes. Finally, we’ll examine a few of the benefits associated with broadband fitting and use group discussions to share challenges and successes that you have experienced in your practice.
Learning objectives:
After this session, attendees will:
- Recognize how hearing aid bandwidth and user preferences and outcomes relate to one another.
- Describe the key features of hearing aid verification that allow more accurate fine tuning of open-fit hearing aids on a closed coupler.
- Identify strategies for maximizing hearing aid bandwidth for both air and bone conduction hearing aids.
