Behind-the-Ear (BTE) Hearing Aids
With a Behind-the-Ear (BTE) unit, the main parts of the hearing aid will sit behind your ear. Sound travels into the ear canal through a tube connected to a molded piece of plastic that will fit in your ear.
BTE instruments are more powerful than smaller devices because they can accommodate a larger battery and a stronger amplifier. Directional microphones, multiple listening programs, telecoil, and Bluetooth compatibility are available features.
This traditional style is a good choice for children and individuals with excessive moisture and accumulative cerumen (earwax), and is effective for mild to serious hearing loss.
There are generally two categories of BTE hearing aids:
- Open Fit
An Open Fit hearing aid uses a small tube instead of a molding to transfer sound into the ear. A big benefit of this design is that it prevents the wearer’s voice to not sound as “strange” as it may with other styles.These very small hearing aids leave the ear canal open, so they are best for mild to moderate high-frequency losses where low-frequency hearing is still normal or near normal. But because of this size, the batteries used are smaller and less features are available.
- Receiver-in-the-Ear
Receiver-in-the-Ear (RITE) hearing aids are very similar to Open Fit instruments, but have one major difference: an RITE hearing aid’s receiver is placed inside a small dome in the ear canal. For your reference, we’ve placed our samples of RITE hearing aids in their own section.