A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making sound audible to a person with hearing loss. Hearing aids are classified as medical devices in most countries, and regulated by the respective regulations. Small audio amplifiers such as personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) or other plain sound reinforcing systems cannot be sold as "hearing aids".
Audiology is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Audiologists treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage. By employing various testing strategies, audiologists aim to determine whether someone has normal sensitivity to sounds. If hearing loss is identified, audiologists determine which portions of hearing are affected, to what degree, and where the lesion causing the hearing loss is found. If an audiologist determines that a hearing loss or vestibular abnormality is present, they will provide recommendations for interventions or rehabilitation.
Audiometry is a branch of audiology and the science of measuring hearing acuity for variations in sound intensity and pitch and for tonal purity, involving thresholds and differing frequencies. Typically, audiometric tests determine a subject's hearing levels with the help of an audiometer, but may also measure ability to discriminate between different sound intensities, recognize pitch, or distinguish speech from background noise. Acoustic reflex and otoacoustic emissions may also be measured. Results of audiometric tests are used to diagnose hearing loss or diseases of the ear, and often make use of an audiogram.
Demant A/S is an international hearing health care company within hearing aids, audiometric equipment, and personal communication.
Sonova Holding AG is an internationally active Swiss group of companies headquartered in Stäfa that specializes in hearing care. The Sonova group operates through its core business brands Phonak, Unitron, Hansaton, Advanced Bionics, AudioNova and Sennheiser. It is one of the largest providers in the sector worldwide. The group and its brands hold 24% of the global hearing aid market in sales. As of 11 September 2022, Sonova is a component of the Swiss Market Index.
An Audiometrist or Audiometric Officer, is a health-care professional technician who has received special training in the use of Pure tone audiometry equipment. An audiometrist conducts hearing tests, or "audiometric screening", with an Audiometer to establish hearing levels. The results are represented by an audiogram, and are usually interpreted by an audiologist, or a registered Medical Officer, unless the audiometrist is also an audiologist, with the aim of diagnosing hearing loss.
Sound Seekers was a British charity which works to improve the lives of deaf children and children with ear diseases in the developing countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. It provided specialist equipment, training and support to some of the poorest countries of the world, where people with the 'hidden disability' of deafness may otherwise not receive the help they need. In 2020, Sound Seekers merged with DeafKidz International, with the combined charity using the DeafKidz International name.
Polyvinyl siloxane (PVS), also called poly-vinyl siloxane, vinyl polysiloxane (VPS), or vinylpolysiloxane, is an addition-reaction silicone elastomer. It is a viscous liquid that cures (solidifies) quickly into a rubber-like solid, taking the shape of whatever surface it was lying against while curing. As with two-part epoxy, its package keeps its two component liquids in separate tubes until the moment they are mixed and applied, because once mixed, they cure (harden) rapidly. Polyvinyl siloxane is widely used in dentistry as an impression material. It is also used in other contexts where an impression similar to a dental impression is needed, such as in audiology or in industrial applications. Polyvinyl siloxane was commercially introduced in the 1970s.
Aural rehabilitation is the process of identifying and diagnosing a hearing loss, providing different types of therapies to clients who are hard of hearing, and implementing different amplification devices to aid the client's hearing abilities. Aural rehab includes specific procedures in which each therapy and amplification device has as its goal the habilitation or rehabilitation of persons to overcome the handicap (disability) caused by a hearing impairment or deafness.
Marion Downs was an American audiologist and Professor Emerita at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, who pioneered universal newborn hearing screening in the early 1960s, then spent more than 30 years trying to convince her peers to adopt the testing in hospitals and to place hearing aids on infants who showed hearing loss. She worked to alert the medical world to the developmental problems associated with childhood deafness. As a result of her efforts, 95 percent of all newborns in America today are screened for hearing loss. She devoted her professional life to the promotion of early identification of hearing loss in newborns, infants, and young children and to helping deaf and hard of hearing individuals lead fulfilling lives.
Widex A/S is the world’s sixth largest hearing aid manufacturer. In close collaboration with international audiological researchers and specialists, the company has developed a wide range of digital hearing aids. They introduced the world's first commercially available 100% digital in-the-ear hearing aid in 1995 based on the research model developed by Oticon that same year.
Miracle-Ear, Inc. is a hearing aid and hearing care company consisting of a network of franchised and corporately owned retail locations. The company is a subsidiary of Amplifon, the worldwide leader in hearing care and hearing aid retail based in Milan, Italy. Miracle-Ear's U.S. headquarters are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of 2023 it has more than 1,500 locations in the United States, and it is the best-known hearing aid brand in the U.S.
Audioprosthology is the profession of the fitting of a hearing aid, or auditory prosthesis. An audioprosthologist is defined as “an aid-fitting specialist who has completed a course in audioprosthology.” This term was adopted by a group of hearing instrument specialists and the International Hearing Society (IHS) in 1976. The American Conference on Audioprosthology (ACA) sponsored courses in audioprosthology until 2016. Currently, the American Conference of Audioprosthology program is being revamped for distance learning.
Canadian Hearing Services was founded in 1940 to provide services for deaf and hard of hearing people in Ontario. Services include instruction in American and Quebec sign languages, interpreter services, deafblind intervenors, audiology and speech–language pathology. The CHS advocates for the hearing impaired in Canada through the support of 9-1-1 texting, visual fire alarms, and access to the justice system. The CHS handles emergency situations in hospitals, emergency rooms, after-hours clinics, shelters, and police services.
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written with a lower case d. It later came to be used in a cultural context to refer to those who primarily communicate through sign language regardless of hearing ability, often capitalized as Deaf and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. The two definitions overlap but are not identical, as hearing loss includes cases that are not severe enough to impact spoken language comprehension, while cultural Deafness includes hearing people who use sign language, such as children of deaf adults.
Grace Gore Sturdivant, AuD is an American beauty pageant titleholder who was named Miss Tennessee 2007 and Miss Mississippi Teen USA 2002.
WS Audiology is a privately-owned manufacturer of hearing aids with headquarters in Denmark and Singapore with roots going back to 1878 and Siemens AG. The current company was created following the 2019 merger of Sivantos Group and Widex. Prior to that, Sivantos was spun off from Siemens after Siemens AG sold the company to EQT and Santo Holding in 2015. WS Audiology employs about 12,000 people in more than 125 countries. In fiscal year 2022-2023, the company generated revenue of €2.47 billion and adjusted EBITDA of €480 million.
The Hear the World Foundation is a corporate nonprofit foundation founded by Sonova working towards equal opportunities and better quality of life for people with hearing loss. The Foundation operates as grant-giver supporting project-partnerships in four specific areas:
Audiology and hearing health professionals in India is made up of Indian healthcare professional that focus on audiological and hearing problems.
Elaine Saunders is an associate professor at the Swinburne University of Technology and executive director of Blamey Saunders, as well as an inventor, entrepreneur. She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science Technology and Engineering in 2019. She is one of only nine women out of 160 to win the Clunies Ross award for entrepreneurship, and has won many other awards, as well as given numerous keynote addresses on the value of entrepreneurship and innovation in STEMM.
