Wearing headphones with hearing Aids is possible, can you wear headphones with hearing aids? We will say, yes. Progress in hearing aid technology has made this very easy than ever to wear headphones and hearing aids simultaneously. However, you need to consider which headphones type will work better with your hearing aids. It depends on the hearing aid type that you wear.
In this article, we will explain it clearly, can you wear headphones with hearing aids? And how comfortably you can wear your headphones with several types of hearing aids.
Wear hearing aids, doesn’t mean you have to leave and stop listening to music with the use of your headphones. Just with the help of minor experimentation, you can be able to find a pair of headphones that works properly with the hearing aid type that you recently wear.
Can You Wear Headphones With Hearing Aids?
Headphones are available in many different shapes and forms. As we know Headphones are so much popular publicly and use on a large scale because headphones are the right way to listen to any audio without disturbing others that are around us. But for those people who use hearing aids, the use of their headphones can be problematic and discomfort.
The main issue is that many headphones just don’t perfectly fit over hearing aids. So, in order, if you want to wear headphones, you might have to remove your hearing aids first, but then you probably have to turn up the volume of the audio to high levels that are harming and damaging to your remaining hearing, which is less than the ideal.
Although, there are some other issues too. If to the close of the hearing aid’s microphones, the headphones are pressed, then because of this feedback can occur – an annoying and disturbing whistling sound that occurs in the condition when the signals of the audio become mixed.
And then there’s also the volume issue: both the hearing aid and the audio that you’re listening to each have their volume, so it is very hard to understand the right volume of the audio.
In some cases, people may turn their music up to the levels when there they should be turning the sensitivity of the hearing aids down less. Because of these issues, many wearers of hearing aid have given up or left non headphones altogether, but this doesn’t have to be that way – some helping options will rightly work with most hearing aids.
Are There Hearing Aid Headphones?
However, it is right there are recently no hearing aid headphones available on the market: bone conduction headphones are the headphones that are nearer and closest to it. These headphones make use of wireless Bluetooth technology and sit perfectly on your cheekbones just in front of the ear.
So, we can say these headphones do not transmit the sound to your eardrum instead they transmit the sound to your cheek and jawbones. Because of this, the sound bypasses the outer and middle ear and imitates your inner ear directly through the vibration of the bones.
One of the pros of this kind of headphone is that there is no matter what kind of hearing aid you have, the bone conduction headphones won’t obstruct this because of the reason that these headphones sit on your cheekbones, not on your ear.
Additionally, as these headphones don’t transmit sound to your hearing aids, that’s why these headphones won’t have the issue with feedback that you have to receive with the use of other types of headphones.
However, there is also a major drawback because these headphones aren’t directly placed in your bone (like with cochlear implants or bone-anchored hearing aids) the transmission of the sound is not direct, and due to this, the quality of the sound may be lacking.
Can You Use Headphones and Hearing Aids Together?
For this our shorter answer is yes, you can use both headphones and hearing aids together, but you should keep in your mind a few important things before you go out to the market to buy a pair. Firstly, the earbuds just as Apple’s AirPods are out – there is a component in all hearing aids and this component sits inside the ear canal and because of this is incompatible with the earbuds, which also sit in your ear canal.
So the headphones just. The most important factor to understand and keep in mind when choosing a pair of headphones is fit – all types of headphones will not work properly with all hearing aids. So, a proper fit is necessary, because if your headphones don’t fit, then you may have to face feedback problems or have to face problems hearing the sound properly.
When you do use your headphones over your hearing aids to listen to your favorite music, it’s very important to keep in mind that most hearing aids have certain settings for “music,” and these settings adjust the gain levels of your hearing aids to provide you a good sound quality when you are listening to the music, a contrast to when you’re listening to the speech.
If you don’t know, how to change the programming on your hearing aid so that you can listen to your favorite music, you have to ask your audiologist or other hearing healthcare professional to help you to fix your issue.
Picking the Right Combination
You have to pick the right combination. Headphones are of two styles: one is on-ear headphones and second is the over-the-ear headphones. If you will use on-ear headphones then they will sit directly on your ear and also will usually be lighter and less hot rather than the over-the-ear headphones, as the over-ear headphones surround and cup your ear and also press or put on pressure on both sides of the head.
When understanding your hearing aids’ style, you should keep in your mind that compatible headphones are commonly much easy to find for smaller hearing aids than larger hearing aids. So, let’s try to discuss the headphones-friendly types:
- Invisible-in-the-canal (IIC) – these hearing aids are the smallest hearing aids that are available and fit directly in your ear canal.
- In-the-canal (ITC) – these types of hearing aids sit right in your ear canal opening and are minor larger than the IIC hearing aids.
- Low profile – this type of hearing aid sits properly inside the ear, commonly taking up the lower ear bowl.
As all these types fit are either directly in the ear canal. So, these above three types of hearing aids are commonly very compatible with all on-ear headphones as well as over-the-ear headphones. The headphones options are smaller than the remaining hearing aids types:
- Behind-the-ear – these types of hearing ears range in size but all they have a component and this component sits behind your ear.
- Receiver-in-the-canal (RIC) and receiver-in-the-ear (RITE) – both of the speaker or the receiver of these types of hearing aids are built into the ear tip portion and not of the main body that sits behind your ear.
Conclusion
To conclude we can say that it’s not impossible to wear headphones with hearing aids, it’s right there are no special headphones for hearing aids but still, you can find the answer, can you wear headphones with hearing aids? By reading all the above carefully. You need to select the right combination. So, try to find compatible headphones for your hearing aids!
