The Pros And Cons Of Transistor Hearing Aids

Transistor hearing aids are generally considered the "old fashioned" kind of modern hearing aids. Many hearing aid manufactures have switched to making digital hearing aids, but some transistor hearing aids are still ticking away. The technology isn't as old and cranky as vacuum tube hearing aids, though. Those are considered hearing aid dinosaurs.

Where Can You Find Them?

Here's one of the problems with transistor hearing aids. Since they are currently considered obsolete, they are like rotary dial telephones. Sure, there's some still around and working well, but you won’t be able to replace it, get parts for it and may even have trouble finding somebody who knows how to fix it.

Unlike almost anything else in the universe, it's very hard to find transistor hearing aids for sale on the Internet. You would have to go to online auction sites like eBay, online classifieds like Craigslist or used electronic websites. And if you get the transistor hearing aids, you won’t necessarily get instructions with them.

There are some programs that help senior citizens with very little money get free to low cost hearing aids. These hearing aids are donated, so they are pre-owned hearing aids. As you can expect, transistor hearing aids wind up in these programs. Although the first transistor hearing aids were made in the early 1950's, they were made to last.

Types

There were four different types of transistor hearing aids made. Perhaps the most familiar kind looked like a transistor radio, with a long wire connected to an earpiece you inserted into the ear. You wore the transistor on your belt or in your pocket. You could have earpieces for both ears, too.

A more unusual kind of hearing aid was a combination of eyeglasses and hearing aids. The hearing aids were inside of the earpieces of the frames. They were quite thick, as you could imagine. And easily lost. However, the over-the-ear hearing aid caught on.

Over-the-ear hearing aids began as transistor hearing aids and are now digital hearing aids. They are sometimes called behind-the-ear hearing aids. For some people, they are far more comfortable than hearings aids you have to insert into your ears. These kinds also have been shown to work better for those with severe hearing loss.

The most popular kind of transistor hearing aid – used by many digital hearing aid makers today – is called in-the-ear devices. They are inserted into the ear and often are flesh-colored.