Comparison of Hearing Aid Acclimatization in Individuals Using Receiver in the Canal (RIC) and Behind the Ear (BTE) Hearing Aids

Abstract

It was hypothesized that magnitude of acclimatization while using Receiver in the canal (RIC) hearing aids could be higher than that of Behind the ear (BTE) instruments. This could be due to increased bandwidth in the high frequency region and better access to high frequency information in RIC hearing aids. Additionally, the acclimatization effect should be observed in both quiet and noise. The present study assessed hearing aid acclimatization in quiet and noise in individuals with sloping sensorineural hearing loss who were naive users of RIC and BTE hearing aids. There were 10 participants in the age range of 47 to 82 years, who had mild to moderately-severe sloping sensorineural hearing loss involved in the study. Five of the participants were naive users of RIC hearing aids and the remaining five were naive users of BTE hearing aids. Perception of high frequency words, sentence identification in the presence of noise were evaluated at two different time intervals. Initial testing was carried out at the time of hearing aid fitting and a follow up evaluation was carried out after 1 month of uninterrupted hearing aid usage. Additionally, hearing aid benefit questionnaires was also administered. It was found that both RIC and BTE hearing aid users showed significant aided benefit in both high frequency word test and sentence identification in noise. However, no significant difference in test results was found between RIC and BTE hearing aid users. Similarly, bjective questionnaire rating showed no significant difference between RIC and BTE hearing aids. In individuals with sloping sensorineural hearing loss the acclimatization effect was seen in both quiet and noise. Further, the amount of acclimatization was similar for both RIC and BTE hearing aid users.