Analog hearing aids are still around, but their use is waning. Why? Analog hearing aids magnify barely audible sounds for the wearer, but they also lack all of the additional modern benefits that newer digital hearing aids offer. Modern day hearing aids do much more than just amplify noises. These benefits make wearing hearing aids a breeze and are taking hearing to the next level. Here's the scoop.

1. You can talk hands free while driving.  

Do you want to use a wireless device with your cell phone so that you can talk hands free while driving, but you are afraid that your hearing aids will get in the way? Some brands of digital hearing aids allow for integration of the hearing aid and wireless devices. What does this mean to the wearer? You don't have to wear an extra device over your hearing aids to go hands free while talking on the phone. You just purchase an extra wireless device, and you can listen to your mobile phone, MP3 player, or even wireless connectivity enabled televisions.

2. You can enjoy greater noise cancellation.

Have you ever been in a crowded restaurant, and your hearing aid picked up every noise imaginable? It may have sounded like you were trapped inside a broken radio. You were picking up on every frequency and sound. And like a broken radio, much of what you heard was not relevant to you. Seriously, who needs to hear the conversation from the people six tables down?

Newer technology does more than just regurgitate sound. Digital hearing aids achieve greater noise cancellation by giving the wearer access to directional microphones. What does this mean to the wearer? Your hearing aids will distinguish between the sounds coming from competing directions and amplify the sounds that are relevant to you. This reduces the overall noise in the room allowing you to instead focus on the conversation that you're trying to have with family and friends.      

3. You can say "Goodbye" to that embarrassing whistling sound.

Everybody's heard it; that shrill high-pitched noise that emanates from older hearing aids. But why do hearing aids make that sound in the first place?  If forced to describe the problem in one word, the answer is feedback.

It's kind of like that horrible sound you hear when someone passes a microphone too closely in front of the speakers on a stage. Much like the speakers, the hearing aid makes an annoying sound when it picks up and echoes its own sound back out into your ear. Thankfully, modern hearing aids have a built in feature that controls feedback, thereby reducing that whistling sound you've heard in the past.