The Big What If

By Author: Eric Mounts
Total Articles: 3
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Hearing devices began with nothing more than an ear trumpet. Technology with computers brought the hearing aid into the twenty-first century. What if certain people had not existed? It begs the question that if those people who built the first BTE, or Behind The Ear, hearing aids had not existed or been motivated by personal reasons to find a better option, whether or not we would have the advanced hearing devices we have today.

Helen Keller, despite being deaf and blind from infancy overcame her challenges and learned to speak. Back then, not being able to speak was referred to as dumb, but that word took on a whole new meaning in the century following her life. Helen Keller was certainly not dumb, in any sense of the word; she even graduated from college and went on to fight for the socialist party and human rights. She never used a hearing aid because she felt they were cumbersome devices that only made others focus on her disabilities and not on her.

Taking that sentiment to heart, many hearing aid companies then and now have strived to make the hearing aid either less noticeable or less cumbersome. The newest ...
... BTE hearing aids manage to do just that. Smaller receivers, no large battery packs or processors, clear tubing and flesh colored parts have all contributed to making the hearing aid a less self conscious hearing accessory.

Two of the major hearing aid companies today, Phonak and Oticon, were first started because their owners were motivated to make hearing devices to help loved ones. Their dedication to their family members and their desire to help them resulted in designs for the BTE hearing aids that not only helped them, but helped others worldwide. Another company, Resound, is the direct result of the desire to build hearing aids that are better, faster, smaller and easier to use. But what if none of the people who started these companies had lived or been motivated to do what they did? What if they had existed but had settled for the challenges their loved ones faced? If they had been alive and just accepting of the lots they had drawn, the advancement in BTE hearing aids would be farther behind than it is now. Chances are hearing aid technology would just have gotten off the ground fifty years ago rather than over a hundred.

It’s astounding then, to think of what would and would not be available in the modern world to the hard of hearing and deaf communities as solutions to their hearing problems. So many lives touch another, and too often we forget that.

Eric Mounts owner of Modern Hearing Solutions and Choice Hearing Center, first entered the hearing health care field 25 years ago. He began his career in the industry as a technician building and repairing hearing aids of all types and brands. His interest in helping people hear better prompted him to further his professional career in the industry. Becoming a licensed hearing specialist and ultimately conceiving and building his own practice nearly 20 years ago, his practice now consists of three flourishing full-time office locations. For up-to-date hearing aid information visit Eric Mounts blog.