At Sears Hearing Centre, we want to help you hear at the highest level in all areas of your life. Because of this, we offer a wide variety of hearing aid accessories--devices that work with your hearing aids either for your convenience, your safety or to further amplify sound. Before taking a look at some examples of the accessories we offer, it will be useful to understand the modern technology that has contributed to these major innovations in hearing.

The Telecoil

The telecoil, or t-switch, is a small wire coil built into many hearing aids. It is able to pick up magnetic signals from specific electronics built into most Assistive Listening Devices, meaning that those devices are Hearing Aid Compatible. If your hearing aid features a telecoil, be sure that your accessories are Hearing Aid Compatible, and make sure that the switch on your aid is switched to the T position (for Telecoil) when you are using them. This will enable your hearing aids to reproduce the sound coming out of your assistive devices.

Bluetooth^® Technology

Bluetooth^® is a recently-developed wireless technology that allows us to exchange information back and forth over short distances using radio transmissions.  Transmissions occur within personal area networks (PANs) that include only the electronics you have chosen to register (meaning that anyone in the vicinity using Bluetooth^® will not be able to intercept your communications).  This has proven to be innovative in the hearing health care world. For example, if you wear a binaural fitting (newer hearing aids in both ears), this technology will take the sound that each one picks up and spread it across to the other hearing aid, making for a consistent, even and balanced sound. Bluetooth^® allows for wireless connectivity between newer hearing aids and all kinds of assistive devices and electronics.

Examples of our accessories that work with Hearing Aids

Hearing Aid Remotes – Our most basic accessories include hearing aid remotes, small devices which will allow you change the settings on your hearing aid without drawing attention to it. These connect to our hearing aids through Bluetooth^® technology, so that you can easily change your settings from some distance. These are convenience-based accessories, made so that you no longer have to go to the trouble of removing your hearing aid to manually switch its settings.

The Telephone – At Sears Hearing Centre you can purchase telephones that are Hearing Aid Compatible. These connect to your hearing aids either with a telecoil or with Bluetooth^® technology, and your choice should depend on the age and capabilities of your hearing aid. Some hearing aids, often the smaller ones, are able to amplify the sound coming out of your telephone as they would for other sounds, whereas hearing aids that connect to the telephone through the telecoil or Bluetooth^® actually project the sound directly from the telephone into your ears. If you wear a binaural fitting that incorporates Bluetooth^® technology, your hearing aids will even be able to spread the sound from the telephone across to both ears.

The Television and Stereo Systems – This category encompasses a variety of hearing technology. One option is a pair of headphones that hook up wirelessly to these electronics, working either with or independently from your hearing aids to play their audio. Another is the television or stereo system that is actually compatible with your hearing aids through Bluetooth^®, meaning that you can hear the television’s audio or your music directly in your ears without the use of headphones. 

Safety-Oriented Accessories – These are accessories that work as signaling devices, which are generally aimed at ensuring that hearing loss will not impact your ability to perceive and respond to danger. An example of this sort of accessory is a technology that will wirelessly alert you at the sound of your doorbell, telephone, smoke detector, alarm system and other household safety alerts. 

Our accessories that work without hearing aids

At Sears Hearing Centre, we also sell personal listening systems as a supplement to hearing aids. These are handheld devices that will pick up speech and sound in background noise, and will forward it through to your ears through headphones. These feature television hook-ups, and can be used in conjunction with other accessories. 

Call or drop in to any of our clinics to learn more about all of our hearing accessories that could help you hear even better today!