Hearing Aids and the Telephone

Many older people with hearing loss have difficulty using the telephone even when they use a hearing aid. Holding the phone's headpiece close to the ear often causes squealing. However, there is a solution.

Some hearing aids have a switch that converts the hearing aid to "phone mode." In phone mode, the aid's microphone is turned off and a special magnetic coil is turned on. Meanwhile, the speaker in the phone's headset has been replaced with a magnetic coil (in most cases the phone company can provide this service). This replacement does not interfere with normal operation of the phone. When the person with this type of hearing aid places his ear close to the phone headset and the coils from each of these devices are in close proximity, the coils act like a direct plug-in connection. As a result, sound clarity is vastly improved and squealing is eliminated.