Telephone communication with in-the-ear hearing aids using acoustic and electromagnetic coupling.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether telephone communication was improved with electromagnetic coupling for in-the-ear hearing aid users with mild to moderate hearing losses. Each user adjusted his hearing aid gain to the level he determined to be best for telephone communication with each coupling method. Under these conditions, average word recognition scores in quiet and average high-frequency output levels measured at the tympanic membrane were not different for each coupling method. The ability to tolerate background noise was also studied. Background noise tolerance was not different for the two coupling methods. However, significantly greater levels of background noise were tolerated when telephone side-tone feedback was eliminated regardless of coupling method.