Hearing aids come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. It's important to look at all the available features to decide what's best for you.

Some buildings in Lawrence now have hearing loop technology installed in auditoriums and meeting rooms. Those include Theatre Lawrence, the Lawrence City Commission meeting room and the under-construction Open Pavilion at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

This technology, which consists of copper wire running through the whole room, allows hearing aid users to “tune in” so the sound is amplified, rather than just getting jumbled in surrounding background noise.

However, Laura Schmidtberger, hearing instrument specialist with Southwestern Hearing Centers of Lawrence, said not all hearing aids are created equal. If you don’t ask, there’s a chance you won’t get the features that best suit your needs — such as the telecoil, aka T-coil, which is the little copper coil inside some hearing aid models that allows the user to pick up the sound from hearing loops.

“Unfortunately in our state system, audiologists aren’t required to discuss those T-coil options, and they don’t always come automatically when you buy hearing aids,” Schmidtberger said. “So if somebody doesn’t know to ask for one, or they don’t understand the benefits of it, then sometimes when they buy it they won’t get one, so they’ll really be missing out.”

Hearing aids come in many varieties and have a lot of different features available. Schmidtberger said she tests for about 24 different pitches, and hearing aids are programmed to know whether to raise high or low pitches — or both — based on a patient’s specific needs.

The features of a hearing aid may also vary depending on your level of hearing damage, Schmidtberger said. For that reason, she encourages people to get their hearing checked as soon as they believe they may have a problem.

“Hearing aids only give you what you have left,” she said, “so if you have a mild hearing loss you’re going to receive a lot more benefits from the hearing aid because you have a lot of your hearing left, and if you wait and you have a severe hearing loss and I only have 30 percent of your nerves to work with, then I can only give you back a little bit.”

So the less damage is done generally means the more affordable the hearing aid will be.

“If I don’t have to give you something that has all these bells and whistles and additional microphones and speakers, then it can save you money,” Schmidtberger said.

To understand what you’re shopping for and what you need to know, Schmidtberger recommends checking the Hearing Loss Association of America’s consumer checklist for purchasing a hearing aid. It is a long list of questions that can help ensure you have all the information you need to make a good, informed decision.

It can also help avoid later costs, Schmidtberger said — for example, the T-coil doesn’t cost any extra at her clinic when purchased upfront, but if a hearing aid had to be sent out to add in additional features later, it would mean an additional cost.