A digital device touted as the smallest external hearing aid in the world is to be tested by British patients.
The ReSoundAir, made by Danish firm GN ReSound, is just 2.5cm long and 0.5cm wide, and is extremely light.
It will be tested by about 100 patients in Leeds, which has a particularly high number of deaf and hard of hearing people.
The manufacturers hope it will help end the stigma associated with wearing more visible hearing aids.
This has resulted in many people refusing to use a hearing aid, even though they would benefit.
The new device is designed specifically to help people with mild or high-frequency hearing loss.
This makes hearing particularly difficult in situations where there are lots of competing sources of noise, such as in a crowd, or at a social gathering.
Gary Hill, a company spokesman, said: "It is estimated that three million people in the UK would benefit from a hearing aid yet don't wear one because of the prejudices associated with them.
"The ReSoundAir has been designed with this in mind. It is incredibly discreet."
Mr Hill said technological advances had helped to tackle some of the problems associated with hearing aids, making the device more comfortable for the wearer, easier to use and more effective.
Hearing aid problems
Some people who use a hearing aid experience excessive whistling, or feedback, caused by sounds being re-amplified.
Digital technology can recognise feedback and cancel it by decreasing volume only at the frequency that it occurs.
Another problem can be a phenomenon known as occlusion, in which most sounds are normal, but the wearer's own voice may sound hollow.
This is caused by air getting trapped between the hearing aid and the eardrum.
When the person wearing the hearing aid talks, the trapped air gets compressed and vibrates, creating that hollow sound.
The new device is so small, that air is unlikely to be trapped.
Breakthrough hailed
The device has been tried out in Denmark and other countries but this is the first time it has been tested in the UK.
If it is successful it will be mass produced and put on sale in specialist outlets for about £1,200.
UK audiologist Heather Dowber said the device was a "major breakthrough" in hearing aid technology.
She said: "This product looks set to offer a genuine solution to some of the long established technical problems associated with hearing aids, including feedback, occlusion or ear blockage and, of course, comfort."
It is estimated that 55% of people aged over 60 in the UK are hard of hearing.
Research by RNID found that while about two million people owned a hearing aid, only 1.4 million used them regularly.
Overall about nine million people in the UK have some degree of hearing loss.
A spokesman for the RNID said: "We welcome any advance in hearing aid design that encorages more of the 3 million hard of hearing people that could benefit from a hearing aid to use one.
"However these aids will be very expensive for many people. With more than a third of NHS Audiology Services around England now fitting new high-specification digital hearing aids, with the rest to follow by 2005, this will remain the main route for most people who need a hearing aid.
"We would also advise anyone who thinks they have a hearing loss to contact their GP in the first intstance."
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