OT. Over the Counter Hearing Aids

[Dean Hoffman]

Are supposed to be available this fall with official blessing. No prescription needed.

[Peter]

Several caveats potential purchasers should know. I speak as someone who has been diagnosed with "mild hearing loss" by a board certified audiologist after a comprehensive hearing evaluation. I had made the appointment because I was having progressive difficulty understanding speech, whether live, in movies, or on TV.

As a retired military veteran, I'm fortunate to be eligible for the DoD's (note: NOT a VA program) "hearing aids at cost" program and live close to one of the military treatment facilities that participates in the plan. The audiologist (who works on flat salary for the DoD and receives no kickbacks for hearing aid sales) recommended an expensive digital model with internal rechargeable batteries (which can be replaced when they fail to hold adequate charge; approx. 5 years from now.) She recommended that model because if my hearing loss progressed to "moderate", that model could compensate and I wouldn't need to purchase a new model. The model retailes for about $6K/pair but I only needed to pay about $850/pair, which apparently is the price the manufacturer charges the DoD.

When the hearing aids came in, the audiologist spent about 45 minutes adjusting the hearing aids to compensate for the specific hearing losses that were documented on my audiograms and other tests. She then had me insert the hearing aids and tested my hearing as well as asking me if I was comfortable with what I heard or if I felt certain tones were uncomfortably loud, distorted, or still not loud enough. Settings were tweaked and I was told it would take several weeks for my brain to adjust. I was given a follow-up appointment for 6 weeks at which time she would do further tweaks to minimize any residual complaints I had. I did have a few issues and further adjustment were made which resolved them.

Bottom line: Even though the basic cost of the new program's hearing aids is likely to save civilians quite a bit at time of sale, the cost can really climb quickly if the purchase price doesn't include adjustments at fitting and at least one or two subsequent adjustments if necessary. As the program is new, it's unclear what the vendors participating in the new program will bundle with the sale. Also, when I purchased my hearing aids, there was a no questions asked 100% refund available for the 90 days after delivery if I felt either that the hearing aids weren't helping or if for any reason I couldn't get used to them.

In summary: When the new program becomes available, read all the fine print about what's included, for how long, and what's not and the price of each of the what's nots. You could end up spending just as much as for the more advanced current hearing aids that all seem to include the important after-fitting issues I've mentioned as part of the purchase price - at least from what I've observed from unsolicited junk mail and TV ads from the large, best known hearing aid sales companies.

[invalid unparseable]

i read this to mean that now you can buy the individual adjustable hearing aids that now require a prescription as we all see hearing aids advertised that do not need a prescription.

Never made sense to me as you can buy glasses without a prescription. I might get a prescription for bifocals and my astigmatism but I buy them on line I do not have to present a signed prescription from my eye doctor.

[Ralph Mowery]

I have bought many glasses for me and the wife on line. All you need is the numbers that describe the lenses. You could even make them up and get a pair, not that you could see out of them .

At about $ 40 per pair I leave them in several places like at the computer desk and work bench in the basement.

[danny burstein]

[snip]

It's not just you. There's a HUGE issue with how sound is mixed these days for movies, and the techish audio sites are filled with complaints.

You've probably done this, but a reminder just in case... that turning on "closed captioning" makes a HUGE improvement in most tv broadcasts.

(Some of them use poor quality machine based voice-to-text, and that one's quite painful...)

[Clare Snyder]

You are free to waste your money on 5 or 6 cheap hearing aids that don't do the job - or just spend all that money at once on something that WILL do the job. When I first went to the audiologist about 8 years ago she said I would benefit from having hearing aids, but with my specific hearing loss I would be frustrated by just about every hearing aid currently on the market - but there were big advances on the way. 2 years later she called and said she had something for me to try - that she was sure I would be happy with. 90 day trial - if not happy, return them. She programmed them and I put them in - she said it might take a while to get used to them but right from the start they just sounded

100% natural. No problem in noisy rooms, I heard birds I hadn't heard for YEARS. After the government paid $500 and my insurance paid something like a thousand they still cost me more than the 2 vehicles on my driveway which were older used cars - but definitely not junkers. Best investment I ever made.

My dad, on the other hand, woudn't spend for the best and was ALWAYS pissed off at his hearing aids - over about 6 years he likely paid twice what I did - and was never comfortable with them.

My hearing aids weren't the end of the spending either - They got me into the i-phone market as they worked seamlessly with the iphone and required additional gadgets to work with Androids. I was lucky to get good used i-phones at very nominal cost.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Sound bar. Make it as loud as you want. Consider turning on the closed captions too. I did that as I occasionally miss a word or two.

[Clare Snyder]

For me turning up the volume helped SOME but to get the frequencies I was missing loud enough to hear, everything else was WAY too loud. When you miss the medium high frequencies you need to see the lips move to understand a lot of what is said - and if the sound sync is off a fraction of a second, GOOD LUCK!!!!! (and on TV it is almost ALWAYS out of sync) - and forget a group conversation in a dimly lit room - or around a dinner table.. The Oticon OPN1 is "the cat's ass!!!"

[Ed Pawlowski]

I have two TVs and two sound bars. On the Samsung, the TV turns on the Samsung sound bar. There is a setting to turn off the TV sound so just the bar works. Did that once four years ago.

On the other the sound bar is synced to the cable remote. Push one button and everything goes on or off together. In both cases, there is an LED with the volume when you change it. Goes on at the last setting though.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Couple of years ago I was spending a week with my friend at her shore house. I was sitting in the living room, TV was on and I suddenly heard EDWIN, ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? It was funny at the time.

For the most part, I hear people talking OK. Just the TV at times I miss

[Cindy Hamilton]

I don't have any of those issues with my sound bar. It's the same brand as my smart TV, and they work beautifully together.

[dyno dan]

Sometimes that can be amusing. "We're going to get new BREAKS for the car..."

Trying to start a car... "engine revving."

[Peter]

Most hearing aids benefit people with tinnitus because the hearing aids amplify what your brain is trying to comprehend, e.g. the "signal", but doesn't amplify the tinnitus. This is true even when the tinnitus isn't pure tone. My tinnitus is a medium pitched rushing noise, similar to what I hear when I've heard "white noise" generators. So even though the tinnitus hasn't been attenuated by the hearing aid, the signal/noise ratio is improved and you have the perception that the tinnitus is less intrusive.

There are both iOS and Android apps for my hearing aids which give me a certain degree of control over the amplitude at 5 different frequencies, and if desired, separately for each ear. I also can create, name, store and then select at will between those custom profiles for different environments. However, if I want to use any of the modifications I can make using the app, I have to open the app and select what I want each time. None can be selected from the push button on the hearing aids. I cannot program any modifications from the app into the firmware of the hearing aids. Everything programmed by the audiologist is set in firmware. My hearing aids have 3 user selectable frequency profiles (modes) that can be programmed by an audiologist and user selected from the push button on each hearing aid. One is the normal scenario which I use most of the time; second is for noisy environments such as restaurants where speech comprehension frequencies are emphasized and all other frequencies are attenuated, and third is for listening to my stereo or for use in concert halls. Apparently there's a lot of digital real time processing that compresses sudden excessively loud sounds in narrow bands of frequencies, and/or frequency ranges among the 3 microphones in each hearing aids that improve speech comprehension that are engaged in mode 1 and mode 2, but turned off when I select mode 3. The processing is quite effective in mode 1 and mode 2 but introduces noticeable distortions when listening to instrumental music. Mode 3 makes the music sound natural and better than I can recall hearing it for at least the past 15 years and restores the acoustic image of instruments in a 3 dimensional space. It will be interesting to see how many features will be built into the new class of over the counter hearing aids.

[bud--]

I wondered how hearing aids could help tinnitus.

The OTC aids are for low to moderate hearing loss. Higher is the same as now.

Professional analysis likely looks at threshold of hearing at multiple frequencies and max comfortable sound level at those frequencies. Gain in a frequency band is set so threshold matches normal hearing threshold. Compression in the bands is set so 'comfortable' matches normal hearing comfortable. A good hearing aid processes multiple bands. IMHO matching all that with OTC would not be easy, but they are limited to moderate loss.

I think for many years hearing aids have used DSP - digital signal processing. The sound is converted to frequency and amplitude which is processed as above, then converted back to analog.

DSP allows other nifty stuff, like your 3 modes. Directional, where sound frequencies are determined to be in a direction, and sound from that direction is amplified more. Sound cancellation - if a sound level is pretty constant it can be assumed to be noise and not amplified much. Or your mode 1, 2, 3. There can by direct outside sound input, like bluetooth. Telecoil picks up the magnetic field from a landline phone and some smart phones. Some auditoriums have a loop that puts theater sound into the telecoil.

VA is the largest source of hearing aids now. Costco is second (but Costco has many locations). If you are looking for aids for higher loss I suggest comparing Costco. Cost includes analysis, reanalysis, consumable parts, and cleaning (which involves taking the outer shell off). Costco is a cheap source of batteries

Hearing aid battery chemistry uses carbon dioxide. Batteries have an adhesive tab on them. When you pull the tab off it exposes tiny holes into the battery. With the tab off the batteries will die, week?

For rechargeable see how long before the batteries need to be recharged.

[Peter]

My rechargables use an inductive charger with two wells, one for each hearing aid. The charger has a built-in rechargeable battery that needs to be recharged about every 4 days. There are 3 LEDs on the back of the charger, near the mini-USB connector for the charging cable which indicate how much charge remains in the charger's battery. The little plug-in charging transformer is dual voltage so there's no problem with respect to travel outside North America. One red LED means recharge now. 1 green is low charge remaining, 2 green, about half charge remaining, and 3 green fully charged. The cycle from one red to 3 green takes about 4 hours but the charging cable can supposedly be left connected indefinitely without harming the internal battery.

There are 5 LEDs adjacent to the wells that hold the hearing aids. The greater the remaining charge in the hearing aids when they are placed in the well, the greater the number of LEDs that will light. I've worn my hearing aids for 16 hours continuously and usually 3 LEDS light up when I insert them into the wells. I'm supposed to be able to get 24 hrs. on a full charge but fortunately haven't needed to test that out. Also, the hearing aids are supposed to go from fully discharged to fully charged in only 4 hours. The only limitation related to selecting a hearing aid with rechargeable batteries is that when I purchased them (about 2-3 years ago) they were too large to fit into a hearing aid that fully fits into the ear canal. So, they're a "behind the ear" model. It's a little bit of an issue with eyeglass frames, especially if I'm using a face mask with ear loops. Masks that have the "headband" design are much more comfortable and don't get snagged on the little wire that connects the main body of the hearing aid to the little piece that fits into the ear canal. I've heard that now fully in the ear hearing aids are made with rechargeable batteries but I have no idea how many hours of service they provide before needing recharging.

[Marilyn Manson]

"Loud as you want" might be OK for those with hearing issues, but it sucks for those that don't.

SWMBO now has hearing aids and a compatible device that broadcasts the TV audio directly to them. The volume level is independent from the TV volume. I can set it as low as I want or even mute it and she can continue listening at the level she likes.

Only draw back is that she can't mute it, so she has to listen to commercials unless she wants to turn the volume down and then back up.

[Jim Joyce]

Fast forward, unless of course you're watching live TV. That's something that we almost never do.

[Clare Snyder]

The processors in my hearing aids are more powerfull than a 486 or early pentiom and look after all the adjustments - I don't have to touch a thing from one environment to another.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Now I have an idea. I'll get a set of earbuds and make a backpack with a Pentium computer and have hearing aids for about a hundred bucks. I think the key is a good sound card for adjustments.

[Marilyn Manson]

For the most part, that is what we do, but "almost never do" isn't the same as "never do." For example, with my cable service, you can't fast forward through commercials when watching most On Demand shows.

In addition, there are certain streaming services, e.g. Hulu, which is $7/month with commercials and $13 without. You cannot fast forward through commercials. Since we share my daughter's plan and she doesn't want to pay $13, we get the ads.

However, if you rewind to back before a commercial, you do not have to watch the commercial again. The stream automatically skips it. What I haven't tried is letting a show run (almost) all the way through - without watching it - and then rewinding all the way back to the beginning to see if skips all the commercials.

I'll have to give that a shot.