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Such as this one?
91 year old mother needs new ears and NHS have told her a long lead time before she can get some.. Are the ones in the link any good?
My dad tried a few cheap internet sets and didn’t get on with them at all
My MIL is correctly trying some expensive private ones and struggling a bit to get used to them.
The downside of off the shelf ones is that, as well as having cheap electronics, they’re not programmed to your specific hearing loss profile.
Having hearing loss myself, and having tried NHS ones before going private, I’d say you get what you pay for, but you pay dearly!
There’s no harm in trying the cheap ones as long as you don’t expect much.
You could try apple AirPods Pros. At least if they don’t work out you’d have some nice earbuds 😀
91 year old mother needs new ears and NHS have told her a long lead time before she can get some..
Get her transfered to Specsavers NHS hearing service. I think you need doctor to
I've never had a wait for an NHS one with them.
And just a few weeks ago mine broke I popped in first thing, by early afternoon I got a call saying they'd got a new one in for me.
Oh this is a subject my Mom and I have been discussing for the last 12 months. She needs hearing aids and is 82 years old.
She spoke with the NHS and got the same advice re: leadtimes.
She had an assessment at Boots and was sold some £1200 hearing aids - which she couldn't get on with. Probably because she resented the cost and saw the cheaper hearing aids available via Amazon etc... They got returned and refunded.
So she took the plunge and bought the very one you linked (or something very very similar). They do work and she can hear much better. However you do get what you pay for and they do make some odd whistling noises and they don't seem to work all the time, unless that's just my Mom making an excuse because she doesn't want to hear what you're saying ;o)
Short answer: they work most of the time and are much cheaper than other options.
The problem with the Assitive listening devices that are sold by Amazon is theat they are not hearing aids have a poor means of connection to the ear and you have no idea what the frequency response is.
The sound come via the receiver that has the dome attached to it and you have no idea how loud it is etc etc. The dome will also be prone to feedback at higher sound levels and may not be a good fit in the ear.
An Audiologist or hearing aid dispenser should.
Take a history from the patient.
Perform a ear examination with an otoscope to look for wax and other problems in the ear.
Perform tympanometry to try and rule out problems with the middle ear etc.
Perform an audiogram to determine the level of hearing loss at a range of frequenicies, this should include bone conduction measurements with masking if required. This is to find out if there is a conductive hearing loss, or if there is an asymetric hearing loss which may require being refered for an MRI scan to rule out more sinister causes of the asymetry.
Next step depending on which type of hearing aid is to be fitted is to make ear impressions for earmoulds or in the ear hearing aid production.
Sometimes depending on the hearing aid type (thin tube or Receiver in the canal hearing aids) a dome is selected to couple the hearing aid to the ear. These will not be suitable for all hearing losses as they may be more prone to feedback.
They then should fit the hearing aid performing probe microphone measurements. adjusting the hearing aid to work with the patient's hearing loss.
Modern hearing aids are full of technology and have been developed to improve hearing in noise and a good fitting might include a number of different programs for different listening situations. Hearing aids can be conected to phones, tvs, remote microphones etc.
I dont care if you go NHS or private a proper hearing aid is lot different to something you can by from Amazon or Apple.
All the equipment is calibrated to ensure accurate evaluations and Audiologist are trained for 3 years, dispensers are less well qualified.
I dont work for Specsavers or Boots or the NHS and have no comercial interest in fitting or selling hearing aids.
IME (as a partially deaf ****), I've found you're paying for the aftercare more than the product. I need one side only after an 'ear stroke' as they called it. I tried NHS first and found them OK but transactional and a bit perfunctory. Follow up felt rationed and designed to make people just put up with what they had. I then went to a specific Specsavers Audiologist on personal recommendation. She has been brilliant. My hearing is still not great but the service has been perfect.
Again, IME, there's are a number of variables day to day that impact your hearing so it's almost impossible to get back to where you were. Wax in the aid, wax in your ear, congestion in your eustachian tubes etc. Any one or combination stops the buggering thing from working optimally and as you're hard of hearing, you can't always tell...
Cheap stuff off the Internet is just that and you usually get what you pay for.
NHS lead times are long.
I went to Specsavers who said my problem ear was at the level that they had to refer back to GP with conductive loss or war has high end loss too.
GP referred me to audiology.
A year wait for audiology to confirm pretty much exactly what Specsavers said and then refer me to ENT.
6 months later I'm still waiting for ENT.
No idea what the outcome of ENT will be or how long that will take once the decide want to do....
Also on a 126week average wait for a new knee.... 😭