Wearing smaller hearing aids isn't just about the look of them, they are actually much more comfortable and the designs of the in-the-ear piece of the aid lead to better sound quality and a more natural sound.

As technology improved the in-the-ear piece could become more 'open' in that it didn't have to fill the whole ear to avoid feedback, could be a soft tip that wasn't molded to an individual's canal and allowed in some unprocessed sounds that didn't travel through the aid.

It's so normal today to see people with something in their ear, usually Apple buds, and because hearing aid manufacturers have realised it's a smart move to stop marketing them as medical devices as such and positions them more as cool-tech hearing enhancers, I think the stigma of hearing loss and wearing hearing aids will soon be a thing of the past.