Why Aren't More People Buying Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids?

'Some audiologists expressed worry that giving people direct access to hearing tests and hearing aids would hurt their business model, which has traditionally relied on bundled pricing that lumped the device cost with services, Lin said.

Surveyed in August 2022 just after the FDA ruling, less than 27 percent of audiologists said they would start selling OTC hearing aids, about 42 percent indicated they would “unbundle” their fees to compete with OTC hearing aid prices, and about 56 percent would support patients with OTC hearing aids purchased elsewhere. In another recent survey, about one in five audiologists said they will not sell or service OTC devices.

In discussions leading up to the launch of Hearing Number, hearing aid companies were “not very keen,” Lin said. On a call explaining the idea of a standard metric to equip people to measure their hearing and act on it, he recalled a director of marketing piping up in disbelief: “So, Dr. Lin, you’re telling me you want to emancipate the consumers?”'

I need hearing aids. I even want hearing aids. After finally getting to see an audiologist I looked at the $5000US price offered by the in-house shop and could not stomach it (in part because they were not covered by my insurance). This was back in February of this year, so OTC hearing aids were officially a thing, and I'd hoped against hope that the prices would reflect that. After surveying the OTC hearing aid landscape for the past 10/11 months I may just go ahead and get them, because I've not found any good sources of information on them. Just lots and lots of marketing copy.

I'd love to have the opposite. A way to turn down the volume on my ears. Lots of noise really causes me mental fatigue.

I've seen some adjustable earplugs like the Loop Switch but they start at 15dB which is too high. There was the Knops which started at 0 which was great but they don't seem to be available anymore and their website is gone. They were also pretty prohibitively expensive for passive earplugs.

I'd also love active noise cancelling plugs that could eliminate background noise and make voices more intelligible. Like when you're trying to speak on a noisy street or in a nightclub. But I don't think the tech is there yet.

If anyone knows a comparable product to the Knops that are still available I'd be interested. I've been looking all over.

Just some links to show what I mean:

Knops: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/19/15360206/k...

Loop Switch: https://www.loopearplugs.com/products/switch

I have long standing hearing loss, but just don't need one right now. I don't have enough of a social/work life for it to matter. If I bought one it would just sit unused. It wouldn't empower me to be more social because there are many other reasons inhibiting me from that.

For now I do ok in my normal environment, and I wear an earplug in my "good ear" to protect it in loud environments. There are situations where I struggle to hear but I avoid those. So I'm making do.

Interestingly, I had completely forgotten that these were legal to sell OTC these days. I don't think I've ever seen them in shops where I would have expected them to be.

I bought a pair based on bose technology for $1,000 they felt a bit hyped up. “Lexie B1 by Bose”

The iphone app controls feel like +/- treble or bass and that’s it. Felt like a real letdown, it does amplify audio just feels like loudness is all you control.

No remapping of frequencies, no fancy dsp.

There’s an open source hearing aid project that’s pretty good, more flexibility with filters definitely cooler:

https://shop.tympan.org/

There are a couple of reasons.

First, hearing aids are, unfortunately, not covered by most Americans' health insurance. I'm completely deaf in one ear, and in the other ear I'm profoundly deaf (basically as deaf as you can get without being totally deaf). An OTC hearing aid is simply not powerful enough to help me. I have to go to an audiologist, and as another poster said, these kinds of hearing aids routinely run into $3000-5000 range PER AID. If I needed it for both ears, I could be out 6-10 grand alone. And no insurance I've ever had will cover it.

Second, and probably the more relevant reason, is that most people who need hearing aids are people who have had "normal" hearing their entire lives, and have simply noticed some degradation of hearing over time. They've gone their entire lives without having something in their ear all day long. Now they go get a hearing aid, they put it in their ear, and you know what? It's uncomfortable.

It's not fun. It's annoying. Your ear sweats. You don't realize it if you don't wear hearing aids, but your ear sweats. Your hearing aid squishes around. It feels like something's stuck in your ear -- because it is!

When your jaw moves, you can sometimes hear it. You can hear yourself eat. Crunchy food is louder than anything else.

For someone who hasn't had to deal with it their entire lives like I have, it's awful. It's not a pleasant experience. And why should you wear something uncomfortable like that when you can just turn the TV up as loud as it goes?

It's a real problem, and I'm not sure there's a true way out of it.

That said... the advances in hearing aid technology in the last 25 years are astounding. They used to just be microphones that amplified noise. Then in the late 90s, they introduced digital hearing aids. In the mid-teens, they introduced Bluetooth integration. I now don't need to wear clunky headphones -- I can stream directly from my iPhone or computer straight to my hearing aid with no loss in fidelity of sound! It's quite frankly incredible.

My audiologist sent me an email last week because the newer models are now water-proof. Up until now, I've had to take my hearing aid out to shower, to go outside in the rain, to swim. Now? I can do all of those things and actually hear. Showering with my partner might actually be sexy instead of silent. Swimming with friends might become a social activity instead of me having to choose between sitting outside the pool with my hearing aid on and participating in conversation, or getting into the pool with my hearing aid out and being unable hear anything.

I'm sure soon enough they'll introduce some other really clever technology. Maybe direct integrations with an AI assistant. Maybe AI-powered translation software a la the babel fish of Hitchhiker's Guide fame. Who knows? The sky's the limit.

But for now? For OTC stuff? For Grandma and Grandpa who can't hear the TV? They aren't going to buy it, because it's uncomfortable, it's expensive, and they'd have to admit to everyone around them that they're less than they were before. It's sad.

As someone who has pretty good hearing loss, I can comfortably say that the reason I finally got some was the ability to stream audiobooks and podcasts.

It's a true life improvement in many ways.

The wife doesn't know either.

TLDR: physician inattention to adult hearing health, inadequate insurance coverage, and social stigma.

How do these compare to Airpods with Conversation Boost on?