Comment by Jemaclus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Jemaclus | Hacker News Reader

Hearing aid wearer here. There's a certain element of salesmanship that happens at hearing aid centers, but audiologists do use science to evaluate your hearing levels and they should be more than happy to show your hearing charts to you. You can take that chart to someone else and get a second opinion, if you really want to.

I don't frequently get upsell attempts by my audiologists, but they will lay out some options. They'll say "This one is what you need. If you want Bluetooth, this one works better for most people. This one over here has a really great iPhone app but doesn't work well with Android." I never have had someone say "You absolutely must use this one, because I said so."

TL;DR: Take your dad to an audiologist, get a professional opinion, get a second opinion if you want to. I would recommend getting your hearing aids from an audiologist and not a "Hearing Aid Center."

Good luck to your father! Hearing loss is tough, but treatable!

Thanks! What do you use? Are you happy with it?

I have an Oticon. I forget the exact model, but it's the most powerful of the models. (My hearing loss is very bad and I'm classified as "profoundly deaf" which as close to totally deaf as you can get and still use a hearing aid.)

My model is about 2 years old, but the Bluetooth integration is a game changer, and I use it pretty constantly at work and on my phone.

My only concern with that Bluetooth feature is that some apps are very loud and will cause bigger hearing problems down the road like constant ringing in the ears.

The volume is easily controllable, and the hearing aids themselves come with a noise ceiling that prevents sounds from getting too loud, although this is adjustable by the audiologist on a case-by-case basis. I can go to a bar or a concert and actually hear _better_ than those around me, because the hearing aid is actually keeping the sounds from being too loud.

Occasionally when the waveform flattens against the ceiling, it sounds pretty strange, but not disturbingly so.

Anyway, I've never had this problem and I've worn a hearing aid since the 80s, so I suspect it's not as big of a concern as you might think.

That's an interesting feature. I didn't know that audio technicians and scientists solved this problem. My father-in-law started wearing a hearing aid a year ago (before Biden made it easier so It had a hefty $4k price tag). It was hooked up to his phone. I don't think he was very savvy with the volume button. Often times he didn't know if the sound was coming thru bluetooth or the phone directly. Now he has a ringing problem that keeps him at night. And he needs a white noise maker to tone it down.

I will take a trip to the audiologist at Costco to get more insight. I hope it is as good as you say it is.

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