eldudereno

Not for me but my dad who is almost 78. He's going to have to wait 18 months to get something sorted on the NHS, so what the hell, I'll pay for it privately.

Has anyone any experience of hearing aids in general ?

Specsavers now offer a hearing aid service at selected stores at what appears to be very reasonable prices, but can anyone recommend them?

thanks in advance

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

guess they will be subtitling their "should have gone to specsavers" mantra on the ads from now on....

My dad got one on the NHS - was badly fitting and didn't do a lot of good. Tried hidden hearing and they were a waste of time. Just bombard you with junk mail. Ultimately got sorted privately; meanwhile some ear-syringing helped a little....

TT

philc

I've been wearing hearing aids for about 4 years (I'm not quite 78 years old tho').

Found it best to go to an audiologist who records the hearing pattern (usual story - 'press a button when you hear a sound' with the sound being decreased in volume)

Then using the hearing aid of choice (GN Resound in my case), the hearing loss pattern is programmed onto the microchips in the hearing aids, so that part of the hearing range which is recorded as poor is boosted by the hearing aid.

So, basically the hearing aid has its profile changed to accommodate the wearer's need.

The type I have has 4 settings that I can choose;
1 - normal
2 - T-Coil for listening to a phone or cellphone
3 - restaurant mode, where the microphones pick up more sound in front
4 - music where the treble signal is amplified more.

In summary, with modern hearing aids the analogue sound wave is converted to digital form by the hearing aid, the signal is boosted in the ranges required by the hearing aid user and then the signal is converted back to analogue for feeding into the ear.

Most hearing aid websites give good explanations (eg GN Resound)

BUT - expect to pay about one thousand pounds per earhole (ouch !)