Im writing my experience of buying a hearing aid for my nephew who had severe loss of hearing in one ear. Happened 3 years back.
Visit to ENT doctor:
They first checked my nephews ears with a over the ear headphone like thing and played different frequencies and asked him whether he can hear.
Based on his response they plotted a graph and determined the percentage of hearing loss and the frequency at which hearing is lossed.
Visit to Hearing aid center:
Based on the potted graph, audiologist will suggest you a hearing aid. Hearing aid have ranges in decibels.
There are also different models available.
My nephew had loss of hearing in one ear so he wears single aid, if both ears have problem you have to wear aid in both ears.
I bought Signia brand aid, which is siemens.
Like the below one, It costed 23thousand and the battery is user replaceable. small button cell battery.
The are models which are very small that no one can identify that you are wearing an aid, it is custom designed based on your ear canal and costs lakhs.
My nephew insisted on buy an very small model, but it costed 80thousand, looked like a tws headphone.
but audiologist explained, even if you wear the 80k aid after 5 to 8 years you will lose out some hearing power naturally and need to upgrade/change to a wide frequency range aid.
If you have a heavy wallet you can splurge on.
Points to consider:
1. Stay away from cheap chinese ones. Utter waste.
2. Dont buy from online. you need to reprogram the aid with a device based on your graph. hearing aid center will not program the aid bought outside their shop.
3. Siemens provide best after sales service. They provide 3 or 4 years warranty i believe. cant remember.
Once my nephew forgottenly entered the shower with the aid on, Aid was sent to bangalore service center and returned in a week. serviced free of cost.
Recently few weeks back, aid was dropped from a great height, went dead. Sent to bangalore service center by hearing aid center and serviced and returned in 15 days time. Charged 800 rupees.
4. Each battery will last for a month. Pack of 30 battery cost 500rupees.
@letmein
Please have a look at my response.
1) Suggestions for recommended brands? Siemens seems to be the only brand name I recognize - are there any ones in the market which are better?
Siemens(Signia) have good service support and price is affordable, so recommended by all. There are some american brand models which have high specifications but lack proper after sales support.
BUY AID WITH NOISE SUPRESSION. Dont miss this. When the user is in noisy environment like a traffic signal, the horn sounds will be a torture to the ears.
Noise supression aid will filter out the unwanted noise and give a good hearing experience.
without noise supression, user will have headache.
2) Recommendations on where to get them from - as in do we consult an ENT doctor first? Because Google throws up a lot of private clinics, sort of like with optometrists and spectacles.
First consult ENT and get your ears tested. They will have the lab to plot out the frequency graph.
3) Are there any unnecessary features on these devices that drive up the price but which are of no practical use? If so, would like to avoid them.
Yes.
Stay away from rechargeable models.
Smaller the size of the aid, bigger the price of the aid. do keep it in mind. Find your balance, since after 3 or 5 years youll need to change the device.
4) Approximate battery life in real world scenarios - do these need to be charged everyday like your phone or smartwatch?
Stay away from inbuilt battery models, they cost a lot and replacing battery is a head ache.
replaceable battery models cost less, it takes less than a minute to change the battery. Battery cost 20 rupees max. will last for a month.
5) Do they cause any interference with mobile phones and other electronic devices?
Nope. the model my nephew uses had no interference. he places the phone over the aid and talks.
6) Any other cons that you may have come across.
Pain in ears due to continuos wearing. thats it.
sometimes you forget and loose it by keeping somewhere.
