Hearing aids - where do start?

[fairgame84]

I need a hearing aid for my right ear as I have mild moderate loss that side. Specsavers recommended their premium in ear but i don't but I don’t know where to start or how to choose which is the right one for me. I don't have any family or friends with hearing aids that I can get advice from.
What sort of things do i need to consider when choosing?

Start with NHS aids, won't cost you anything. I've been wearing them for 20 years and never had a problem.

Yes, no point in splashing out on expensive private ones when you don't know if you will tolerate wearing one.

Nhs don't provide hearing aids in our area unfortunately. Private is the only option.

Why don’t NHS provide them

Are you in the UK? I don't think that could be right.

They will do but possibly subcontract to Boots, Specsavers or similar. Your gp can refer to ent or audiology,

My DH has just got NHS hearing aids. The way it seems to work is that some Trusts subcontract it out to, eg Specsavers and Boots, others do not. So Northumbria and Newcastle you have to go via your GP and the hospital. Durham you can go to Boots, etc (whoever has the contract).

My DH was referred by his GP in October last year, had a test at the hospital end of December and eventually collected his aids in April.

We could have gone to Boors, etc but would have had to pay for aids from them, and decided that we'd see how he got on with the NHS ones - they've been fine.

OP’s hearing loss might be too mild, especially if it is only in one ear, for the NHS to provide aids.

I don’t mean that OP won’t benefit from wearing a hearing aid, but some audiology departments might have to ration aids due to budgetary constraints and if so then it is conceivable that they won’t provide her with one.

(As an example, my local NHS would only give me one aid, even through I have a similar moderate hearing loss in both ears 🙄).

Do Specsavers let you try the aid for a while to see if you get on with it? I ended up getting mine from Boots, and I was allowed to try a pair for a month. At the end of that month I decided they weren’t for me (in-ear, all I could hear was myself eating, I hated them) and picked a different style to try instead, which I got on much better with. But if I had decided I didn’t like them either, then I could have returned them within the month and got a full refund.

So hopefully Specsavers offer a similar trial, and if not, maybe look around at other private providers to find someone near you that does.

(And as I always say, the quality of NHS aids varies vastly between Trusts - my local trust does not supply Bluetooth aids, and the aids they do supply are big and chunky. It depends on a Trust’s budget, but don’t necessarily assume that your local NHS aids are as good as you will get privately, without doing some research!)

I have mild to moderate loss in one ear, and moderate in the other. I have free NHS over-the-ear hearing aids from a contracted out local health provider (not Boots, but similar), and they are great - and I get free batteries. I don’t wear them if hearing well isn’t an issue, so around the house or when doing routine stuff, but I wear them for TV and radio, social events, theatre etc. They aren’t at all uncomfortable, and are barely visible even with my very short hair. I have a Bluetooth thing which means I can use them as headphones for my iPhone, so they get a lot of use for audiobooks when walking and music in the gym

I really can’t see why anyone would pay upwards of £1000 per ear for private aids when their hearing loss is only mild to moderate. My late Dad, who had more money than sense, had £6000 worth of hearing aids and had to buy new rechargeable batteries every year or so at nearly £400 a pair.

@LoserWinner NHS ones were useless for me. I couldn't function at work with them.
My private ones are outstanding.
People should do what suits them without judgement. Not everyone has the kind of hearing loss where you take them in and out - it's bizarre you do that.

I had a similar problem; the only NHS aids my local audiology department could offer were made by Phonak - and they were worse than useless for me, so private aids were my only option.

Hearing aids really aren't a case of one size fits all. If NHS ones do the job, that's great (and also easy on the bank balance).

I’m not sure what’s bizarre about it. When I’m reading a book, I don’t need to be able to hear a tap dripping or cars in the road outside. When I’m doing a supermarket shop, I don’t need to be able to hear other people’s conversations. I quite like being able to turn down the volume of the world by taking out or turning off my hearing aids if I’m walking in a place with noisy traffic. But when I’m working or socialising, I need them to be able to hear what people are saying. With my hearing aids, I can hear the TV properly after years of needing to use subtitles, and I can enjoy theatre and opera fully. What’s odd about all that?

The reason they haven't been doing them on the nhs in our area is that they've had a massive overhaul of the service. Waiting lists are back open now so my GP referred me in june but I still haven't heard anything. They said it could be up to 2 years to get seen because they have a massive backlog.

I really can’t see why anyone would pay upwards of £1000 per ear for private aids when their hearing loss is only mild to moderate
Really?? Because i can't fucking hear properly and it's affecting my job!

Being unable to hear properly to any degree can be isolating and, according to the experts, can trigger dementia.

If private aids are something you're considering, I can highly recommend these people:

https://www.hearingaiduk.org

Their prices are transparent with no hidden extras, and they won't attempt to sell you an ongoing "plan". I was able to try three different brands of HAs before finding ones which suit my otosclerosis and give me hearing which sounds absolutely natural (to me).

Edit: Grammar

I am fortunate that I got mine from the NHS - sorry its a long wait for you.

You can buy the ones I have they are called Phonak Bolero M

They are bluetooth enabled so I can listen to music, programmes on my Ipad, take telephone calls on them. I love them. Changed my life

I love mine. I heard all these stories about how it can take up to six months to get used to. Within seconds, I knew, they made my hearing better.

I got the slim ric Specsavers advance - they are white and rose gold. I went for the second from top of their range rather than a bottom of a brand name. If I was doing it again I would just go for the elite Specsavers ones, because it’s not much extra.

I only have hearing loss in one ear but got two because I tried it with one and it felt a bit unbalanced.

They connect to your phone and you never need separate headphones again. I charge mine every night and they hold the charge all day.

I went privately rather than through the NHS, because how they look, was important to me.

That’s about all I know about the ones I went for. My Specsavers audiologist was very helpful and at no point gave me a hard sell. I have had a really positive experience with them.