Hearing aids that aren’t NHS

[WildFlowerBees]

My 80yr old dad has been having his hearing aids via Specsavers, Insignia I believe. Trouble is he’s become a lot more reluctant to be sociable because he can’t hear conversations in rooms with other noise, talking etc. He’s had relevant upgrades with his hearing checks, been back to talk to them but still nothing really helps.

Is there a hearing aid that is better than the ones the NHS gives out that might suit him better? Thank you.

If you / he has the money then I would recommend going private.

The hearing aids on the NHS are often old or significantly different to the private ones that are out there. Happy to give more specific advice if you DM me where you are in the country I might be able to help more!

Thank you @sd249is there a particular brand you think is better?

Does he wear glasses? If so I’d recommend nuance hearing glasses

I thought he had gone private as he got from specsavers and not nhs?

I don't find this to be true. I've had both and they are usually the same brand with mostly the same features, eg Oticon Mini with bluetooth. The difference between private and NHS is the private ones are rechargeable and NHS ones need batteries.

I started with private ones because my dad was convinced they were better (he's also deaf), but my audiologist sent me to the NHS clinic for a more complex thing and they just gave me a new set from a cupboard and they're just as good! Five grand saved.

The batteries thing is a pain. I am always worrying as we have small crawling humans around here fairly often.

I'm a teacher of deaf children. It's not true that NHS aids tend to be old. He could look into getting a mic for when there's background noise. They can make a huge difference, and are small and discreet.

The problem is that hearing aids don't restore normal hearing and background noise always makes things difficult. We encourage the use of deaf friendly strategies such as moving to a quiet space or at least move away from main source of noose where possible.

A lot of my deaf friends choose to socialise in a small group in a quiet setting over a noisier place with more people.

My close friend is an audiologist. She cannot say it enough, but private hearing aids are just the same as NHS ones, ( with the exception of rechargeable over batteries).
They ALL amplify background noise...which is a particular problem for wearers, it's no wonder many deaf people, especially in older life, eschew social situations...its almost painful!
A builder I knew paid thousands for his private ones, and sent them back ( thank- fully got a refund, which, I understand, to be standard practice). I wouldn't waste your money.

My mum paid a fortune for some rechargeable ones that you can adjust using an app etc. She hardly ever wears them as she says she hears better with her NHS ones when they have a new battery in them.

Not all NHS trusts are equal.

Some supply excellent aids - latest versions, with all the tech - and you’d be wasting your money going private.

But some are rather less well funded and supply aids that are bigger, not Bluetooth etc, and in fact my local NHS would only give me 1 aid despite me having the same degree of hearing loss in both ears.

Also, paediatric audiology tend to be better funded than adult, so whilst a child might get a pretty decent aid on the NHS, an adult wouldn’t necessarily get one to the same standard (again, talking from direct experience with my son vs me).

You could certainly explore private aids for your dad, but just make sure you go somewhere that lets you return them for a full refund if you don’t get on with them - lots of places let you try them for about a month, I think - and then if your dad thinks they are no better than his NHS aids, he will not have wasted his money.

I wear NHS hearing aids.
It helps to understand hearing loss can be for a number of reasons but for the standard type of hearing aids being talked about here you need some function from the inner ear to be able to make use of the amplified sound the aids get to your eardrum.

@Oneearringlost points out a crucial point, that wearing aids in a noisy environment is oddly enough hard for hearing aid wearers who’ve gotten used to the loss of hearing to suddenly have too much sound in their ears.

being diagnosed late in life I’m used to living that way, I guess like OPs dad, but I’d ask OP, does he wear them all the time, to retrain his hearing?
Im guilty of not doing that and I wonder if that makes restaurant/train station environments all the harder to cope with.

Ive got a pair of ambio s67 with Bluetooth. I use the BeMore app to control them. The app includes standard settings for environments but also lets you create your own modes , lowering or boosting different frequencies.

Does your DF also have tinnitus OP?

Im wary of the marketing claims of the very small in the (ear) canal (ITC) aids about how they shape sound and various spatial awareness as I think ‘isn’t that what you’re ears are doing to get sound into the canal?’

All recent NHS hearing aids are Bluetooth and have a linked app. What features you can use on the app depends on how compatible your phone is with the app but the hearing aid companies have phone compatibility checkers on their websites,

some patients prefer the cosmetics of some private aids but how much hearing aids show is only an issue for some people. If you’re going private for rechargeable batteries then check battery life and recharge time if you’re using the Bluetooth a lot.
Aids in the 3-4k range are the same as the NHS ones provided where I work. What options there are for a particular person depends on the level of hearing loss and other factors. Our ability to process sound in noise declines with age so while using the ‘restaurant’ setting on aids helps some, sometimes it won’t.

As pps have said there are a lot of communication strategies and things such as remote/table/partner mics that can help. Sometimes you can link your aids to your phone and put your phone by the person you want to hear in a crowded place to pick up their voice. Or choose a place with more curtains/carpet to dampen down the clatter and make sure there is good light on face of person you want to hear. A specialist sound bar with the ability to increase the treble and decrease background music etc is available and would probably help many people over 70 hear the TV more clearly.

OP, if your father is willing, and you haven’t already, maybe go to a follow up appointment with him to understand the level of his hearing loss, what are realistic expectations for his loss , and if the audiologist would recommend any accessories for the hearing aids (need to be privately purchased but much cheaper than private aids), additional programmes etc

DM has hearing loss and has had both private and NHS aids - doesn’t feel that either help enough to make them worthwhile.
She’s getting new nhs ones shortly, I’m hoping that they’ll be Bluetooth so we can try one of those mics. They’re quite expensive so I’d be really interested to hear about anyone’s experiences with them, and product recommendations.
FWIW DFiL now has rechargeable aids but prefers battery ones as they don’t make it through the day.
Hearing loss is so isolating, my mum also avoids social situations. So sad.

Sounds like similar to what I have, mine require batteries but there is a rechargeable equivalent
I love that they’re Bluetooth and I can now use my phone, mine are nhs ones

But there are many different types of hearing aid and I don't think the NHS offers the full range. My DH had NHS aids which were really uncomfortable,. He went private and bought a different type wich he can wear all day every day and they have greatly improved his hearing. He is like a different person.

There are companies that sell hearing aid accessories and their websites have lots of useful info eg connevans, you can input the model of hearing aid and it will say what are the compatible accessories. (I have no financial links with any of these companies just know them from my work as nhs audiologist and bought a table mic for my own elderly parent from them).

Lots of people find them useful because basically they increase the strength of the signal/voice you want to hear relative to the noise. I think you can have a refund in a certain period if you don’t get on with what you buy. There is also a form on these websites so you can claim to not pay VAT as it is disability equipment.

This is really interesting but may be where you are. My NHS ones are the equivalent of 2019 and vastly different to the private ones that I wear! I do have complex hearing loss though so this may be why I find them so different.

All of the children I work with have latest tech though - obviously they are the same area as me.

I’ve had private hearing aids for six years, and last year went back to the NHS who gave me some new ones. They told me at the time that the new ones were not as good as the five year old private ones that I paid £1600 for - and it’s true, I still prefer my old private ones, they’re much better.

Also meant to say that if you can be available and your mother is willing, I would go with her so that you can understand her particular hearing loss and the options and recommendations. There is a lot to take in and understand about hearing aids and hearing loss and it often really helps to have someone else there so that your mother can get the most from the aids and know what other communication strategies might help.

My husband has Phonak hearing aids and really rates them. We buy them privately, they are far superior to the ones he was given by the NHS.

Thanks @Diorama2. I’m definitely going along with her. She hates tech, has only just got a smartphone and detests it, so it’s going to be interesting!

NHS does provide Phonak aids

Not true. I very recently went for private aids because my NHS trust only supplied non-Bluetooth aids that were much chunkier than my sons’s aids.

Just because something is true in your NHS trust, does not make it true throughout the country and I will repeat this until I am blue in the face, because otherwise there will be people reading threads like this who will believe that the basic NHS aid they have is the best they can get when it’s not necessarily true.

Anyone getting aids needs to do some research. The NHS aids you are offered may well be best in class, but equally they may not be, and when PPs keep stating that there is no difference anywhere between any NHS and private aids, it’s just not always the truth.

Yes, some NHS trusts provide phonak aids to adults. Others do not.

So true that deafness can be isolating.

Btw, you don't need a Bluetooth hearing aid to get a mic. We have been using mics since well before aids became Bluetooth. You just need a different mic. Or receivers on the aids.

I'm a bit of an Oticon fan myself.