To go for private hearing aids?

[user1471453601]

I've been wearing NHS hearing aids for over ten years. Recently I asked about an upgrade to them. I was told no can do.

Over the last year or so I have found myself More and more isolated. It's me really. I find conversations in a loud environment ( by loud, I mean the kind of noise that is heard in all restaurants) v v difficult.
OnTuesday I went to a provider of hearing aids (not NHS). OMG, the difference is just blowing me away.I

The sound through my television (using over ear headphones) is amazing. People speaking to me when I have my back to them? I can bloody well hear them. Waiters serving me in restaurants, I can hear them instead of guessing what they are saying.

I feel safe in my home as I can know hear if anyone comes to the door. It's all so liberating.

Yes, they are going to cost an arm and a leg, and I hate, hate hate the fact that, just because I can afford them, I'm going to have a better quality of life than some other hard of hearing person who cannot afford them.

So
, I feel guilty about being able to afford a better quality of life, because of what? Total good luck.

I don't think many people realise the isolation that hearing loss brings. And that fact alone pisses me off

I'm expecting private ones to cost a couple of grand. But how often would you need new ones?

My privately bought hearing aids have been an amazing godsend. I’ve been hearing impaired all my life and have always used nhs ones, believing them to be as good as any. But I tried and had to buy the best from the newest platform of hearing aids and it makes a massive difference.

Oticon opn1 are the ones I chose, but Widex also do a good top of the range one - slightly different philosophies of hearing in that oticon lay out the sounds individually amplified with beautiful clarity, and your brain chooses how it hears, whereas widex is more selective in what and how it amplifies, so makes those choices more for you. I have found people either love one or the other.

I prefer the oticon philosophy personally and am enjoying birdsong and music and conversations in busy places and not being shoved rudely for the sin of failing to hear someone behind me asking me to move out the way in the tube. I find the clarity exquisite and for the first time ever in a lifetime of hearing aids, I forget they are in, I don’t have the feeling of wanting to rip them out at the end of the day because the sound is so natural.

I am hoping they will last me around 4 years but have them insured in case of loss. I know there will be even better ones by then and am saving so I can afford them then.

Honestly - they are expensive. But if you can afford them, you will notice a huge difference. Most places let you have a trial and it was that which convinced me - at the end of the week I wept to hand them back and knew I had to have them!

And to add to that - they stream from an iPhone so I can make phone calls, listen to music and watch films online easily for the first time. You can buy a streaming box for the telly too.

They were just under £3000 for 2. Shop carefully because any hearing aid is only as good as the audiologist who fits it. And they vary in price hugely - I found a great small company who are competitively priced and skilled at fitting them, but a relative was quoted £2000 more for his with fitting elsewhere. So it is worth shopping about.

I’ve been a nhs hearing aid user from 4 years old until 3 years ago. NHS told me that replacement hearing aids would not be available to me powerful enough for me if I wanted to replace them. I went to Boots to enquire about what they offered and trialed 2 more powerful aids and the difference was immense. Yes, it cost me a lot but I had benefitted from nhs aids for a long time and I need good amplification from phonic hearing aids. Boots check my hearing aids every 6 months free as part of the aftercare too so I think Boots are great, go for it!

You can by second hand ones as of course many owners are elderly and the hearing aid outlives the owner. A good audiologist will tune them and provide new ear pieces, tubing etc. That might make them more affordable.

But I do agree - it is so sad that they aren’t available to anyone who needs them on the nhs. It’s the same with dentistry- the best treatments which make so much difference like dental implants are simply too expensive for nhs access.

The current best hearing aids are likely to be available on the nhs when yet another new platform hearing aids are out as what generally happens is that the existing platform hearing aids drastically drop in price then.

I developed age relating hearing loss about 7 years ago and now wear private hearing aids from Specsavers. They were absolutely life changing so definitely go for it.

If my buying private hearing aids had a negative impact on other people with poor hearing I wouldn’t buy them. If my having NHS hearing aids (and from what you say OP, poorer quality of life) improved the life quality of other people I would suffer the poor hearing for the sake of the greater good but these things aren’t true. I can spend my money on hearing aids or leave it in the bank and it won’t make any difference to any other deaf people. And as someone upthread has said, hopefully the things that are cutting edge and state of the art in my expensive hearing aids will become everyday and available in even the most basic of NHS aids.

My mum OTOH used to have NHS aids and gave up on them because they were ineffective and uncomfortable. She could afford to buy many, many pairs of private hearing aids but refuses as she thinks if she ‘really’ needed them the NHS would provide them. She misses out on so much and is more isolated than she needs to be while her thousands of pounds of hard earned life savings sit in the bank bringing no one any joy or pleasure.