By Laura Johannes
Wall Street Journal
Choosing a hearing aid is getting complicated.
Racing green or cabernet red? A sleek geometric triangle or an artsy teardroplike curve? Switzerland’s Bernafon AG offers a red one with a white cross that might coordinate with your Swiss army knife.
And it’s not just about looks: Computer technology is improving the sound quality of hearing aids, as well as the ability to customize the devices. Devices can be programmed to tune out sounds like clanking of silverware and the hum of voices at a restaurant. Some devices let users hear their Bluetooth cell phones through a hearing aid. And many newer hearing aids are so tiny as to be hardly noticeable.
“Technology in hearing aids has become extremely sophisticated at the high end,” says Nancy Catterall, director of audiology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Even the less expensive hearing aids, she adds, “are as good as the higher-end devices were several years ago.”
But as hearing aids become more complex, the array of choices can be confusing. Even volume control is being replaced by tech-sounding phrases such as “integrated signal processing.” And with prices that can reach $2,000 to $6,000 a pair, it’s easy to overspend, audiologists say. If your needs are mainly talking to family at home and watching television, you don’t need a high-end device, they say.
Some experts also warn against choosing a device just for its small size. Chris Halpin, an audiologist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, says he fears the new emphasis on small is resulting in “wimpy” devices that don’t have enough amplification power to help patients with serious hearing problems. It is important to find a practitioner with whom you have good personal chemistry, Halpin says. The cost of hearing aids is generally not covered by insurance.
By age 65, nearly a third of Americans have hearing loss, and 40 percent to 50 percent develop it by age 75, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Audiologists recommend that people looking for a hearing aid get a hearing test and see a doctor to make sure hearing loss isn’t correctable with medication or surgery.
When buying a hearing aid, the first choice is whether to go with analog or digital devices. Analog hearing aids can be less expensive. But digital hearing aids - in which sound is processed with a computer chip before being fed to your ear - enables almost limitless massaging of the sound.
Digital hearing aids make value judgments, attempting to tell the difference between voice and noise, such as an air conditioner’s hum. The Phonak Audeo, for example, automatically switches among programs for music, quiet, speech alone and speech and music.