O T Hearing aids

Need some info if possible. I have been checked by three places and they said my hearing is bad. This I agree with. My friends and family members tell be I need one also.

The possible hearing units that I think will work are digital and are the "Behind the Ear" (BTE) type.

The units did work very well when I tried them at the hearing shop.

I have searched the web and can not get any feel for a good price. It always $1500 to $5000 so this does not help.

The units I speak of are Beltone "Edge" BTE aids. The audiologist tells me the aids are normally $2600 each, I need two. Now they did offer me the aids at a discount price of $4200. Now this is my main question, is this a fair sounding price, or am I getting ripped off?

If any of you have info on this I would appreciate and answer.

TIA,

Skeeter

Hearing aids are an incredible rip off, probably the biggest rip off in the medical field. They are even worse than eyeglasses or dentistry. I would guess that a $2600 hearing aid has around a 1000% profit margin at least.

Depending on what you are willing to wear there are much cheaper alternatives.

You might want to check out this site:

http://www.hearingaidswholesale.com/behindtheear.asp

or this one:

http://www.newcenturyhearing.com/BTE_PAGE.htm

You could even try something like this to see what it does.

http://shop.i4u.com/7791/224033.html

This is something that is suddenly of interest to me. About 1 1/2 months ago I got out of bed one morning as usual and needed to blow my nose, not uncommon as I have some mild allergies.

I didn't realize that my sinus was completely blocked. When I blew my nose I wound up blowing out my right eardrum instead. Within 24 hours it was badly infected and overnight I had a 60db hearing loss in my right ear. Prior to that I had exceptionally good hearing according to the audiologist, even better than a 21 year old and I am 57.

It's now coming up on two months later and they finally determined that I have a very unusual fungal infection of the middle ear that does not respond to medication. It will likely require some sort of surgery to repair and I won't likely regain all of my hearing.

I guarantee that I will not pay 6000 dollars for a hearing aid. I don't intend to help finance somebody else's Porche Carrera.

I don't know anything about them but they sell a unit suposedly for hunting. I think it's called game ear or something like that. You are susposed to use it to listen for animals when hunting. It's probably not FDA approved as a hearing device but the price isn't either!

My father has hearing aids and when I get back home, I'll try and get some info from him. I do know that his hearing aid went out lately and he went to the audiologist for a repair. They loaned him a new digital one but I don't think he likes it too much. Turns out he can hear 'everything' with this new one and he's not used to it. Wind noise and driving noises are his top two dislikes. Seems that the digitals amplify these a little more than the older analog style.

Rex

I have Starkey model CE D4P s. They are a new model that came out this past summer. Much better than then the old digital ones that I had or the older ones before them. The new ones do not have feed back and work much better than any other hearing aids that I have had in the last twenty years. They were about $1200. each. I feel that the Audiologist that I go to gave me a good price. The $1200 number should give you a number to shop from. Or if you want to make a trip to Portland I can give you a name and number.

Fred P...............

good morning.

i have worn hearing aids for about 25 years. fortunately [i suppose] i got my ears blown out in vietnam. what i have is a 'profound high frquency hearing loss'. this often happens to older people.

so. i get my hearing aids from the va. the technogogy has improved a lot over the years. i have an appointment later this month to get tested for some new ones.

my advice would be to go to someone who knows a lot about this. the newer hearing aids can be programmed for your particular loss and that can make a big difference. i can hear low frequency sounds really well. [like the thump thump cars] but then it drops off to almost nothing.

i realize that this is expensive, but communication is vital. i don't wear mine in the shop or when working with anything remotely loud. i also am really particular about wearing ear muffs when i shoot.

protect your hearing. it is worth it.

peace.
billr.

I wear two hearing aids and have done so for 30 years and have been hard of hearing since I was a child. Anyways I have owned many hearing aids and now have 2 in the ear digitals that I have had since 02. I don't remember the make but I understand that most of the electronics are Seimens and the mfg makes the plastic shell and assmebles it. I recomend the in the ear over the behind the ear or in canal. The behind the ear is much more prone to sweat and rain damage and the in the canal is awefully small to handle. BTW, give the fit a few days for you to get used to it but don't hesitate to have it adjusted. Also have them cleaned frequently, the tiny speaker gets cloged with wax you can't even see. As far as price goes, they are way over priced! btu not much I can do about it. SU has a Speach and Hearing program so they have a clinic that offers a discount but it probably is not much of one and you are at the mercy of grad students practicing on you.

I don't know a lot about them, but my wife sells them. She works for Unitron, which is a division of Phonak. Their hearing aids are top of the line, but so are the prices.

Fred got a steal @ $1200 apiece. It would be good to know someone in the field, as my wife has gotten some for my family at cost...which was about $2000 for a pair or less. They were "in the ear" digital. Very nice, and programmable.

I don't have anything to add to this thread, but I do have a question -- Why do they sell such small hearing aids to the infirm? I was over at my 80+ year old neighbor this afternoon and he was showing me his new hearing aid. It was about the size of my little fingernail. I know this is at least the second hearing aid he has bought in the past 12 months as he keeps loosing them. Other than to ensure repeat business, why do they sell such small hearing aids to those with shaky hands and weak eyesight -- of course they are going to loose them long before they wear out! At the prices you all say they are charging, it seems almost criminal. Where are the hearing aids build into the temples of eyeglasses of long ago. Or package the hearing aid electronics in bowling ball-sized packages with earpieces on cables.

I agree George, My in the ear is just fine, those much smaller in the canal are too damn small and much more expensive. the only advantage is looks. I suspect I would have trouble handling and loosing them.

As I said George, it's a rip off. they wouldn't make nearly as much money if they sold the appropriate aid.

Some people think Body Aids are those old-fashioned kind of hearing aids. They're not. Body Aids have a specific place in the hearing aid marketplace. Body-style hearing aids are used primarily for three reasons. First, if a person has a very severe-to-profound degree of hearing loss, it may be the only instrument they can wear that will give them the high output needed to stay connected to the world. Second, many hearing aid users have dexterity problems. There is nothing more easy to operate than a Body Aid. It has large controls, large switches, the unit itself is larger, easy to handle, and fits into a shirt pocket. The third reason can be financial.....Lloyds has a Body Aid that sells for just $189.50 (that specific unit is for moderate hearing loss - not severe). And all our Body aids use AA batteries making Body hearing aids very inexpensive to operate

Click to expand...

http://www.lloydhearingaid.com/hearingaids/bodyaids.cfm

Guess what I'll be buying if I must.

OT - I remember a TV repairman that came to our house when I was a kid - vacuum tube days - who had one of those hearing aids in his pocket. He later had the glasses with the built in hearing aids - he would say "Wait I can't hear you, I don't have my glasses on". Later on he had an operation to restore his hearing and didn't need the hearing aids any more. From then on he grumbled about missing the morning being quiet when he woke up before putting the hearing aids on. He never knew until then how noisy his neighborhood was!

We attended grades 7 thru 12 with a very hearing impared fellow student. He always wore one of those in the pocket deals, stringy cord, etc. Several of us should have been dragged down main street for all the lip-sincing we did in front of him. Poor guy, was always checking the volume control or the 9V battery..

Now, 48 years later, cochlear implant and he can hear the water running, while shaving.

Ain't American medicine wonderful?
J

McDuff's comment reminds about a profoundly deaf woman I worked with back in the 70's -- she wore one of those big hearing aids nested in the cleavage of her bra with the cabled ear pieces, but relied mostly on lip reading. When we played cards, we would hold the cards infront of our mouths and stratigize against her. Seems like there was one game where you try to stick a person with the queen of spades -- guess who always got that card! (If she ever got mad at you, she would pull out her earpieces and turn away from you so she wouldn't have to put up with your BS.)

I have been wearing hearing aids for almost 30 years - I am 36 years old.
I have had 2 types - the in the ear type (not the hidden kind) and the behind the ear (BTE) type.
For my degree of loss - I much prefer the latter kind. More powerful, bigger batteries (last approx. 3x as long as the mini ones).
Most importantly for me is that I do not have to turn my head slightly to one side when someone is speaking (the microphones are positioned in the foward position - not from the side as in the in the ear type.
Hope this helps.

I recently got hearing aids,....YEOW!, the price!...anyhow, I'm qute pleased with the results. I did a little research and mostly got confused with the unfamiliar words and terminology, though did get enough of a grasp to decide on the BTE type, and ran across some talk about some new technology touting "fuzzy logic" and "32 bit processor,--I think?", etc from Interton. Went to the local dist and was pleased with the presentation and their stressing that the aids arent for everyone. Some people cant --or wont-- wear them, others just cant be helped. Told me what to expect and what to not expect, which my friend didnt get breifed on, --he recently spent $4200 on in-the-ears,--- wore them a month and put them in a drawer saying he couldnt get used to them, ---sounded like if he had the presentation I'd had, would have been easier. So, the distributor was pretty impressive.

On about the second day I turned the vacuum on and was assaulted by that scream and was about to snatch the aids out when the noise abated to 'normal' levels (about 2-3sec...nice) and I had been worried about the shop with some of the more noisier machines, but with this feature in the aids it isnt a problem.

Yeah, they were TOO expensive, (can buy a MONSTER computer for a third of the cost)--- the industry doesnt have a good reputation,--- but like funeral homes, what ya gonna do?

I appreciate the answers from you folks. I am still undecided as to getting the hearing aids.

As Bill Pace stated he got more confused as he got information. This is happening to me.

One place I was tested, said I did have some hearing loss but not ready for HA's. Part of the problem is spending a large amount of money and not being satisfied with the HA's.I know that I do have some hearing loss. The store will give me 30 days to return them. But, I know this will be a hassle. They will want to upgrade and all that jazz. (Not give me my money back)

Anyway will do more research.

Thanks guys,