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The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

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Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#341

Post by dfinninger »

ddlutz wrote: post #221
slownews45 wrote: post #181

Fantastic news. If you can afford the $5,000 - great! The current system works for you. 80% of people cannot and so are stuck. For folks with mild/moderate loss (where a LOT of people don't get help) something as simple as letting Apple tweak noise cancellation to be voice enhancing and providing a tuning and hearing test app in the iphone would be a godsend. The elderly miss out on a lot of family life because of he…

This is me. 28, had mild hearing loss for about 3 years now in one ear due to a bad ear infection. I can get by fine, however I'm definitely missing out on a lot of "richness" of sound. I can't hear high pitched noises, or subtle differences between noises in my left ear at all. And everything in general is a little muted. Since I can hear perfectly find out of my right ear I'm not convinced spending thousands of dol…

I'd take that tinnitus treatment in a heartbeat.

The drumming-on-the-back-of-the-skull trick lasts just long enough for me to realize what the world could sound like. (I tend to not do it anymore due to the mild depression I get realizing how fleeting the relief is)

Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#342

Post by tornato7 »

johncessna wrote: post #310
ansgri wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These seem to exist for quite some time, like https://www.etymotic.com/product/gun-sport-pro/

I've got a product similar to these and they're great. You can have a normal conversation and it didn't take me long to realize their eavesdropping potential. My Surface headphones also have a feature that more or less acts as a hearing aid.

Some years ago there was a set of headphones sold for hunting (amplifying sounds of animals and reducing gunshot noise) that were very popular among the hearing-impaired community as a cheaper alternative to hearing aids.

Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#343

Post by sgent »

slownews45 wrote: post #288
falcolas wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> conduct a hearing test It could not. A hearing test requires an environment with exceptional isolation and flat-response drivers (iPods are not remotely flat) to be done properly. > do a hearing based EQ on incoming sound It could, given a proper prescription for the EQ, and an understanding of the response curve of the iPods' mic and drivers. > do sound profiles Not required, the EQ is tied to your hearing damage,…

I've got a higher end audio setup, I can put the sound calibration mic in the listening position etc (think YPAO / Audyssey etc). But you get little weird sync issues at times between sources / displays etc. On a whim I tried Apple's wireless sync. It's end to end, and works as well as I could with manual tuning (which I would do by filming at high speed a time audio sync track) https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comme…

The real issue is that an iphone cannot check for conductive or mixed hearing loss.

Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#344

Post by jleyank »

causi wrote: post #3
cf100clunk wrote: post #2

"People with mild or moderate hearing loss" should be free to purchase these sort of generic hearing aids in much the same way that buying non-prescription reading glasses is common. If problems persist, it is time to consult a professional.

Heck, imagine if prescription glasses were only available from government-certified vendors. We'd be back to paying $700 a pair like the bad old days.

Buy lightweight frames and lenses, have progressives and get anti-glare coating and "we'd be back to paying $700/pair" is like, last year if I miss a sale. Lenscrafters, not a small shop. They're all owned by the same site, and I work on the 50% off of lenses sale. Frames are 150-300 as I avoid big-name style. These are way more than +2.5 diopter reading glasses, and you might imagine that astigmatism and progressives does wonders for straight lines...

Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#345

Post by bane »

jrace wrote: post #177
dmurray wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've long thought the problem with hearing aids is the calibration process. People (often old, confused, and less tech-familiar) try them on and spend half an hour answering questions about "does that sound better?" What if, instead, the calibration process worked constantly? Give the user a button to press when they don't hear something well, and another when they do. Let them have this for a month, let them try it…

THere may be now, but not 5 years ago. I have many ideas about how the industry can be improved, especially with the use of a smart phone app and user interactions. Not only is it plausible, but would make the clinicians (fitter) job easier and lead to far more hearing aid sales.

What's really needed is a decoupling of the hearing test from the calibration activity. A basic hearing test takes a few minutes in an isolated box with headphones (the 'ol click a button if you hear the tone test). From that profile it should be trivial to build out the profile of what frequencies to boost and what not to and program the aids there.

Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#346

Post by gramie »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #149
jrace wrote: post #128

How much would you pay for: *Hearing test * Hearing aid fitting * Usage counselling * Follow up adjustments * Annual retest of your hearing * Replacement of lost hearing aids * Unlimited repair for 3 years ?? ====== I got out of the Audiology field in 2015. At that time all the above was included for every hearing aid we sold (Prices varied from $750 / ear - $3600 / ear. When I was in that field many companies tried…

I guess one question is: do those things have to cost thousands of dollars? What are the primary cost components? Are the people doing these jobs highly paid? Are they highly paid because of high costs of college tuition? Would free college help lower their costs?

One of the costs built into hearing aids is the lavish perks that the suppliers give to the audiologists. My partner got a trip for two to the Caribbean every year, to 5-star resorts, for selling a certain number of their hearing aids. There were about 60 people in our group, probably costing well over $5,000 each.

Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#348

Post by TMWNN »

verve_rat wrote: post #144
dqv wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just a general thing I've learned from working adjacent to US healthcare... It's annoying to work with and there are all kinds of little rules because of how inefficient the system is. First, always have a list of all relevant phone numbers (at a minimum, but other information is helpful too) to any healthcare entity you need to work with. Your primary care doctor, your pharmacy, your hospital, your preferred…

Wow, I'm so sorry you have to put up with that. My non-US experience: I logged in to a website, clicked a couple of buttons, and the doctor sent a repeat prescription to the pharmacy yesterday. I expect it to be ready to pick up later today. Done.

That's exactly how it works for me too, in the US. I haven't had to take a paper prescription to the pharmacy in many years.

Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#349

Post by Rapzid »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #306

It's always funny to see how the land of the "free" and free market" is not very "free market" when it comes to protecting the profits of favored industries like medical even from its own citizens. Things like being required to go to a doctor and pay big $$$ to get a hearing aid or not being allowed to import drugs from countries where they are cheaper are absolutely not "free market". Even during COVID the country c…

Well, the USA is a land of laws too. Everyone is also crying that the USA wasn't giving enough vaccines to the rest of the world and is now moving on to boosters.

Gotta put your mask on first.

Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

#350

Post by munk-a »

bsder wrote: post #279
gpt5 wrote: post #244

We are seeing a long term consolidation between hearing devices and headphones. On the headphones side, we are getting smaller, truly-wireless headphones with some ambient sound features (such as noise cancellation, and iOS hearing features). New trends like AR would just accelerate the change due to the need to solve all day worn audio devices. On the hearing aids side, almost every hearing aid today acts as an alwa…

I know people complain about price, but custom in-ear monitors for musicians are on the same scale of price as hearing aids. Good in-ear monitors like good earphones are expensive. I suspect, like the earphone market, this is going to become a marketing-driven race to the bottom that swamps any genuine technical improvement.

Technical improvement has been pretty stunted since the 90s anyways. The hearing aide market is insanely marked up and ends up costing an extremely significant chunk of change whenever you need a replacement. I also would mention that custom in-ear monitors for musicians apply to a really niche market as well - so we don't really have a broad market to compare either of these to.
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