The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription • Hacker News Board

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

#381

Post by abakker » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 3:16 AM UTC

babyshake wrote: post #374

t_serpico wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point. They're primed for this.

I'd think that even if turned off, Airpods and similar devices act as decent earplugs in a pinch.

with a lot of woodworking tools the AirPods pros definitely offer more protection than nothing. Not sure what attenuation they offer, but for the truly damaging higher frequency noise they seem to do a pretty decent job.

I still wear real ear protection, but for the odd cut, or for any other day to day situation with loud noises the AirPods do a good job.

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

#382

Post by Consultant32452 » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 3:26 AM UTC

How did we ever get to a place where you needed a prescription to buy hearing aids in the first place? Was there a bunch of hearing aid junkies knocking over liquor stores to get another hearing aid fix?

We need a ground-up reassessment of the whole concept of prescriptions. If it doesn't present a systemic risk it should be over the counter. If everyone over-uses antibiotics we might all die. Fine. But if some goober misuses blood pressure medicine, they can only hurt themself. Let people buy albuterol inhalers without permission. It's going to be fine.

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

#383

Post by kwdc » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 3:40 AM UTC

retrac wrote: post #157

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…

Canadian here as well. I have a 35 dB / 70 dB loss in each ear respectively. It is a pretty sweet deal if you can afford it. They do just ship you already-programmed replacements if you've lost one. No questions asked. Free adjustments. Very comprehensive. It's pleasant and stress-free while you're covered by one of those packages. But it's if you can afford it. When you can't afford the all-exclusive package there's…

Their reasoning is that you should stop buying luxury superyachts each year and focus on your health. Its about priorities!

On a related note, dentistry is another one that is usually not covered at all. Why even basic dental isn't covered by government healthcare as a prevention initiative still surprises me. Bad teeth can kill you / give you cancer / wreck chaos and damage organs in general etc and its all often detectable at early stages.

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

#384

Post by known » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 4:22 AM UTC

"If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. And if it stops moving subsidize it" --Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)

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

#385

Post by russdill » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 4:47 AM UTC

comeonseriously wrote: post #211

KennyBlanken wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evaluating someone's eye for glasses can be done entirely by machine as can manufacturing the glasses themselves. I do not understand why we still force people to spend 5-10 minutes sitting in a chair in a dark room going "better....no...worse...better..."

Because an eye exam isn't just about the final prescription. It's about whole eye health (retina health, cancer, cholesterol, diabetes, etc).

Right, but then the way to do that should have nothing to do with corrective lenses and requiring them shouldn't be an artificial barrier to getting corrective lenses.

If it's important, then it's important for everyone.

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

#386

Post by balls187 » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 5:10 AM UTC

ro_bit wrote: post #249

balls187 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can now check ocular pressure without the puff!

That's amazing! The puff is soooo uncomfortable! Is the technology to do this widespread?

It looks like it is becoming more common place.

iCare Tonometer

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

#387

Post by silexia » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 5:16 AM UTC

Monopolies granted by the government lead to disasters for consumers. Even when such monopolies were originally granted with good intentions.

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

#388

Post by Underphil » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 5:20 AM UTC

jrace wrote: post #290

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #289

Cautionary tale: Opticians I went for an eyetest. A woman with 3 years post-grad training sat down for 45 minutes, ran a battery of tests, detected a bacterial infection in my eye, sent me for a hospital appointment the next day, and gave me a prescription that I filled out online. My payment to her - 25 quid. I did get her some chocolates to say thank you. Now name another (para-)medical area where the medical part…

In Canada I did the very same, but for free. Free hearing evaluation, discovered ear infections, referred back to GP. At no time was I compensated by the client or the government.

Interesting that you said client instead of patient. Is that just a thing that differs between countries?

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

#389

Post by wrycoder » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 5:26 AM UTC

skellera wrote: post #363

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 was just thinking about this with the announcement of the new AirPods. Apple could really take the concert earplug market while getting great natural marketing (people wearing AirPods at concerts). Just balance and lower the volume for concerts.

My AirPod Pros with transparency mode enabled and set to max volume and treble don’t provide as much gain as my MDHearingAid pair ($400), and the external sound quality isn’t as good.

Apple has a real opportunity here, and they are slow in seizing it. I suspect some kind of an arrangement with the hearing aid manufacturers regarding iPhone-ready hearing aids.

The name of the game here is to allow people to dial in their own preferred level of compression (amplifying soft sounds more than looks sounds) and equalization using their iPhones.

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

#390

Post by wrycoder » Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 5:33 AM UTC

chairmanwow1 wrote: post #147

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…

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this something people could do on their own at home if the hardware had a decent setup UX / tuning instructions? This doesn’t necessarily seem like something that couldn’t be done pretty automatically.

You’re not wrong. Most people don’t need all those overpriced ads-ons.