Santa Barbara Audiology

NPR covered over-the-counter hearing aids back in 2017. Since then, politicians have passed legislation that provides access to these new amplifiers. NPR, like the politicians, dismissed the audiology profession without talking to an unbiased expert in the field – not a doctor and not someone who sells hearing aids. Ruth Bentler at University of Iowa would have been a good choice. Todd Rickets at Vanterbilt would have been another.

The only way I’ve thought of to concisely explain what audiologists do is to compare them to orthodontists. You might ask why a bunch of wires cost $6,000. They’re just wires. It’s because they don’t help much if you don’t have an expert, with 6-8 years of education, custom fit them and fine tune them over time. Audiologists require at least 8 years of education.

I’m glad these amplifiers are out there, but they’re only appropriate for a limited group of people. I tell patients to try it out, but keep your receipt. I guess you could compare them to something like Invisalign knockoffs that you get on Amazon or at the drug store. They’ll work for a few people with slightly crooked teeth.

One last thing. The NPR podcast inferred that you have to spend $5000 on a pair of hearing aids. The $5000 ones can have a lot of benefits, but the quality of the fitting is at least as important as which hearing aid you get.

What really needs to happen is for legislators to come up with policies that help enforce competence and ethics. There are problems with both of those in this field. How you legislate something like that, I don’t know. That’s their expertise.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately about the difference between me and Costco and why Costco’s hearing aids are so much less expensive.

Well, partly it’s because they buy a limited number of models from a limited number of manufacturers. So they buy in bulk. I can get any hearing aid from any manufacturer (except a couple of proprietary companies). I like that because they don’t all make the right hearing aid for everyone. I spend a lot more time keeping up with technology than they do, but it’s worth it. Here are some examples of hearing aids and why I might choose them.

Some people won’t wear hearing aids because they think it makes them look old. So, I can choose Phonak Titanium or Signia Styletto. Some work in an environment with lots of people and noise. So I have Oticon OPN S. Some people need rechargeable batteries. So I have a lot of options, but usually I think ReSound Quatro. I have people with deafness on one side and might try a CROS hearing aid. I’ve been trying Signia Nx for that lately. I have people with profound hearing loss and I’ll usually choose Oticon Exceed. Some people need to answer their Android phone, hands free, so I get Phonak Marvel. Starkey Livio Ai has fall detection, heart rate monitoring, and language translation. Widex Evoke has a great tinnitus masker.

I can also change manufacturers for things like earmolds. I’ve switched between companies like Westone, Starkey, ReSound, Oticon, Emtec, and Microsonic because quality can vary over time. They also have their own specialty. Microsonic is excellent at children’s earmolds and Westone is great at musician’s monitors.

Also, I’m an audiologist. They are usually hearing aid dispensers. While I’ve met dispensers that are stellar and audiologists that aren’t, audiologists have an advantage of graduate school education. The focus is different. Audiologists are trained to think of treating hearing loss, and that includes more than hearing aids. Sometimes it doesn’t include a hearing aid at all. A liberal education teaches more than how to do something. They teach why. So when you get unexpected results, you have half a chance of figuring out the why and how to fix it.

A few random things that come to mind: I take insurance and I work for free in Starkey’s Hear Now program. Costco’s ReSound hearing aids are locked – meaning only Costco can program or fine tune them. And, finally, I hope you enjoy this video, because it circles back to my first example of patients who think hearing aids make them look old.

Patients sometimes ask me about Eargo mail order hearing aids. As with anything, there are pros and cons. I couldn’t put it any better or more thoroughly than an audiologist from Arizona, “Doctor Cliff”. Check out this video summary. I tell my patients to go ahead and try it. Just keep your receipt and know that, just like with real hearing aids, the law requires that you be given a 45 day trial period.