Hear and Now

It’s often said we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Our ears while more numerous, tend to fail us much more readily, with around 48 million Americans suffering from some degree of hearing loss. On the flip side of this, only one in five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually ends up using one. In a move to help combat this, recent changes in the law make it much easier for an individual to obtain these small, but life changing devices. Let’s talk about what’s changed, how it’s made the market a much more consumer-friendly place, and what it means for those of us who might need an assistive hearing device in the future!

Hearing aids previously required a prescription, professional fitting and configuration, and were as a result out of the financial reach of many people. The several thousand dollar price point of prescription devices will now finally see some competition from over the counter units as, starting back in October, the FDA ruled that you no longer need this prescription to purchase a hearing aid. Thus opening up the market for more options and more affordable pricing for all. While it’s still a regulated product category, meaning that manufacturers must seek FDA approval and ensure effectiveness, one of the largest hurdles no longer exists; we’ll soon be able to pick one up at Walmart with the rest of our groceries.

One thing which will accelerate this process of availability is the rise in commonality for wireless earbuds. While great for music and phone calls, it’s not too much of a leap to see how something with a battery, speaker and microphone could be tweaked slightly to improve hearing. An awful lot of buds now come with noise cancelling technology, too. Taking something like an AirPod Pro and, with a software update, allowing it to amplify ambient noise rather than blocking it, gets you awfully close to an assistive hearing device. It wouldn’t be a stretch to see these sort of “lite” solutions appearing soon, I don’t think. Dedicated solutions, even in the short time since the FDA ruling, have begun appearing as well; occupying the price point of a few hundred dollars, rather than a few thousand.

As a slightly less obvious benefit, we can look forward to seeing the end of the stigma surrounding wearing a hearing aid in public. It’s so commonplace now to see someone going about their day wearing wireless earphones, that a person wearing one of the new generations of hearing aids is likely to go totally unnoticed. These devices will need to be sleek, attractive and easy to use now that they’re vying for a much wider audience’s cash. Even in the event you might need the assistance of an audiologist (and some still will), the beige behind-the-ear aids our grandparents used will soon be relics of the past.

One drawback I see here is the burden of knowledge for setting up these new OTC devices will now fall on the user. While this will become less of an issue as more people who have grown up around tech become aged, it might cause confusion in the short term. While I’ve no desire for old age to affect my ears, I’m at least more comfortable tackling it now that my breadth of options has become so much wider.