HEARING AIDS

Hearing aids have existed for over a hundred years and have started from more rudimentary means until the digital age.

People used to use ear trumpets as hearing aids and even cup their hands to their ears as a form of hearing aids.

Siemens hearing aids are probably the oldest hearing aids around. They existed before the 1900's to present day.

People assume that the word hearing aid is associated with a electronic device but it isn't, as said before, it can be any instrument that allows us to hear better or anything that allows us to go about our everyday life.

You can understand the stigma attached to hearing aids considering that hearing loss is associated with age.  The older we get the more our hearing deteriorates.  Hearing aids would be worn by the old and infirm.  Hearing aids would be large and bulky. 

The first electronic hearing aids were called body worn hearing aids.  You would a small box with 2 batteries in your shirt pocket or around your neck and that is the main hearing aid.  A cord would come off this hearing aid and go to the ear and this is where the hearing aid would send the sound.

You can see why there is a stigma to wearing hearing aids.

In the late nineties, hearing aids became smaller and smaller but only the rich could afford them.  The NHS would supply hearing aids but they were far larger than their private counterparts and since old people would wear hearing aids and the hearing aids were still large and bulky.

Size of hearing aids were not an important issue.  Sound quality was important and also hearing in groups which is where most people have difficulty.  The problem with that is that size and sound quality are related to technology and since technology hadn't evolved enough, the size and sound of the hearing aids would still not be great.

There is more money in the private sector and hence why research and development is so much more advanced.  It is because of the private sector that hearing aids have evolved to the level they are at now.

The price of hearing aids has been slowly decreasing over time but it still won't be as cheap as buying a television.  This is because hearing aids are medical devices that are worn as necessary devices to improve your hearing.  Hearing aids are not worn for the fun of it or for entertainment value.

Also, the stigma attached to hearing aids means that even when people have a hearing loss they will try their best not to wear hearing aids because they are afraid of what others will think.

There are millions of people in the UK who need hearing aids but only a fraction of them actually wear hearing aids.

Hearing aid prices

The other aspect of the cost is the aftercare and rehabilitation of the clients hearing loss.  It's not straight forward to just put hearing aids in peoples ear and tell them thats its.  Hearing aids need to be tuned for the individuals hearing loss and then retuned slowly so that they accustom themselves to the sound.  The sound of the hearing aids is different to natural sound and this is one aspect of the hearing aids that people need to get used to.  The other aspect is the fit of the hearing aids.  Having a foreign body in your ear is something that you need to get used to and although initially it will feel uncomfortable, eventually it won't even register that there is hearing aids in your ear.