Connect
← Return to I'm completely new to the world of hearing aids. Advice please.
Discussion
I'm completely new to the world of hearing aids. Advice please.
Hearing Loss | Last Active: Oct 25, 2023 | Replies (103)Comment receiving replies
@bobsi
Hi,
I have a neighbor who has a moderate loss and wears small BTE hearing aids who told me about EarLens. I looked into it. I have a profound hearing loss. From what I remember reading about them, they are not for anyone who has scarred eardrums (as I have) or who have had ear infections recently. I am prone to ear infections since childhood and after 40 years of wearing hearing aids, my eardrums are in no condition to accommodate something that sits right on that surface.
It sells for about $12,000 a pair and supposedly will last in your ears for 3 to 5 years. All the electronics are in the lens that is professionally inserted by a provider. I just can’t envision having the tympanic membrane covered all the time although people wear contact lenses 24/7.
I didn’t delve further and don’t know how much of an improvement for someone like myself (if I qualified) would experience.
If I see my neighbor again I will ask if he has considered getting them. Your insurance really has to be spectacular to have them covered.
FL Mary
Replies to "@bobsi Hi, I have a neighbor who has a moderate loss and wears small BTE hearing..."
Connect
Hello
My ENT doctor who I go to for cerumen removal always asks how my hearing aids are doing. His practice also includes audiology but I don’t use them so I think he may be a bit miffed about that. Anyway his practice also deals with earlens but after reading all the literature decided at 83 I wasn’t interested and told him so. He persists in bringing it up saying several of their patients have been helped a lot by it at which I said that I would like to talk to them. I got no answer from that.
I also posited to him that since my problem was not the level of sound I can hear (which the lens amplifies) but understanding the words due to an aging auditory nerve it seems. His answer to that was that any amplification helps. I hope there is someone out there who can join in this conversation. My audiologist knows nothing about earlens as of course it involves surgery. I did find a blinded study but not double blinded but how you would do one I can’t imagine.