Do you have any experience with non prescriptive hearing aids?

First; I have not had personal experience with OTC hearing aids, but hold-on! I do have experience with a prescription, highly rated single-sided hearing aid that was later determined by my Audiologist & Neuro-Otologist was not the answer for me due to my having a “sensory” hearing loss. That’s where the inner and outer hairs in my R-ears cochlea were damaged, and something that a hearing aid would not have corrected. Unfortunately, something that took awhile to determine as the speech recognition in my R-ear deteriorated from (post injury Audiogram) 76% to 42% several months later.
My point is, it’s imperative that you see an ENT (Specialist) and Audiologist to determine the “exact type” of hearing loss you have (There are essentially 3-types of hearing loss: Sensory, Conducive & Mixed) in the event your considering self treating yourself with an over the counter hearing aid as I can assure you that reprogramming of that hearing aid will be required potentially every 3-6 months by an Audiologist, despite the OTC hearing aid potentially having an app. for you to self adjust? Keep in mind that a hearing aid is essentially an amplifier of “sound”. Even with my Rx hi-end hearing aid I heard “tinny” & “echoing” faint sounds.
Due to my Sensory hearing loss I just had an OSIA 2 bone conduction implant device placed, awaiting my fitting and programming next week.

I do not have experience with OTC hearing aids, but you can find out where your hearing is on the spectrum of mild to severe by having a trained audiologist give you a hearing test. If ordered by your doctor your Insurance should cover this expense. Then you will be able to decide if you are a good candidate for OTC hearing aids.

I posed a comment in another thread about conductive loss. Then I saw this discussion. My experience with Bose OTC is that they work similar to my 5K hearing aids: Neither type has significantly helped my conductive loss. Both help a tiny, minuscule, amount. But Boze is a lot cheaper if you have their $8-900 price. Perhaps they work better on nerve deafness, I don’t know.

I agree with your statement about having an audiological test done by a licensed audiologist. It's important to know where you are on the 'hearing loss spectrum'. Those OTC devices can help people with mild or moderate hearing loss. However, they don't do anything for people who have more serious loss. Also, they should not be used for children regardless of the degree of hearing loss.

When you have your hearing tested by an audiologist, be sure to ask for a copy of your test results. You are entitled to that whether you are seeking OTC or the more costly prescriptive hearing devices. Hearing aids are expensive. Regardless of where you purchase them, it is your right to shop around if what you are fitted with doesn't seem to be helping.

OTC devices haven't been around long enough for us to know how well they work. They can vary in cost from under $100 to over $2000. We need to learn more, which is why I posed the question. Your experiences help. Thank you for sharing.

Good luck with your OSIA 2 bone conduction implant. Single sided deafness can be treated in some ways that are different than for those who have hearing loss in both ears.

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is very common. It affects the hair cells in the cochlea/inner ear. Those do not regenerate. Thus, cochlear implants help many people as they bypass the cochlea with the damaged hair cells to stimulate the auditory nerve. For years, prior to the development of implanted devices, it was believed that the auditory nerve was 'dead'. Amazingly, that is rarely the case. That nerve is simply not getting the message.

With single sided deafness, bone conduction from the hearing side to the deaf side may do the trick. I hope this works for you and look forward to hearing your experience after your tech has been activated and programmed.

Undead totally agree. There are no guarantees with the OSIA 2 even tho the demo I went thru was significantly better with the various bone conduction implants I tried in the comfort and noise regulated Audiologists office 😉
My Audiologist and Neuro-Otologist were very transparent.
All I know is that my Phonak did not help.

Your input was very helpful and appreciated