Hearing Aids.

Hearing aids need to be tuned to correct your hearing loss in the same way as spectacles correct your eyesight. The earpiece is moulded to fit inside your ear, any gaps and it produces so much feedback it’s uncomfortable. If your hearing deteriorates, the software in the aids can be reprogrammed.
Yes I totally agree that hey are extremely expensive and after my first private pair broke many years ago I decided to purchase a cheap set advertised in a newspaper for about £300, they were terrible, you couldn’t get a snug fit in your ear and it was impossible to have a telephone conversation as there was so much whistling feedback happening. They could only be adjusted to switch the volume up which was useless for me as the hearing loss I have is only for specific tones.
So unfortunately anyone with hearing loss is stuck with paying around 2000€ for aids which have a lifespan of 4-5 years. Plus the cost of batteries and filters which cost me approx 50€ per year.


Lynn

I've seen two of the top audiology specialists in the UK. Neither of them advised me to buy a hearing aid off Ebay. You don't tend to lose your hearing across all frequencies so, if your hearing loss is nearly all in the mid-range, like mine, and you use a cheap hearing aid that amplifies sounds across all frequencies, all that happens is that the stuff you can hear gets amplified as much as the stuff you can't, and it drowns everything out.
I had my first pair of hearing aids 15 years ago. I got a grant, because I needed them for work, but I had to pay 10%, which, at the time, was 300 quid. After I finsished work, I used them less and less, because they were uncomfortable, needed a lot of maintenance and gradually became less efeective as my hearing loss deteriorated.
I agreed to go and see Protea in Quesada after much persuasuasion from my wife, who was probably sick of me saying "what" everytime she spoke to me. In the 6 months I've had them, they've more or less changed my life. They are far more advanced than my old ones and I can join in conversations now, where I would have avoided it before, because I had to ask everyone to repeat themselves all the time and I can watch the telly and listen to music at a reasonable level.
Our friend came over from the UK recently and her daughter, who is profoundly deaf, was using NHS supplied hearing aids which are the same make as those supplied by Protea. I'm sure if the NHS thought they could get the same thing for 30 quid, they would.
They are expensive and probably overpriced for what's in them, but, if you can afford it I'd advise anyone to go for it.

Not headphones Fred, hearing aids that go into your ear.

jpeg wrote:I never heard of headphones having to be tuned in to frequencies and people ha ve been using them for donkeys year without any problems Hearing aids are a complete rip off and can not possibly justify the rip off prices charged by so called hearing aid specialists
They will cost very little to make so the profit margins will be massive