Hearing Aids
 

My DH needs to have his ears checked and will need a hearing aid. Any recommendations? I heard Costco is a good place for this with reasonable prices but Nashua is way too far.

Thanks in advance.

Audiologists
 

You didn't say where you are located. The best bet would be ENT Associates at LRGH. I believe they are part of Concord Hospital so you should be good.

www.audiologyspecialists.com/about-the-doctor on South Main St, Laconia ..... down the south end of town in a single family, blue w/ white trim Victorian house with easy parking in the back .... you just slowly drive in their residential driveway, pahk your cahr and go talk to reception for an appointment.

Weirs, based on other threads. Yes, more people should add this info to their profile.

Sorry, yes. Right. The Weirs is where we live.

it is a drive, but Costco is great. hearing aids are expensive and they give a good price, good service and they replaced my mom's after one was lost for no charge.

Anyone have any experience with a Sams Club hearing center?

I'm a Sam's Club member and profound hard of hearing. Not aware Sam's had a hearing center. I will investigate.

PM me if you have any questions in regard to your hearing. I am a known advocate for the NH Hearing Loss community.

I don't think they have a "hearing center" per se, but they do sell some hearing related items such as this... https://www.samsclub.com/b/hearing-s...har_subcat_1_9

Dan

Thanks.

Their Hudson store has a hearing center. But I have never heardvmuch about the quality of their hearing aids and hearing aid center.

Anyway we decided to bite the bullet and make the 1 1/2 hour drive to Nashua (ugh) to Costco. First available appt was 12/19 and we took it. Bad thing is the hearing aids will have to be ordered and this will involve another trip down to get them and have them adjusted and then we will have to make even a third trip for a follow up. Hopefully that will be it.

I did call other places but it seems that Costco has the most value, a good reputation and the hearing test is free. Even with having to join the club it should be worth it.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions!

and don't forget the hot dog, with drink, for $1.50

hope it works out ok

Am I correct in that you need to be a Costco member in order to use their hearing center?

I know that you don't have to be a member to buy their $1.50 hot dog which comes with a soda.

I never understood the whole hearing aid fiasco and yes I believe it's rife with salesmen that take advantage of the elderly (just like that TV ad where the man says "Three thousand, four thousand, FIVE THOUSAND, WHATEVER THEY CAN GET!"
My deceased parents fell for that game and always had problems with their $5k hearing aids after the sale.
I am not saying there is no need for hearing aids as I am hard of hearing myself and am tempted to try one of those that have appeared on the market for some years now. I will not, however, spend what my parents did.
Rant over. I hope anyone purchasing them has good luck and is not taken over the coals...:(

I have to agree Hill...after many years of competitive shooting my hearing has taken a beating. The word “huh” is becoming part of my regular vocabulary. The funny thing is the older I get the less people I want to listen to!:D:

Maybe one of these is order in my future! Certainly cheaper than a hearing aid!

Ditto for me
 

Dan, I suffer from two types of hearing loss: actual and convenient. :emb:

Dave

Hearing aids
 

Obviously, people complain when hearing aids were bought OTC, from hearing aids dispensers, online, or from salesmen. You get what you pay for!

Been profound hard of hearing since birth. My goto is an ENT doctor who will refer me to a registered audiologist. Competent audiologists are registered by the state. I met in my travels quacks who claim they are audiologists.
The audiologist will recommend hearing aids. Hearing aids usually come in a package. 30-day trial, 5 yr comprehensive warrantee, free office visits, annual hearing aid checkup, and free batteries. Yes, it is not cheap but well worth it.

Insurance normally pays for the doctor and audiologist visits, so it is not expensive. Unfortunately, insurance and medicare do not cover hearing aids, but I see a change in the future. If you can't afford aids, there are interest-free loans available, the Lions Club, and the Starkey Foundation. You just need to be proactive.

PM me if you have questions or issues.

My wife calls it “selective hearing”! :eek:

Dan

Often much of hearing loss is due to otosclerosis, a growth of material over and at the edges of the baseplate of the stapes. The stapes is the third of those three tiny bones in the ear, behind the eardrum (timpanic membrane), and it covers the opening to the inner ear where the tiny hair cells bathed in fluid pick up sound transmitted from the outside world. As that growth of material thickens over time, it takes louder sound to produce the same vibration intensity in the inner ear. Nerve damage also can desensitize hearing, and the effect is not the same for all sound frequencies.

Hearing aids boost the sound level so as to produce the proper intensity in the inner ear. Modern aid circuitry lets the degree of sound amplification vary with the nature of the sound (soft speech vs loud explosive sound) and with frequency. Optimum results from a hearing aid require careful adjustment of the amplification process.

But there is another option for improving hearing when the primary cause of loss is otosclerosis. There is the stapedectomy operation, which involves removal of the stapes, covering the opening to the inner ear with a disc of suitable material (eg. taken from part of the outer ear), and bridging the gap between that disc and the middle bone (incus) with an artificial stapes. The replacement typically is a tiny cylinder of platinum or plastic with a wire that is used for attachment to the incus.

A newer variation on stapedectomy, stapedotomy, involves leaving the stapes in place, creating a small hole in its base plate, and inserting a small cylinder there to conduct vibrations to the inner ear.

The only way to assess whether a surgical approach to hearing loss is appropriate is to have a thorough hearing test by a competent audiologist, as loss due to nerve damage won't be corrected by surgery. I have to wonder if having a hearing test performed by a company in the business of selling hearing aids gives a biased recommendation.

In my case, I had the stapedectomy operation done on one ear nearly four decades ago, as my loss was mostly due to otosclerosis. I preferred a good internal corrective solution to what would have been a perpetual nuisance with an external device. My father had one, even further back, and he hated it. But hearing aid technology back then was nowhere close to what it is today, I'm sure surgical solutions are more refined now, and I'm sure a decision made today would not be easy. In recent years, hearing in my ear with the artificial stapes has diminished notably, and I have to wonder if that is due to the same sclerosis process that led to surgery way back then. I'm not sure which route would be best for me at my age now.

My dad got his hearing aids from the VA because his loss was combat related. (WWII destroyer and a minesweeper) the ones he had would have cost a pile on the open market but they worked great and were upgraded over the years.

As for my mom, we wasted a ton of money on all sorts of cheap amplifiers and all sorts of other crappy hearing aids until finally spending the money for real ones. I forget the exact price but I think it was around $3500 but the result was worth and mom was sort of annoyed we had not done it sooner since she was almost 90 by then.

My friend had some sort of surgery for hearing at about 60 and I have no idea what was involved he was super excited about the result

LMAO!Too funny and too true!
These days when I want to hear something I deem important, I simply use the “handy method” (hand cupped over ear) which works well.
When in a noisy restaurant, I do a lot of nodding in agreement...hasn’t gotten me in trouble yet...:laugh:

Good thread going hear ...haha. I definitely have a hearing issue. Audiologist has recommended hearings past two years. Insurance covers nothing on them so until my wife is fed up I say “what” a thousands times a day. Aside from the cost it’s just another gadget to fiddle with and on top of glasses and contacts I just can’t see the fiddling. I watched my dad fiddle with them for years. Can’t tell you how many went over the gunnels of the boat.....the only thing that will ultimately drive me to them is when I can’t hear the deer coming.....

I have a pair of amplified shooting ear muffs! I hear everything in the deer woods and if I shoot my rifle/muzzle loader, my ears won’t ring for an hour after.;). Not to mention target practice...

https://proears.com/product/pro-ears...SABEgK-DvD_BwE

When I was diagnosed with hearing loss a few years ago, I learned that New Hampshire is one of a handful of States that requires health insurance to cover a minimum of $1500 for each hearing aid or $3000 for a set of hearing aids if a person has a hearing loss. Fortunately, my health insurance carrier paid the majority of my hearing aides which was above the State required $3000. It pays to shop around as the Laconia audiology group was much more expensive then the audiologist in Wolfeboro. Follow up service with the audiologist was superior also.

Yes. You do. We will have to join.

Hubby has Medicare and it does not cover hearing aids.

My buddy has those. Says they work pretty good. My ears don’t ring after the shot......arrows make little noise LOL

Many veterans qualify for no cost hearing aids. There is a procedure to apply for such.

For some veterans hearing safety gear was unavailable or not practical under some circumstances.