- Direct to consumer online hearing aid companies
love to say that their hearing aids
are custom programed for you based on your hearing loss.
And then they send those devices to you in the mail.
So in this video,
I'm going to explore whether or not
online hearing aids can actually be custom programed.
Coming up.
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Hi guys Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And on this channel,
I cover a bunch of hearing related information
to help make you a better informed consumer.
So if you're into that,
make sure you hit that subscribe button,
and don't forget to click the bell
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In the past few years,
there has been an explosion
of direct to consumer hearing aids
that you can purchase online as if the FDA
already established the guidelines for over-the-counter
hearing aids.
But legalities aside, online hearing aids
can serve a very important role
in the treatment of hearing loss
due to increased accessibility and affordability.
For instance, if you live in a very remote area
where you do not have easy access to go in
and see a hearing care professional
it can be a lifesaver
to actually be able to order hearing aids online
and all you have to do is get to a post office
where you can get devices within a matter of days.
And what about affordability?
Well, online hearing aid companies
typically offer little to no services to their customers
which keeps their overhead expenses really low.
And the hearing aids
that they sell are often very low in technology
which means that you get them at a much lower price.
Now I'm actually a big fan of online hearing aids
because I believe that everybody deserves
to have access to hearing treatment.
But the one thing that confuses me
is when of these online hearing aid companies
say that they can custom program your hearing aids
and send them to you in the mail.
To understand why this confuses me,
you really have to understand the five different
ways that hearing aids can be programmed.
The first example
is just simple generic programming of a hearing aid
or an amplifier.
This is when a hearing aid is preset
with a certain amount of amplification
and you can basically increase or decrease the volume.
This is what the vast majority of devices
that are sold online can actually do.
Second, is what I call generic self-adjusting.
This is when you have a hearing aid
that has a generic amount of amplification programmed
into it but you actually get access to an equalizer
usually through a smartphone.
So you can make some simple adjustments yourself.
Third is what I like to call in-situ first-fit.
This is when you take the devices
that you've ordered online,
you put them in your ears,
connect them to a smartphone
and then take a self-administered hearing test.
At the end of the hearing test,
the app will actually make adjustments
to the programming based on the results.
Fourth, is what I like to call manufacturer first-fit.
This is when you take an online hearing test
or you go and get a professional hearing test
and send those results off to the company
that you're purchasing these devices from.
They will then take that information,
upload it into the software for those hearing aids.
And the hearing aids will create an estimate
based on your test results.
They will then send those devices
to you in the mail for you to start wearing.
And fifth is what we call custom hearing aid programming.
This is when you take a professional hearing test
and a hearing loss prescription
is created based on the results of your test.
You then perform what is called real ear measurement
to verify that you or receiving
the proper amount of amplification
with your hearing aids as they are being custom programmed
while they're actually in your ears.
This allows you to take your specific ear canal size
and shape into account when doing programming.
Now, if you do not know what real ear measurement is
or you just need a refresher,
make sure that you check out my video,
that I will link in the description
because this is possibly the most important thing
that you need to understand when it comes to hearing aids.
So while that being said
if true custom programming requires real ear measurement
how can you receive truly custom programmed hearing aids
in the mail?
The answer is you can't,
you cannot get a hearing aid custom programs
unless that hearing aid has been verified
using real ear measurement.
While some online hearing aid companies
may consider entering an audiogram
into their programming software
or giving you an app that has a few equalizer bands
to be considered custom programs,
I do not agree.
During the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic,
when patients really could not come into the clinic
to receive their hearing aids,
I attempted to do some first-fit programming
by just entering their audiogram
into the manufacturer software,
create an estimate for the amount of amplification
that they would need and then sending those devices
to these patients in the mail.
On top of that,
I was also able to access their programming
through remote care software
so I can make adjustments to their programming
without them coming into my office.
So how well did this work?
Well, quite frankly, it was a disaster.
I mean, I would be sending patients these hearing aids
and while it would give them some benefit,
everybody was getting completely different reactions
based on what I would experience
when I actually fit patients properly inside
of my office using really ear measurement.
Eventually, once the pandemic
kind of settled down a little bit,
I had these patients come back into my office,
so I could actually custom program their hearing aids
using real ear measurement.
And you wanna know what the result was?
The result was that every single one
of these patients went from having just a little bit
of benefit with their hearing aids
to having a massive amount of benefit
with their hearing aids.
This is why real ear measurement is so critical
because unless I can put
these little probe microphone tubes deep inside
of your ear canals, along with your hearing aids
and measure the amount of amplification
that those hearing aids are giving you
then I have no idea what I'm actually doing
and this procedure can not be completed
unless you are sitting in front
of my specialized equipment inside of my office.
Trying to buy custom programmed hearing aids
online is a lot like trying to get a pair of pants
custom tailored for you
without ever actually going to a tailor
where they can actually do measurements
to see if those pants need to be altered in a certain way.
Yet this does not stop direct to consumer
online hearing aid companies from telling you
that the devices that you buy off of their website
will come to you in the mail custom programs.
Basically, they're just taking advantage
of certain keywords to make you think
that your hearing aids are properly programmed
to treat your hearing loss.
And you know what?
They're not, because it's impossible.
Never once in my career
have I ever identified a hearing aid
that has perfectly matched
a patient's hearing loss prescription
without custom adjusting it using really ear measurement.
And I'm not just talking about hearing aids
that cost a few hundred bucks online,
I'm talking about the absolute best,
most expensive hearing aids on the market.
Now, to be fair, maybe it's just me.
Maybe I have no clue what I'm doing,
maybe I'm just really bad at paying attention
to patient feedback
when I'm making adjustments to the hearing aids,
maybe all the schooling and training
and experience that I've gained
over the past nine years is still not enough
for me to just know
if your hearing loss prescription
is being met without verifying it
or maybe it's just these direct to consumer
online hearing aid companies using these keywords
like custom programs to get you to buy their hearing aids.
I'll let you decide.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions
leave them in the comment section below.
If you liked the video, please share it.
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go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Also feel free to check out my website,
DrCliffAuD.com.
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